Sourdough Bread
I actually started baking sourdough before Covid. Around Christmas of 2019, I decided to try to make a Christmas bread. It was pretty dense. I decided then to improve my bread baking skills so by Christmas 2020 I would have something better to eat. I would start my practice by making a sourdough for Victoria’s birthday in January. I made the starter… then I sat on it for 3 months. Luckily when lockdown started and sourdough craze hit I was already prepared to jump on the bandwagon. My recipe has improved over the years and now I can make a pretty good bread.
If you are new to sourdough, here is the basic recipe everyone starts with. Bread is basically 4 ingredients, yeast, water, flour, salt. Ingredients 5 and 6: time and temperature. Mixing these ingredients together can get you a fluffy loaf or a brick. Realistically though, you can’t make a bad loaf. It just take patience.
Ingredients
400 ml water
200 g sourdough starter
700 g bread flour
1 Tbsp salt
a bit of olive oil (optional)
Instructions
Before continuing, you need to figure out if you have enough time to make a loaf. Even if you have everything ready, it still takes 4+ hours to make a loaf of bread. I prefer the following schedule
2 nights before: Take out the starter from the fridge
The morning before: Make fresh starter
The evening before: Make the dough. Let sit on the counter overnight
The next morning bake the bread.
Making the dough
4+ hours before beginning, make fresh starter.
Microwave the water for 45 seconds so it gets ~115 - 125 deg Fahrenheit.
Pour the water into a large bowl.
Add the starter. Mix until the starter and water become consistent liquid.
Add the flour in parts getting a thorough mix before adding more
When about half the flour is in, add the salt and some oil *
Finish adding the remaining flour. Combine all the ingredients. The dough should look like a shaggy ball
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. **
Wait 20 minutes to an hour.
Pour the dough ball onto the table and stretch and fold the dough until the ball gains some consistency ***
Put the dough back into the bowl. Cover
Wait an hour
Pour the dough ball onto the table and stretch and fold the dough until the ball gains some consistency ***
Put the dough back into the bowl. Cover
Wait an hour
(Optional) Repeat the stretch and fold steps one more time. (this depends on how the dough is looking).
You now need to decide when you are going to bake the bread. My preference is to start the bread at night and cook it in the morning.
Cover and let it sit on the counter overnight (milder flavor) — My preference
Refrigerate overnight (stronger sour flavor)
If you want to bake now, wait 2 hours
Baking the Bread
If you have refrigerated the bread, take it our and let it sit for 15 minutes.
Pour the dough out onto the counter and shape it.
Line your baker (or dutch oven) with parchment paper (alternatively, put semolina flour on the bottom)
Place the shaped dough into your baker
Put the lid on the baker covering the dough. Let it sit.
(If you refrigerated it, wait at least 2 hours before continuing)
Preheat the oven at 500 degrees for 1 hour
After an hour turn the oven down to 450
Slash the dough
Cover the dutch oven
Place the dutch oven into the oven
Cook covered for 45 minutes
Uncover the bread
Cook uncovered for 7 - 15 minutes to brown the top
Remove the dutch oven, let sit for 10 minutes
Remove bread from the dutch oven and place on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour. ****
Sourdough loaves tend to stay fresh for about 2 weeks before they get moldy. When your loaf is starting to get hard, make some croutons out of it to extend the flavor!
Notes
* Oil and salt slow down dough from forming. The time before you add the salt is the “autolyze phase.” This can change the flavor of the dough. The longer you wait, the more sour it can become. I often add the oil and salt at the 20 minute mark AFTER I have made the shaggy ball. This also allows the yeast to get a kick start and get around the dough faster.
** I used to use a bowl and plastic wrap. It works very well. However, once I stared doubling and tripling the recipe, I moved on to use this dough container.
*** It is too hard to explain how to knead sourdough. Luckily YouTube has some great tutorials. Try this one. I also like Bake With Jack as my go to video series. He is fun to watch and goes over lots of basics.
**** The bread keeps cooking after you take it out of the oven so you don’t want to cut it too soon. When you make a good loaf, you can hear it crack because it is still expanding! Don’t cut it too soon. Also remember, a fresh loaf tastes buttery the first day when it is still warm (even without butter). Don’t wait to long to eat it if you can.