Your own sourdough bread!

This page will provide you a step to step approach to making sourdough bread.   If you have a stand mixer, feel free to use it.  The below method explain both the technique with and without stand mixer. And if you do not have a stand mixer, all you need is just a bit more time up your sleeve.

I am about to forget to say that sourdough bread making is very forgiving, about to go to the beach? Place the covered bowl into the fridge, you will take it back where you left it when you come home.

 
Overview of the different steps

Step No	Step	No hook machine	With hook machine
1	Starter feed and growth	The day before	Same
2	Save your starter for next time	Save your starter, prepare for storage.	Same
3	Ingredients mixing & autolyse	All at once, making sure the salt is NOT put in direct contact with yeast.	Water, starter and flour mixed, salt added after hydrolyse.
		Seeds/berries can be added at this stage.	Seeds/berries (if used) added with salt
		1h rest
4	Dough development	Punch dough + 1h rise/rest x 2	Mix up to 10 min or until dough does not stick to bowl and can do the window stretch.
5	Rising	The dough would have started to rise already during the previous rest periods. If not risen about double, allow longer.	Let rise up to 2-5 h sometimes -depending on temperature & humidity until about double in size
6	Pre-shape	Depending on books, pre-shaping is either done here, or earlier half way through the rising (if so disregard this step here). The action aims at diving the dough in loafs sizes and prepare a rough ball. Rest for « h.	Same
7	Shaping	This is where we give the round or long shape (or other) to the bread.	Same
8	Final rising	Highly dependent on temperature. If you reach that stage in the evening, leave out for 1/2h to an hour then refrigerate, you will bake the next day. Otherwise can take 1 to 3 hours. Dough should almost double. Finger test (not necessary if refrigerating the dough)!	Same
9	Bake

Get a starter started

This is a section I have recently added as some people have asked.  Keep in mind that this is an easy process and all you need is time up your sleeve!

Apart from time, you also need:

• unbleached organic rye flour
• bottled water (has no chloride)
• A large tall jar (platic or glass), must be super clean!

You do not need any sugar honey or grapes and anything you may found on some other blogs.  You can use them, but they are not strickly necessary.

Now, why unbleached rye flour? Because it has a lot of natural yeast on it, more than plain flour.   Latter on, you can feed it plain flour and it will be fine.

Tip: I sometimes feed my starter unbleahed rye flour to give it a boost.

Tip: yeast do not like being in a draught!

Tip: It doesn’t matter if you use 120 g or 50 g to start with. What matters is the ration water to flour, must be the same weight. 

Ready? Go!

1. DAY ONE: in the jar mix 120 g of the bottled water with 120 g of the rye flour. Stir.  Cover with a cell wrap loosely  and set aside in a warm place for 24 h.
2. DAY TWO:  Nothing much will have happened. Don’t worry.
3. DAY THREE: A little of activity should start to appear, just a few small bubbles.  With a clean spoon, remove about half and add 60 g bottled water and 60 g rye flour.
4. DAY FOUR: The starter will start to have a small acidic nice smell. Remove half of the content of the jar and add 60 g and 60 g of flour and water
5. DAY FIVE: The starter should show good activity and significanlty increase in volume. If not, keep doing the Day 4 step for a few more days or until the starter becomes active.  If the starter is active, keep half of it and feed it 120 g of flour and 120 g of water.  The next day, it will have about trippled in volumes.  This is when you  either expand it further to make your bread (feed it, see next paragraph) or store it (further below).

Feed your stored starter

Remove the starter from the fridge, in a large bowl, mix with 160 g of warm like water, then add 160 g of baker’s flour, mix well.  Using your hand may be necessary.  Cover but not tightly and let it be until you are ready to make the bread.

The starter will double in size and should have a nice slightly acidic smell.  The starter will develop small then large bubbles, when fully fed, it will reach the maximum height. This is when you should use it, after this is will start deflating. You can still use it, but don’t wait too much.

Tip: Use wet hand when handling the starter manually, it will not stick.

