Sourdough

(19th May - making a white sourdough loaf. Scroll down to Latest attempt!).

My sourdough recipe. 

(The rest of this post comprises of sourdough ramblings - here's the complete recipe.)

Ingredients:

600g wholemeal flour

6g salt

300g starter (comprising 200g water and 100g white flour)

300g water

50g extra virgin olive oil

(Including the flour and water from the starter this gives totals of 700g of flour to 500g of water, my usual mix)

Method:

24/36 hours before baking, pour 300g of starter into a mixing bowl. Refresh the starter with 200g of water and 100g white flour.

Add the flour, salt, water and olive oil and mix into a sticky dough.

This is now kneaded for about 20 seconds, several times at intervals of 10 minutes or more. To enable you to work the dough easily, pour oil over the top of the dough. Knead until the oil disappears. Wash your hands in a little flour before washing them in the sink.

Repeat this until the dough becomes easy to handle without adding oil.

Cover with the mixing bowl and leave until you're ready - overnight if need be.

When you are ready for the final phase, shape the dough into a loaf. First of all place it on the worktop smoothest side down. Lift the sides of the dough up and bring them to the middle. Wherever there is a corner poking out, lift it over to the middle and push down. By doing this you're smoothing the underneath of the dough. Now turn it over and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.

Leave it on the worktop, covered with a tea towel, for between 1 and 4 hours. 

Because this is your first time, you won't know how long it takes to rise. Once you've made this several times you'll be able to time it much better.

When you judge it is ready to bake, turn the oven on to 220C and, with a serrated bread knife, make three shallow cuts in the top of the loaf.

When the oven is up to temperature, place the loaf in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes turn the loaf around and leave for another 10-15 minutes.

The loaf is ready when there is a good colour across the bottom of the loaf.

Make notes of what you've just done so you can replicate it next time. 

Latest attempt! 19th May.
Preparing the ferment:
Around 6 this evening I took the starter from the fridge and added 200g water and 100g white flour, mixed it together and left it on the worktop.

Preparing the dough:
6 hours later it was bubbling nicely, so I poured 450g of starter into a bowl. This comprised of:

150g white flour
300g water

To this I added:
350g white flour
5g salt
50g water

I mixed it together roughly, covered it, and left it overnight.

The following morning I came down to this:

So far, so good

I tipped the - very wet and sticky - dough out onto the worktop:

Decided to shape it using oil - stretched it and folded it a few times, refreshing the oil once or twice

And a little flour. 

[More to come, including my conclusions!]



Previous ramblings:
(Not sure to which this refers!)

In the event I didn’t bake on Tuesday night – so on Wednesday morning I took the starter, poured it into a mixing bowl and added 200g Doves organic wholemeal and 200g water. I mixed this and left it, covered with a dry tea towel, all day.

About 7 in the evening, in the scale pan I mixed another 400g wholemeal, 60g of ground flax seeds and a teaspoon of salt which I mixed and added to the bowl. I made a well in the middle of the flour and added 5g of fresh yeast and 125-135g of lukewarm water. I paddled the yeast and water around for about 20 or so seconds, then added 50g of EVOO.

I mixed this together, turned it onto the worktop and gave it about 20 seconds quick kneading (using a dough scraper – this was quite a sticky dough), placed the bowl over the dough and left it for about 10 minutes.

I repeated the quick kneading and resting periods about 3 times, by which time the dough had lost its stickyness and was a handleable dough.

I left it for a further 2 hours, shaped it into 12 rolls, which I placed on a baking sheet and covered with a roasting tray. After an hour or so, the bread had risen and it was baked for about 35 minutes (first 20 minutes covered, the rest uncovered).

Saturday 12th  May.
Overnight I soaked a handful of sultanas in the discard. For breakfast I made about half of the discard into 8 pikelets, five of which I had for breakfast, with orange and ginger marmalade.

I've turned over a couple to show the colour underneath

The starter, bubbling up nicely. It'll go in the fridge from now on.

Friday 11th May.
Good head on top of the starter tonight, so we're off and running.

Removed 300g of starter and refreshed with 50g wholemeal flour and 100g of water.

