Sourdough Tutorial Part 3 - picture heavy

Ok, so your starter is ready for action, bubbling and frothy, so we can get on with making a loaf.  Please be aware that amounts and timings are very variable, it can change every time.  It's all worth it, I can promise you.

So the first step is making a leaven or sponge....that's a small amount of dough made using some of your starter, it contains all the yeasts from your starter and is used as the raising agent.  Here's my starter this morning:-

Using the bowl of your stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl if you're doing it by hand, put in a couple of tablespoons of strong bread flour, then 4 tablespoons of your starter, followed by a splash of lukewarm water....mix it together, adding more water if necessary, so it becomes the consistency of double cream:-

Cover it with a teatowel and put it in a warm place for an hour - a sunny windowsill is fine, it doesn't have to be the airing cupboard.  After an hour or so, it should be looking bubbly again, it'll then be ready for the next stage....adding the rest of the flour etc.

Now comes the imprecise bit (sorry Joy!).  Add another 400g strong flour - what type you use is up to you, all white is fine, or some white/some brown, I use 300g white and 100g dark rye.  Then add 1 tsp each of salt and sugar, a tablespoon of oil (I use rapeseed), and some lukewarm water - start with about 150ml first, but be prepared to add more, or more flour.  Set your stand mixer going with the dough hook on a slow speed....leave it going for a couple of minutes but watch it to see how it's doing.  If it looks very wet still after a couple of minutes, add a bit more flour, if it's looking a bit 'raggy' and dry, add a splash more water.  You will almost certainly need to add one or the other.  Don't be too eager to add anything extra after each addition though, leave the machine going and watch it for another minute or two, it may sort itself out without the need for any more flour or water.  You'll know when it's ready, it will all come together into a firm, smooth looking dough, leaving the sides of the bowl fairly clean:-

Nearly ready, I gave it another 20 seconds or so.  When it looks smooth and the bowl is clean, at that stage you can either leave your machine going for another couple of minutes to finish the kneading, or you can do as I do and take it out to finish it by hand.  I pull it out onto a floured work surface and do a bit of stretching - I like getting my hands into it, I can feel the texture of the dough and know when it's ready for proving.  

Shape it into a nice round ball, dust the bowl with flour and put the dough back in for the first prove.

If you don't have a stand mixer and want to do it all by hand - add the 400g flour, salt, sugar, oil and water and mix it with a wooden spoon, then turn it out onto your heavily floured work surface and knead by hand.  It will be very sticky at first (this is where the plastic dough scrapers come in useful), and you'll need to knead it for a good 10 minutes or so (a good workout!), and probably adding a bit more flour, or possibly water, until it looks firm and smooth like the pic above.  At this stage, put it back in the bowl.

However you've kneaded it, now cover the bowl again and put it in a warm place to prove.  I leave it for about an hour - the time is flexible though, it may well take longer - until it's risen quite a bit.  I then take it out, knock it back briefly, shape it and put it into a banneton.  

A word about bannetons - I have 2, one round and one oblong, made of cane.  They're a bit like a new cast iron pan in that they need seasoning to prevent the dough sticking - to do this you spray them lightly with water (or use a pastry brush), then liberally dust them with flour.  Do this every time you use them, so the flour coating builds up each time.  Don't wash them in between....unless after a few months they start to look disgusting, in which case simply soak them in plain warm water - no detergent at all - scrub them off with a brush and leave them to dry naturally.  It's what commercial bakers do with theirs!  You don't need to use a banneton for proving, you could just leave the dough to prove in your mixing bowl and then put it on a baking tray to bake it.  I use them because I got them years ago when I was really into sourdough making and I like the ringed pattern they give to the finished loaves.  Oh, and just to be clear, you don't bake the bread in the bannetons, they're just for proving.

My floured bannetons.  The oblong one is the one I'm using today, the round one is pictured after I took last week's dough out of it.

If you're not using a banneton, leave the dough in your bowl to prove until it's doubled in size - this could take several hours, it's slower than yeasted bread.  And the slower it is, the better the taste will be.  If you will be using a banneton, after you've knocked back and shaped the dough and put it in, again leave it until it's doubled in size.  Cover the bowl or banneton so the dough doesn't dry out.

When the dough has doubled, either tip it carefully out of the banneton onto a floured tray, or just take it out of the mixing bowl, shape it quickly into a nice round or oblong and place it on the tray.

