cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
17068
Baking Sourdough Bread
"Sourdough" is a term used to describe bread made with natural yeasts, "captured" from the air by an inviting dish of flour and water which you leave on the counter in your kitchen. This won't work in the desert, or in a snowstorm, or underwater, but next to the coast in California we have nice cooperative wild yeasts for making wine and "San Francisco" Sourdough bread.
Of course, like all good foods, bread is a very magical thing. RaymondS posted a picture of a basket of the bread and plate(s) of cheese he enjoyed recently, and that inspired me to spend a few rainy days working on my baking skills BECAUSE THIS BREAD LOOKS SO VERY FANTASTIC! (Yes, I am shouting!)
The big bowl has the "sour" batch of fermenting critters, flour and water. The small bowl is a younger, sweeter fermentation which we will use in the bread baking process shown below. It contains 100g flour, 100g water and lots of magical little yeasts that are burping up carbon dioxide, converting complex carbohydrates, making alcohol, etc.
As a guide, I am using a book from Tartine, one of the premiere bakeries in California, USA, Planet Earth, etc. You can see their VIDEO HERE. I have about 10 baking books but this one leapt off the shelf at me this week, so I chose to follow its method.
I am an experienced baker, having made most of our bread for 12-15 years, but have never made sourdough from start to finish.
I put the dish of water and flour on my kitchen counter, and watched over a week as the mixture boiled and bubbled. Each day I fed it more flour and water, stirred, and waited. Now it's ready.
You can see my setup below. I am using a pad under each dish because my Corian counter can be cold and chill the dough. It's cold already due to rain outside, and I don't want to slow down the fermentation.
I have 1000g of flour, 1000g of slightly warm water, 200g of starter and 20g of salt. [I will only use 750g of the water] Since my AP's bracelet is not bread-dough resistant, it's watching from the sidelines.
Everything goes in the bowl and gets mixed by hand until no flour is visible. Then it sits for 30-40 minutes and the yeast begins to go to work.
After a few hours of rising, I shape the dough into two balls.
There's no kneading in this method, just careful folding and stretching to develop gluten strands and retain the gases.
The balls of dough are flipped over and rest in a bowl on a floured towel.
This is actually a very clean process (as breadmaking goes) but the kitchen and I still get a bit of flour on us...
Now I heat the oven and my cast iron Dutch oven to 500 degrees F. The Dutch Oven will function as a sealed chamber that captures the steam coming from the wet dough. This helps it cook and improves the crust.
When the pot is VERY HOT, I remove it and pour in the dough. Slashing the top allows it to expand nicely, and gives an artistic look to the loaf.
Back in the oven, sealed up, for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes I remove the top and allow it to bake another 20 minutes
Then we take the loaf out of the Dutch oven and let it sit on the shelf for a few minutes to very gradually dry out and cool.
The bread looks and smells great. I put in the second loaf and eventually this is what we got:
It tastes even better than I could imagine, but I have some work to do on getting even distribution throughout the crumb (inside part of the loaf), and it needs to be a bit drier and not so dark on the bottom.
I gave half of the first loaf to a friend and we will cut into the next loaf soon. I have two more in progress today and I expect they will be better.
Cheers,
Cazalea
Baking Sourdough Bread
"Sourdough" is a term used to describe bread made with natural yeasts, "captured" from the air by an inviting dish of flour and water which you leave on the counter in your kitchen. This won't work in the desert, or in a snowstorm, or underwater, but next...
According to your photos, the result was extremely satisfactory.
What kind of flour did you use? Why did you cook the dough in the cast iron Dutch on not simply on plate? I'd like to share some thoughts, never done bread before but i'm quite good in making pizza and focaccia (extremely complex dough) I'm always fascina...
That is a very official looking "lab" coat.
Nice job. Your bread looks delicious. The crust looks chewy and the middle looks spongy. This all makes me want to leave the office early to create a dinner out of wine, fresh baked bread and cheese. ...but duty calls. Cheers, John
We did it for you
bread, cheese, olive oil, Southern Hemisphere champagne and hearty soup. It was great. We ate / gave away two loaves so I can practice again tomorrow! ...
I left this out all evening but you didn't come eat
Of course not such a beautiful loaf as you had! Olive oils, vinegar, cheese, olives. I noticed the wine is gone though ... ...
Wonderful baking lesson....
You must be proud. Your bread looks and should taste fantastic. Cheers, Nilo
Making sourdoughbread
Dear Cazalea, a great baker indeed! what did you use as a lubricant( butter, fat or canola?) for the dough not to stick to the bottom of the Dutch oven. Congratulations from Caracas, a city with no bread available as we speak. Rafael
No lube required
the pot is seasoned and bread falls right out. It's very sad your economy situation now. But this too shall pass. Cazalea ...
I left my tooth in San Francisco.....
I left my tooth in San Francisco Stuck in sourdough, it calls to me To be where little cable cars, climb halfway to the stars The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care..... In the style of George Cory and Douglass Cross, 1953. Obviously, I changed t...
Looks epic!
Smacking my lips here! Looks very tasty! I wasn't aware of the dutch oven method. Good idea! Big fan of Sourdough here. And despite living in the San Francisco area, I haven't found one that I consistently like. When I was a college student, Boudin SF use...
I used to pick up that surplus bread
And deliver to a homeless shelter each weekend. We own a Parisian bread van so it was appropriate! Cheers, Cazalea
Oldest sourdough bread
According to wiki they found in Switzerland. Not bad for a watch forum. Please try a Blancpain soon. Imagine a watch with the name Sourdough. Brr.
Well done Mike. You probably know how bread is important for French people. Yours seems yummy and tasty.
How many hours do you let the dough rising (did you try several lengths?) and what kind of water (running water, a very clear one...) and salt do you use? Best wishes Alkiro
The fermentation
Hi Alkiro1, The yeast starter is mixed with fresh flour and given 2 hours to come alive. This starter and flour / water are mixed by hand. It rests (autolyse) for 40 minutes on the table. Then it is placed in a bowl to rise in a warm, damp oven for 3-4 ho...
I never pass up an opportunity to visit Tartine Bakery whenever I visit SF.
It's one of my favorite places in SF and I'm sure you know the line sometimes goes well around the corner and down the street! But the bread and the sandwiches are worth it. I sometimes get one to go and enjoy it in Mission Dolores Park. Anyway, kudos to ...
Thanks!
My brother-in-law works at Salumi (cured meat sandwich shop) in Seattle which does similar "sell until we run out" business almost every day. Crazy!
The loaves are improving, the neighbors are happy
Twenty pounds of flour later, I think I've just about got this sourdough loaf figured out. Cazalea ...
