Bread Maker to Bread Winner
Allison Connors invites Tristen Taylor into her flour covered kitchen for a sneak peak at feeding her sourdough bread starter from 1871 San Francisco while also talking about her baking process. The University of Nevada, Reno student has been baking for a few months now and is ready to sell her loaves.
I caught Allison on her way into the house with new ingredients for her baking addiction. She shared with me that her secret to sourdough bread making is a yeast similar ingredient called a bread starter. Hers is extra special because it was originally created in 1871 at a local bakery in San Francisco. With a great starter comes great possibilities and for Allison, that means a lot of experimenting with baking. With sourdough being her specialty, she tells us her process of learning how to work with and maintain the 151 year old bread starter. Read our conversation below and see what Allison is currently baking on instagram @breadquestionmark.
What’s your bread story?
“I started making bread only like two months ago. I am just in love with this lady who wrote this book actually, Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz. She trained in Paris and worked for Bon Appetit, now she works for herself. She does stuff for the New York Times. She released a video of her making sourdough with the New York Times cooking and I thought that was incredible and since Claire did it, I wanted to do it too.”
How do you make bread?
“Talking about baking bread in general, a lot of breads are made with yeast. So I’ve made other artisanal breads like bread rolls, with processed dry yeast. I keep a whole thing in my fridge but when I make sourdough it’s different because you have to make a starter or you have to get a starter that has been created by hand. Sourdough starter is the equivalent of yeast and it’s what makes your bread rise. Really a combination of equal parts flour and water that is fed over numerous amounts of years.”
Where did you get your starter?
“So the one that I got is from 1871 in San Francisco. Probably from a local bakery there and it has just been fed and maintained by different people since 1871. The version I have today, I feed every week (equal parts flour and water). Those equal parts basically feed on each other so the water helps the flower to develop bacteria that feeds on the air in the jar that you have and then depending on the temperature and the environment, it starts to grow yeast by fermenting on itself. That’s what gives it that sour taste.”
How do you feed the starter?
“So it’s like this bubbly gassy mixture that smells like sourdough. Some of it has already been going since 1871 and some of it I am adding each week to keep it alive and healthy. Every week I have to get rid of part of it because the more I add, it always doubles or triples in size because it’s feeding on the new stuff. So when I feed my starter I’m going to take 25g of the already made starter and to that I will add 100g of water and 100g of flour. Some massive bakeries won’t discard their starter if they need to have a lot that week but I always have to throw some away because it will keep replenishing.”
Can you make anything with the extra?
“So there’s hundreds of recipes online that you could do with it and so far I have made chocolate chip cookies, which are a little tangy and they rise like a cake. It’s kind of like a chocolate chip whoopie pie, it’s so good. I like adding starter to almost anything because it adds more flavor and helps rise better. My favorite thing I’ve made with discards were donuts, those were insane. I’ve also made waffles, pancakes, English muffins and biscuits. When I make sourdough, I feed it about three times before I actually use it. So that’s three times I can bake something new with it.”
What kind of things can you add to the loaf itself?
“You can add all kinds of things into sourdough, depending on what people like. Personally, I don’t like sun dried tomatoes but people really love to do that. Honestly I think you can add just about anything if you want to as long as it is already cooked but I attempted to make a rosemary garlic loaf and I loved that one so I think I’ll make more of those but I also really love the flavor of the plain one so I might just stick with that. But you can add olives, spices, or make a flat focaccia bread with any topping added on.”
Can anyone make sourdough?
“If you want to make bread, anyone could do that. Sourdough is sometimes viewed as harder but I think it’s just a longer process. I think sourdough is super easy because it literally has two ingredients and salt, so three. I recommend watching videos of people who are really good at sourdough and see a loaf that they have made. When I make sourdough it takes me three days and one of those days is working on that dough every hour for 5–7 hours. So when I knead it every hour, I fold the bread over itself four times. This is so I can feel the way the dough is changing, I know when it is ready to be done. It’s not something that can easily be done in a stand mixer because it needs to go through a process of you working with it.”
What do you do after all the preparation?
“Once I do all the work of kneading and get it into a perfect tiny bowl, I put it in the fridge overnight. The next morning I put it in the oven, it usually takes 50 minutes to bake, and then you can’t eat it for 2–3 hours. Sourdough has so much waiting but very little hands on work.”
What have you learned?
“Overall, I have learned that every time I think I’m messing the bread up, it’s going to taste really good, It just looks silly. But when I sell it, I want them to look really good. I would just say you gotta know what you’re doing before you do it. I watched videos for four weeks on how to make sourdough, then I bought everything, then I started.”
Is this a business?
“I would like to have a business but not make it big. I would like to keep up with the cost of the flour. I go through about 3 pounds of flour a week, my sourdough is made out of white bread flour, but also dark rye flour which is really expensive. So I have an instagram that my close friends are following so I can sell some loaves to them.”
