Monday, May 02, 2005
Cuisine: Yogurt failure, Sourdough bread partial success
I tried making yogurt following the recipe here. It didn't work. I used ultra-pasteurized goat milk and Dannon plain yogurt as a starter. The resultant "yogurt" is still pretty much the same consistency as the goat milk that went into it. I suspect one of two problems: 1. using the ultra-pasteurized goat milk won't work, and 2. the water in the incubator (a cooler) was too hot and the L. acidophilus were killed. I think I'm going to skip trying to perfect this recipe and move on to making cheese. Next up: neufchatel, a.k.a. farmer's cheese.
I also attempted my first sourdough bread and I would rate it a C- as far as sourdough bread goes. It has a nice flavor but was not nearly sour enough. It is also very dense: cutting through it takes some embarrassing effort. I have four different ideas about improving this bread: 1. use whole-wheat flour as part of the flour, 2. use some "extra-fermented" sponge as part of the sponge or in addition to the sponge, 3. add some milk or buttermilk to increase sourness due to L. acidophilus, and 4. increase the water/flour ratio.
I also attempted my first sourdough bread and I would rate it a C- as far as sourdough bread goes. It has a nice flavor but was not nearly sour enough. It is also very dense: cutting through it takes some embarrassing effort. I have four different ideas about improving this bread: 1. use whole-wheat flour as part of the flour, 2. use some "extra-fermented" sponge as part of the sponge or in addition to the sponge, 3. add some milk or buttermilk to increase sourness due to L. acidophilus, and 4. increase the water/flour ratio.
