The Need to Knows About Sourdough:
The Starter
The flavor of your sourdough will come from the science experiment you have to perform in your kitchen. All sourdoughs are different depending on where you are in the world. What's cool about this is that it makes it unique to your kitchen, an no one else. If you gave some of your culture to a friend a few states over, your sourdough would become theirs in a matter of weeks, unique on its own (subtle difference, but different still). This is why San Fransisco sourdough is the capital of the stuff. You can't take theirs back to the east cost and make the same loaf, you can't take the weather with you.
The starter is a replacement for commercial yeast. A flavorful replacement in fact. The starter is a live culture that must be fed and maintained. Easy for a bake shop, but maybe a hassle for the home baker. The way I'll show you is easy, but starting the culture takes a week. Once you have it, you're set! You just take the thing out of the fridge, feed it, put half of it back, make some bread, and eat it. I named mine Gabriella, she's about 11 months old now.
Two things are present in the starter that contribute to the flavor: wild yeast (as opposed to commercial) and acid-producing bacteria. How do you catch them? Easy, give them some food...
**You are going to need a digital scale
it is an absolute must if you want to make good bread at home.Day 1 and 2
In a small bowl mix: 50g water
75g whole wheat flour
Loosely cover with plastic wrap and wait two days. The starter will resemble a thick batter (the bacteria are doing their job destroying the gluten)
Day 3
Throw out half the starter and feed again: 50g water
75g bread flour
Cover with plastic and wait another day...
Day 4
Again...
Throw out half the starter and feed again: 50g water
75g bread flour
Day 5
Ok, now it's alive! Time do expand: 100g water
150g bread flour
Day 6
Feed one more time: 100g water
150g bread flour
...and take half of the starter and put it into a mason jar, put it into the fridge for up to a month. This is your storage starter. Now, let's say you just are not in the mood to make sourdough for 2 months, that's fine, you just have to feed it so it doesn't die, just like any other pet (sadly, I found this out the hard way when I was a kid and I forgot about my gerbils for a few weeks... that resulted in a lesson about cannibalism....) so take the starter out every few weeks, feed it 100g water and 150g flour. Let it sit for a day. Throw out half (or make a loaf of bread) and put it back into the jar for storage.
The wild yeast is what will raise the bread, but not as quickly as commercial yeast. That stuff is highly concentrated and works quickly in comparison. You have to be patient with your sourdough and not rush it, it will end in disappointment otherwise. You have to plan ahead. It's not hard to make, or labor intensive, it just has a lot of waiting time. After you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature, like doing laundry or trimming nose hairs.
The bacteria present in the starter are good bacteria. They happen to be acid-producing bacteria that... yup, you guessed it, make it sour! If you let any dough ferment this happens, but since we let the starter do its thing for such a long time, it becomes intensely sour. The starter will get better with age as well, like wine. Your first loaf will most likely not even be very sour. After a few times, you will notice the difference.
Making the Loaf
Semolina Sourdough Baguette
200g Starter
120g Water
160g Semolina flour
5g Kosher salt
2g Instant yeast (just helps facilitate the rising time, unnecessary if you don't mind waiting extra)
Ok, take your starter out of the fridge and feed it 100g water and 150g flour, let it wake up for at least 12 hours
Take 200g of the starter and put it into a mixing bowl, put the rest back into the mason jar keep in the fridge.
Weigh out the semolina flour and yeast, mix together (instant yeast must never come in contact with water on its own. If using dry active, than mix with the water, not the flour). Pour on top of the starter in the mixing bowl and then throw on the water. Mix on low speed for 1 minute with the paddle attachment. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes (this stage is called autolyse, it allows for the flour to absorb the water prior to mixing, which improves texture of the bread tremendously<----- trade secrets here!)
Throw on the salt, finish mixing, 5 minutes on medium speed. If the dough gets wrapped around the paddle, scrap it down and continue mixing. The hook can be used, but the batch of dough is tiny for the mixer, so it wouldn't mix well.
