SOURDOUGH OVERVIEW

 

WHAT IS SOURDOUGH?

Sourdough is a fermented mix of flour and water. As the mixture ages over time the wild yeast and bacteria (lactobacilli) develop a signature sour taste. All sourdough starters will develop different flavors because each bag of flour has different grains than the next and each variety of flour (whole wheat, rye, spelt, bread flour, all purpose, etc) have different tastes. A healthy and active sourdough starter is what will make your bread rise and gives bread the wonderful unique sour flavor. 

You can build your own starter from scratch by mixing equal parts of water and flour and maintaining a regular feeding schedule. Sometimes, there can be a lot of trial and error with starting a sourdough starter. That is why I love sharing the starters I have created. I have spent a lot of time perfecting the flavor of my starters by alternating my feeding schedules with organic bread flour, organic whole wheat and organic rye flours. When you purchase one of my sourdough starters, you are guaranteed to have a strong, vigorous starter from the start–as long as you follow the instructions for feeding and maintaining the starter. The biggest benefit of purchasing an established starter is the pure freedom to be able to bake right away and bake with confidence! 

 

What equipment do I need? 

You will need: 

1. Sourdough starter
2. Flour (Once my starters are established I prefer to feed organic bread flour. However, on occasion I will use a 100, 60/40 or 70/30 mix of bread flour & either rye, spelt or whole wheat)
3. Salt
4. Water 
5. Glass jar (I prefer wex jars but a mason jar will work great too) 
6. Digital kitchen scale
7. Fork
8. Bench scraper 
9. Flour sack towels, tea towels
10. Parchment paper 
11. Banneton or glass bowls 
12. Razor blade or bread lame
13. Dutch oven 
14. Cooling rack 

 

Overview of making sourdough bread: 

There are essentially 5 main steps to making a beautiful sourdough bread. I say this casually because there are so many techniques and variations with sourdough bread recipes. 

1. Mix it–The first step is mixing your dough by combining water, flour, salt and sourdough starter. 
2. Bulk Fermentation–essentially, this is the fancy description of the first rise. During the first two hours, for every 30 min, you *can* stretch and fold the dough. The stretching and folding theory is to help develop more elasticity and dough strength. However, unless I am using a whole wheat flour, I rarely do any stretching and folding. 
3. Shape & Bench Rest-this step is when you will shape the dough into a round boule or oval, depending on the shape of a bowl/banneton you have. This is a very important step as it is when you will pull your shape across the counter to create tension for a nice crust and ear. 
4. Proofing the Dough-the dough will go into the fridge for a cold proof of about 24-48 hours. You can cold proof shorter than 24 hrs but your crumb will likely be underproofed resulting in very large crumb holes. 
5. Scoring & baking-finally, you will turn the dough onto parchment paper or a wooden paddle, score and then transfer to either a baking stone or a dutch oven. 

 

WHY NOT AUTOLYSE?

What is autolyse? Autolysing means to mix flour and water together and allow them to sit for an hour or more or a set amount of hours before adding salt and sourdough starter. This process is thought to help the dough extensibility and to aid in gluten development before mixing. This technique is surrounded by the hydration effects of the flour being soaked in water, in that the enzymatic activity of protease breaks down some of the gluten that forms as the dough hydrates. The process aims to weaken the dough’s elasticity by increasing extensibility. If you’re after a very large open crumb, autolyse is the way to go. I personally do not prefer a very large open crumb because it makes eating sandwiches a bit more difficult and messy as the meat & veggies inside the sandwich falls out of the holes. 

Autolyse doesn’t make a big difference in the final texture of the crumb but rather provides a very large open crumb. Just like I find stretching and folding not necessary, I think autolyse can be omitted without a single reservation. 

However, if I am using a whole wheat flour, I will do a form of autolyse because whole wheat flours do not hydrate well otherwise. This is the only time I will do an autolyse and in this case, it does not result in a large open crumb, but rather aids in the proper hydration of heavy grained flour. 

 

WHY NO STRETCHING & FOLDING?

I do not do stretching and folding in the bulk fermentation process mainly because I have found there isn’t much of or such a significant difference in stretching and folding every 30 min for 2 hours, than there is without all the folding. For the most part, stretching and folding is a lot of extra work and on the farm, I don’t often have time to tend to bread every 30 minutes for 2 hours. I think this is why you will love the recipe–it’s easy, it works, it’s been through many trial runs and perfected to yield a beautiful and delicious loaf of bread without the tedious tasks of tending to stretching and folding. 

Again, when I am using a whole wheat flour, I will do one or two stretch & folds about 30 min to 1 hours into bulk fermentation. My stretch and folds are never consistent, rather, it’s important with whole wheat to at least do one set of stretch and folds. I will have a whole wheat sourdough process and recipe coming up shortly. 

Doubling in size–If you are accustomed to the “when your bread doubles in size” or the 50-75% increase in volume after rise, throw that out the window. In the sourdough realm, there is no such thing. If you apply this doubling in size method to your sourdough process, you will produce over fermented results and a dense tight crumb. Learn from my tried and true lessons and don’t wait for your dough to double in size during bulk fermentation and you will get great oven spring. 

