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the tale of the three sourdough loaves

28/4/2012

25 Comments

 

I came across the video above a few days ago. Now this is how I'd really like to be able to make sourdough bread at home. It features Sam Clark, in the Moro kitchen, making it look ridiculously easy - leave a 'sponge' overnight, mix in more flour in the morning, grab a handful of dough, plonk it in a proving basket (no kneading or stretching!!), leave to rise for 40 minutes (40 minutes!!) and throw it in the oven. Bish, bash and, indubitably, bosh. The video is entitled 'How To Bake Sourdough Bread'. As opposed, say, to 'How To Bake Sourdough Bread If You Have A Restaurant Kitchen, A Mahoosive Industrial Mixer And A Fuck-Off Wood-Burning Oven'.

Meanwhile, in a small flat somewhere in Peckham...
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Above: the first (successful) loaf
...at the beginning of March I posted the above photo on my Facebook page, commenting "I've finally made a sourdough loaf I'm happy with. Ridiculously pleased!". I wasn't, however, intending to blog about it, not least for fear of getting a prompt response along the lines of "You're a bit farkin' previous there aren't you my son? Yours Sincerely D. Lepard, S. Clarke, D. Stevens, L. Hart, J. Gellatly, M. Monade & others."

But then, after two further attempts, I thought, well, maybe if I write about it someone else out there might find it useful, might be encouraged to have a shot. I'll wager there's quite a few people who fit the same profile as me, that is: we're half-way decent home cooks with little or no baking expertise save for the odd cake, more than content to buy our bread from the experts (in my case living within easy access to the produce of quite a few excellent bakeries -  some of my favourites being The Flour Station, Franco Manca and Blackbird). But once or twice a year, inspired by a newspaper article or, perhaps, a gift of a ladleful of starter from a friend, we'll waste almost an entire weekend in the labour intensive production of what is essentially a flour-based manhole cover.

But one of the things I've learned is that it's really is worth persevering, adapting, experimenting. Because, I now think, there are actually an almost infinite number of permutations of recipe/flour/oven/environment - and you've got to find the one that works for you in your own kitchen using your oven. It would just be nice if the cookery writers mentioned that fact when banging out a recipe for the Sunday food and drink sections.

So I'll give you the recipe that I used for these three loaves but I'm not suggesting for a moment that you follow it. By all means do if you want, but first I'd suggest getting hold of a book that explains in detail the process of bread-making. I borrowed the River Cottage Handbook No. 3: Bread by Daniel Stevens from my local library. There are 50-odd pages of explanation before the first recipe.

The recipe below is a mash-up of his 'My Sourdough' recipe (which I can't seem to find online) and this one from Laura Hart (which also gives instructions on creating a starter). Dan Stevens' recipe mentions adding oil, but it isn't mentioned in the ingredients list. I added a tablespoon of olive oil. Neither mention the temperature of the water. Mary Contini (of Valvona & Crolla fame) suggests a water temperature of 30C in the summer and 40C in the winter for her pizza dough and I thought I'd stick with that formula here.

You'll see from the photos below how the second and third attempts varied from the first one. None of them, I have to say, had the large air pockets you like to see in, or had much of the distinctive sour tang of, a sourdough. The first issue was almost certainly because I've been adding more flour during the stretching/kneading process in an attempt to get the dough to hold its shape. With the second, maybe the starter needs time to mature. I guess you'd probably more accurately describe what I've produced so far as a 'campagne' style of bread. But they all tasted lovely. And, of course, cost peanuts.

I reckon I'm at the beginning of a long and meandering journey towards a really good sourdough. But I think I might just get there. Eventually.
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Above: the second loaf (different make of flour)...
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...and the crumb therein revealed.
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Above: the third attempt (same flour as above but with 20% rye added)...
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...with a much denser crumb

kitchen + equipment


I have an open-plan kitchen, free of draughts (double glazing) with your normal average temperature for a home (68F-ish, I'm guessing), with a bog standard electric fan oven. Set to maximum, it reaches about 240C (fan, remember).