The dough after proving.

Turned out onto the baking tray...slash the top (however you like, 1 long cut down the centre or several smaller ones), this is to allow room to expand, if you don't slash the loaf it may split at the sides during the initial rising in the hot oven.

Bake it in a preheated oven at 200 deg C, 400 deg F or Gas mark 6 for the first 10 mins....my oven is a fan one, so I guess if yours isn't you'll need it to be slightly higher.  After 10 mins, turn the tray around and turn the temp down to 180 C, 350 F or Gas 4.  Leave the bread in for another 30-40 minutes.....check it after 30, turn it upside down and tap firmly on the bottom, if it's cooked it should sound distinctly hollow.  It should also be a nice golden brown and feel crispy.  If not, leave it in for another 5 or 10 minutes.

The finished loaf, it's a darker golden brown than the photo shows, colour doesn't show up very well on my phone.

Sorry it's such a long post (for those of you who haven't given up by now!)...I wanted to give precise details and plenty of pictures, as I've had several people asking, both in comments and via email, how I do it.  I hope yours works out as well, please do let us know.

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.

Dentist

Apologies - posted on the wrong blog, with my brain befuddled by drugs this morning.  Nobody wants to read about dental stuff when they're expecting to read foodie stuff do they?!

Apologies...

...for not doing the follow up Sourdough Tutorial Part 2, the making of a loaf, yet.  Events with my mouth problems have taken precedence, I've even neglected my starter (shoved it in the fridge, it'll be dormant and fine for a few days).  I'm not eating much either, just soft nursery food  really, normal service will be resumed in a day or two, hopefully, when I'm fixed.

A sourdough tutorial - Part 1

Some of you have asked about the sourdough starter, so I thought I'd do a post (well, 2 actually, I'll finish it off tomorrow) about it.

Firstly, Briony, don't worry, sourdough is a very slow process, from start to finish....it'll be a week or so before you see any action from your starter!

It's nothing to be scared of either, sourdough is not difficult to make.  It's not an exact science though and results aren't 100% predictable, it depends on so many things - atmosphere, temperature, type of flour used....and pure luck!  What I do may not be the 'correct' way to do it (like professional bakers do it, for example), but it's what I do and it's been fairly successful for me.  I can't guarantee it will be successful for everyone else though, so please don't shoot me if it doesn't work for you 😉😁

I used to make sourdough years ago and then stopped, I can't remember why.  This time around I'm doing it slightly differently and the first loaf I've made is really successful.  Years ago I used to take out some of the starter and throw it away every day, before adding more flour and water....I was following directions in a professional baker's book.  Now, I don't do that, I'm doing what a fellow blogger, Julie who used to blog as LovelyGrey but now blogs as https://makesmedotdotdot.com/?cat=6 , does.

So, for the starter - I'm using a Kilner jar....it doesn't have to be, you could just use a bowl or jar or plastic container....whatever you use, it needs to be a few inches deep though.  Start off by putting a couple of tablespoons of flour in, and enough water to make a runny paste, sort of double cream thickness, mix it well, although a few small lumps don't matter.  The flour I use is ordinary bread flour and rye flour - you don't have to use rye, I just like the taste of rye bread and happen to have some rye flour in the cupboard.  Leave the lid off the jar, it needs to capture the natural yeasts that are present in the air for it to start working.  Leave the jar out on the worktop, you don't need to keep it in the fridge....in fact, the fridge will slow it down considerably.  

Every morning, stir in a heaped teaspoon of flour, and a little splash of water.  For the first few days it won't appear to be doing anything much, and will just smell like flour.  After a few days though, you'll look at it one morning and it will be bubbling nicely and will start to smell distinctly 'beery' - it smells really nice actually, sort of fresh and fruity.  You may get a layer of golden brown liquid appearing on the top...don't worry about it, it's fine, just stir it back in with the flour.  Once the bubbles start appearing, then you can put a lid on the jar - if it's a Kilner jar then take the rubber seal off so the jar's not airtight when you close the lid.  If it's a plastic Tupperware-type container, don't put the lid on tightly, if no lid for your container or jar, just cover it with a teatowel or piece of muslin.  

After another day or two (or three or four!), your starter will be a mass of bubbles and quite frothy.....this is when it's ready to start making a loaf.  I'll post about that tomorrow.