Tip: The starter can be put in the fridge if you cannot make your bread the day planned and thus slowed and retarded.

Tip: starter feeling a bit down? Rejuvenate the yeast by using unbleached organic rye flour for half the weight of flour.  The unbleached rye flour contains wild yeast which will provide a boost to the starter.

Save your starter and store it

Once your starter is ready, you should ensure you save some for the next breads.

Place in a jar or plastic box:

• 50 g of starter
• 50 g of baker’s flour
• 25 g of water

Mix well, pour on the workbench and knead it lightly to form a small ball, then put back in the box and close it.  If you are going to use it in a day or two, leave outside for 1 hour, otherwise within the next half hour place in the fridge.

Remember, this starter is a stiff starter and will store for up to a couple of weeks at the back of your fridge. Some recipes call for liquid starter, which is obtained after feeding twice your stored starter or requires adapting the water ratio to flour in the recipe (not covered here).

Basic White Sourdough Bread

We will make 700 g breads.  The measures in the table below are given for the two loaves and also the single one.

Ingredients	2 x 700 g	1 x 700 g
Flour	670 g	335 g
Salt	18 g	9 g
Water	380 g	190 g
Starter	385 g	190 g (rounded up)

Note:  the salt must be un-ionised salt.

MANUAL METHOD

1. Mix all the ingredients together until a rough dough forms. Now, a note for the salt. Salt in direct contact with yeast kills the yeast, I often put the starter at the bottom, then water, flour and salt.
   Stand for 20 min or so, then take one corner and pull to the centre, give a quarter turn to the bowl and repeat until done 4 times. Alternatively, some recipes may call for a couple of envelope turns. Cover.
2. Rest for 1 h.
3. The dough will have risen slightly and will feel much lighter and stretchy. With one wet hand, pull one corner of the dough and “punch back” inside the middle. Turn the bowl a quarter turn. Repeat 3 times. This will deflate the dough slightly and it will become hard again.  This develops the gluten strands.
4. Rest for 1 h
5. Repeat the previous 2 steps.
6. Now the dough should be quite smooth and elastic. It should also be about double the initial size. It is time to pre-shape.  Put your dough gently on a very slightly floured work bench.  If you have done the quantity for 2 breads, divide here in 2 roughly even portions.  The pre-shaping, only gives a round form to the portion of dough. Place your hands (cup them) behind the dough piece and slide them towards you without lifting them. The dough will roll on itself and tuck underneath itself creating some tension.  Give a quarter tune, repeat once. Then let to rest covered on a board for 30 min.
7. Turn the pre-shape dough head down and press gently without deflating to even the dough either in a round (for a ball) or a rectangular (for a long loaf).To shape a ball:  pull one corner at the time to the centre of the dough. Repeat once with the “new” corners”. Draw up the edges to the centre. Pinch them together to “close” the ball (this will be the bottom of your bread).  Turn over. With cupped hand, pull the ball to stretch the skin of the dough on all sides (see the bubbles visible under the skin on photos below).
   
   To shape a long loaf: Placing the rectangle long side in front of you, fold the left side just over halfway across the right, then fold the right side to the left so they slightly overlap.  Take each top corner from the short side of the rectangle and fold in towards the middle (see photo).  The dough will become quite narrow at the top.Fold the top towards you and press it lightly into the body of the dough. Repeat this action (corner and fold the point) several times until there is one fold left.  Fold the dough down the bottom edge and seal. With your thumbs.  Roll the dough forward to place the seam underneath.

   

   

   

   

8. Place the shaped dough(s) in a floured banneton head down, cover slightly with flour and with a damp cloth and place in the refrigerator if retarding. The dough is ready when it pushes back halfway when you insert your finger in it (this is the finger test). Retarding the bread has for advantage to increase the fermentation length and develop further the taste.  The dough cannot over-rise when put in the fridge (i.e. rising is controlled).

