Wild Yeast

And how was everyone’s long weekend? Here’s a brief account of mine:

Saturday morning: I feed and build up my sourdough starter for baking later in the day. I take off for points north, to my sometime-house, starter and dog in tow, for a peaceful and barbecue-free weekend.

Saturday afternoon: I check the weather report before heading out for a late walk: cloudy; chance of precipitation: 10%. 30 minutes from home, I observe that the chance of precipitation is actually 100%. I arrive, soggy and chilled, back home to a power outage. The starter sits on the counter, all happy and bubbly with anticipation. “Oh, go to hell,” I mutter, and toss it into the darkened refrigerator before peeling off my waterlogged clothes and crawling under a blanket.

Sunday: Sunshine and electricity are both restored to working order. I avoid forlorn and accusing glances from my now-flat starter by avoiding the refrigerator altogether.

Monday: Confrontation cannot be averted forever. I open the fridge. “Bake with me.” “You’re sounding pretty chipper for old and tired starter. But no. The weekend is almost over, we have to head back in a bit. There’s no time for baking.” “Bake with me!” “I said no.” “You are evil and the baking gods will rain upon you forever.” “Anyway, you’re too cold and weak right now to raise bread.” “Pancakes, then.” “We have no eggs. Too bad.” “We have a bunch of odds and ends of nuts and dried fruits.” “I don’t know what to do with those. I don’t have a recipe.” “Make something up.” At this point, it just seems easier to start throwing things randomly into a bowl than to keep arguing with the damn thing.

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This is a variation on Seeded Multigrain Sourdough, one of my favorite breads for its reliability and versatility. It’s a great one to play around with, and playing around with your bread is highly encouraged!

For this one, I bumped the overall proportion of whole grain flour up to about 75% by using whole grain flours (equal parts spelt, wheat, and rye) instead of white flour in the final feeding of the starter, and increasing the amount of whole grain flour in the final dough as well. Because whole grain flours are extra thirsty, I also increased the water in the final dough.

Do not expect to get very good gluten development with this dough, because the gluten in spelt and rye is not very strong compared to wheat. Do expect, however, to get a chewy and flavorful bread that will keep well for several days!

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I’m pleased and honored that my post “A Good Crust” has been syndicated on BlogHer. Please check it out there, where you’ll also find more terrific posts about food, family, politics, work, entertainment, and everything else!

The thing I love about the Bread Baking Babes, aside from the fact that they are true bread sorceresses as well as babes in every sense of the word, is that I always learn something new with each assignment. This month I learned that Stromboli is not only Pinnocchio’s evil puppet master, but a rolled Italian bread filled with all manner of deliciousness. Kind of like a spiral calzone.

Elle (Feeding My Enthusiasms) chose this one for us, based on Heather’s (girlichef) tempting example. As Elle noted, the dough is fairly basic, so the focus can be on the filling. I made a few ingredient changes, substituting smoked mozzarella for the smoked Swiss, soppressata for the pepperoni, and adding a 12-ounce jar of roasted red peppers. Very tasty, but not meant for people on a low-sodium diet!

Behold the prosciutto, cheese, soppressata, peppers, basil, and garlic, ready to roll:

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