Welcome Issue 18.1.22
My bread goals for the year, a book recommendation and some starter maintenance tips
Welcome to the very first issue of my newsletter Arth !
Since the ongoing pandemic has indefinitely restrained the sense of community in the real world, I’m turning to the virtual community through this project. It’ll be a fun ride. My deepest gratitude to you for joining in! Tell your friends too.
In this Intro issue, I am sharing glimpses into some of my ongoing food projects/ plans for the year, a few sourdough starter maintenance tips (winter edition) and a book recommendation.
What’s cooking/baking in my kitchen these days?
This Indian flatbread called ‘Janta Ruti’ from Odisha (a state in Eastern India) has my fascination at the moment. It’s made entirely with pre-cooked whole wheat flour that lends a very special texture to it. It retains its softness for days and has an almost melt-in-the-mouth quality to it upon chewing. Detailed recipe coming soon!
After my minor right-forearm fracture last year, I resorted to easy meal preps and turns out making dosa-batter from scratch was the perfect solution. The batter stays good for upto 5-6 days in the fridge and many different delicacies can be prepared using the same batter. It’s safe to call dosa India’s favorite ferment. The process to make it is not that different from Sourdough actually, in a way that you are trying to allow the good microbes to coexist in the same microcosm and do their magic. The batter is typically made with rice & black gram that undergo double fermentation (before and after blending).
Would you like to go down the rabbit hole of this Indian Sourdough that is gluten-free and also vegan?! Let me know.
There have, of course, been some sourdough bread experiments & recipe trials too. Good news for the readers! All my recipe sharing will be on this platform going forward. For frequent glimpses into kitchen experiments, follow me on Instagram here.
7 Helpful Sourdough Tips: Winter Edition
If like me you live in a place experiencing extremely cold winters, your sourdough starter is likely to slow down or even go into hibernation. When this happens, the dough doesn’t get very active and your regular approach towards scheduling the bakes wouldn’t apply anymore either. Here are some helpful tips for you to get your starter active again:
These days my starter takes almost 8-10 hours (as opposed to 4 hours) to double in volume. I use lukewarm water while feeding the starter to boost its activity.
The same approach works for the dough as well to speed up proofing times. Use warm water with temperature between 26°C to 28°C. Or if you prefer going by feel, take lukewarm water in which you can hold your finger without any discomfort for a few seconds. Do NOT add hot water to keep the microbes alive.
With slower rates of fermentation, you also do not need to feed your starter as often. Since I bake regularly, I have been feeding it once a day.
Start earlier than usual - I feed my starter a couple of hours earlier than planned now, to take into account the slower rate of fermentation.
Resort to the warmest place in your house to place your starter/ the bread dough - kitchen countertops, on/closer to stovetops (I place my starter next to the stovetop while cooking), inside a switched off microwave or your oven with just the lights on. I also keep my starter in front of the room heater and have once even kept the dough bowl inside a dryer right after finishing a load.
For the dough, you can tweak your bread formula and increase the % of levain to speed up the fermentation. I’ve gone up to 40% levain.
Place the starter jar in a hot water bath if you need to take extreme measures. You can opt for a double boiler like placement in order to not kill any microbes in the process. I’ve successfully tried this a couple of times in a commercial kitchen setting!
Do not hesitate to find creative ways to manage the temperature of both the external and internal environment of your starter! It is after all the key to the whole process.
My Bread Goals for the Year:
Yes! I’m setting some bread goals for myself this year. Ones that would allow me to align what’s good for my body as well as for the environment. And I feel some of you might also be on a similar path and would be interested in this.
Including more whole grains - Knowing what we know about whole-grains being nutritionally superior is a good enough reason to make this conscious transition. At this point, it means including more than 25-33% whole grains (locally sourced and preferably stone-ground) in my breads which is the current range I follow.
I’m taking small but definite steps and my current focus is on learning more about Rye. Developing and sharing more Rye-based recipes here in the coming months!
Currently reading:
Sourdough Culture by Eric Pallant.
I’ve only just picked it up but the fundamental questions the author attempts to answer in this book has got me invested. Like this one below:
“Why, after six thousand years, have so many people given up on sourdough in favor of bread designed by engineers to exit a factory line with all the reliability and taste of a Model T?”
I’ll share my review/learnings in a future issue.
What to expect in the next few issues?
January
Sharing the recipe of my signature Curry-leaf Sourdough Focaccia recipe in the next one, and,
A Bonus issue with the recipe of Janta Ruti .
February & March
More bread recipes + a Workshop announcement.
Will be exploring some ferments too! My friends tell me the best ferments they tried last year were the experimental ones I made. So the challenge is for me to actually write down the proportions this year so I can share with you all. Wish me luck!!
Possibly a Sourdough-based dessert recipe too (This was my favorite 2021 revelation).
That’s as far as I have planned for now! I want to leave enough room to allow this newsletter to grow & evolve too.
How to benefit the most from this newsletter ?
I do not want to keep all my offerings behind a paywall. But this is what keeps me going! Sharing a few details about Newsletter sign ups again for all those who missed it in the Welcome email:
There will be monthly free-subscriber issues with recipes or informative posts for everyone but, for now, a lot of the newsletter offerings are tailored for the paid subscribers.
Listing a few of the subscriber benefits here :
Exclusive recipes, sent out once every month; sometimes even twice. You can expect anywhere between 12-15 detailed recipes in a year.
Access to community posts allowing you to engage with newsletter content, ask questions directly or simply learn from other readers’ queries.
Flat 20% discount on my online workshops along with special discounts on my other digital offerings this year. You also get early updates about my workshops.
Free packet of dried Sourdough starter, currently for all of my paid subscribers in Canada only. Simply email me directly with your shipping address and I will send it out to you.
Lastly and most importantly, my eternal gratitude. This will not only allow me to bring more people on this whole-grain journey and spread the love, but also keep me sustained. This also helps me contribute (in a small but sure way) to the local grain economy because of you!
If you can, do consider supporting my work becoming a paid subscriber for 50 CAD per year or 10 CAD per month. There’s a one-time, 25% discount (currently valid throughout January’22) to celebrate the launch of project. Think of it as sponsoring a take-out meal for me on a Sunday night!