Making Sourdough Bread

Recipe:

• Motherdough made 5-14 days earlier and kept in the fridge.

  • 85g starter, 85g water, 170g flour mix (50/50 all purpose(unbleached)/whole wheat bread flour)

• 460g water

• 530g bread flour

• 100g whole wheat flour (or whole wheat bread flour)

• 50g rye flour

• 17g salt (sea salt)

Weigh out and premix dry ingredients.

Mix motherdough with water in your container

Add dry ingredients and mix into a shaggy dough.

Cover dough and let rest 1 1/2 hours.

Wet your hands and stretch and fold the dough 4 times (from each side of the container). Then flip your dough upside down.

Set your timer for another 1 1/2 hours and repeat the stretch and fold. Do 4 sets of stretch and folds over 6 hours (bulk fermentation)

The dough will get smoother and puffier as time goes. I usually pop the very large air bubbles as I go.

Here is a video demonstrating the stretch and fold technique I use.

IMG_8858.mp4

i use 2 small 7" round bannetons for this recipe. (round because I have a round dutch oven) I also have a set of 9" oblong bannetons that work well in my oval shaped dutch oven) When bannetons are new they need to pre seasoned with rice flour (I spritzed it with water and added lots of rice flour) Generallly you do not want to wet your or wash your bannetons. They can be cleaned by simply brushing out the old flour or simply shake out the excess and let it dry completely between uses. With each use, prepare your banneton by sprinkling in fresh rice flour. (note regular flour will become dough and stick to the banneton) You need to use rice flour or perhaps corn flour)

When the dough is ready (around 6 hours, I divide it in half as evenly as possible and perform my last stretch and fold as I shape the dough.. You can pull a windowpane to see if the bulk fermentation is done),

I use just a small amount of all purpose flour on my work surface - do not use too much as you need the stickiness of the dough to help in shaping the boules.

Here is a video demonstrating my method for shaping the boules. There are many different ways to do this - I choose to do the least amount of fussing - it works for me.

IMG_8870_2.mp4

Be sure to use rice flour on the surface of the dough before putting on the linen covers to prevent sticking as the dough continues to rise.

I then wrap each banneton loosely in a plastic bag so the dough does not dry out. If the room temperature is on the cooler side I leave the dough on the counter for an additional hour to continue fermentation. If not, I put it directly into the refridgerator overnight. This is called a cold retardation. It serves to build flavor and slows down the fermentation as you dont want to overproof your bread. I leave it in the fridge until I'm ready the next day to bake the loaves. (I have gone 2 days with success but have not tried longer).

My dutch oven happens to have a flat lid so I use it upside down using the main pot as the lid. Makes for a better baked bread. When you consider the system you want to use, there are many options out there. I also use a small pan (mini donut pan) under my dutch oven base to help prevent the bottom of the loaf from getting too crisp. You could also use a pizza stone under the dutch oven. You will need a lame or sharp knife to score your loaves.

I precut parchment paper to fit my loaves on and lift them into and out of the dutch oven - cut handles the size needed. (longer if going into a deep dutch oven)

Pre heat all the components (not the parchment) in the oven at 500 degrees. It is recommended to do this for about an hour however you can do less to save energy. I wouldn't do less than 30 minutes. Make sure you have clearance room to lift the lid off of your bread before heating things so that you dont burn yourself when it comes time to doing it for real.

Remove one of your bannetons from the fridge. As you can see it has risen a little more overnight. The dough seen on the top of the banneton is the bottom of the loaf. Its upside down.

Place your precut parchment on top and flip it our onto your hand.

Remove the banneton from your loaf and smooth out any remaining rice flour.

Take your preheated dutch oven out of the oven and open it up in preparation for your bread. Wet your lame blade and score your loaf. Here is a video showing my method. I go at about a 30 degree angle. Cold dough from the fridge is much easier to score than room temperature.

IMG_8921.mp4

Carefully lift the scored dough onto or into the base of your dutch oven. I usually add about 4 icecubes or spritz the dough a few times with a water sprayer. I didn't have any for this bread so did without. The idea is to build as much steam as possible in the dutch oven which in turn helps give your dough a great oven rise. People often comment that cold dough has a little extra steam to give as well.

Do all of this as quickly as possible and get it into your 500 degree oven. As soon as it is in the oven, lower the temperature to 450 and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on.

When your 20 minute alarm rings, open the oven and remove the lid from your dutch oven.

At this point your oven rise has happened and now you are browning the loaf. Continue to bake for an additional 15 minutes.

When done, pull your loaf out of the oven and place it immediately on a cooling rack. Tap the bottom to be sure you have a nice hollow sound. You can use a thermometer to read the internal temperature of the bread but I have never done that and not had undercooked bread. At this point, place your dutch oven back into the oven to preheat it for your second loaf. You will want to put your oven back up to 500 degrees for this. Repeat the above steps with your second loaf.

Finished loaf - as you can see the scoring matters. It allows the bread to expand and gives it a place to do so. The edge is called "an ear" and is a very desirable thing to get in the "bread making world".

This is known as "the crumb" Also something that "bread people" get very excited about. Good Luck.