I used a mixer with a dough hook to make the dough, but of course you can do this by hand, as in the Laura Hart recipe.

For the final rise, not yet having a proving basket, I lined a plastic colander with a piece of well-floured linen.

I used a bread knife (as recommended by Dan Stevens) to make the slashes on the top of the dough.

For the baking I used a water spray, a tray of boiling water at the bottom of the oven and my pizza stone.

To transfer the dough to the oven, not yet owning a peel, I tipped it out onto one of those cheap perforated oven chip trays and slid that onto the pre-heated pizza stone in the oven.

I've started saving up my pennies for this proving basket and this peel.

starter

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I was given a small tub of starter by someone living nearby me. He'd been making it with wholemeal flour. I've been feeding it with strong white flour, alternating it with rye. But having read that whole grain flour activates a more vigorous fermentation I might try all rye for a while.

As I said, the Laura Hart recipe tells you how to make one from scratch.

Feed your starter daily or keep in the fridge for a week or so. Remove from the fridge a couple of days before you want to use it and start feeding it again. Don't feed it on the day you start making the dough - you want to have a 24 hour gap so it's hungry.

recipe

makes one loaf
500g strong white bread flour
150g starter
1 scant dsp fine salt
1 tbsp olive oil (optional)
300ml water
more strong white flour for kneading/dusting
polenta flour for dusting

The night before baking, using a food mixer with a dough hook, mix together 250g of the flour, the water and the starter. Cover the mixer bowl with a plastic bag.

The next day, add the remaining flour and the salt; mix on a low speed to combine, then add the oil and mix that in. Turn onto a floured worktop and knead for ten minutes.

Form into a round and place in a bowl. Cover with a plastic bag and leave for one hour.

Flour your worktop again and tip out the dough onto it. Squidge it out with your fingertips to form a square (like a dimpled focaccia). Stretch the side furthest from you away and fold it into the middle. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat. Repeat with the other two sides. Form into a round and return to the bowl. Cover with a plastic bag and leave for an hour.

Repeat the above process twice more.

final shaping + proving


Flour your worktop again and tip out the dough. Shape it into a tight round. It's rather difficult (for me anyway) to describe how to shape a loaf in words only, so I'll let this video do it for me (it's the third loaf that she makes into a round at 2:20).

Dust a cloth-lined colander, or proving basket if you have one, with flour and place your shaped round into it, seam side up. Leave to prove for (very) approximately three hours. It wants to double in size.

baking

Place a pizza stone onto a shelf in your oven. Heat the oven to its highest fan setting (as I said mine reaches about 240C). Place a roasting tray of boiling water at the bottom of the oven. Dust your dough with polenta and tip out onto your tray or peel. Slash a cross on the top of the dough, spray with water and transfer quickly to the stone.

After ten minutes reduce the oven to 200C fan. Bake for approximately 30 minutes until the bread is crusty and sounds hollow when you tap its base.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

I'd love to get your comments, guidance and tips. Just don't have a pop because I don't really know what I'm talking about. That's kind of the point.
25 Comments
Kavey link
28/4/2012 02:29:43

I think making one's own bread, particularly sourdough, is definitely more daunting to the amateur cook than so many other cooking challenges.
But also very satisfying, I would say.
Regarding the sourdough tang, my understanding is that you can use a sourdough starter just as a rising agent, or you can use much more of it to introduce that tangy flavour. So it may be a case of experimenting with using a lot more starter in the bread, and seeing how that helps develop the flavour.
I'm not sure I've got that right though...
One of the best resources on the web for understanding bread, and understanding what impact all the various ingredients and techniques make, and what happens when you change one element, can I recommend a blog called Azelia's Kitchen?
Amateur baker writing through her learning process, started out as a beginner just like the rest of us, but now knows more than many pro bakers.
x

Reply
Richard
28/4/2012 08:04:26

I started baking my own sourdough bread over four years ago when I moved to the UK from Holland. That was one slow learning curve... I thought the River Cottage handbook was very useful, though -- comprehensive, and with a handy table allowing you to figure out why your bread might be slightly too dense, etc.

