Sourwort

Hello again.

In the last 8 years I've been using a sourdough starter (type I) for my bakes with pleasing results, really enjoying the whole process of producing and eating home made healthy bread.

However lately, I got fed up with the continuous nursing and repeatitive process of keeping my starter and looked elsewhere for alternative ways of producing tasteful bread using instant dry yeast (IDY) instead of sourdough. I went through all the preferment types (biga, poolish, sponge, madre, padre, long fermentation times, cold bulk, overnight proof just to name a few). The verdict after a great number of failures (AGNF) as usual, was a plain 'Ok'. So I can now bake nice bread using IDY. Nothing special really...

Then my attention was drawn by several posts of fellow members of this forum that deal with a type II sourdough (if I am correct) namely 'CLAS' / 'KMKZ' originated by 'RusBrot'. Good field for experimentation I thought, so again AGNF I managed to produce remarkable loafs of bread with interesting nuances of taste and pros. Really worth the try (goodbye my old friend starter, I have a new friend now!!!).

Because I was intrigued by 'KMKZ' I kept reading RusBrot's blog until I came across one of his articles namely "Extraction of Lactic Acid Bacteria from Malt". RusBrot himself was inspired by an article he read in a German brewer's magazine revealing the secrets of creating German acidified beer 'Berline Weisse'. Then he goes on to create his usual 'KMKZ' using this malt-mash.

I went on eagerly and prepared the malt-mash according to RusBrot instructions. The result was a mash with suprisingly very pleasant aroma of green apples and intense sourness (pH well below 4.0).

And then the 'hmmm..... why not' moment struck me. Instead of going to the next stage (as RusBrot suggests) of producing 'KMKZ' I thought to strain the acidified malt-mash. And there it was in frond of me, the newly-born 'sourwort' baby!!! as you can see it in the following pictures.

I went straight ahead and used this 'sourwort' as is in my next few experimental IDY bakes. And what a revelation that turned out to be....

Aroma and taste similar to sourdough and not only. The effect it seems to have on gluten and crumb structure is extraordinary. Cotton-silk like, shiny, over-fluffy crumb I have never experienced before in my few years of amateur baking life.

I have to apologise if by any chance I have 're-invented the wheel' but I feel so excited, I thought I had to share.