Sourdough Bread

Freshly baked bread, what a welcoming thought, what a superb smell in the kitchen and what great reaction from everyone who eats it. Even better if you know that all of the flavour is coming from the sour dough culture that you have been maturing for some weeks. And thats where most people stop in this age of instant food satisfaction, they just nip out and buy it, but why when with a little time and care, you can be enjoying the fruits of your efforts on a regular basis. We tend to bake sour dough twice a week now that both our cultures are established and we have a simple routine to look after them. The beginning processes of sour dough baking do however take a little patience and planning, but we hope that you try out the following and are rewarded with a little gem of your own.

Your sour dough starter

75g Wholemeal bread flour.

75ml Warm water.

Large lidded or Kilner jar.

1. Simply mix the flour and water into a paste. Pour into jar, loosely seal and stand to one side in the kitchen, leave for 2 days.

2. Weigh out the same ingredients as above, and stir into the jar too, place in the safe spot again and leave for a further 2 days.

3. Repeat number 2, leave for 2 more days.

4. By now the mix should be showing the first signs of life, bubbles should be evident. This is the natural yeasts getting to work, the mix will probably have a sour type of scent too. At this stage the culture can be placed in the fridge.

Thats it, the messing around is over and you now have a living culture that will mature over time, giving ever more character to your breads at each use. You can of course use plain strong bread flour, which will result in a slightly creamier textured starter with a less sour taste.

Sourdough bread

This is a good weekend project or mid week treat. Plan this next stage for a Friday night.

Your starter mix will now weigh 450g, take 75g and place it in a new clean jar. This is now your midweek starter, place this in the fridge.

Leave the rest of the starter out overnight, during which time it should begin to bubble more strongly. On Saturday morning, remove 75g of the mix and place in another clean jar, seal and place in fridge, this is the next weekend culture. You are ready to make your first sourdough loaf.

Ingredients

450G Strong plain(bread) flour

200ml Warm water

25g Butter

10g Sea salt

300g Sourdough starter culture(this is what is left in your jar)

Ground semolina or rice 

Simply place the flour, culture and butter into your mixers bowl and combine using the dough hook. Add most of the water and continue to knead until you get a slightly tacky but not sticky dough, if too dry add some of the remaining water to correct.

Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then add the salt and mix for 5 more minutes. Cover and leave to gently rise for 3 or 4 hours at room temperature.

Prepare a shaped container(bowl, bread basket etc) by lining with cling film, oiling lightly and then dusting generously with the ground semolina.

Knead the dough, then shape, place in the container, sprinkle exposed top of dough with ground semolina, cover lightly and place in a warm spot to rise for 6 to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees centigrade.

Turn out gently onto a prepared baking sheet, quickly slash the top skin with a very sharp knife, splash with water and bake in the oven for approx 25 minutes or until golden and well crusted.

Looking after your culture.

This first run through is the most complex and from here onwards it gets easier, promise.

After a couple of days in the fridge, take out your cultures and beat in the 75g strong flour and 75ml warm water combination, return to the fridge till you are ready to use it. The culture benefits from use and feeding, but can survive for several weeks in-between uses too.

The night before you intend using your culture, remove it from the fridge, beat in the usual flour and water mix again. Leave out overnight, it will be ready to use the following morning.

Simply follow the recipe above, remembering to place 75g starter back into the fridge, keep jars clean. Remember that in the early weeks your culture is still developing its own unique characteristics and that these change over time too.

But most of all 

Enjoy.

PS This is only the beginning, if you get truly hooked on sourdough then take a look at www.northwestsourdough.com its an eye opener.