We attended a class of how to make a sourdough bread some years ago. It was mind blowing, fun and just so delicious. Since then, I have been baking this bread. The recipe from the class was based on the one by Chad Robertson, making 2 large loaves which is a bit too much for two of us, so I simply change the amount with the same ratio as I learned. Yes it is true it takes time and needs a lot of step to bake a sourdough bread, but it is worth to do. Sourdough bread is very much dependent on the temperature, humidity, the condition of the starter, and a lot of aspects, so never comes out the same, and this is also a very interesting thing of sourdough bread.
Ingredients
<Poolish- A night before>
50g of starter *you develop your own, or you get from your friend to start.
100g of white flour (you can do white flour + whole wheat flour)
100ml of water
Mix all together, cover and set a side on the counter overnight.
100g of the starter as above you made overnight
450g of white flour
50g of wholemeal flour *You can have your favorite combination of flour. Sometimes I add rye flour.
350ml of water (70% of the total flour)
10g of salt (5% of the total flour)
25ml of water
Instruction
1. Set a dough hook on a stand mixer. Mix the starter, white flour, wholemeal flour and water about for 5 mins, until the dough forms.
2. Cover the bowl and leave it for 30 mins.
3. Add 10g of salt and 25ml of water to the dough. Try to sprinkle salt evenly, then pour the water on the salt. The water will help the salt dissolved. Run the stand mixer for 1-2 mins until the salt is mixed to the dough. Alternatively, you can mix with your hand, and it will be a damp dough.
4. Cover the bowl and leave it for 3-4 hours, or until it doubles the size. This is the first ferment. If your place is warm, occasionally check the dough as it may be ready less than 4 hours, and if your place is cold, it should take longer.
5. Stretch the dough: Slip your hand under the dough, pull it over and tuck it in. Imagine the bowl is split into four quarters and make sure you stretch each quarter. leave it for 30 mins.
6. After 30 mins, do this stretching again, and leave it for another 30 mins. Do this process 4 times in total.
(If you want to bake the following day,cover the bowl with a wrap and keep it in a fridge after 30 mins of the fourth stretching.)
7. Leave the dough for 1-1.5hours. This is the second ferment.
8. Tip the dough on a clean surface, not floured. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour .
9. With one hand on either side of the dough, gently tuck the loaf into itself to form a ball. Be careful not to tuck too much or the dough will tear.
10. Leave the dough for 1 hour. At this stage, heat oven at the highest, around 240C (fan bake) and put a cast iron pot with the lid into the oven.
11. Be very careful as the iron pot is very very hot! Tip the loaf into the cast iron, and score it with a sharp knife. Cover the pot with the lid.
12. Bake for 20 mins and remove the cover and bake for another 15-20 mins or until it is brown and baked through, with 10-20C lower temperature.
*If you bake the dough rest in a fridge overnight or so, you can shape it right after taking out from a fridge and bake immediately without any rest.
Some tips
- After baking, the bread should rest for a while. If cut it too soon, the inside has still too much moisture and could be mushy or gummy.
- When you want to store in a freezer, slice all, cover each slice with plastic wrap, and put in a plastic back with a zipper. If you don’t wrap each slice, they get stuck each other and it becomes hard tot separate them.
- You can use this dough to make pizza. Make sure to bake pizza on a super hot pizza stone.
Extra ingredients
We often add these ingredients. You can add whatever you like.
- 1/2 cup of dried cranberries + 1/2 cup of walnuts
- 1 cup of olives (no bones)