I've always been a great advocate of using the discard - I hate throwing good food away! - so tomorrow I shall make some sourdough pikelets for breakfast.

Thursday 10th May.
Added 50g wholemeal flour plus 100g water.

Wednesday 9th May 2012.
Began my umpteenth go at sourdough tonight:

20g of organic spelt
80g Dove's organic wholemeal
200g water

Put all the ingredients in a Kilner jar, stirred together  and left on the worktop.

I'm going to try once again to make a sourdough wholemeal bread that tastes better than my current wholemeal. We'll see.


Sunday 10th July.
Here's my latest sourdough after spending a couple of days in the company of some real experts.

I began last Monday morning by putting 300g of starter (made up of 200g water and 100g white flour) into a jug along with 300g of flour and all the water I was using in the recipe:

The basic amounts of flour to water I use are 70g of water to 100g of flour (known in the jargon as 70% hydration) - so, wishing to make a loaf with 600g of flour I needed 420g of water. Subtracting the amounts used in the starter I still needed 500g of flour and 220g of water. Given that I'd added all the water and 300g of flour

[To be continued shortly]

Friday 1st April.
For general info on sourdough and how I began my latest foray into the subject, read on:

I say in my daily bread thread I'm not really a fan. It's too unpredictable in my experience - I like to know that when I've shaped some bread it'll be ready to go into the oven within the hour or so; and, since I already make bread that satisfies me flavourwise - using wholemeal, I'm not convinced there's much of an increase in taste.

However, there's one other way of using a sourdough starter I'd like to try out - one which is used by many European bakeries - adding some leaven to each batch of home-made bread.

This is exactly the procedure adopted by a large plant bakery I visited in Pecs, southern Hungary about ten years ago.

I was shown a large room, with big vats containing ferments lining the walls. Above each vat was a blackboard with details of when each vat was 'fed', which batches it was to be used for, how much was to be used, etc.

Every batch of bread that went out of that bakery, from huge rye and wheat flour loaves through fruit breads to doughnuts contained some of this ferment.

With S. John Ross' instructions for making sourdough (no longer available - boo hoo!) - which are about the simplest, clearest I've come across - to hand, on Sunday morning I began.

I took some Dove's malted grain flour, which contains some rye flour, and sieved out 100g (to remove the wheatberries, which would add nothing to this exercise, IMO). I placed this in a 500ml Kilner jar (which I'd scalded) and added 200ml (or grams - same thing) of water. I  mixed this thoroughly and left it to one side on the worktop. I left the lid open, but after scaring away a fruit-fly (I presume) in the afternoon I covered it with a damp dishcloth.

(I fixed on the ratio of 2:1 - 100g water to 50g flour - so that it's easy to subtract those amounts from the ingredients when I come to make a batch of bread. Won't be for several days, since there's plenty in the freezer ATM.)

I saw some faint stirrings on Monday evening - and on Tuesday morning, the fermentation was in full flow:

This took exactly 48 hours 

Later that day I weighed out exactly half - 150g - pouring it into a measuring  jug.

I then added 50g of white flour and another 100g of water to the starter, mixed it thoroughly, and placed it in the fridge. At this stage I removed the rubber seal and just let the glass lid sit on the container. I'm a bit wary about pressure building up in the Kilner jar. (I should say the smell from the starter at this stage is very mild and pleasant, not sour at all.)

I then mixed similar amounts of flour and water in with the discard, mixed it and left it in the fridge for pikelets for Wednesday's breakfast.

This morning I stirred in another dessertspoon of flour - to thicken the batter - and added a handful of sultanas.

This made a total of 16 pikelets:

One dessertspoon of batter for each pikelet

Half of these I had for breakfast, spread with homemade ginger marmalade. Made a very pleasant change from my usual fruit naan. The other half are in a plastic bag ready for tomorrow's breakfast.

If I continue refreshing my start every 2 days for a week, that'll be my breakfasts sorted for a while! Must remember to add sultanas to the discard - they plump up very nicely when soaked overnight!

Thursday, day 4.
Divided and refreshed again.