Long cold poof–A long cold proof in the fridge will give your bread a much lighter, open and airy crumb. You can do a shorter cold proof of 12 hours or less but you will get a tighter and denser crumb. Sourdough fairs very well cold proofing in the fridge for 24-48 hours or even a little longer. It does not have to be exactly 24 hours or 48 hours, rather, it is a guide to keep the cold proof somewhere in this ballpark area and you will get great results. In fact, each step of the process doesn’t need to be perfect. Think of it more like a guide. There is a lot of wiggle room in creating a beautiful sourdough loaf. This is why you will find so many different variations of this process as well as many variations of ingredient weights, hydration percentages, starter ratios and so on. I want to share a process of sourdough making that doesn’t feel  overwhelming or very time consuming because we don’t always have hours and days to dedicate to bread making. This process and recipe I created is designed to be convenient while still respecting the ancient history of the sourdough process. 

You will also find that my process does not involve kneading and working the dough by hand. I do love working dough by hand and you can still very well do this as my recipe will have 2 options: kneading by hand OR using a stand mixer. The main reason I wanted to create a recipe that would fare well in a stand mixer is because, if you have ever made sourdough before you know, the dough is very sticky and can be difficult and tedious to work into a soft, silky and shiny ball. Not to mention, I have a toddler and it’s much easier to shut off the mixer and run after my toddler than it is to chase him down with sticky shaggy dough hands. Sourdough dough also is messy and can be difficult to clean off of your hands and countertops. I wanted to create a process and recipe that was authentic to sourdough's taste and history but without the fragments of dried hard dough stuck to your counters and hands. 

 

SHAPE & BENCH REST

This step is probably the step that can get overlooked in that if you do not shape and create nice even tension without tears, you will probably not produce a loaf with a nice ear. An ear is the piece or edge that peels back and lifts upward along your score line. Essentially, it is a flap of dough that sticks up from the surface of the dough. Where you score your bread and how deep your score will determine where the ear will be. In addition, if you do not spend a little extra time making sure that you are dragging your dough across the counter in such a way to create even tension, your ear will not be as pronounced. The tension is what helps create a beautiful ear. 

 

SCORING

This history of scoring bread has many tales. I have heard that in ancient times, bakers scored bread as a way of displaying their signature or mark. It’s believed that the scored baker's signature helped identify what village the bread came from and who made it. 

Other tales say the scoring method dates back to the 19th century to a French scientist named Vaudry who said “breads with cuts on their surface” were an artful and science-grounded step for successful baking. 

I believe that the purpose of scoring bread both serves as a signature and science. If you do not score your bread, and score it deep, the steam will find a weak point and burst through the crust as it hardens. This creates unwanted bulges and blowouts. The goal of scoring is to guide that way dough will rise in the oven, giving it room to expand and rise while maintaining its shape. This allows the bread to take full advantage of oven spring.

 

SECRET TIPS

The secret to great oven spring is three ice cubes. 

First, do not take your loaf out of the refrigerator until you are ready to score it and place it into the pre-heated dutch-oven. Taking it out before, allows the dough to warm up and you want to place the dough in the dutch-oven as cold as possible to produce great oven spring and those wonderful sourdough “blisters.”  

You also want to have your parchment paper pre-cut and ready to go. I recommended cutting your parchment paper to size before you place your dutch-oven in the oven to preheat. 

While your oven and dutch-oven are preheating, you should have on your counter, your pre-cut parchment paper, scoring knife and flour, and a cup of 3-4 ice cubes. 

Once your oven and dutch-oven is done preheating. Leave your dutch-oven in the oven while you score and prepare your dough. 

Remove your bread from the fridge and flip it over in the center of your parchment paper. Sometimes I have to carefully hold my bowl with one hand while using the four fingers of my other hand to gently separate the bread from the bowl (lining your basket/bowl with rice flour will give you a smoother and cleaner release). Sprinkle some flour over your dough and rub it across the surface to create a very thin blanket of flour over the top. This flour blanket will help your scoring/design stand out. Now the fun part, score your bread. Be very deliberate and score with confidence. It’s ok to rescore your marks if you feel like they are deep enough or you need to clean it up some. It’s ok if you see your dough starting to separate too. Once you’re done scoring, don’t take too long because you want your dough as cold as possible when placing it in the dutch-oven, remove your dutch-oven from the oven and take the lid off. 

Dump your cup of 3-4 ice cubes into the bottom of your dutch-oven, and then quickly pick up the corners of your parchment paper cradling your dough and set it in the dutch oven on top of the ice cubes. Put the lid on it and put the dutch-oven back into the oven.

You want to do these steps quickly for two reasons. 

One–you want your dough to be as cold as possible when you place it in the dutch-oven. This is why I recommend having your parchment paper pre-cut, all your supplies ready on the counter and not taking your dough out of the fridge until you are ready to score it, and put it in the dutch-oven. 

Two-You don’t want the ice cubes to completely melt before you place your bread in the oven. The ice cubes will provide steam and that blast of steam will help give your dough great oven spring and guide your dough to rise properly in your scoring pattern. It’s important to place the ice cubes in the dutch oven and quickly cradle your bread in the parchment paper on top of the ice cubes, put the lid on and get it in the oven. 

The ice cubes secret fares wonderful results on heavier grain breads like whole wheats, rye, etc.

 

~Happy Baking