Talk to me about sourdough - The Fermentation Club!

[lazzbo]

Phwoar! You definitely DID solve your own problem, bread guru.

[purple_dress]

Oooh that looks great!

[Cosmopolitan]

Mmmm bread. Looks great!

[Squirrel]

Being on this thread has made me want to do sourdough again, it’s probably been about 20 years since I last made some.

[purple_dress]

Some flour arrived on my ocado shop! It's a substitution and is Canadian very strong bread flour, but that should do the job.

[overthehill]

That looks great, squiz. Snap! I failed on the bread supply today. So we're just waiting on this (yeast) loaf to cool so we can make sandwiches for lunch.

IMG_20200329_140201.jpg

[purple_dress]

First loaf I've baked in a while as my husband took over while. This one is with the very strong Canadian flour that came as a substitute. The dough was very stretchy so I'll be interested to see what the structure is like.

[Disco]

Looks great!

[purple_dress]

Bread baking is such a highlight of my week at the moment. I love the bit where you take the lid off the pot and see how it has risen!

[Ella77]

That looks so good!

[Squirrel]

That looks amazing! That was the flour I had as well.

OTH and p_d, could you share your recipes please? This situation has also reignited my love of bread baking that has been dormant for very many years! I’m going to get a sourdough starter going.

[purple_dress]

Here's the recipe I use, with my notes added. I've got a word doc with more details on the starter element which I can send you if you want.

Norwich Sourdough
(adapted from Vermont Sourdough in Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman via Wild Yeast)

Ingredients for bread:
450g strong white bread flour
60g whole rye flour or wholemeal flour
300g hand temperature water
180g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter (‘ripe’ means several hours after feeding, when the starter is at peak volume. 100% hydration is the ratio of water to flour so 100% means starter is 50% flour, 50% water) - I usually use it 6-8 hours after feeding.
12 g salt

You will also ideally need:
Proving basket - I've seen people use alternatives such as a colander
Dutch oven (but you can use the alternative steam method below instead)

Watch this video for demonstration of all the techniques in the method: https://youtu.be/BJEHsvW2J6M

Note on timings - I usually feed my starter at about 10am and begin step 2 at about 4pm.

Method:
Roughly 4-6 hours before you want to bake, feed the starter (assuming your starter weighs 200g, you’re just adding 100g flour and 100g water for the feed, and not discarding any. You will be using 180g starter for the loaf and you will keep 100g starter in your pot for future feeding and baking, discarding the remainder).

When you are ready to being: In a large bowl, mix the flours, water, and 180g starter with a fork until just combined. (It will not fully combine - it will be shaggy)
Let the dough rest (autolyse) for 1 hour, covered with a clean tea towel.

Put down a tiny bit of flour on the counter. Turn out dough mixture onto counter. Sprinkle over the salt and start kneading until the dough reaches a medium level of gluten development. To test gluten development, stretch the dough. When it is developed enough, it should be stretchy enough that you can get a translucent little ‘window’ of dough before it tears. Click on the hyperlink to see examples.

Transfer the dough to an oiled container (preferably a low, wide one so the dough can be folded without removing it from the container).

Cover with tea towel. Ferment at room temperature, stretching (gently, using the weight of the dough and moving it around in your hands for about a minute) at 40min intervals - 3 lots of stretching then leave for half an hour before shaping. (2.5 hours in total for this step)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and shape (see video above for a good method).

Flour the proving basket with plenty of flour and put the shaped dough in seam side up.

Cover with tea towel and put in fridge over night.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200C on the dial of our oven (real temp - 240C or as high as your oven will go if it won't get this hot), with the empty Dutch Oveninside, lid on. (if you don't have a dutch oven, you can bake on a parchment-lined baking tray with a pan of boiling water in the oven on the shelf below for the first 20mins of the bake time)

Turn the proofed loaf parchment and score. (I leave it in the fridge right up until I’m ready to bake it)

Lift into pot on the parchment. Lid on and into the oven for 20mins.

Remove lid, turn down to 180 and bake for a further 15mins.

Remove to cooling rack.

[Squirrel]

Brilliant thank you! The note on timings is especially useful as I remember this being an issue with me last time I tried, and in those days I didn’t have children and weekends were more flexible.

[purple_dress]

Feel free to ask if anything doesn't make sense as the notes are very much my prompts to myself!

[Jet]

Would you be able to share the word doc on the starter? I was going to start this a few weeks ago but never got round to it. I've done it before a couple of times but literally remember nothing

[purple_dress]

I can just copy and paste it here I guess. It's just my way of doing it but it's notes I made for other friends who were asking.

Creating and maintaining sourdough starter

You will need:
Plenty of plain flour
Tap water
2 clean plastic or glass tubs

Day 1:
Weigh 50g flour into a clean tub. Add 50g water. Stir. Cover (I usually put a lid over it but don’t seal it as I think it needs some air to get in). Leave at room temp.

If your kitchen is very cold, you could put it in an insulated bag (a cool bag). Don’t put it by a radiator or anything as too hot isn’t good either.

Day 2
To the flour and water mixture you created yesterday, add a further 50g flour and 50g water. Stir to combine. Cover and leave as before.

Day 3
Get a clean tub. Into that tub, add 100g starter plus 50g flour and 50g water. Stir to combine. Cover and leave as before.

There are lots of recipes for using the sourdough discard if you look online. Easiest is to just fry it up like a bready pancake with seasoning and anything else you want. It’s nice with sliced spring onions and sesame seeds.

Day 4 onwards
Repeat the steps as for day 3. Keep doing this once a day until your starter has lots of small bubbles appearing within about 3-4 hours of feeding and smells nicely sour. You need to remember to feed it every day and to weigh the flour and water properly. Following these steps, your starter weighs 200g and is what is known as 100% hydration starter.

Once it is bubbly and sour-smelling, it is ready to use = ‘active’.

For the recipe that I use (Norwich Sourdough), you need 180g starter to make the bread, and you also need to have 100g starter left over to keep feeding for future bread. You will always be feeding the starter with a ratio of 2:1:1 - starter, water, flour i.e. the combined new flour and water you’re feeding it should equal the weight of the starter you’re adding it to. When I want to make bread, I ensure I have 400g starter available, so instead of discarding any, I feed the starter (which should weigh 200g on a normal day, as above) with 100g flour and 100g water. Of this 400g, I use 180g to make the bread, keep 100g to feed and discard the remainder.

If you need more starter than this, you can build up the volume via feeds in the same way, always making sure you stick to the ratio.

Once your starter is active, you can keep it in the fridge and only feed it every 4-7 days and it will still be good. Get it out of the fridge and feed it the day before you want to bake so that it is nice and active.

[Jet]

Thank you!!

[lazzbo]

Cor, cracking loaves, purple and OTH!

I've taken Claude out of the fridge after more than a week, I hope he's OK.

[purple_dress]

Another lockdown loaf.

[Ella77]

Beautiful.