DOUGH MIXER METHOD:

1. Mix the ingredients at the exception of the salt. Once you get a rough dough, let it rest for 20 min.
2. Turn on the mixer, add the salt, then continue turning on medium maximum for up to 10 min or until the dough forms a ball and does not stick to the bowl anymore.
3. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover, let rise for 2 hours, maybe more until almost double
4. From here, the method is the same as the manual one from step 6.

Tip: The yeast does not like being in a drought (at all!).

Tip: Wet your hand when handling the starter or the dough, it will avoid sticking to your finger and a big mess.

Tip: the autolyse allows the flour to absorb the water heavenly and as a result requires less mixing time. The salt is added latter as it draws the water away from the flour and thus reduced the process.

Tip: The yeast activity decreases with decreasing temperature (and reverse), it starts to become dormant from 4°C.

Tip: It is important that the bottom of the bread be well sealed or it will become the point of least resistance during the baking and will open.

Tip: The loaves are too big? Reduce the quantities to make a 500 g loaf.

Ingredients	2 x 500 g	1 x 500 g
Flour	480 g	240 g
Salt	13 g	6 g
Water	270 g	135 g
Starter	275 g	135 g (rounded up)

 

Tip: Some flour require a bit more water, add a few drops at the time only.

Tip: during the retarding process, it is important to maintain some moisture in the covering cloth to prevent the formation of a dry skin.

Tip: if you let it rise too much, no drama, bake readily. Your bread will flatten a fair bit, it happens to each of us, the next one will be better. Do not score the bread before placing in the oven.

Tip: the manual method may not be suited when using dry yeast in addition of the starter.  Dry yeast introduces millions of yeast cells compared to thousand contained in the starter.

BAKE YOUR BREAD

1. If the bread was in the fridge, take it out, let it adapt to room temperature, if the bread has not risen enough, let it rise further.

   

2. Place a pan with water at the bottom of the oven, place your cooking stone/sheet on the middle rack. Heat up your oven about 220°C fan-forced (240°C otherwise).
3. When the bread is ready to bake, remove your baking stone/sheet from the oven, quickly (no not to lose heat) place the bread on it making sure what was at the top of the banneton is now the bottom of the bread. Slash the bread and insert in the oven.
4. Decrease oven temperature to 190°C forced-fan (210°C traditional). Bake until golden. Check that a loaf is cooked by tapping the base, it should sound hollow.
5. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Tip: the role of the water pan is to create steam all through the baking, this will mostly allow the bread to keep rising and opening and the crust to be crusty and thin. Alternatively, this can be done by steaming the oven for 10 sec at the start of the baking. Some ovens have steaming functions. 

Tip: you can in theory keep your unbaked loaf in the fridge for a few days, ensure it is wrapped with a humid cloth.  I find it not very successful after Day 2 though.

Tip: to slash either used a very sharp pointy knife or a Stanley knife. If you are going to make a lot of bread, you will find on the net some dedicated bread slasher.  Do not leave any of those in the wrong places.

Variations

The introduction of seeds and currants is done generally after the initial 20 minutes rest.  It is critical to maintain the ration flour to added element when changing proportions.  It is also important to hydrate seeds and berries as specified to avoid those sucking all the water required for the dough itself.

Toasted seeds sourdough

Basically, if adding 50 g of seeds, also add 50 g of water.

For a 500 g loaf (480 g of flour):

• 50 g sunflower seeds
• 50 g pumpkin seeds
• 25 g sesame seeds
• 25 g poppy seeds
• 100 g water

Combine all the seeds and toast in a dry frying pan on medium heat until lightly coloured. Let the seeds cool down in a bowl and pour the water over the top and stir. The seeds will soak all of the water.

Seeds are introduced after the first 20 min rest.

Walnut, pepitas and cranberries sourdough

For a 700 g loaf:

• 70 g soaked cranberries
• 70 g pepitas
• 70 g walnut

Walnut and pepitas o not absorb water, so no need for additional one.  If the dough is too sticky after the 20 min rest, I add 1 spoon of flour at the time.  If too dry, a few drops of water at the time.