My love of great bread began a long time ago, in a land far far away...well it was France actually, but you get the idea.
In an attempt to learn French I signed up to spend the summer holidays as a WWOOF volunteer (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) in France, and I learnt much more than just language skills. This was the first time I had heard of 'food miles' or the idea of seasonal eating, I learnt about good French home cooking and the art of using up leftovers.
I stayed at a number of farms, and there was one thing they all had in common: the sourdough bread that accompanied every meal. These breads were as varied as the people who ran the farms. Some made the bread themselves and others had it delivered by local bakeries or exchanged it for their own produce as part of a cooperative scheme. But in all cases this was bread that the whole family ate at every meal, and bread with a flavour and texture unlike anything I'd had at home.
When I got back to the UK I set about trying to find out what this type of bread was, as the majority of the hosts’ explanations had been lost in translation. Once I discovered the secret, I kicked myself for not taking them up on the offer of some of their 20 year old starter, and then I set about making my own.
My first attempts resulted in small amounts of success and large amounts of wasted flour, as the recipe I was using required you to throw out half the starter before refreshing it with more flour and water. After a few months I gave up trying to keep the thing alive, and although I have been meaning to try again ever since, it never quite happened.
When I went on the Hornbeam Bakers Collective bread making course recently, I was reminded how rewarding and enjoyable it is to make bread without having to use commercial yeast. Raju, our bread making teacher, also gave us a recipe that uses very small quantities of flour and water so you don’t end up with a mass of unused starter that has to be chucked.
Keeping a sourdough starter is a bit like having a pet (or at least a house plant) - you need to make sure it is fed and watered otherwise it will die. This starter will keep on giving you loaves of chewy, crusty and wholesome sourdough bread for as long as you can keep it alive, and just like a pet or a plant, you will feel a sense of achievement when you somehow manage to prevent it from dying!
Things I have learnt from making sourdough bread:
A lot of recipes for sourdough add things like grapes, apple or honey to the starter, as this helps encourage the natural yeast to grow. This is necessary if you are making a starter with only white flour, if you are using rye or wholemeal flour as well there is enough natural yeast and good nutrients in there to get the process going without these additions.
I use organic flour for sourdough, as I think if you use flour with extra chemicals in it then you may as well use commercial yeast anyway. Plus I don’t like the idea of chemicals being fermented. There is no scientific basis to my theory, it’s just a feeling I have!
You can replace all or some of the flour with wholemeal or spelt if you prefer. I like to have a white starter though, as I find it more versatile.
As the only raising agent in sourdough is the natural yeast, the time it takes to rise will depend on how lively your starter is – I find it best to leave the production dough overnight, but yours might be different and you may need to experiment a bit to get it right.
I don’t use a proving basket, mostly because I don’t have one, but also because I’m not convinced they make that much difference to how well the loaf keeps it’s shape. I shape it into a round (or often a bloomer shape) then put it straight onto a floured baking tray instead.
Room temperature water is fine, unless you are in a hurry in which case warm water will speed things up. It mustn’t be too hot though, around body temperature is just about right.
Once your starter is established you can put it in the fridge so that you don’t have to refresh it with more flour and water every day. Don’t forget about it completely though, you should still refresh it every 3-4 days to keep it active.
White and Rye Sourdough: makes one large loaf plus a white sourdough starter
(adapted from the recipe we used on the Hornbeam Baker’s bread baking course)
To make the starter:
Day 1:
10g Organic rye flour
30g Organic white bread flour
40g water
Weigh all the ingredients in a plastic pot and mix together thoroughly, cover with a lid and leave in a warm place overnight.
Day 2:
Starter from day 1
10g Organic rye flour
30g Organic white bread flour
40g water
Add all the ingredients to the same plastic pot and mix together thoroughly, cover with a lid and leave in a warm place overnight.
Day 3:
Starter from day 2
10g Organic rye flour
30g Organic white bread flour
40g water
Add all the ingredients to the same plastic pot and mix together thoroughly, cover with a lid and leave in a warm place overnight.
Day 4:
Starter from day 3
10g Organic rye flour
30g Organic white bread flour
40g water
Add all the ingredients to the same plastic pot and mix together thoroughly, cover with a lid and leave in a warm place overnight. By now your starter should be frothy and have an ‘interesting’ sour smell. You can now use it to make a loaf or put it in the fridge until you need it, as explained above.
Production sourdough:
160g of sourdough starter
200g Organic white bread flour (or wholemeal, spelt etc)
120g water
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix to form a fairly stiff dough. Cover the bowl with a piece of clingfilm and leave for 4 hours or overnight, until the dough has lots of visible air bubbles and has risen but not collapsed in on itself.
Sourdough loaf:
300g Organic white bread flour (or wholemeal, spelt etc)
7g salt
100-200g water
Production sourdough
- Add the flour and salt to the production dough and begin mixing together, whilst gradually adding in the water
- Keep mixing and adding water until a sticky dough is formed
- Scrape it out of the bowl and on to the work surface, and then knead for 10-15 minutes until it forms a smooth shiny ball of dough
- Shape into a round by pushing the edges of the dough into the middle, working all the way around the edge
- Turn the round of dough over so the smooth bit is on top, place on a well floured baking tray and sift over a small amount of flour
- Leave the dough to prove for around 3 hours
- Preheat the oven to 250C with a deep baking tray or grill pan at the bottom of the oven
- When the dough has risen to twice its original size slash lines in the top with a very sharp knife
- Place the loaf in the oven then immediately tip a pint of water into the preheated tray at the bottom of the oven (or you can use a spray bottle of water to create some steam in the oven)
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, before turning down to 200C and baking for a further 20-30 minutes
- Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool
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