Sourdough Bread
Step One: Make the starter
Makes 4 cups
What You Need
Ingredients
All-purpose or whole wheat flour
Water, preferably filtered
Equipment
2-quart glass or plastic container (not metal)
Scale (highly recommended) or measuring cups
Mixing spoon
Plastic wrap or clean kitchen towel
Instructions
Making sourdough starter takes about 5 days. Each day you "feed" the starter with equal amounts of fresh flour and water. As the wild yeast grows stronger, the starter will become more frothy and sour-smelling. On average, this process takes about 5 days, but it can take longer depending on the conditions in your kitchen. As long as you see bubbles and sings of yeast activity, continue feeding it regularly. If you see zero signs of bubbles after three days, take a look at the Troubleshooting section below.
Day 1: Make the Initial Starter
4 ounces (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) flour
4 ounces (1/2 cup) water
Weigh the flour and water, and combine them in the container. Stir vigorously until combined into a smooth batter. It will look like a sticky, thick dough. Scrape down the sides and loosely cover the container with plastic wrap or the or with a clean kitchen towel secured with a rubber band
Put the container somewhere with a consistent room temperature of 70°F to 75°F (like the top of the refrigerator) and let sit for 24 hours.
Day 2: Feed the Starter
4 ounces (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) flour
4 ounces (1/2 cup) water
Take down your starter and give it a look. You may see a few small bubbles here and there. This is good! The bubbles mean that wild yeast have started making themselves at home in your starter. They will eat the sugars in the the flour and release carbon dioxide (the bubbles) and alcohol. They will also increase the acidity of the mixture, which helps fend off any bad bacterias. At this point, the starter should smell fresh, mildly sweet, and yeasty.
If you don't see any bubbles yet, don't panic — depending on the conditions in your kitchen, the average room temperature, and other factors, your starter might just be slow to get going.
Weigh the flour and water for today, and combine them in the container. Stir vigorously until combined into a smooth batter. It will look like a sticky, thick dough. Scrape down the sides and loosely cover the container with plastic wrap or with a clean kitchen towel secured with a rubber band. Put the container somewhere with a consistent room temperature of 70°F to 75°F (like the top of the refrigerator) and let sit for 24 hours.
Day 3: Feed the Starter
4 ounces (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) flour
4 ounces (1/2 cup) water
Check your starter. By now, the surface of your starter should look dotted with bubbles and your starter should look visibly larger in volume. If you stir the starter, it will still feel thick and batter-like, but you'll hear bubbles popping. It should also start smelling a little sour and musty.
Again, if your starter doesn't look quite like mine in the photo, don't worry. Give it a few more days. My starter happened to be particularly vigorous!
Weigh the flour and water for today, and combine them in the container. Stir vigorously until combined into a smooth batter. It will look like a sticky, thick dough. Scrape down the sides and loosely cover the container with plastic wrap or with a clean kitchen towel secured with a rubber band. Put the container somewhere with a consistent room temperature of 70°F to 75°F (like the top of the refrigerator) and let sit for 24 hours.
Day 4: Feed the Starter
4 ounces (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) flour
4 ounces (1/2 cup) water
Check your starter. By now, the starter should be looking very bubbly with large and small bubbles, and it will have doubled in volume. If you stir the starter, it will feel looser than yesterday and honeycombed with bubbles. It should also be smelling quite sour and pungent. You can taste a little too! It should taste sour and somewhat vinegary.
When I made my starter here, I didn't notice much visual change from Day 3 to Day 4, but could tell things had progress by the looseness of the starter and the sourness of the aroma.
Weigh the flour and water for today, and combine them in the container. Stir vigorously until combined into a smooth batter. It will look like a sticky, thick dough. Scrape down the sides and loosely cover the container with plastic wrap or with a clean kitchen towel secured with a rubber band. Put the container somewhere with a consistent room temperature of 70°F to 75°F (like the top of the refrigerator) and let sit for 24 hours.
Day 5: Starter is Ready to Use
Check your starter. It should have doubled in bulk since yesterday. By now, the starter should also be looking very bubbly — even frothy. If you stir the starter, it will feel looser than yesterday and be completely webbed with bubbles. It should also be smelling quite sour and pungent. You can taste a little too! It should taste even more sour and vinegary.
