Tagged: lactoferment

Gluten-free Sourdough, lacto-fermented zucchini loaf (savory) #2

If the last one was thrown together, this was more of an insouciant blending. I ballsed up the ‘slurry’ again – I decided to mix it in dry but neglected to whisk the flours for a good blend, so I got some clumping. I switched up the starter and made it more of a 100% hydration (typically I have used about 65% hydration).

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour mix #2 (with tweaks per prior posts) –
  • 3/4 cup 5/6 day fermented grated zucchini – chilled, so why I am bothering to add this since it should have no active fermentation, I don’t know
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • about a 1/4 cup sugar – I am not sure why I increased this
  • 3/4 cup active (ie just went through a rise & fall cycle) starter
  • 10g / 10g flax / chia ground and added as dry
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger

Method:

I mixed everything together at once, as before, and let it rise 12 hours. There was some, not particularly appreciable activity, and so I baked an hour at 180. Disappointing.

Gluten-free Sourdough, lacto-fermented zucchini loaf (savory) #1

I wanted to try using lacto-fermented zucchini in a dough, to see if its process aided the bread’s rise. To be honest, after my first attempt, I’d be inclined to say it didn’t – but I threw another one together just now to rise overnight, and we’ll see. I also put another jar of zucchini up on the top shelf, salted for fermentation, and we can try again in a few days. I’m not inclined to call this a failure yet, but it sure as shit wasn’t a success.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour mix #2 (with tweaks per prior posts) – I planned to weigh this but my helper reset the scale at a non-optimum moment
  • 1 cup 5/6 day fermented grated zucchini
  • 1 tsp salt
  • about a 1/8 cup sugar
  • 4 oz (104g) active (ie just went through a rise & fall cycle) starter
  • 10g / 10g flax / chia slurry (w/ 40g hot water, whisked)

Method:

This being a first pass, I just pretty much threw these ingredients together, put ’em in a lined bread pan, and let them rise for 8 hours. They seemed to have a good volume, and the day was drawing on, so at that point I baked them in a pre-heated, ‘steamed’ (a cup of boiling water in a heated dutch oven lid) oven. 1 hour, the first 10 minutes at 220 and then the rest at 180.

The results provoked a shrug from both me and my partner. Yet another cake-y, vaguely palatable loaf, that shrug said. Slightly better texture, but only due maybe a half point. Flavour, not great, not bad. Crust, such as it had one? Uniform, at least.

Yet I remained intrigued. Could a decent bread rise from these damp, tepid ashes?