My IG feed has been incessantly hammering me with jaw-dropping sourdough loaves in the past couple of weeks. So I have finally caved and decided to experiment baking some sourdough of my own. I am sure it was far from perfect but it tasted good (note the past tense as the loaf is almost all gone now!).
Adapting to a life in lockdown has been challenging in ways a lot of us had not expected. It is very unlike me to note the positive aspects of situations - I was born a cynical pessimist; I am however really enjoying seeing how a slower, more circumscribed life has brought to the surface hidden talents in people. There are so many amazing bakers out there - I am truly blown away by some of the bread creations I have seen popping up on my feed. So I decided to join the sourdough club and give it an optimistic go.
I have read so many posts and articles about sourdough bread making that I had started to feel a little overwhelmed. There is so much science and ratios involved that I was tempted to just turn back to my tried and trusted yeast bread recipe.
The way for me was to take it step by step - so I started by researching ways to make the ever important sourdough starter. For any Brooklyn 99 fans out there, this was my quest to developing some facsimile of Great Nana Boyle "mother dough". In the end I settled for the Sourdough Starter Chart from Doves Farm - it was very straightforward and it only requires water and plain flour. You can print off the downloadable chart to ensure you are following your starter's planned feeds.
I am currently storing my sourdough starter in the fridge, in a clip-top glass jar and feeding it regularly. Apparently you have to feed it more often if it is stored at higher temperatures. Cold temperatures will demand less frequent feeds.
Moving on to the actual bread making:
Ingredients:
- 90g of sourdough starter (room temperature)
- 520g of Farm-milled wholemeal extra strong bread flour (I used Mungoswells)
- 385ml of water
- 2 teaspoon of sea salt
Method:
Prepare yourself for some time setting as I found I could have quite easily just forgot where I was in the process. If you intend to mix, prove, shape & cook your sourdough bread all in one day, I would suggest working out a rather strict timetable to ensure you are not sitting at midnight looking at your second prove and wishing you were cuddled up under your duvet. Make this an enjoyable and stress-free bake by planning it out.
As the starter needs to be used at its peak i.e. 4-10 hours after it has been fed, I did my feed (added 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 tablespoon of water) mid-morning and then let my starter activate.
In the evening I then started mixing my bread dough. In a large bowl combine the flour and salt. Fill a measuring jug with the water you need and add the starter to it. Stir the starter into the water until it is all well combined. Then add the liquid to the bowl and combine the ingredients using a wooden spoon. The dough might be a little wet - it will relax once it has proved. I did two round of "stretch and fold" technique with 15 minutes breaks in between and put my dough to bed under a damp cloth for the night. If you'd like to learn more about the "stretch and fold" technique you can check out Peter Reinhart's short video on Youtube.
The following morning, you will be back at it. You need to prepare your bread for a second prove by doing another round "of stretch & fold" to further active the gluten. This is also your opportunity to shape the loaf - I have chosen a pretty standard round cobbler form. I would suggest to allow the dough to go through its final proving in the vessel you have decided to cook it in.
And this is where I slightly panicked and convinced myself that I would unquestionably NEED a Dutch oven in order to cook sourdough. Whilst purchasing a Dutch oven is something I am looking into and have enjoyed researching, I did not have a Dutch oven handy for sourdough baking take 1. So I threw caution to the wind and, as I often do, improvised. I decided I would bake my bread in a stainless steel mixing bowl and fashion a lid with the bottom of a springform round cake tin. And as crazy as that may sound, it seems to have worked.
Equipment panic over, I placed a sheet of parchment paper in my "cooking" bowl, placed the dough in, folds face down and sprinkled a bit of flour on top and on the sides. Now you need to cover your dough again with your damp cloth and leave to prove for another hour.
Pre-heat the oven at 250 C - if you have a ventilated oven like I do, remember to select the static oven function. Once the dough has proved, we get to the creative (but not less technical!) part: the slashing. As you can see from the picture above, this is something I still need to work on : practice makes perfect! Grab a sharp knife and lightly grease the blade with some oil, especially if the dough is quite wet - wet dough does not stick to wet equipment. Make your slashes 3/4 of an inch and slightly diagonal. As you can see mine where not quite deep enough in this case.
As soon as your slashes are done, pop your sourdough creation in the oven. In order to have a crusty finish, place a tray with hot water on the bottom shelf of your oven as this will create some helpful steam - a disclaimer to be careful when you open your oven later in the bake if you have done this, as the last thing you want is hot steam flying right in your face. It really isn't pleasant.
My baking process went: 20 mins in oven with lid on, then 10-15 mins with the lid off. I didn't lower the temperature for my no-lid bake but I noticed my bread lightly caught at the top, so depending on your oven, I would maybe suggest to do the final bake at a slightly lower temperature and for the full the 15 mins. I am thinking I will do 15 mins at 220 C next time.
Once cooked, allow to cool fully before slicing it. Believe me, I now it is hard to resist temptation, but be patient least you squash your beautiful sourdough baby.