This recipe for sourdough is denser than the traditional sourdough with many ‘holes’ in the bread. I wanted to experiment with various additions to get a loaf with less holes that still retained a nice sourdough flavour.
Day 1 Evening:
Make a poolish the night before planning to bake bread:
230 g (about 1 cup) of fed sourdough starter
200 g bread flour or All-Purpose (AP) or mix of both
200 g warm water
Mix together well, cover and place in a warm place for 10 to 14 hours.
Day 2 the Bake:
Method:
Heat to scald but not boil:
250 g milk
40 g sugar (about 2 tbsp)
Remove and add:
250 g Cold water to cool the mixture
Pour the milk mixture into mixer bowl and add flour:
780 g flour – can use bread flour or AP or a mixture of both
15 – 20 g salt
Add the poolish mixture.
Mix with bread hook on low about 5 minutes then increase to medium-low speed for another 5 minutes.
Dough will still be sticky, do not keep adding flour.
Turn out onto a well-floured surface and fold the dough over itself to work in the flour on the surface.
More flour is needed at this point – maybe another 1/3 cup but do not add too much. The dough is soft and very flexible but should not stick to your fingers.
Place into a clean bowl, cover with a towel and put in warm place to rise for 2- 3 hours.
The dough should double in volume in 2 – 3 hours.
Once doubled, turn out onto floured surface and degas by folding over upon itself. It is not necessary to ‘punch down forcefully!’
Return dough to the bowl to rise a second time approximately 1-2 hours.
Degas the dough on a floured surface by folding over and into itself and cut into two portions (or three smaller ones). Let rest 5 – 10 minutes then form into loaves by folding and place into bannetons upside down seam side up. The loaves will be turned into the hot pans thus the bottom of the loaf becomes the top of the loaf.
Cover and let rise in a warm place approximately 45 minutes to one hour or enough for the loaves to almost double in size.
About 15 minutes before the dough is ready preheat the oven and heat the pans.
The best pan in my experience is a Dutch oven but I have been experimenting with various pans and pots.
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F to heat the pots.
Reduce to 450 degrees F and place the loaves into the hot pans. Be very careful!
This is where the bannetons are very handy as it is simply a flip over from the banneton into the pan or pot.
Slash surface with a lame or sharp knife.
Place the cover on the pot and bake for 25 minutes at 450F.
After 25 minutes reduce the temperature to 425 F and remove the lids and further bake for approximately 20-25 minutes.
Dutch Oven Loaf (above)
Using the Dutch oven results in a nice caramelized crust and the alternate pan also produced a nice loaf.
Before diving into this recipe there are a few assumptions, the main one being you have an active sourdough starter. Do the float test to see if it is ready before making the levain.
Float Test
This is also fairly straightforward and what I would classify as easy to medium for those who already bake bread.
Check the link for my sourdough starter recipe fermented 14 days and used in this recipe:
Make a levain the night before planning to bake bread
NB: The levain and the starter are both preferments but the starter or ‘Mother’ is maintained and kept for long periods (potentially forever) and the levain uses a small portion of the Mother and is used in its entirety the next day.
More info here from Kitchn if you want to read about preferments:
Mix together well, cover and place in a warm place for 8-12 hours. I made this in the fall and my house is generally cool so I placed it in the oven with the light on which helps maintain a temperature of about 70 degrees F.
Levain
Day 2 the Bake:
525 g warm water
700 g flour (I used 500 All-Purpose and 200 bread flour)
15 g salt (about 1 tablespoon)
Method:
1 – In a separate small bowl mix 50 g water with the salt, stir to dissolve and set aside. This will be added later to the dough.
Salt dissolved in water
2 – Add the remaining 475 g warm water to the levain and break it up with your fingers or spatula.
3 – In a large bowl measure out the flour, add the levain mixture and mix with a spatula until you get a shaggy, rough dough about 5 minutes.
4 – Cover with a clean tea towel and let rest 30 – 45 minutes.
5 – Add the dissolved salt and gently mix in using your fingers. Be gentle with your sourdough bread there is no need (knead??!) to punch or be aggressive with the dough; it will love you more in the end trust me.
Shaggy dough with levain, flour and salt
6 – Cover and let rest in a warm place for about 1 hour (I placed mine in the oven with the light on).
