well, that's annoying: sourdough starter

[marilynfl]

so...a little back story. A few years ago, my neighbor asked me to make rolls for her Thanksgiving dinner party for family and relatives. Now, bread in general, and rolls specifically, intimidate me. So I made cheese scones, and rosemary biscuits and a baked a store-bought pan of Sister Schubert dinner rolls. At dinner, my neighbor's nephew took on of Sister's rolls and said "I can't WAIT to try this! Sandy has bragged so much about your baking."

Ya...that was a complete fiasco.

Anyway, I decided THIS was the year I was going to gird my loins and get over dinner roll phobia. To that end, I've been reading "A Good Bake" by Melissa Weller...a NYC baker/pastry chef and former chemical engineer. I figured my anal retentiveness would be right up her alley.

And it was.

She has a lovely recipe for fluffy Pull Apart Parker House rolls that looked easy to follow...until I got to the sourdough starter she uses. THAT recipe was on page XXXIII and you and I both know that any book with THOSE kind of pages are a concern. And, lordy, it was a concern. It takes SIX days to make and uses over 9 cups of flour: organic stone-ground rye flour, bread flour and organic whole wheat flour. All for ONE-THIRD CUP OF STARTER.

A lot of swearing went on at that last sentence.

So today I ran around town (three stores to be specific) and finally found this:


No, I have no idea if this will work. No, I'm not sure if I'll still make those damn Parker House rolls.
No, my loins aren't actually girded, but I guess I'll give it a try.

 

[mariadnoca]

Since that will likely take more time, I suggest, if there is a local sourdough baker, you call and ask to buy some starter. One here sells it for $2, but they aren’t close, so I call ahead and have them bring it to their farmers market stand to pick up. (Others think how dare you! But I’m convinced those don’t actually bake in store.) Or, go on Nextdoor or some other community group and put out a general request for some. Every sourdough baker has extra starter. Sometimes coming out their ears and gifting it is a happy godsend of being not wasteful. I’ve gotten some both ways when I don’t want to bother taking the days needed to wake up my starter.

 

[monj]

so...a little back story. A few years ago, my neighbor asked me to make rolls for her Thanksgiving dinner party for family and relatives. Now, bread in general, and rolls specifically, intimidate me. So I made cheese scones, and rosemary biscuits and a baked a store-bought pan of Sister Schubert dinner rolls. At dinner, my neighbor's nephew took on of Sister's rolls and said "I can't WAIT to try this! Sandy has bragged so much about your baking."

Ya...that was a complete fiasco.

Anyway, I decided THIS was the year I was going to gird my loins and get over dinner roll phobia. To that end, I've been reading "A Good Bake" by Melissa Weller...a NYC baker/pastry chef and former chemical engineer. I figured my anal retentiveness would be right up her alley.

And it was.

She has a lovely recipe for fluffy Pull Apart Parker House rolls that looked easy to follow...until I got to the sourdough starter she uses. THAT recipe was on page XXXIII and you and I both know that any book with THOSE kind of pages are a concern. And, lordy, it was a concern. It takes SIX days to make and uses over 9 cups of flour: organic stone-ground rye flour, bread flour and organic whole wheat flour. All for ONE-THIRD CUP OF STARTER.

A lot of swearing went on at that last sentence.

So today I ran around town (three stores to be specific) and finally found this:

View attachment 3665
No, I have no idea if this will work. No, I'm not sure if I'll still make those damn Parker House rolls.
No, my loins aren't actually girded, but I guess I'll give it a try.

Not sure if your heart is set on sourdough, but here are 2 ATK recipes for rolls that get rave reviews. Some members struggled with the Parker House rolls, so I always read the comments and replies from the ATK team. The tangzhong method for the fluffy dinner rolls is interesting. Now that I've gone down the roll rabbit hole, there's an interesting no-knead brioche roll recipe which might be more our speed as mostly non-bread makers. LMK if you'd like me to gift that one too. Good luck!

Enjoy this complimentary ATK recipe—no login required—for the next 30 days. Fluffy Dinner Rolls | America's Test Kitchen

Enjoy this complimentary ATK recipe—no login required—for the next 30 days. Parker House Rolls | America's Test Kitchen

 

[marilynfl]

Since that will likely take more time, I suggest, if there is a local sourdough baker, you call and ask to buy some starter. One here sells it for $2, but they aren’t close, so I call ahead and have them bring it to their farmers market stand to pick up. (Others think how dare you! But I’m convinced those don’t actually bake in store.) Or, go on Nextdoor or some other community group and put out a general request for some. Every sourdough baker has extra starter. Sometimes coming out their ears and gifting it is a happy godsend of being not wasteful. I’ve gotten some both ways when I don’t want to bother taking the days needed to wake up my starter.

Maria, I thought--incorrectly--this was a dehydrated starter that would need to be fed. However, it is a standard amount of rapid yeast with the addition of a sourdough culture to impart the flavoring. So it just gets added at the same point in the recipe where a packet of yeast would be added.

so we'll see how that goes.

But you provided two very good suggestions on obtaining a starter. I only know of one sourdough baker in this area and she only shows up at craft shows. I'd like to get this test over with.

 

[marilynfl]

thanks monj...I'm going to stick with the Weller recipe so i can test my results against her methods. I like her recipes, but she lives in NYC and has access to much better ingredients than I have here in the backwater.