Bake a basic sourdough loaf

This month marks Sourdough September and we can’t think of much that’s more worth celebrating

As summer draws to a close our minds turn to home comforts, particularly those that involve flowery hands and warm smells emanating from ovens. For our September ‘Begin’ issue, we visited Sourdough School to begin finding out from sourdough guru Vanessa Kimbell how to make that delicious, crusty, chewy bread. You can read all about it on p22 of the issue. To give you a flavour, though, we’ve posted one of Vanessa’s simple sourdough recipes here. Don’t say we aren’t good to you. You can find out lots more about sourdough at The Sourdough School.

Allow yourself about 3 –4 hours for the dough to be mixed, folded and shaped ready to place in the coldest part of the fridge to prove overnight.(If you are new to bread making, you can, instead of shaping the dough and putting it into a banneton, grease a 2lb bread tin liberally with butter, let the dough rise in it overnight in the fridge and then bake as per the recipe instructions below.)

Equipment:
A large mixing bowl
A round cane banneton
2 clean tea towels
A Dutch oven or La Cloche
A large heatproof pan, a sharp knife or ‘lame’ to slash the dough with

Ingredients:
300g water
100g sourdough leaven (made with your starter)*
100g of stoneground organic wholemeal flour
400g organic strong white flour
10g fine sea salt mixed with 15g of cold water
25g rice flour mixed with 25g of stone ground white flour (for dusting your banneton)
Semolina to dust the bottom of the baking surface

Makes 1 loaf

Late afternoon

In a large bowl whisk your water and starter and mix well. Add all the flour and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball.

Cover with a clean damp cloth and let the dough rest on the side in the kitchen for between 30 mins and 2 hours – this what bakers call Autolyse

Add the salt mixed with the water and dimple your fingers into the dough to allow the salty water and salt to distribute evenly throughout the dough.  Leave for 10 mins.

Next lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat 3 more times. Repeat 3 times at 30 min intervals with a final 15 min rest at the end.

Shape the dough lightly into a ball then place into a round banneton dusted with flour (If you don’t have a banneton then use a clean tea towel dusted with flour inside a colander). Dust the top with flour, then cover with a damp tea-towel

Leave your dough to one side until it is 50% bigger then transfer to the fridge , and leave to prove there for 8 – 12 hours.

The following morning

The next morning preheat your oven to 220°C for at least 30 mins before you are ready to bake. Place your cloche or baking stone in the oven and a large pan of boiling water underneath (or use a Dutch oven). The hydration helps form a beautiful crust.

Once the oven is up to full heat, carefully remove the baking stone from the oven, taking care not to burn yourself, dust with a fine layer of semolina, which stops the bread sticking, then put your dough onto the baking stone and slash the top with your blade. This decides where the bread will tear as it rises. Bake for an hour.

Turn the heat down to 180°C (and remove the lid if you are using a Dutch oven) and bake for another 10 -15  mins.  You need to choose just how dark you like your crust but I suggest you bake until it is a dark brown – it tastes much better.

Storage

Sourdough is really best left to cool completely before slicing and is even better if left for a day to let the full flavour develop. Once your sourdough has cooled, store in a linen or cotton bread bag, or wrapped in a clean tea towel. If you don’t like a crunchy crust on your sourdough bread, simply wrap your bread in a clean tea towel whilst it is still warm.

* To make 100g of leaven, use 1 tbsp of sourdough starter, 40g of water and 40g of strong white flour, mix well and leave, covered on the side in the kitchen in the morning. It will be lively and bubbly and ready to bake with in the evening.

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More from our September issue…

More sourdough (and other) baking inspiration…

Your (sourdough) starter for ten

Don’t think of your sourdough starter as a recipe. Think of it as a pet…

Who knew that people give their sourdough starters names? Oh OK, you did then. We had no idea! But now we do we just can’t stop thinking of excellent monikers for them.

