megan b.

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Bake 1 – Basic boules

After a week and a half of feeding my starters I was starting to get the feeling that they were ready to use. In both the whole wheat and the white, I was seeing consistent growth, increased bubbles (a great sign of fermentation!), and they were both smelling tangy and  yogurt-y.  Although the whole wheat starter was fermenting a lot quicker than the white, I felt they were both ready to bake.

To bake both of them, I followed the exact same recipe and the exact same method to ensure I would get an accurate comparison of how the different starters effect the process and flavour. I kept things simple by going with a classic white sourdough boule recipe from The Sourdough School, and followed the retarded method.

Recipe

225g leaven*
735g water
800g white flour
200g stone ground whole-wheat flour
20g sea salt

*Leaven:
35g sourdough starter
100g flour of choice
100g water at 86F

Method

The retarded method (vs. the ambient method) gets the dough fermenting at room temperature, then leaving it overnight in the fridge to slow down the yeast and get more acetic acid developing. The process, start to finish- takes up to 3 days due to this slowed down ferment, but results in a more sour, light-vinegary flavoured loaf, which is my personal preference in a sourdough.
This method also produces a more digestible and nutritionally dense loaf, as an added bonus.

Results

Whole-wheat
Although it’s not the most beautiful loaf, I would deem this first attempt a success. There was a decent amount of rise, the loaf was not too dense and the crumby was nice and airy.
The flavour was a touch sour, but mostly hearty, grainy, and a saltier than the white loaf (though not too salty), despite having the same ingredient measurements.

 

 

 

 

 

White/All-purpose
This loaf was less impressive… the starter was much less active than the whole wheat one, so it’s pretty clear to see after baking that it just wasn’t mature enough yet. I ended up with a pretty dense, flat loaf that we ended up making into croutons; the silver lining of bad bakes – it can just be made into another tasty, bready treat.
I was surprised, given the immature starter, that I was able to taste a difference in flavour between this and the whole-wheat loaf. Although it was subtle, this loaf definitely had a more sour tang to it, similar to milk or yogurt. It was a cleaner taste with a bit of sweetness to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m looking forward to maturing both of the starters and seeing how more fermentation changes the bake.

-Megan B.

Social media & digital privacy

This week’s class topic was presented by Jesse Miller of  Mediated Reality, and expert in the world of effectively and safety integrating social media into business and education. He offered a fresh point of view on a couple topics that I wouldn’t have thought of, and gave great reminders about things like our own digital privacy.

As someone who is not hugely into tech, Jesse’s talk left me with a few tidbits (and kicks in the butt) that I’ll be holding onto in regards to not fighting technology, but rather embracing it in the classroom. He mentioned the practice of some schools taking student cellphones, or not allowing them at all in schools or classrooms at all as being archaic. The idea of disallowing cellphone use was not a hot button topic on my radar, but I can see now that it can be a big deal to students, teachers, and parents alike. I really loved the example he gave of a class schedule he has seen to be effective in terms of incorporating cellphone use at designated times to dissuade students to use them during class time. Even such a simple example as the one he gave was eye opening to me, and absolutely something I want to keep in mind for the future.

In terms of personal technology use, Jesse brought up some great reminders and pointers for us future-teachers to think about. Social media leaves a bread crumb trail of the things we’ve said and the photos we’ve posted; it’s so important for us to think about the people that may find these things, whether it be employers, students, parents, or colleagues. This online version of ourselves needs to be tailored to be an extension of how we’d want to portray ourselves to these people in-person. Additionally, being teachers specifically puts us under a bigger microscope in that even a harmless photo of an educator holding alcohol is reason enough to get in trouble.

It was interesting to do the activity he suggested; doing a google search of your name and location to see what may pop up if someone were to look you up online. Not surprisingly, as someone with an incredibly generic name, I couldn’t even find myself through multiple different searches! I guess this is the upside of only having one social media account that is set to private.

