"Roy" > wrote in news:1111874578.947093.213790
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

>>In any event the technique I am using now gives me great bread with
> sour
>>taste, good crust, and good leavening in a reasonable time. The only
> problem
>>is that after 24 hours the bread has degraded considerably from what
> it was
>>during the first few hours.
>
>
>>Bill
>
> Your bread stales faster? if your bread has lots of crack grains it
> will gradually absorb all the moisture from the large amount of
> starter you used and hours after your bread has been baked you will
> end up with a dry textured bread that has some similarity to stale
> bread. It was done properly considering the slow hydration
> characteristics of mixed grain breads it will come out still good after
> several hours or more.
> I think you better moisten the cracked wheat mix and let it hydrate
> for some time before adding the rest of the ingredients to it to form
> a dough.
> If you do not add water to the dough but just rely on the liquid
> starter to moisten it you had to add some flour or you have to use a
> firmer starer instead to attain the desired dough consistency.
> ..Then you have an allowance for the moistuer to be added to the
> cracked grain mix.
> Roy
>

Hey, Roy, how long would you recommend soaking the cracked wheat before
kneading it in? How do you account for the moisture of the hydrated
cracked wheat in the water requirement of the recipe?

Bill, Samartha has commented that bread starts going stale as soon as you
remove it from the oven. Well, maybe it starts as soon as it cools.

I've found it wise to seal any extra loaves in heavy plastic as soon as
they're cool and pop them in the freezer. I've done the same with half a
loaf when I know I won't polish off the full loaf in a day or two.

Freezing the bread is an excellent strategy for people who like to bake a
week or two's bread, or who travel. When you're away from home and
yearning for a bite of sourdough bread, you can have the wife Fed-Ex you
a loaf. It's a tad expensive, but when money is no object...

Gonorio