The finished dough should be smooth and very elastic. If not, get back to mixing. Let it bulk rise for 2 hours.
Once risen, put it onto a lightly floured surface. Pound the dough out so it is a rectangle roughly 8"x 6". Begin to roll the dough downward, tucking it in as you go. The roll will be tight, not loose. Cut the log in half and taper the edges. Both loaves should be no more than 14" in length. Place onto a piece of baking parchment (not wax paper!!!!) and put onto a baking sheet or peel. Place in the fridge for a slow rise, at least 8 hours, up to 24 hours if you want.
Remove from the fridge and let proof out at room temperature for 2 hours (maybe more, maybe less depending on the temperature in your kitchen.) The loaves should have tripled in size before even contemplating baking. Have an oven pre-heated at 475* for 30 minutes with a baking stone set on the lowest rack. (No stone? bake on a sheet pan, middle rack)
Dust with flour and slash the loaves with a sharp knife. Place in the oven and pour 1/4 cup of water on the bottom of the oven, get it all steamy. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes and turn the temp down to 425* after 5 minutes.
Oh, traditional sourdough... yea that too
Sourdough Boule
250g Starter
145g Flour
100g Water
6g Kosher salt
1g Instant yeast
A risen boule Ready to be flipped out
Follow the same steps as above, but after the 2 hour bulk rise, turn onto floured counter and round the dough up. Press it flat, the fold the dough like a business letter, gently press flat again and tri-fold in the opposite direction to form a square package. Round the sides to form a ball. Place into a bowl lined with plastic sprayed liberally with pan spray . Cover the top and let it rise in the fridge for up to 24 hours, then at room temp for 2 hours, or out on the counter for 4-6 hours until tripled in size. Have the oven pre-heated at 475* for 30 minutes. Flip the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and peel off the plastic (you remembered to spray it right?).
Sprinkle the top with flour, score with a sharp knife and place on the stone. Pour the water on the oven floor (not the electric coils) and shut the door. Bake for 5 minutes at 475* then turn it down to 425*. Give it 15-20 minutes, take this one until it is dark golden brown. It makes a killer crust.
General Understanding of Concepts...
- Sourness comes from the bacteria feeding on the wet dough, producing acid
- The acid not only flavors the dough, but contributes to the bread's texture making it chewy, yet soft for days
-Wild yeast is unique to your kitchen and has great flavor, but a very slow rise. Adding a pinch of commercial yeast will help with the sluggishness and not intervene with flavor (but never add
commercial yeast to your starter!!!)
-Slashing the bread allows expanding gasses to escape from the loaf and helps the bread rise in the oven, plus it looks cool
-Creating steam in the oven the first 5 minutes, again, helps the bread rise in the oven. This time it's from preventing the crust from forming too early. But, once the steam is gone, the finished crust is extra crispy/crunchy. Bakeries have steam injected ovens for this.
-The autolyse stage during the mixing process is not mandatory, but will help with the bread's final texture (or crumb as it's called in the biz) Home baking is taken to another level by using this step alone.
-A digital scale
really is a must here. I know it's an investment, but seriously, cup measures are so inaccurate when it comes to making bread. They are fine for cooking projects and recipes that aren't so fussy, but this is. If you want, you can convert them to volume measures and not hurt my feelings, but just know that not all ingredients weigh the same, for example: Does a cup of marbles weigh the same as a cup of feathers??? Nope, they don't. Neither does a cup of flour weight the same as a cup of sugar. A cup of honey weighs more than a cup of water, because it is more dense... see where I'm going with this? The scale never lies.This seems like a ton of work for bread. But the truth of the matter is that good bread is labor intensive if you look at it that way. I take joy and pride in baking bread. I still get excited when it comes out of the oven and I know that it was worth the wait. I smell it, I put my ear to it, I press down on the crust a bit to hear the crack.... I want to lay it on the pillow next to me in bed and sleep with it (a lot warmer than my wife's cold feet, HA!) Bread is such a satisfying thing.
Get into it.
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