You seem to be progressing pretty quickly. Three observations and reflections, just because I have a fellow sourdough baker on whom to inflict them:

- I'm rather surprised you didn't have a strong sourdough taste. My first bread with a new (or newly activated) starter are usually rather strongly flavoured, and this mellows out over time. You could try adding more starter, or perhaps letting the sponge develop for a longer time - just guessing here, though.

- I find that the most important variable to how my bread turns out is the state of my starter. Baking with wholemeal flour, to get enough of a rise I have to bake only when the starter is at its most vigorous. That makes an already time-consuming process even more inflexible, and recently I haven't been baking often enough.

- The lack of air holes is a perrenial problem of mine, too. I have been using a higher water content, but kneading by hand in a shared kitchen I can't really make too much of a mess. If you've got a stand mixer and an improvised proving basket, though, then increasing the water content shouldn't be a problem, right? I'd love to see how that changes the texture.

Oh, and the 'refreshing method' described in the river cottage book works beautifully; just pop it in the oven until the internal temp reaches 60c, if I remember correctly.

Have fun baking!
Richard

Reply
The Skint Foodie
28/4/2012 08:41:45

That's great Richard! Just the kind of advice I'm looking for. It's a process isn't it? Like the search for the Holy Grail. Thanks!

Reply
Tannage link
28/4/2012 13:47:16

Those loaves look wonderful! My family and I have a great love of sourdoughs, and I've been doing them for a while. First ones came out like bricks, but thankfully with some practise I've managed to get it a lot better. My son now eats it :)

I found that how much of the sour taste you get does tend to depend on the wild yeast you have. My starter is really lazy and I have to rise my sourdough for a day before I get that tangy, sour taste. Wild yeast can vary tremendously, and if you have a lazy strain like mine, refridgerating it and taking it out of the fridge two days before won't have it active enough to do any useful work. I don't tend to stick to the "doubled" in size thing. What I do is to poke the dough, if doesn't feel like my earlobe it's not proved enough. Depending on the dough it might have to expand to well over twice its original size to get to that fluffy stage.

As for the crumb, what I like to do is to make the dough a bit wetter, 65%-70% of water to flour. It's wet enough so that you get the big air holes in it, but the problem comes when you try to bake it. It's wet enough that it'll flow slowly, so if you prove it, and then leave it for a bit, you'll end up with a flat loaf. If however, you prove it, and have your oven hot, stick it in the oven as soon as possible after you've tipped it out of the proving basket, the dough won't get a chance to "flow" out and go flat. The first 10 minutes of baking will solidify it enough so that you'll get a nicely shaped loaf.

I try to not add any flour when I'm kneading my sourdough, because I tend to add too much to help the kneading process and the crumb comes out heavy and dense. I use olive oil instead.

I'm a big fan of your blog. Doing things properly on the cheap is what I'm all about too!

Keep up the good work

Reply
The Skint Foodie
28/4/2012 14:30:53

More brilliant advice. Thanks Tannage.

Reply
Rose
30/4/2012 09:50:02

I make a lot of bread, but not sourdough. Too complicated for me, well done you! I've found that using Dan Lepard's method of folding while the dough is on its first rise makes the bread a lot more airy. I do this every 15 minutes – more than Dan the Man recommends. Kneading using oil rather than extra flour is a good idea too: it maintins the balance of the recipe and it's frightfully good for one's hands darling!

I don't have a peel. I put a baking tray in the oven when I switch it on and I prove the bread on a sheet of baking parchment. That way you can drop it onto the heated tray and it helps with the oven spring you need. Also, put a roasting tin on the floor of the oven and pour half a kettle of boiling water into it once the bread is on the shelf. The steam will help the bread to rise – and all of this is probably in this link! http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/nov/24/foodanddrink.recipes

Reply
The Skint Foodie
4/5/2012 12:29:28

Thank you Rose!

Reply
Derek in France link
1/5/2012 08:15:31

Firstly, can I say how much I enjoy your site and in fact it inspired us to start our own blog.

