Tag: Sourdough

Week 105: Chocolate Sourdough

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This decadent loaf is reminiscent of Cadbury’s popular Fruit & Nut chocolate bar. It’s got a soft, chewy crumb, a sturdy, crisp crust and is loaded with raisins, almonds and chocolate chips. I’ve adopted it from the Chocolate Sourdough Noir I found on Emilie Raffa’s website, The Clever Carrot. The website and her book, Artisan Sourdough Made Simple, are highly recommended for anyone with even just a passing interest in sourdough.

As with most sourdoughs, you have to feed your starter the night before, and it’s best if you use a Dutch oven, or some similar heavy-duty pot with a lid.

Step 1: Make dough

  • 500g bread flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 9g salt
  1. In a medium bowl, measure the flour, cocoa powder and salt and whisk to combine. Don’t worry about the lumps of cocoa powder just yet. Set aside.
  • 350g room temperature water
  • 150g active sourdough starter
  • 50g brown sugar
  • 4g vanilla extract (that’s about 1 tsp)
  1. Measure the water, starter, sugar and vanilla into a large bowl, then whisk to combine.
  2. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the liquid. If you don’t have a sifter, you can use a mesh-type colander.
  3. Mix together with the handle of a wooden spoon, using wet bits of dough to scrape the dry bits off the sides. It’s a bit of a stiff dough, so kind of hard to mix.
  4. Use your dough/bowl scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then, place the scraper under one edge of the dough, lift it up a bit and then fold it over itself, as you use your other hand to squish any dry spots to ensure they get incorporated.
  5. Cover and set aside to rest for one hour. Meanwhile, prepare the fruit, nuts and chocolate chip mixture.
Squeeze
Scrape
Fold over
  • 65g raisins
  • 65g chopped almonds
  • 150g chocolate chips (not chunks, or mini chips)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • pinch of salt
  1. Measure raisins, nuts, chocolate chips and pinch of salt into a small bowl.
  2. Add extracts, stir to coat, then set aside.
  3. After the dough has rested an hour, fold in the raisin/nut/chocolate mixture.

Step 2: Stretch & Fold kneading and resting

  1. Cover bowl and let rest in a warm place (72 degrees) for 30 minutes.
  2. Next, do a round of 4 stretch and folds (view the Stretch and Fold video under the heading “Kneading During Proofing” on the Video page for a visual). Turn over and tuck in sides.
    • Repeat #1 and #2 three more times for a total of four stretch and folds, and four 30-minute rests.
  3. Cover and let rest until it’s doubled in size and is puffy and wiggles a bit when you shake the bowl. The amount of time this takes is varied, and depends on the temperature of the room, anywhere from 3 (very warm, like summertime without A.C., to10 hours (very cool, like in the kitchen at night without the heater on).

Step 3: Shape dough

  1. View the Shaping a Boule tutorial on the Video page for a visual.
    • Remove dough to a floured countertop.
    • Lift an edge, stretch it out a bit (it’s tighter than most doughs) and fold it in toward the center. Do this all around until all sides have been folder over.
    • Turn over, and cup the dough with your hands and rotate, pushing the the sides down and under a bit to make the surface taut.
    • On a non-floured surface, slide the dough towards you a bit to make the surface taut. Rotate and slide again.
  2. Place dough in a lined and floured basket, seam side up.
  3. Cove and let rise 30 – 60 minutes, until puffy (not doubled). If you want, you can put it in the fridge overnight instead of baking right away.
  4. Meanwhile, preheat over to 450 degrees, with your baking receptacle inside.
  5. Bake 30 minutes at 400 top on, 30 minutes top off, until it reaches 205 degrees.

Week 94: Hybrid Sourdough

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This is a hybrid sourdough, calling for both a wild yeast starter levain/sourdough) and commercial yeast. There’s a lot of shouting on bread forums whether or not using yeast in a sourdough loaf is sacrilege, or cheating, but I’ve come across recipes from Dan Lepard, Peter Reinhart and Ken Forkish (the three kings of bread), and if they can do it, then so can we. If you want to make a beautiful loaf, but don’t want to wait three days, then this is your answer.