Overused it may be but Clint Yeastwood still brings a smile to our faces. And if you want a celebrity starter there’s definitely a rich seam to be tapped. How about Bread Dibnah, or Sheena Yeaston? Matthew Breaderick, Crustin Hoffman or Dough Berrick? Philip Loafyield? Too tenuous?... Yes, ok we’ll leave it there.

You could of course choose something more ‘under the radar’. Bubbles, perhaps. Or Gloopy-Lou.

Or simply go oblique. On one sourdough forum a user explained “Mine is called Eve. She started all this trouble after all.” Another says firmly that she never considered naming hers. Fair enough: “I love my starters, they are my boys, like children, I talk to them  and I'm proud of them. I miss them when I away. But I have never wanted to give them names.” We’re lost for words now, frankly.

In some ways it’s no surprise people feel they need to name their starters. They become like one of the family in many ways, needing regular feeding, plenty of love and attention. A bit like a very low-maintenance pet.

But look after it you must, so we asked Luc Martin, sourdough expert and owner of Pig and Rye Sourdough Bakery, Breakfast and Lunchroom in Tllburg, The Netherlands.

“The best way to look after a starter is feed it every day. At the bakery we use 3-10kg a day and the few hundred grams that’s left gets mixed with fresh flour and water to be used the next day. Our starter is wholegrain rye based, I’ve kept it alive for over ten years but I don’t believe the age of the starter has any effect on the finished bread.”

He has this advice for newbies to the world of sourdough starters: “For a home baker keeping a starter alive is trickier because you don’t necessarily bake every day. The best thing to do is keep the starter alive in a small quantity, like 150g total, then every day bin 100g and refresh with 50g flour 50g water. There are tricks like storing in the fridge, or keeping the starter hydration lower, both will slow fermentation and extend time between feedings but if you make a mistake you can end up killing the starter.” And that would be a sad day indeed. Keep it simple then, folks.

And what does a sourdough guru call his starter? “Mine has no name I’m afraid, but if I did name it it would probably be Blueberry which is how it smells when it’s ready to bake with.”

In our February issue we have a feature on overnight bakes that will make good use of your starters, keep you busy on a Saturday night before bed, and give you a warm glow of smug satisfaction (and a lovely loaf to boot) on Sunday morning. We have recipes by Rachel de Thample for sweet loaves, crumpets, an oat loaf and even apple and cardamom buns. But we especially enjoyed the recipe for this crusty overnight baguette. We strongly recommend you have a go yourself this weekend. And let us know what you named your sourdough starter, too, so we can give Philip Seemore Loafman the credit, too. Here’s one of our February issue recipes to get your started (see what we did there).

Breakfast baguettes

Baguettes are a great way to get into bread-making. They’re easy to make and super satisfying to see (and eat!) the results. Especially great with salted butter and jam.

• Makes 4 small or 2 large sticks

• 250g active sourdough starter*,  or 5g instant yeast

• 325ml water

• 1 ¾ tsp sea salt

• 500g strong white bread flour

1  Mix everything together to form  a dough. Give it a good knead until it’s nice and stretchy. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise at room temperature for 8–12 hours, or until doubled in size.

2  Punch down and shape into  2 really long or 4 shorter rectangles – flatten and roll into a baguette shape, tapering and tucking the ends in.

3 Lightly oil a large baking sheet – or two, if needed. Dust with semolina or flour. Arrange the baguettes on the prepared baking sheets, leaving a little room around them so they can rise. Cover with floured plastic and allow to rise for 1½–2 hours or until almost doubled in size.

4 Make diagonal slashes across  each loaf using a sharp knife or razor blade. Bake at 220C/Fan 200C/ Gas 8 for about 15–20 mins or until well browned. Spray with water before baking, then 5 mins and  10 mins into the cooking time.

Cook’s note To activate your sourdough starter, remove from the fridge. Feed 2–4 tbsp of starter with 150g strong white bread flour, plus 150ml water. Whisk or stir until well mixed. Cover loosely with a lid or  a clean cloth. Let it ferment in a warmish place for 8–12 hours.

