Sourdough Tutorial - Part 2

Firstly, to answer some questions on the sourdough:-

Chinadogs (welcome, by the way), you asked about using your bread machine....if you mean making the sourdough loaf entirely in your breadmaker, sorry but I have no idea if that would work.  But if you mean just mixing and kneading it in the machine, then taking it out to prove and bake in the oven - yes I'm sure that will be fine.  I use my big electric stand mixer to mix and knead the dough using the dough hook, then finish the kneading off by hand - purely because I like to do it by hand.  Toni, I know you're a bit worried about doing it by hand - you don't have to, you can let your stand mixer do all the kneading work.

Doing the mixing and kneading entirely by hand is certainly possible, but it will be very sloppy and sticky at first.  It would help to have a couple of dough scrapers, like this:-

I got these from ebay a few years ago, they cost about £2 for the pair.  I also have this one:-

Again I've had it a few years, bought it from a cookware shop, it cost a lot more than the plastic ones hence why I only bought one!  It is, however, very useful for cutting up dough when I'm making rolls.  You use the scrapers to lift up the very soft and sticky dough at the sides and fold it into the middle, it just makes the job easier and less sticky on your hands.

Eloise, sourdough bread is nothing like soda bread, it has a completely different taste and texture.  Soda bread is quite 'cakey' (I make it often) and crumbly, sourdough is proper bread.  It has a crisp crunchy crust and open, holey and very chewy inside, it has an amazing depth of flavour with a distinctive slightly sour tang.  It looks and tastes like expensive artisan bread from a posh bakery.  Well it is artisan bread from a posh bakery....your own!

Joy, yes, sourdough making is quite unstructured - the starter is ready when it's ready (bubbling and frothy), the making of the dough isn't that precise either - you start off with a (roughly) set amount of flour but will probably need to add a bit more, and then a bit more still, and the amount of water is the same thing, you might need to add more.  It's a case of trial and error and adapting as you go along, I'm afraid - which is exactly what makes it interesting for me!  It is actually easier than it sounds - if you've made bread before you'll know when the dough is ready to stop adding flour and water and stop kneading - it'll be firm but quite soft and smooth and no longer sticky.  You don't want it too soft or it won't hold its shape when baking, it'll collapse and spread and end up looking more like a pizza, as it's baked not in a container but simply placed on a baking tray.

I suppose you could bake it in a bread tin - I'm sure it would still taste like sourdough, it just won't look like sourdough.

I'll stop here and get onto the actual making of the loaf tomorrow.