The following is adapted from from Dan Lepard’s Mill Loaf. I wanted to share the minimalist kneading technique that he accidentally discovered when working in a very busy restaurant. He was constantly having to run between kneading doughs and prepping other dishes, and the time period in which the doughs were left to rest were often getting overextended. Much to his surprise, he found that this was a good thing. His book, The Handmade Loaf, is one of my favorites because it has easy to follow recipes that are beautifully photographed and unique.

You’ll need a Dutch oven, or any other pot with lid to bake the bread.

Step 1: Feed starter

  • You’ll need 250g of starter
  • My starter is a 1:1:1 ratio. i.e. 100g each of starter/water/flour.
  • The flour I use is a mix of 70g wheat + 30g rye

Step 2: Make dough (next day)

  • 250g active white starter
  • 275g water from the tap (about 68 degrees)
  • 300g bread flour
  • 150g whole wheat
  • 50g rye
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 7g yeast
  1. Measure water into a large bowl.
  2. Add the starter and whisk to combine.
  3. Measure out all the dry ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
  4. Add dry flour mixture to the water/yeast liquid.
  5. Mix with the handle of a wooden spoon, til no dry bits remain. If you prefer, or if it’s not coming together, go ahead and use one hand to squeeze the dough together and get it thoroughly mixed.
  6. Cover and let rest 15 minutes in a warm place.

Step 3: Knead and proof

  1. Now it’s time to do the stretch and fold method of kneading:
    • With wet fingertips, pull up a section of the dough, then fold it over itself. Do this 8 to 12 times, rotating the bowl as you go along. Don’t pull too much, and if it starts to tighten stop. Turn over, cover and rest 15 minutes.
    • Repeat this stretch and fold kneading/resting for 15 minutes two more times.
  2. You’ll have done 3 stretch and fold cycles and 1 hour total resting period since mixing the dough together.
  1. Place dough on an oiled countertop and gently press to flatten.
  2. Pick up the sides, one at a time, pull out and gently flap up and down to stretch it out into a rectangular shape.
  3. Now you will do the envelope fold of kneading:
    • Pick up the right hand side, stretch it out a bit, then fold the right side over, then fold the left side over on top of that. Then, fold the top portion down and the bottom portion over on top of that. Flip this over and return it to the bowl. Cover and rest 1 hour.
    • Repeat this envelope fold knead one more time, cover and rest for another hour.
  4. You’ll have done 2 envelope kneading cycles and 2 more hours resting for a total of 3 hours.

Step 4: Shape

  1. Remove dough from bowl onto a lightly floured surface.
  2. Follow along with this “How to shape a batard” video
  3. Place dough, seam-side up into a floured proofing basket.
  4. Cover, and let rest for about 30 minutes.

Step 5: Bake

  1. Cut out a parchment paper sling that will hold the dough and fit in the pot your using to bake the bread.
  2. Preheat oven to 450, with a Dutch oven, or other heavy pot with a lid, inside.
  3. Lay the sling over the dough, flip and remove dough from basket.
  4. Score
  5. Bake at 425 for about 50 minutes.

Week 89: Honey Buttered Oat Sourdough

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This recipe comes our way via Gina Tan, who runs a bakery out of her home in Singapore, “Baking With Gina“. Lucky for us she also has many bread recipes on her blog here. This one is unique and delicious, as I’m sure they all are. The instructions are a little vague, so I’ve written them down with more detail in case you’re new to baking. Here’s the original recipe, if not.

This bake is a 3-day affair, if you count feeding your sourdough the night before. Resting periods while dough goes through it’s various proofing stages is 6 hours, and then there’s an overnight rest in the fridge.

Sourdough Loaf
Sourdough Crumb

Step 1: Feed starter the night before. You’ll need 50g of active starter for the bread.

