Sourdough

Name: Sourdough
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: A little Vegetable or sunflower oil; A little Semolina for dusting (optional); A few tbsp Flour for dusting; 8 g Salt; 400 g Strong white bread flour; 200 g Water; 100 g Water; 100 g Sourdough starter*; 100 g Strong white bread flour

Love Baking Over a year ago 2,563 views

Ingredients

A little Vegetable or sunflower oil
A little Semolina for dusting (optional)
A few tbsp Flour for dusting
8 g Salt
400 g Strong white bread flour
200 g Water
100 g Water
100 g Sourdough starter*
100 g Strong white bread flour

Accompaniment

Description

Basic white sourdough recipe that works for me every time. Great tasting bread that keeps well and makes excellent toast too. Worth the time!

Method

1
I feed my starter 24-48 hours before I want to use it. I use equal quantities of flour and water and leave it at room temperature.

The day before you want to make the bread, make the 'poolish'. Measure 100 g of the recently fed starter into a bowl, add the 100 g flour and 100g water (room temperature - i.e. straight from the tap) and stir together. Cover with cling film and leave at room temperature for 24 hours.

The next day, put the 'poolish' in a mixing bowl, add the water (again straight from the tap) and briefly stir together. Add the flour and the salt then knead with the dough hook for 10-12 minutes on a low speed.

Lightly dust the work surface with a little flour, turn out the dough and knead by hand for a few seconds. I always use the dough hook but you could knead by hand for about 15 minutes until smooth.

Lightly oil a bowl. Put the dough in the bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to rise at room temperature for an hour**, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch and fold the dough in on itself, like a book, two or three times, then return to the bowl, cover with cling film, leave for another hour and repeat the folding. Put it back in the bowl, cover and leave for a further hour and a half. By now the dough will have roughly doubled in size from when you started.

Lightly flour the work surface again, gently tip out the risen dough and shape into a ball. Cover it loosely with the cling film and leave it to rise on the work surface for 45 minutes. Reshape the dough and place it in a very well floured banneton / proving basket, or freeform on a baking tray and leave it at room temperature for a final hour and 15 minutes until well risen.

20-30 minutes before it is ready, put a baking stone or baking tray in the oven and preheat to 240 degrees C.

If using a banneton / proving basket, turn the dough out onto a board or paddle dusted with a little flour and / or semolina. If baking free form, dust a little flour over the top of the loaf. Slash the loaf if you wish. Slide onto the stone / hot tray.
As you put the bread in the oven, create steam by using a water spray bottle or placing a dish of water in the bottom of the oven.

Bake at 240 degrees C for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 220 C for 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven, tap the base to check it sounds hollow, then leave to cool on a wire rack for at least two hours before slicing.

Chef's Tips

* You can easily make your own - look it up on the internet, e.g. BBC. You can also buy it, but it is so easy I recommend giving it a go and keeping it in the fridge.
** I have found that proving times depend on the temperature of the room. The timings above are what works for me when the kitchen is around 20-22 C. When I made it on a really hot day and the room was 25 C, it was quicker (45 minutes, 45 minutes, then 1 hour for the first stage. I then left it for 45 minutes and then a final 45 minutes). When my kitchen has been cooler than 20 degrees, I have added half an hour onto each of the timings.

Some or all of the white bread flour can be substituted with other flours such as spelt, wholemeal and rye. I have made many variations with a basic white starter following this recipe and they have all worked beautifully. One of our favourites is using 400 g malted mixed seed flour.
I have used rye flour, both in the starter (100 g rye flour and 100 g water added to 100 g white starter) and the dough (50/50) which takes a little longer to rise and gives a slightly shallower loaf.

I often bake this bread in a hot cast iron pot, as per my recipe for no knead bread - bake for 15 minutes at 240 C with the lid on then remove the lid and bake at 220 C for half an hour. No steam required with this method.

Try the no knead bread if you want a similar tasting loaf but without a starter and with less 'hands on' time.