Jesse’s talk was thought provoking and his messages are ones that I will keep with me through the different stages of my teaching career, as the technologies that learners bringing into the classroom change.

Building bacteria

I am so excited to really get going on this sourdough experiment.

Using the starter recipe from The Sourdough School book, and the method and timing plan from The Perfect Loaf, I have a clear layout of what needs to happen. First thing’s first, I gathered everything I need to put this starter together.

Supplies

  • Scale
  • Glass jar (2)
  • Wooden spoon
  • Recipe book

In looking at my second inquiry question, I’ve decided on two different flours to make the two starts out of. The first will be an unbleached all-purpose flour  from Ardent Mills. The second, a stone ground whole wheat flour (red wheat) from local milling company, Nootka Rose.

 

Process

Following The Sourdough School, and working with one flour at a time, I mix together 150 grams of flour with 150 grams of water (82°F) in a glass jar.

When all of the flour is well incorporated, I cover the jar loosely and let it sit for a full 24 hours to begin blending those wild yeasts and bacteria together.

Feeding

Following the timing prompts suggested from Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf, I’ve created a schedule to feed my starters.
Feeding them involves discarding half the the starter, then adding 75 grams of flour and 75 grams of water, then letting rest again. This introduces new yeast to the mix, giving the starter more “energy” to continue fermenting.

I’m hoping to see home activity (bubbling, growth, that distinct ferment smell) within 2-3 days, and have it be established enough to use in 10-14 days.

Fingers crossed!

-Megan B.

Educational resources

The world of content ownership, copyrights, open and closed resources, and everything in between is extremely overwhelming to me. The thought of having a misstep in this domain as a teacher and possibly seeing the consequences of a wholesome mistake is so worrisome. I did, however, find some comfort in a few points from our latest lesson.

Fair Dealing

The fair dealing provision allows teachers to use portions of copyrighted works in their lessons. Although this is helpful, it’s critical to know how to use this within it’s limits, as they vary based on the type and length of copyrighted content. I was relieved to learn of the fair dealing decision tool that helps teachers navigate if the resource they’d like to use is allowed or not.

Teacher-specific resources

Websites like Teachers Pay Teachers, are another way to get safely access content for classes. Educators offer their resources (for free or for a fee) to fellow educators, ensuring that permission is given by those submitting their content to those purchasing.

Creative Commons

Creative commons is a varying set of licenses, less strict than copyright, but still to be payed attention to, as some are still quite restrictive where as others are more open to use.

Open Educational Resources

These online resources such as OER Commons, OERu, and OER Hub, just to name a few, are free to be shared, used, improved, and distributed to anyone (this includes students and teachers!).

 

Flour + water + salt

With the topic for my free inquiry nailed down, it’s time to get started on the research process.

Resources

There are one thousand and one resources, blogs, books out there that all share similar recipes and instructions when it comes to sourdough, but all with slight variations in ingredients and methods. How is a beginner supposed to choose what to follow?
After combing through website after website and browsing through physical books, I was able to come up with a few good starting points for this journey. Each of the following offers clear, step by step guides from creating your starter to baking a loaf. They also provide troubleshooting, options for variations, and a huge catalog of recipes to work your way up to (because the experimenting and learning is never done with fermentation!)

I’m so thankful for the online resources being so easily accessible for free use. In all three of the websites above, it was mentioned by the author that the point of these blogs was idea of documenting and sharing what is a bit of a finicky process, trying to make it more doable and friendly for all.

My mission? To show that sourdough baking can be accessible to anyone, even you    – Emilie (The Clever Carrot)

The questions

After looking through these resources, I was able to get a better understanding of how the entire process was going to look, which allowed me to narrow in on the questions I would like to tackle.

The first, and more broad of the questions I want to start out with is finding out what makes a happy starter. This is one of the biggest aspects I struggled with in my past sourdough attempts. Like any living thing, the microbes and bacteria in the sourdough culture are happiest under certain conditions. Even if the instructions of the recipe are followed exactly, these can vary based on a whole host of reasons (room temperature, altitude…). I predict this will be the toughest, but most important part of the process.

