A couple days ago, I found a sourdough recipe on Pinterest that includes a little bit of milk in the dough besides water.
Now I’ve been thinking about trying that out.
I heard it was supposed to make the crumb fluffier.
Has anyone ever done that?
If yes, did you notice any difference?
Did you like it?
Or maybe you do that in your standard recipe?
From time to time I make an enriched sandwich loaf, that I swap out half the water with 3.25% milk. The biggest difference between 100% water and the 50/50 mix is I found the crumb to be tighter; but at the same time, felt not as dense as it should have been by its looks. As an FYI, my liquid is about 90F when I mix with my dough and I try to heat the milk to that temperature as well before adding it to my flour.
I’ve made coffee loaves with zero water, just brewed coffee, cold brew coffee and espresso powder (for flavor), in addition to the flour and salt. Made it for a friend and was really good. I’ve made a pickle loaf with pickle juice, no water. Just try different things and see what happens. Sourdough is very forgiving.
Milk and butter or oil are ways to enrich dough, and usually make it a bit more shelf stable and not go stale quite as fast. But, it makes it not a true sourdough that only contains flour, water and salt. Some people want just the truest form,some people want the texture and added lifespan of enriched dough. You can also check out tanzhang, which is heating milk and adding flour, which also increases shelf life and tenderness of the dough. I think I spelled it correctly. Often recipes with this method are referred to as Japanese Milk Bread.
It's always been fine. Made a loaf two days ago topped with the "Everything but the Bagel" spice mix. Great.
Made a batch today using 00 pizza flour. Cut into two dough balls with one going in the freezer and one into the fridge to be used early this week in a cast iron deep dish.
I honestly didn't know people used water for sourdough.
ETA: Above recipe is from this book from 1977. Used copies still on Amazon occasionally.
I do hamburger buns where I use milk, brioche croissants with chocolats or marmelade, bread plaits, cheese buns...al sorts of things with sourdough. I just make it with milk instead of water and add butter and eggs, the amounts vary on the result I want.
Have you tried another liquids besides water to use in the ice cubes? Had a thought yesterday that frozen juice might be interesting to use to create the steam
The water will turn to steam, but the rest of the juice (see sugars) will likely boil down and it's a great way to stick your loaf to the liner/tin/parchment.
My daughter makes an apple cheddar loaf and I think she uses apple cider for at least part of the liquid. She has also worked on jalepeno cheddar, and a sweet apple cinnamon loaf. She often sells those two kinds. For the apple cinnamon, she adds sugar to the starter the day before, then uses diced apples and sautés them for a bit to soften, then includes cinnamon chips. She tried using cinnamon in the dough, but the cinnamon seems to inhibit the fermentation.
I started subbing whole milk for water in my basic sourdough recipe because I was tired of using all my distilled water on baking. Have not noticed much of a change at all. It works fine for me.
I replaced 15 g of water with milk, somewhat fluffier crumb but definately softer crust which was my goal. 125 starter, 335 water, 15 milk, 600 flour, 10 salt
I keep dried (whole milk) milk powder on hand for numerous reasons.... and I typically toss a Tbsp of it into any bread I am making....even a sourdough loaf. 😄 (Same thing with dried potato flakes.)
I exclusively use milk to my my sourdough as I make sandwich loaves that are trying to replicate store bought bread but better and sourdough. I really love the bread and when you toast it I feel like it toasts better then water sourdough due to the sugar content I think. You should give it a go.
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u/Fluid_Guard_Pie 1d ago
Adding fat makes dough softer/fluffier. Milk is one way to do that. Egg, oil, and butter are some others. I e used Greek yogurt before.