By chance I was recently 'reviewing' i.e. chucking out our recipes cut out of magazines - you know, the ones which pave your way to the kitchen with good intentions - and came across the recipe for sourdough bread copied from the Moro cook book. All 8 pages of it! The starter begins with a bunch of red grapes - wtf!

We normally just stick to a basic loaf and a good description of that is given in Nigel Slater's Appetite.

But I did come across a recipe for a campagne loaf by Raymond Blanc from his Kitchen Secrets and he uses a dough starter which gives it a slight sour dough taste. The recipe describes the techniques very clearly and he makes it in a processor which is very simple. Interestingly he uses cold water. Both recipes are given on our blog.

This water temperature lark gets a bit much too - 30C in the summer, 40c in the winter? A helpful tip I read for getting the right water temperature was to take one third boiling water from your kettle and add two thirds cold water from the tap - voila, water at the right temperature.

Raymond Blanc also recommends heating your oven to 250c or its maximum setting which he says is critical because the temperature drops significantly when you open the door. He bakes them at this for 15 minutes then reduces it to 220c.

For a good crust he says to put a roasting tin in the bottom of your oven to preheat and when you put the bread in chuck 50ml of water into the roasting tray and there you have the steam for your crust. Step away from the spray bottle!

Reply
The Skint Foodie
1/5/2012 08:52:29

Dear Derek

You've highlighted an oversight - I mention the 1/3 boiling water to 2/3 cold water in my recipe for pizza dough, but forgot to include it here. Thanks, I'll update the post.

The highest oven temp/reduce to 220C thingy is what I specified in the recipe. I just gave the equivalent fan temp of 200C. I should have made it clearer.

And (also in the recipe) I too put a roasting tin of boiling water at the bottom of the oven.

Reply
The Skint Foodie
1/5/2012 09:01:40

Oh! And I forgot to say how spooky it was that you mention the Blanc campaigne recipe, cos I came across it the other day as a pdf on t'internet. It's at the top of a google search if you type in 'raymond blanc pain de campagne pdf'.

P.S. What's your blog address BTW?

Reply
Harry
2/5/2012 04:00:50

Great stuff! Glad my starter is producing loaves!

Baking sourdough is so temperamental, and I've found the more you do it the better it gets. When I first started I made a lot and they got better an better, now I'm not baking as much (not sure why, too busy to organise it perhaps) and when I do get the starter out my loaves are a bit heavy. Still have the lovely sour taste but just a little heavy.

One thing you could experiment with is the dutch oven technique. Use a big casserole dish with the lid on instead of a baking stone. Sorry this is a bit vague but I don't have the time to find a good link at the moment. I've made some tastey loaves this way.

To be honest though, it seems we have the same problems of wet dough that's difficult to handle, plus heavy loaves. One day I'll have a good think and work out a better way to bake. If I crack it I'll probably be very excited and want to give a loaf to you!

Reply
The Skint Foodie
2/5/2012 11:28:06

Hi Harry

Yep - you're starter went to a good home after all!

I've now gone and ordered a peel and two proving baskets. I'm then going to experiments with a wetter dough thusly:

- no kneading by hand, all mixer
- just the stretching done by hand
- one loaf tipped onto peel, slashed and sprayed, then into oven
- one loaf tipped onto peel and then straight into the oven

and see how I get on. I also had an idea to prevent the collapse/spreading when the dough is place for the final time onto peel/oven tray. You know those cake tins where the base is removable and has a catch to undo so you can enlarge the diameter of the tin? I thought why not ditch the base, open the tin and plonk it over the round of dough as soon as you've placed it on the peel, then close it up. Then you can slash/spray to your hearts content. Remove at the moment your placing it in the oven. Worth a shot, what, what?

Reply
Harry
2/5/2012 14:42:06

I always feel better seeing expensive sourdough loaves that are flat and misshapen and thinking "yep, I can do that". I pass the rounded ones off as witchcraft.

The lightest loaf I ever made was in a tin in a wood burner which was around 350C according to the upper limit of an oven thermometer. One half of the loaf was beautiful, the other was black and charred.