If everything is looking, smelling, and tasting good, you can consider your starter ripe and ready to use! If your starter is lagging behind a bit, continue on with the Day 5 and Beyond instructions.
Day 5 and Beyond: Maintaining Your Starter
4 ounces (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons) flour
4 ounces (1/2 cup) water
Once your starter is ripe (or even if it's not quite ripe yet), you no longer need to bulk it up. To maintain the starter, discard (or use) about half of the starter and then "feed" it with new flour and water: weigh the flour and water, and combine them in the container with the starter. Stir vigorously until combined into a smooth batter.
If you're using the starter within the next few days, leave it out on the counter and continue discarding half and "feeding" it daily. If it will be longer before you use your starter, cover it tightly and place it in the fridge. Remember to take it out and feed it at least once a week — I also usually let the starter sit out overnight to give the yeast time to recuperate before putting it back in the fridge.
Step Two : Make the Leaven
A leaven is simply a starter that has had a big feed the day before you make the dough and is therefore ready to use. If you want to bake regularly, you might be better off maintaining a leaven (with 200 g daily feeds) rather than maintaining a starter (with 50 g feeds).
|
50 g |
|
|
200 g |
WATER (~26°C) |
|
200 g |
FLOUR |
Use a scale for accurate measurements and mix together the purified water, sourdough starter and flour and let sit on the counter with a tea towel on top for about 12 -24 hours.
This will make more leaven than you need for two loaves. Once you use the leaven to start your bread, the remainder is now your starter. Refrigerate it and discard your old starter.
Step Three: Forming the dough
Makes two loaves.
|
700 g |
WATER (~26°C) |
|
200 g |
LEAVEN |
|
1000 g |
WHole wheat flour |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The freshness of the flour has a big impact on the flavor of the bread—buy the best you can find.
- Mix water and leaven together in a large bowl.
- Add flours and mix completely.
- Let sit for 30min to let the flour absorb the water.
Meanwhile, in a separate small bowl, mix together;
|
20 g |
SALT |
|
50 g |
WATER (~26°C) |
- After the 30 mins. rest period, add salt and additional water.
- Squish dough with your fingers to thoroughly mix in the salt.
Step four: Bulk fermentation
- Turn the dough every half hour for 3 or so hours. Leaving at least 30 minutes after the last turn.
To turn, wet your hand and slide it between the bowl and the dough, then lift and stretch a side of the dough and fold it over. Going around the bowl and repeating three or four times constitutes one “turn”. The little air pockets form the basis of the crumb which will fill with gas during the bulk fermentation.
During the third hour, notice how the dough starts to get billowy, soft, and aerated with gas. At this later stage, you should turn the dough more gently to avoid pressing gas out of the dough.
Step five: Shaping and proofing
- Dump out dough onto a clean bench.
- Lightly dust with flour and use your bench scraper to flip the dough onto the floured side.
- Divide in half if making two loaves.
- Fold in half so the outside is now mostly floured.
- Gently form a ball.
- Bench rest covered for 30min.
- Heavily dust proofing baskets with rice flour (or white flour if you don’t have any).
- Dust, flip, stretch, fold and form.
- Dust top of dough ball with flour then place in proofing basket seam up.
- Cover with a tea towel and rise for 3–4 hours, or put it in the fridge for 10–24 hours. I prefer the fridge method.
Step six: Baking the bread
- Heat dutch oven or combo cooker in oven to 500°f. Set the oven to ‘bake’ so the top element is not on.
- Turn dough into dutch oven, seam side down, and score with razor.
- Replace lid, put back in oven and reduce temperature to 450°f
- Bake for 20min then remove lid.
- Bake for additional 20min or until very dark (almost burnt).
The dough needs moisture to help it rise. Commercial baking ovens inject steam; regular ovens don’t. The dutch oven avoids this by being tightly contained, as the moisture from the dough evaporates it creates a humid environment. If you don’t have a dutch oven you could try baking in your heaviest oven-safe pan covered with a pot.