Sourdough Bread

Intro

In 2018 I was off work for awhile because I had a PE. In my boredom I started a sourdough from scratch out at Waitarere Beach. I have had that starter ever since and still find it a miracle that from 'fresh air' I was able to make a lively yeasty thing that with only flour, water and salt makes gorgeous bread for about 50c a loaf. 

Maintaining the Starter

The starter needs to be fed every 12 hours.

To feed the starter weigh it then take out what you need for baking (see bread recipe below, cracker recipe or pancake recipe or chocolate brownie recipe.. You need to save a minimum of 140g of starter to be going on with.
Generally I feed my starter with its equal weight so for 140g of starter I add 70g of strong bread flour (high grade) and 70ml of almost luke warm water. You can change the formula if you prefer a wetter starter so 60g of flour and 80ml of water. If you want to grow the starter faster then add 140g of flour and 140ml of water to the 140g of starter.  Stir it well, doesn't matter if its a bit lumpy, then place in a sealed glass jar on a bench etc but out of direct sun and head.

If I am planning on baking that day I feed it at 7am and can then use it to bake from about 11am - 2pm.

The starter can keep in the fridge for a week. If you want to cook on Saturday then get it out and feed it Friday night and Saturday morning.

Sourdough Bread 

3 sizes are shown below depending on how much starter you want to use:

• 130 / 260 or 390 grams of sourdough starter
• 25 / 50 or 75 grams of rye flour*
• 25 / 50 or 75 grams of wholemeal flour*
• 250 / 500 / 750 grams of strong bread flour (high grade)
• 1.25 / 2.5 / 3.75 teaspoons of salt
• 250 / 500 or 750 mls of lukewarm water (approx)

* Ideally - but you can just use plain flour so: 300g/600g/900g of plain flour instead of the 3 flours.  

Place all ingredients except the salt in a mixer with a dough hook and mix for a couple of minutes until a raggy dough. Cover mixer with a towel and leave to autolyse for 30 mins at least but up to an hour or two. Then add the salt and mix for 5 minutes or more until it is a smooth mix. It will be looser than a hand kneaded dough (and you could do this by hand). 

Tip into an oiled bowl, cover with glad wrap. Every 30 minutes or so get your hands into it and lift, stretch and fold the dough over itself several times.  If you can do this 3 or 4 times it makes a good difference. This stretches the gluten. Leave the dough to double in size. This will take a long time.  If I make it at 11am it might not have doubled until 3pm. This is because of the natural yeast. My favourite way is to leave it to rise overnight in the fridge.  This also makes the next step heaps easier.

Once it has doubled in size push it down then portion it out shaping it into oiled tins or make cobs. You want to stretch the shape over itself and under to create a tension on the top.  (Find a video on You Tube for this step - its really hard to explain.)  Pop into tins or a bannetton, sprinkle with flour and leave to rise again. Ideally you really want to do one of the rises slowly in the fridge.

Preheat your oven to 250c. Place an empty dish into the oven with about a cup of water in it. Slash the tops of the risen loafs several times using a razor blade.

Place the loafs in the oven, along with the dish with water, and bake for 40 minutes, dropping the temperature down to 220c for the last 20 mins if the loaves have browned too much. Remove from tins and cool on a rack. Sourdough keeps really well and also freezes well.

Notes and variations

• I use the 390g of starter recipe and place it in 2 loaf tins. The dough fills 2/3rds of tin and rises to the top. This produces a big loaf great for slicing and toast.
• I sometimes spread dough out into a big lamington tray and make focacia. eg stud it with cubes of cheese and teaspoons of onion marmalade, or olives and cheese, pushed into the dough. Once the dough rises brush it with oil and sprinkle with Maldon sea salt or herbs.
• You are not supposed to use a tin for sourdough and I have used a baneton quite successfully, cooking the cob in a preheated Dutch oven works the best. 
• Replacing a quarter of the flour with seeds works really well: sunflower, pumpkin, linseed and sesame is a good mix. 
• Walnuts, apricots, raisins and mixed spice.
• For paprika and cheese bread make a thick slurry with olive oil and paprika (3 tablespoons of paprika) and on one of the last folding steps spread the dough out flat and brush the paprike oil on and top with a cup of grated cheese. Then do the last folding steps to swirl the paprika through. Carry on as normal.