I like the cake tin/ring plan. I'm guessing it'll look a bit like my casserole dish loaves - like a flattened cylinder. They have had a good crumb though.

Lisa link
8/5/2012 13:27:18

I baked my sourdough this weekend in a cake tin. Left the base in, oiled the tin, let the dough do the 2nd rise in there and just popped it in the oven with a tray of water underneath it. Worked fine!

It was a dense, soft crumb, but I like it that way.

Ian
4/5/2012 04:48:24

I watched the Hairy Twats in Spain on the box t'other day. Spanish cook had a thermometer which she used to test that the neading had brought the dough temperature up to the required level, which was........nope, it's not there. Good idea though.

Regards, Ian

Reply
tannage link
9/5/2012 05:04:28

In the interests of sharing, this is what I've found when baking sourdough, hope it helps!

http://kungfoodie.net/2012/sourdough-fu

Reply
The Skint Foodie
9/5/2012 16:23:41

Sorry Kungfoodie, only just looked at your post. You're much farther along the path to the One True Sourdough than me. I particularly liked the idea of adding more starter in the morning to try and reclaim the tang. Worth a bash!

Reply
tannage link
10/5/2012 00:41:35

I'll try it this weekend and let you know how it goes. By the way, do you know which tags to put around URLs so they come up as links?

Penny
21/5/2012 13:39:58

I was recently treated to a sourdough session given by Stuart Oetzmann of Metfield Bakery in Norwich. As a complete novice it was a bit mind-boggling but he's absolutely passionate. He talked about the problem of the crust getting too hard in a domestic oven, when commercial ones have inbuilt steam. You can get clay cloches but they are a luxury, so I use a quarry tile instead of a pizza tray thing and then cover the loaf with a large upturned stock pot which traps the steam. I take it off for the last 8 mins or so and it seems to work. But I'll have to try some other method if I want to make a long, rather than a round, loaf. I'm not sure I have got the crumb right yet but it doesn't look too different to yours, which is heartening!

Reply
The Skint Foodie
22/5/2012 23:52:46

Hard crust hasn't been an issue here at Skint Towers, maybe because I'm putting a tray of boiling water at the bottom of the oven; but the perfect crumb continues to be elusive! Probably because a domestic oven can't get to a high enough temperature for that initial blast.

Reply
john flower
27/2/2013 10:04:44

Suggest you beg, borrow or steal (or even buy) a copy of English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David. All the clever stuff that American and other self-proclaimed gurus are "discovering" is in there.Based on her instructions, I use an old pyrex casserole with a lid to bake loaves of any sort -much better than sloshing water about for steam, it produces its own. I'm all for the easy life and mix up flour, salt water and very little instant yeast (3 gm. for 500gm. flour), leave it covered in the bowl overnight, briefly (2mins.) knead it, shape it, leave to prove for 2 hrs. in the aforesaid casserole, slash it, and bung it in COLD oven then turned on to max. fan(about 250c). 25/30 mins. then take lid off, turn temp. down to 220 ish for about another 25 mins. When it's brown it's done, when it's black it's burnt! Actually I use a thermometer - about 205C at the centre. No mysteries, and I,m sure many people produce better bread - but this way is quick, easy and it tastes bloody good!

Reply
John Flower
28/2/2013 08:23:40

Ooos! In my earlier email I put 3g. instant yeast - bad maths, it should be about 1g, i.e.1/4 of a proper measuring spoon.

Reply
John Flower
28/2/2013 08:28:55

Oops again! I think I just said 1/4 of proper measuring spoon - it should have been 1/4 of a proper measuring TEASPOON.

Reply
Eli link
22/11/2014 00:29:01

Just having a go at sourghdough for the first time, literally I just finished kneading it and am sitting with a cuppa when I came across this post. It's brilliant, the perfect outlook on things as like you say, trying to follow tv shows and recipe books in your home kitchen isn't always as easy as it sounds. I've added your blog to my rss feed. Brilliant.

Reply
janice
15/10/2016 12:11:09

Brilliant recipe thanks!
My third time making sourdough and it worked. The first two failed!

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