Sourdough batard


This is the pet sourdough, demanding as any pet, must be fed at least twice a day, when I am lazy, three times when I am not lazy.

When you take on a sourdough pet you end up with a lot of sourdough things produced from it while the culture is actively roiling. Otherwise, the culture is put up in cold storage and fed intermittently to keep it alive and when needed brought back to full life before attempting a loaf, a process that can take a few days as if beginning a new culture.  


It can crank these things out the side if I want, baguettes, batons, batards, pretzels, pitas, tortillas, pancakes, breadsticks and such, by doubling the starter once or twice instead of discarding for feeding, before breaking off a portion to use, then both portions are fed, one back to regular Chihuahua-size pet, the other developed into something else, even aged separately to develop sourdough flavor if I want to, for a day or two or three of fermentation, while the original pet continues to be fed however regularly or irregularly as usual. 

But that was not done today. This liquid portion is 1/2 sourdough starter the other half water, then sufficient flour to form a sponge first, and kneaded, then more flour to form a dough. So all that new flour obviously is not aged, not even for one day. So whatever sour flavor is imparted is present in the starter and not developed by aging through cool storage as usual with sourdough loaves. 



By allowing 10 minutes or 20 or so for the wet flour to autolyze, the process of developing gluten web network is begun, making kneading noticeably easier and faster. 


The dough is wet and sticky, too sticky to handle. Fresh flour dusted into bowl to dust the ball so it can be lifted out and handled. 








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