7 – Now start the stretch and fold process. The dough should look quite fluffy and moist, it will not be like other bread doughs. Go around the edge of the inside of the bowl in sections and gently pick up a portion of the dough, stretching upwards and towards you so you are placing it on top of the dough in the middle of the bowl. Go around and do this in 4 or 5 sections until you come back to the first spot. This stretching and folding will give you the nice holes so characteristic of the inside of sourdough.
After first fold and stretch
I did this every 30 – 45 minutes for a total of about 4 hours. You can do it longer if you have the time.
Dough after folding and turning / stretching
I found Kitchn explains it in a great video here, along with the overall process of making sourdough:
8 – Flour the counter and gently turn out the dough. It should be a big fluffy poof of dough. No punching!
Dough after resting
This is a generous recipe and I made two large loaves and thus divided the dough into two equal parts.
Separated dough
Let rest a few minutes.
9 – Flour a couche or parchment paper on a baking sheet (so it can be moved) or banneton bowl, whatever you are using to proof. I did not have banneton bowls but could have easily lined a bowl with a floured tea towel which I will do next time. Instead I used a couche which worked fine. There are dozens of choices on Amazon if you are searching for supplies.
NB: Ensure your surfaces are well floured – very well-floured. You do not want the dough to stick when you are read to place into the baking vessels.
10 – Shape your loaves, fold in quarters, flip over and place on the couche or in the bowl you are using to rise the dough.
11 – Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place at least 3 hours.
Loaves on floured couche to proof
This can also be placed in the fridge for another 12-hour slow rise but I did not do this for this bake.
The loaves should be nice and poofy and will spread out rather than a vertical rise typical of other doughs.
12 – Preheat the oven to 475 F (some say 500 but I stick with 475) and place whatever you are using to bake the bread inside the oven during preheat – I used a Dutch oven for one loaf and a baking stone for the other. I actually used a stone pie plate which worked well to keep a little bit of the form rather than a flat baking stone. These need to be piping hot when placing the dough – I left these in for about 20 minutes to heat up.
NB: obvious comment but if proofing bread in the oven remember to take it out before preheating
13 – Since I used a stone, I also had ready a spray bottle with water to mist the oven, as well as some ice to place in a pie plate on the rack below the stone.
14 – Remove the Dutch oven and / or stone and gently place each loaf in / on. Take extra caution as these are hot!
15 – For the dough on the stone, spray some mist on top before placing in the oven. For the Dutch oven, just put the lid on, the Dutch oven will do the work with the steam.
16 – Spray mist into the oven above the stone, place the ice in the pan in the rack below and close the door.
Dough in Dutch oven and on stone
17 – Leave it for 20 minutes do NOT open the Dutch oven. You can spray mist again a few times but do not touch the lid of the Dutch oven.
18 – Remove the lid of the Dutch oven after 20 minutes. There should be a decent oven spring.
After 20 minutes – nice oven spring
19 – Reduce the heat to 450 F and bake another 15 minutes for the stone and 20 minutes for the Dutch oven. The extra 5 minutes for the Dutch oven may or may not be necessary depending on the heat of your oven; I wanted the crust darker so I left it in a few more minutes.
20 – Remove the loaves and cool on a wire rack. Let them cool for a decent time before cutting into them. I waited about 20 minutes before cutting into the loaf baked in the Dutch oven. Fabulous. Very pleased with the turnout of both loaves.
Dutch oven loaf on left, Stone loaf on right
The crust is quite well developed and very crunchy and the crumb has the holes exactly as I envisioned.
Crust and crumb from Dutch oven product
The sourdough taste is distinct although it could be further defined. The starter could be aged longer and / or longer and / or cold proofing.
Overall I am quite pleased with this and it tastes great!
I usually make a poolish, levain or preferment the night before baking bread, but wanted to try my hand at making my own sourdough starter and if successful, to keep for as long as I am willing to maintain it. Alternatively I also plan to dry some of the Mother and keep it in a sealed jar in a cool dry place when I might not be able to use it for months. When I need it again, simply rehydrate some of the chips and use as a normal starter would be used. At least that is the plan.
There are a multitude of sites to read and learn about developing your own starter and some say you can use it within a day or two but the longer it is fed and allowed to ferment the more flavour it will add to the product. King Arthur Flour and Kitchn sites have good recipes to develop your own starter as well as some nice recipes to use with the starter and discard:
I planned on leaving mine at least 21 days but gave in at 14. I am still pleased with the outcome and now have the Mother in the fridge and depending how often I plan to bake sourdough bread or sourdough products, I will feed it every 7-14 days.