It's important to say that at this stage the starter separates into two components - all the flour sinks to the bottom, and there is a clear dark liquid on top - 'hooch'. Some say that this can be discarded, but if you do that the flour:liquid balance goes out of the window - which only matters if need to know exactly how much flour and water your starter contains. It's perfectly safe just to stir this in before using.

I added the same amount of flour and water to the discard, plus a dessertspoon of flour to thicken it to the right consistency for pikelets. Added 100g of sultanas (probably too many) and made 8 pikelets for Friday's breakfast (won't have time to cook in the morning).

Friday evening. Just looked at the batter for tomorrow's pikelets and it's almost solid! The fruit must have sucked up most of the water from the batter - so tomorrow I'll need to add a lot more water.

Won't refresh the starter again until Sunday evening, as I won't be needing any more pikelets until Monday. (Sunday breakfast is always porridge for me!)

Sunday, day 7.
Divided and refreshed the starter. To the discard I added 25g water and 50g flour ready to make pikelets on the Monday. I also put 50g sultanas to soak - keeping the fruit and batter separate, this time.

Tuesday, day 9.

Now I thought the starter was ready, so  made some bread with my sourdough tonight for the first time - having refreshed it 3 times.

To a dough made with 700g of flour, 60g of flaxseeds, etc, I added 150g of starter - then refreshed the rest and replaced it in the fridge.

I suppose if I'd have thought about it, yesterday I could have increased the size of the starter - say an extra 150g - then I could have added 300g of starter to the mix. Might do that next time if I remember.

My initial reaction is that the bread is very tasty - but whether the sourdough has made any difference it's difficult to say. I'd have to compare the two batches side by side, which is not easy since I've only got one roll left of the old batch - and I've had that out of the freezer and in the breadbin since last night.

Monday 28^th Feb, day 15 in the life!

I intended baking on Tuesday evening, so, 24 hours before this, I took the starter from the fridge and poured it into a jug. I doubled it up, so that it was now 600g (400g water and 200g white flour). I poured half of this back into the Kilner jar (after giving it a good wash) and replaced it in the fridge.

So now I had 300g of starter to make by bread with – comprising 200g water and 100g white flour, which I left in the fridge overnight.

In the event I didn’t bake on Tuesday night – so on Wednesday morning I took the starter, poured it into a mixing bowl and added 200g Doves organic wholemeal and 200g water. I mixed this and left it, covered with a dry tea towel, all day.

After about 8 hours on my worktop this was how it looked.

About 7 in the evening, in the scale pan I mixed another 400g wholemeal, 60g of ground flax seeds and a teaspoon of salt which I mixed and added to the bowl. I made a well in the middle of the flour and added 5g of fresh yeast and 125-135g of lukewarm water. I paddled the yeast and water around for about 20 or so seconds, then added 50g of EVOO.

I mixed this together, turned it onto the worktop and gave it about 20 seconds quick kneading (using a dough scraper – this was quite a sticky dough), placed the bowl over the dough and left it for about 10 minutes.

I repeated the quick kneading and resting periods about 3 times, by which time the dough had lost its stickyness and was a handleable dough.

I left it for a further 2 hours, shaped it into 12 rolls, which I placed on a baking sheet and covered with a roasting tray. After an hour or so, the bread had risen and it was baked for about 35 minutes (first 20 minutes covered, the rest uncovered).

This time, you could taste the difference

Whether it's worth all the extra fiddling about...well, I found it fun, and I had the whole day around the house. Given that, I'd do it again, but only if I had the time.


Friday 1st April 2011.
I've had 450g of ferment in the fridge for the past week, and this morning I took it out of the fridge first thing.


Around 5 in the evening it looked quite active I poured it all into a jug and washed up the Kilner jar. I then poured 150g back in the Kilner jar and added 200g of water and 100g of white flour, leaving it out on the worktop for the moment.


To the 300g of ferment I added 200g of Doves organic wholemeal and 200g of water.


Around an hour later I noticed a few large bubbles had appeared;
By 7.40 the starter was expanding and was up to 750ml on the side of the jug;
By 8.05 it was up to 825ml;
At 8.40 it had risen to 875ml