I am a big fan of a sourdough bread (or any bread really), it’s a big comfort food for me and the smell of freshly baked bread is hard to beat. What I love about sourdough is its unique flavour and delicious crust makes it great for both sandwiches and toast. As a baker, I have always found bread hard to get right. This really frustrates me because I love eating it and, as it takes longer to make than a cake, I always feel like I’ve wasted my time if it goes wrong. Even though I follow the recipes word for word often it doesn't rise properly, or it is too dense. What I've come to realise is that the recipes for sourdough bread vary so much in quantities of ingredients, it's more important to consider the texture and consistency of your dough whilst you're making it (something I’m not used to as I am far more comfortable following strict protocols!!). Bear this in mind whilst following this recipe, the quantities of ingredients used can be tweaked if you feel your dough is too runny or too stiff.Its often a good idea to measure out the maximum about of water and add gradually so when you think you have the right consistency you can see how much you have leftover to use as a guide for next time your try.
Another thing I like about making sourdough bread is that you can vary the length of the proving by quite a bit to fit around whatever you're doing during the day. Though having said this, it is still a pretty big time commitment so make sure you plan your baking for when you need the bread. It’s not something you can just whip up quickly if you find you’ve run out!
Like any sourdough recipe you need to make sure that your starter is active before you use it. If you already have a starter on the go, I recommend taking it out 2 days before you want to make your bread and feed it each day to make sure it's active. For this recipe, I made a starter from scratch as I haven't yet made any bread since moving to Copenhagen. This took about 5 days and I would recommend and making it up to a week in advance. You will need to feed your starter everyday I'm place it lightly covered, in a warm environment. You can make this recipe over 1 or 2 days. As this recipe produces 2 small loaves of bread or one big one you could even make one loaf on the first day and prove the other overnight (in the fridge) and bake the day after. This effects the bread very little (perhaps leaving overnight helps to develop the flavour slightly more) so really, it’s up to you to do whichever is more convenient.
Feel free to mess around with which flour you choose to use or any flavours you want to add just be sure to tell me what you did and post pictures in the comments section so we can see how they turned out! Don’t worry too much if it doesn’t come out perfect first time, as I said before I find bread a challenge and often need to persevere a little before it comes out perfect but one of the best things about making sourdough is that if it does go wrong, and you feel your bread is too dense for sandwiches, it will still make delicious crunchy toast so you haven't completely wasted your time!
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Tea towels x2
Baking cloche/Pizza stone/Baking tray
Makes: 2 small loaves or one large loaf Prep: 7 hr-2 days Baking time: 50 mins
Ingredients
For the starter (if making from scratch):
325 g Plain/ All-purpose flour
300 ml Water
For the bread:
550 g Plain/ All-purpose flour +more for dusting
250 mL water
300 mL active sourdough starter
15 g sugar
12 g salt in 25 mL water
For the starter:
1. Take 65 g flour (1/2 cup) and combine with 60 g water (1/4 cup) in a large Tupperware container. Mix well and leave your container in a warm room.
2. Add the same quantities of flour and water to your starter once a day, for 5-7 days (depending on when you are making your bread).
3. Make sure your starter is active before use (you can do this by putting a little bit in a glass of water and it should float).
4. Once you have used what you need of your starter for this recipe, put it in the fridge and feed once a week and use when necessary.
If you already have a starter on the go, just feed for about 2 days before hand.
For the bread:
1. Once you have an active starter, begin by mixing it with 200mL water and the sugar. Add your salt to the remaining 50 mL water and set aside.
2. Add the water-starter mix to your flour and mix until incorporated. Set aside for an hour (and up to 4 hours) do allow the dough to autolyse.
3. Add your salt water mix and pinch into the dough. The dough will be slightly sticky but all the flour should come away from the side of the bowl and be incorporated into your dough.
4. Turnout the dough onto a clean work surface and knead for 10 to 15 minutes until the dough is stretchy and smooth. To tell when the dough has been needed enough, stretch a little bit of the dough; it should appear translucent before it breaks.
5. Flour or oil mixing bowl and place your dough inside cover with a tea towel or cling film and leave to prove for at least 3 hours and up to 6 hours.
6. After the first prove turn your dough onto a clean work surface divide equally into 2 pieces and knock back. Line a mixing bowl with a heavily flowered tea towel. Shape your dough into the desired shape, here I have done one round loaf and one oblong loaf. Put your dough, seam side up, into the lined mixing bowl and leave for the second prove. This prove should be at least 2 1/2 hours but at this stage you can put it in the fridge and prove overnight if you are going to bake the following day.
7. Pre heat your oven to 230°C/465 F. If baking on a pizza stone or baking tray, place a tray with cold water in the bottom of the oven. This will create steam in the oven and give you loaf of bread that delicious crunchy crust. If you are using a baking cloche, this is not necessary as steam will be created from the water that evaporates from your bread during cooking which is kept in the closed container. This will develop the crust that you want without requiring any other tricks!
8. Turn your loaves onto your floured baking tray, cover the top with flour and score with a sharp blade.
At this stage I sometimes like to do a little bit of ‘bread art’. To do this, just coat the top of your bread in flour or semolina and score your pattern of choice into the top of your bread. If you don’t fancy doing that then a couple of scores across the top will do just fine!
Top tip: If you have left overnight to prove, remove from the fridge when you start pre-heating your oven.
9. Put your loaves in the oven and bake for 15 mins then turn the temperature down to 220°C/430F and cook for a further 35 mins until the crust is a deep brown colour. When removed from the oven it should sound hollow when you tap in on the underside.
10. Leave your loaves to cool for a little while then tuck in and enjoy!
Your starter should be covered in small bubbles, to make sure it's ready take a small amount and put in a bowl of water, if it floats, you're good to go.
Add the flour, starter and sugar and leave to autolyse. At this stage the dough will be quite rugged and not very wet (it will become smooth when you add the salt water and knead).
After kneading you should be able to stretch your dough until it looks translucent before it breaks.
Line bowls with tea towels and flour generously. Leave for the final proving.
Before baking flour the top of your dough and score with a sharp blade.
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