Can you Make Sourdough without Oven

[Martkimwat]

Originally Posted by sailing_gal

I have some very heavy duty stainless steel pans that I can cook a cake in on top of the stove. So, your dutch oven might work if it is heavy enough. Use a tight lid and low heat.

Sourdough bread needs very high heat, 450ºF to start

[Captn_Black]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

I don't have an oven, just induction stove top and BBQ.
I do have an old National Bread machine, but says you can't make sourdough in it

Sourdough is the only bread I enjoy
Any ideas on something portable that could bake sourdough at 450°

Kind of, in a pressure cooker. Needs a little water in the bottom, and a base with holes in it that sits above the water for the dough to sit on. Dough needs to be firmer than normal for it to work.

[Kimo_Kai]

Yes in a dutch oven on the stove. Even better, in a campfire. Put hot coals on the lid and set the whole thing in coals. Always tastes better for some reason. Also you can make amazing pizza with two cast iron pans. Use one as a lid. Put coals on top.

Kimo
Marooned on Maui

[Sparx]

Originally Posted by dannc

My sourdough does not rise quickly, and from reading sourdough recipes, they are adding yeast or some sort of helper. What I have found is that I should let the sourdough rise much longer than a yeast bread. I made a sourdough batch on Saturday night and put it in the cast iron bread pan. I baked the bread last night and it took a good 24 hours for the dough to rise most of the way in the bread pan. I should have waited until this morning to bake the bread. It would have risen a bit more AND I would have had warm, crunchy bread for breakfast.

I do not bake at 450. The recipe I have based the bread I am now making said 350 but I have gone up to 400 to just speeds things up a bit.

Dan, lots of modern recipes do call for adding commercial yeast. This is because some sourdough cultures are more active than others.

You can make your sourdough culture more active by feeding it more often. Transition your starter to being fed twice or three times a day. Then compare those results to prior results. I find that feeding the starter st the end of the day results in a starter that is ready to go the following early morning.

Another trick is to make a sourdough preferment. Mix your starter with about a third of the total flour in your planned bake, plus a little more than a third of your planned water addition. The result you are going for is to be slightly wetter than your planned final dough. Let this rise a few hours on the counter or overnight in the fridge. Then mix the rest of the ingredients in to achieve the final recipe. The idea of the preferment is to get the yeast population rapidly increasing just before it meets the full grain load of your recipe. The yeast will then aggressively go after the flour in the full recipe.

Good luck with the baking.

[Lepke]

I also prefer sourdough. I can bake in my hooded bbq. I have a diesel stove and use the bbq when it's too hot for the stove. I recently bought a Foodi and that bakes bread well if you have ac power.

[barnakiel]

It can be done in a pan. Some nations even have a special pan for it. I have seen such pans on sale in Spain and in Holland too.


There is plenty of taboo and urban legend stories on making bread onboard. While actually it is a plain banana task and nearly always work (except cold countries).


Right now we make bread that is a sourdough-beer-yeast(instan yeast) mongerel. Fantastic taste. I agree sourdough adds plenty of umph to taste.



And we do not even knead, we simply mix, wait, bake.



b.

[dougweibel]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

There is plenty of taboo and urban legend stories on making bread onboard.

+1 to that. And not just aboard. There is all sorts of "you can't do that" info about bread in general.

In my experience if you want your bread to turn out some specific way, for example you want a tall, well shaped boule of sourdough bread with a chewy, airy crumb and a thick crisp crust then you had better do things in a very specific way. On the other hand if you give me some sourdough starter, some flour, water and a pinch of salt, and about any sort of cooking equipment, I can produce something tasty that you can use to make a sandwich.

[BlackHeron]

Pressure cooker bread turns out just fine. Experiment and have fun. It is just bread -not a religion. Some people treat it like it is a cult it seems.

[zengirl]

You can also make sourdough bread in a crockpot if you have one.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by BlackHeron

Pressure cooker bread turns out just fine. Experiment and have fun. It is just bread -not a religion. Some people treat it like it is a cult it seems.

Thanks to all
I do admit to being intimidated by making it for my first time ever.

Especially on board in the Tropics, on an induction stove top, where introducing the baking heat in Zaida's galley and a failure would profably make for an irritable day (She is not a bread eater and I only like to eat sourdough)

My Webber Q BBQ is an idea, but we use it a lot for seafood and I wonder if the residual flavours would mix with the baking?

Putting my thinking cap on I came up with another baking solution that I'd like some Sourdough bakers to advise on.

We had this 12L Turbo Broiler at our condo in Puerto Galera ...It made the best roast chicken I've ever had and we used it on the balcony, specifically to avoid heating inside.
Has thermostat and timer.

I like the idea of trying to bake sourdough in this outside for a traditional round loaf.

Im comfortable experimenting with starters and the proofing process.

My newbie question,
Once ready to bake in this Preheated turbo broiler,... should I put bread in a round dutch oven with lid and moisten as directed?

Any other tips for using this to make sourdough bread?

[dougweibel]

Baking inside a covered Dutch oven that is inside an oven provides a smaller enclosed space to maintain moisture and produces a better crust. Try preheating the Dutch oven in addition to the oven. I do this with a covered clay bread dome with great results. If the metal of the Dutch oven transfers too much heat to the bottom of the loaf try using a piece of parchment paper under the dough.

[Kimo_Kai]

Originally Posted by BlackHeron

Pressure cooker bread turns out just fine. Experiment and have fun. It is just bread -not a religion. Some people treat it like it is a cult it seems.

well said. LOL


Kimo

Marooned on Maui

[JPA Cate]

Pelagic,

Don't make this first experiment too hard. Make a half a bread recipe. Only one of you is going to be eating it, and it's always best fresh.

If I were going to do it, I'd bake it in a small (8") cake pan that will easily fit inside the pressure cooker, that you use without the gasket, for the baking process. You'll want to drill a couple of holes across from each other in the tin, and make a handle so it will be easy to get out of the PC.

Get your starter active, doug weibel explained very well, you want the yeastie beasties multiplying vigorously. Do take good care of the starter. Once you've eaten your first loaf, then decide how much bread to make the next time. If you don't like it, you haven't lost much. All leavened bread was an experiment at one time.

A lot of nonsense has been written about what you need and don't need. All you need is water, flour and salt, and time and food for the yeasts.

Ann

[Compass790]

I'm sure you could do it in your bbq if the dutch oven can fit in it.
Used to cook bread in the fireplace wood embers in a cast-iron dutch oven whilst staying in a forest hut. Did put embers on the top as well to get even heat.

[Gazzza]

Try this from Sailing Magic Carpet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Up9Tmcc0EY

Garry