My next inquiry question is going to be looking into the differences in appearance and taste of two different starter types. This will be a handy and fun way to compare the exact same process for two different flours, and to see how each may have different preferences to the first question.

I’ve decided to use these two questions as my starting points, seeing where the sourdough journey takes me (or rather, us: my starters and I), and then developing deeper, further questions based on the results.

 

Now that I have a plan and a beginner’s knowledge, I’m ready to get started – time to make my starters!

-Megan B.

Here we go. Sourdough.

Food fermentation is a process that I didn’t grow up practicing.
When I was younger, food was fast; meals were strategically and quickly prepared after my parents got home from work to fit in between lessons or extra curricular activities. Although health was important, ultimately meals were selected for convenience and ease of preparation.
It wasn’t until I moved away on my own for the first time that I discovered that food could slow down. My broke, 17 year-old, university student self realized that I could easily bake bread instead of buying it. I could make  gnocchi and nut/seed milks for a fraction of the price instead of buying them, plus I knew exactly what was going into them. Sure, it took more time, but I had time to spare and money to save. Eventually this slower food prep just became second nature.

A few years ago, my husband suggested upping our food prep game by slowing it down even further while boosting the health – introducing fermentation to the mix. This has been a game-changer for us so far, introducing pickled veg, sauerkraut, kimchi, wine, and kombucha to our repertoire. The one ferment we’ve had inconsistent success with, however, is sourdough. She has defeated us too many times and I’m ready to get to the bottom of why.

Ready to turn over a new leaf loaf

For my free inquiry I’m going to be jumping into the world of sourdough so that I can finally get a hang of this gosh darn process and create consistent, beautiful, tasty loaves for my family, friends, and I to enjoy.

I’m still working though exactly which questions I want to ask in this inquiry, but some ideas I’ve been playing with are:

  • What makes a healthy, happy starter
  • How different qualities of grain affect the rise and bake
  • How using different types of flour in two different starters affect the flavour of the loaf(s)
  • How the methods and timing of the rise affect the bake
  • How using different cooking vessels affects the loaf
  • Research into why sourdough promotes better gut health

I hope everyone is ready to eat bread, because I’m ready to get researching and baking.

-Megan B.

Getting into tech

Megan + technology: A bRief history

I’ve never been an incredibly techy person, but always managed to have a decent understanding of the technology used during my time as an elementary and high school student. When you’re constantly exposed to the latest programs and gadgets through classes and peers, it feels almost effortless to learn how to use them. I remember scoffing at my parents, not understanding how they couldn’t make sense of whatever task I was showing them how to do on our old family computer. It was a whole new world to them and second nature to my brother and I.

Fast forward to today, ten years post high school graduation, and I’m starting to feel those “old person technology” vibes. Somewhere along the line I got fed up with trying to mentally keep tabs on what model iphone was out or what the lastest update on my computer involved, so I opted to not care. Letting my husband worry about that stuff, and only dealt with what I needed to know technology-wise and stashed the rest somewhere deep in the memory bank. Up until recently, this strategy has worked out okay for me…

Room to grow

Now with online classes, I’ve found myself in a bit of a pickle, quickly trying to learn all of these new programs and find my way around a lots of websites that are completely new to me. It’s been a stressful time (maybe even a wake up call?) and has made me want to become better with it for my own comfort level, for the sake of my future student, and so that I don’t give off the same frustrating parent effect to my own son when he’s old enough to be showing me the technology of his time.

With all of that being said, I’m very nervous about the amount of learning that needs to happen for me in a fairly short amount of time, but at the same time I’m so excited! I know there’s such cool technology out there  for elementary learning and I really want to jump in and make the most out of. I also recognize that there are handy dandy online tools out there for teachers, and I love the idea of getting to know them as a student to set myself up for success as a teacher later on.

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