I am not sure why I changed volumes throughout but the end product appears to be a good sourdough starter
Day 1
Thursday September 03, 2020
Mix together in Tupperware bowl with lid:
About 1 cup of organic seedless red grapes cut in half
1 cup dark rye flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups warm water
Cover and let sit on the counter checking occasionally and opening the lid
Day 3
Saturday September 05, 2020
I noticed it had peaked and fallen from the line on the side of the bowl (I did not have a marker) and there were some bubbles
Remove grapes
I decided to reduce the volume and transfer to a wide mouth mason jar. I had another clean wide mouth mason jar on hand to use for each refresh feed.
In a clean wide mouth mason jar:
100g starter
70 g all-purpose flour
30 g dark rye flour
100 g warm water
Stir and place lid on very lightly so as to allow air in and out
Place a rubber band on the level of the starter
Day 4
Sunday September 06, 2020
The line was visible where it had peaked and fallen so it might need more frequent feeding
In a clean wide mouth mason jar mix:
100 g starter
70 g all-purpose flour
30 g dark rye
100 g warm water
Cover, place rubber band on level
It was already starting to bubble and the smell is developing nicely
Day 4 Starter
Day 5
Monday September 07, 2020
Cold snap this weekend so I put the starter jar in the oven with only the light on to maintain a steady temp. and noticed bubbles forming within minutes.
In a clean wide mouth mason jar mix:
100 g starter
70 g all-purpose flour
30 g dark rye
100 g warm water
Cover, place rubber band on level and place in off oven with light on
Day 6
Tuesday September 08, 2020
Not much activity and it does not appear to have peaked.
Fed this morning about 7 am and decided to feed again around 5 pm to see if it makes any difference; it might need more food.
5 pm feeding just added to existing starter and did not discard any:
70 g all-purpose flour
30 g dark rye
100 g warm water
Day 7
Wednesday September 09, 2020
Starter bubbling and working overnight so I think it needed more food.
Discarded all but 113 g of starter and fed:
70 g all-purpose flour
30 g dark rye
100 g warm water
Checked at 9 pm and it had exploded! Pushed the lid off the jar it grew so much so I know there is yeast and it is feeding.
Discarded all but 113 g of starter and fed:
50 g all-purpose flour
25 g dark rye
75 g warm water
Day 7 Starter
Day 8
Thursday September 10, 2020
Overnight not much so I left all starter in the jar and fed:
50 g all-purpose flour
25 g rye flour
75 g water
In less than an hour it had bubbled to the top of the jar again.
It seems like it needs more starter left in the jar. Maybe I will try leaving 150 g starter and feeding tonight.
Feeding 2
~185 g starter
200 g water
150 g AP
50 g rye
Within an hour it had more than doubled. I have started adding the water after the starter then the flours and mixing well. Seems to help.
Day 9
Friday September 11, 2020
Will try less product and twice daily feeds for a few days to see how the fermentation develops.
Feed 1 morning
~80 g starter
80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Within an hour it was growing and almost doubled in volume. I think it is now reaching a stage of fermentation where the bacteria is regularly feeding on the yeast so it is a matter of maturing the product to a proper sourdough. As I am feeding twice daily I will reduce the volume used to 75g.
Feed 2 evening
~80 g starter
80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Day 10
Saturday September 12, 2020
Feed 1 morning
~80 g starter
80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Feed 2 evening
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Day 11
Sunday September 13, 2020
Feed 1 morning
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Tasted the product and it is very sour. The fermentation is working well and within about 2 hours from feeding it has almost tripled in volume to peak before falling. I am very tempted to use it now in bread but want to develop it at least one more day.
Feed 2 evening
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Day 11 Starter
Day 12
Monday September 14, 2020
Feed 1 morning
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Did the float test and it practically bounced out of the bowl it is so buoyant.
Feed 2 evening
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Day 13
Tuesday September 15, 2020
Feed 1 morning
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
Feed 2 evening
~75 – 80 g starter
75 – 80 g water
50 g AP
25 rye
I decided to make a levain tonight and bake bread tomorrow.
Day 14
Wednesday September 16, 2020
Made two loaves of sourdough which turned out amazing!
One baked in a Dutch oven and one on a stone with misting.
Both fabulous.
Crumb and crust are great, sour taste could be more developed but it is distinctly sourdough. The starter is now in the fridge and I will feed weekly to bi-weekly depending on requirements.
Very pleased overall.
Check out my post on Dijon for more info and pics.