*For instructions on how to make a sourdough starter visit thesimplethings/blog/sourdoughstarter.

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More breads and bakes to enjoy…

More from our February issue…

How to: make a sourdough starter

Rachel de Thample explains how to make your own sourdough starter

In our February issue we have a feature on ‘wake-up bakes’, that is loaves, cakes, crumpets and baguettes that can be started on a Saturday evening and left overnight to give you fresh bread for Sunday breakfast. The sourdough recipes require what’s called a starter, and you can learn how to make one here. You can find all of the full recipes starting on p38 of the February issue. Take your marks, get set, start your starters!

Simple sourdough starter

Simply mix 100g strong white bread flour with 100g filtered or mineral water (measure it on a digital scale for best results). Loosely cover with a cloth. Set at room temperature in a dark place and leave to ferment for 1 day. If the starter has yet to produce lots of little bubbles across the top, indicating that it is active, add an additional 100g strong white bread flour and 100g filtered or mineral water. Mix well and continue this exercise each day, topping up the starter, until it’s risen slightly and has a good number of little bubbles formed at the top. Once you have your starter activated, you can make sourdough loaves, crumpets and more… If your starter is getting off to a slow start, try adding a piece of dried fruit such as a dried apricot or prune to the mix, a 5cm piece of rhubarb and/or 1 tbsp natural yogurt or kefir, to help feed it.

Dark rye sourdough starter

Rye flour is more absorbent than white flour, so you use slightly more water to get a rye starter going.

Day 1: Add 50ml filtered or mineral water to 2 tbsp rye flour. Stir to make a smooth paste. Cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature (about 20C) away from direct sunlight for 24 hours.

Days 2–4: Repeat the process above. By Day 4 you should start to see some bubbles.

Day 5: Stir in 100g rye flour and 200ml filtered or mineral water.

Day 6: By now your rye sourdough starter or leaven should be active and have developed a fruity smell. Double the quantity of batter using 100g rye flour and 200ml filtered or mineral water.

Day 7: Your starter is ready to make your first batch of bread. Store the starter in the fridge for up to 1 month between bakes. Before making a loaf of bread, take the starter out 12 hours before and feed it with 100g flour and 200ml filter or mineral water to reactive it.

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More bakes to inspire…

More from our February issue…

Recipe: Olive and rosemary sourdough

Alex Gooch’s Olive and Rosemary Sourdough (From our February issue)

 

500g strong white bread flour
300ml water (room temperature)
200g starter
10g finely chopped lemon zest
11g salt
200g pitted olives
10g rosemary

1 Mix the first five ingredients in a bowl. When they start to come together, turn out onto your table and knead for 5 mins. Form into a ball and place in a lightly-oiled bowl. Cover tightly so that it is airtight. You can use cling film or place the bowl in a bin bag and create a greenhouse effect. Leave the dough to prove in a warm environment for 2.5 hours.

2 Turn your dough out onto a very lightly oiled surface and stretch it out so it is wide and flat. Place your olives and rosemary, ripped up in a rustic fashion, on top of the dough and fold all of the corners in. Gently knead together so that the olives are roughly distributed throughout the dough. Form into a ball, and place back in your bowl and leave well covered for 90 mins.

3 Turn the dough out and divide into two or leave as one to make a larger loaf. Shape them and then roll them in flour so they are lightly covered all over. Lightly flour your proving basket (see Gooch’s glossary, opposite) and place your dough in it seam up. Cover well to prevent a skin forming and leave for 2 hours for its final prove.

4 Preheat oven to 240C/Fan 220C/475F. Turn the dough out of the basket into your cloche (see Gooch’s glossary) or onto your tray. Slash the top well with a sharp knife and then bake for 30 mins for two small loaves or 35 mins for one large. If using a cloche, remove the lid for the last 10 mins in the oven. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a rack for at least 2 hours
before eating.

Originally published in February 2015's issue of The Simple Things - buy a back issue now.

More Gathering recipes in the August issue - out 29 July 2015.