Years ago I sometimes added yogurt, sugar or even a few raisins or sultanas to my starter....this time around I'm just using flour and water, and it seems to be working just fine.  My starter is now 2 weeks old, and this is what it looks like this morning, after taking some out the other day to make my first loaf, and adding a teaspoon of rye flour this morning:-

Taking some of the starter out kind of upsets the balance of it a bit, and it'll take a few days of daily feeding for it to get back to a frothy state.  It's a living thing and can be a bit temperamental!

Amazing bargains and sourdough success

Husband needed to get a couple of things in the town this afternoon, so we popped into Morrisons whilst we were there to pick up some dog food, there's a particular one Betty really likes.  I managed to get some excellent YS (yellow sticker) bargains....amazing, we don't often find really good bargains as we never seem to be in the shop at the right time.  They'd reduced a lot of fruit and veg, I got a net of satsumas for 30p, 3 punnets of chestnut mushrooms for 20p each....on date but still looking perfect, and a bag of 5 avocados for 60p!  Gobsmacked!

The mushrooms I shall put in an oven dish, dot with butter/oil and parsley and roast, then freeze them.  A couple of the avocados we'll have for lunch tomorrow, I'm thinking of making chocolate brownies with the rest, I vaguely remember seeing a recipe some time ago, will have to google for it.  The satsumas will just be eaten as is.  

My sourdough - oh I'm so pleased with it, considering it's my first one in 2 or 3 years.  The leaven I made with some of the starter mixed up with the flour into a lovely smooth dough, and it rose beautifully - I left it overnight and baked it this morning, after kneading and proving again in my banneton.  It baked well, rising again in the oven, and looks and smells fantastic.  The proof will be in the eating, of course - we'll have some tomorrow for lunch topped with some smashed avocado, bacon and a poached egg.

The dough after proving for a couple of hours in the banneton.

The baked loaf.  It's darker in colour than the photo - colours don't show up very well on my phone.

I've asked husband to buy me a Stanley knife, so I can make better cuts on my breads...he offered to fetch me one of his from the shed, I politely declined 😁

Tonight we're having a beef stirfry, another leftovers meal from the freezer.  I shall add a chopped yellow pepper and small head of broccoli to it, both going soft in the fridge and needing using today.  We'll have it with a ping packet of egg fried rice.  Easy meal as I've been gardening today and my back is murmuring.

Spag bol, sourdough loaf and a soapbox moment

Thank you for comments....Eloise, £120 p.w. for two people!!  Blimey!  And Janice and Gemma's P, thank you.  I just enjoy being inventive and experimenting, although haven't always been like that....when I was working full time, we had a lot of ready meals and takeaways.  I've always liked cooking and the odd bit of baking, but it was only really when I was in my 40s and started working part time that I started proper cooking, as it were.

I can only assume that people whose shopping costs that much must have a lot of ready meals or big brand items, or just buy whatever takes their fancy on the day.  I bet they have a lot of waste, too.  On the subject of which, somebody told me something the other day which made me gasp - they said when they have a roast chicken, they only eat the breast and throw the legs - well, all the rest of the bird - away!  I was staggered.  I think we owe it to ourselves, the environment and the animals whose meat we eat (if we are carnivores) to use up all the food we buy and cook.  Throwing perfectly good food away is criminal, the way I see it, as well as being stupidly expensive.

Right, that's me off the soapbox now....each to their own, I guess.

The slow cooker mince yesterday made 6 double portions to freeze, as I expected.  Well, 5 to freeze, we're having one (a smaller portion) as spaghetti Bolognese today.  The others I am sure will do us for 2 meals each, once I do something else with each of them.

A couple of years ago I used to make sourdough bread regularly, I had a starter on the go for several months.  Can't remember why I stopped.  Then recently one of the bloggers I follow, Julie who used to have the LovelyGrey blog but now blogs as https://makesmedotdotdot.com/ mentioned her sourdough starter, which made me want to do it, so a week or so ago I started up a starter again.  The past couple of days it's been bubbling away nicely and having that lovely fresh 'beery' smell, so I'm using some today to make my first new sourdough loaf.  Fingers crossed, I'll let you know how it goes.  Must have a look for my banneton (cane proving basket) in a minute, I think I know where it is...