Step 2: Prepare oats

  • 10g unsalted butter
  • 35g oats
  • 75g milk
  • 45g water
  • 15g honey
  1. Melt butter, add oats, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. The oats will get nice and brown – but you don’t want them to burn.
  2. Turn off heat, and let cool for just a little bit. If you add the liquid when the pan is super hot, it’ll all evaporate before having a chance to cook the oats.
  3. Add the milk, water and honey. Stir to combine and cook on low heat until thickened and oats are cooked.
  4. Turn off heat and transfer to a bowl. Cover until ready to use so it doesn’t dry out.
Toast the oats in butter
Oats mixed with milk, water and honey

Step 3: Make dough

  • 200g bread flour
  • 25g all-purpose flour
  • 25g semolina flour
  • 175g water
  1. Measure flours into a med-large bowl and whisk to combine.
  2. Add water then mix with the handle of a wooden spoon until there are no dry bits left.
  3. Scrape sides down.
  4. Cover and let rest 90 minutes
  • 50g starter
  1. Add starter to the dough and with a wet hand, squeeze dough with your fingers and thumb to mix. You don’t want to squeeze the dough through your fingers, or use your entire hand, just your fingers. When dough starts to stick to your fingers, wet them again.
  2. Scrape dough off sides, cover and let rest 30 minutes.
  • 5g salt
  • oat mixture
  1. Add salt and oats, and mix to combine. If you have a rectangular container, transfer dough to that for the rest of the resting/kneading steps.
  2. Cover, and let rest 30 minutes. Total resting time so far is 1 hour.

Step 4: Knead and Proof

  1. Stretch and fold*, cover and rest 30 minutes
  2. Lamination**, cover and rest for 30 minutes
  3. Coil folds***, cover and rest for 30 minutes.
    • 2nd coil fold and 30 minute rest
    • 3rd coil fold and 30 minute rest
    • 4th coil fold
  4. Cover and let rest for 1 hour. Total resting time is 6 hours.

Step 5: Shape and proof overnight

  1. Shape the dough, then place in a lined & floured container for 20 minutes.
  2. Cover then place in fridge for an overnight rest.

(Next day) Step 6: Bake

  1. Preheat oven to 500 degrees, and place a Dutch oven with lid instead to heat up along with the oven.
  2. Score top of loaf.
  3. Bake, covered, at 475 for 20 minutes
  4. Uncover and bake at 450 for 20 minutes
  5. Cool completely before slicing.

*Gluten development: Stretch & Fold

**Gluten development: Laminating

***Gluten development: Coil Fold

Week 75: Farmhouse Sourdough

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My oh my, I don’t think a bread can get much better than this! I adapted it from Ken Forkish’s Pain au Bacon recipe in Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, one of my all time favorite bread making cookbooks (see all my favorites here). After ditching a successful 20-year tech career, he opened up Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, OR. and hasn’t looked back. He’s got quite a lot of video instructions for pizza and bread making on his website that every aspiring baker should view.

Step 1: Make the levain

  • 25g active starter
  • 100g white flour
  • 25g whole wheat
  • 100g warm water (85-90 degrees)
  1. Mix the starter, flours and water until incorporated.
  2. Cover, and let rest 9~10 hours.

Step 2: Prep bacon

  • 1/2 lb bacon
  1. Chop bacon into small pieces, and fry until nice and crisp
  2. Drain on paper towels
  3. Reserve 1 Tbsp bacon grease

Step 3: Make the autolyse

  • 432g white flour
  • 8g whole wheat
  • 342g warm water (85-90 degrees)
  1. Mix the flours and water together in a large bowl until incorporated
  2. Cover, and let rest for 30 minutes
  • 10g salt
  1. Sprinkle the salt onto the top of the dough and fold it in.

Step 4: Make dough

  • Levain
  • Autolyse
  • Bacon
  • Bacon fat
  1. Add the levain to the autolyse and use the pincer method to mix it in. See Ken demonstrating this method in the “Mixing By Hand” video here.
  2. Let rest, then spread the bacon fat over the top, and sprinkle the bacon over that.
  3. Mix again with the pincer method.

Step 5: Proof and knead

  1. The dough needs to rest for about 2 hours. Knead the dough using the stretch & fold method every 30 minutes. See the “Kneading during Proofing” videos on the Video page.

Step 6: Shape dough

  1. Gently remove dough onto a floured countertop, using a dough scraper.
  2. Dust flour around the perimeter, then lift sides just a bit and scoot the flour under.
  3. Lift sides up, then over to form a circular shape and tighten it up a bit.
  1. Flip over and push sides down and under with cupped hands to make the surface taught. See “Shaping” video on the Video page.
  2. Dust a proofing basket, or a tea towel placed in a bowl with a generous amount of flour.
  3. Gently lift than lower the dough into the basket, seam side down.
  4. Cover and proof about 3-1/2 to 4 hours.
  5. Cut a sling out of parchment paper to use for lowering the dough into your baking receptacle.
  1. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 475 degrees, and place a Dutch oven with lid (or any heavy pot that has a lid) inside to heat up as well.

Step 7: Bake

  1. When dough is proofed, place the paper sling on top of the basket/bowl, then a cutting board on top of that.
  2. Carefully invert so the dough is on the cutting board, and out of the container.
  3. Remove the Dutch oven/pot from the oven, remove lid, and carefully place dough inside.
  4. Replace the lid, then return the Dutch oven/pot back in the oven and bake for 30 minutes
  5. Uncover, reduce heat to 450, and bake for 30 minutes more, until it’s a medium dark brown.
  6. Let cool on a rack before slicing.

Week 59: French Sourdough

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FRANCE: Pain de Campagne is a multi-grain French sourdough, made with white, whole wheat and rye flours. Back in the day, French villagers would bake very large loaves in communal ovens, which could feed the family for weeks. Some say scoring was a way to identify your loaf.

This recipe follows Maura Brickman’s method for Pain de Campagne introduced on King Arthur’s website (see video link below) whereby you can use your starter straight from the fridge. You don’t have to feed it the night before, and you don’t have to create a levain with an active starter. This removes two steps from a very long process.

Continue reading “Week 59: French Sourdough” →

Week 58: Same Day Sourdough

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Baking a sourdough loaf is a two-day affair, because there are so many stages in the prepping and proofing. I set out to find if it was possible to a.) make a loaf in one day, and b.) be 100% satisfied with the result. And, I’m here to tell you that there is! This is a method for baking a sourdough loaf with no overnight rise, and if you get started early enough, (8:00 AM) you’ll have a warm loaf to bring to the dinner table.

Continue reading “Week 58: Same Day Sourdough” →

Week 57: Sour Sourdough

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So far, my sourdough loaves have not been very sour. My starter is young, and I think that might have something to do with it. To make this have that familiar sourdough tang, I used a more mature starter, less starter than usual so that I can extend the resting times, skipped the autolyze step, mixed in a little whole grain (wheat or rye works) because they contain complex carbohydrates, which results in a higher production of acetic acid, and used a warm proofing temperature throughout.

*King Arthur has a Extra Tangy Sourdough Bread recipe that suggests adding 1/4 ~ 1/2 tsp citric acid if you really want that sour boost.

DAY ONE

STEP 1: Activate starter (4~6 hours)

Feed your starter so you can use it when it is active/mature. Mine usually takes between 4~6 hours, depending on the temperature. Keep it close by, so you can monitor the rise, and use it when it’s mature, and not starting to fall. My starter is a 1:1:1 ratio, i.e. 100g flour + 100g starter + 100g water.

STEP 2: Mix dough

  • 20g levain (active starter)
  • 350g lukewarm water (room temperature)
  • 450g bread flour (all purpose is okay, too)
  • 50g rye or whole wheat flour
  • 10g salt
  1. Gently whisk the levain (your active starter) with the water to thoroughly combine.
  2. Add the flour and salt and mix with your hands by picking up portions and squeezing through your fingers, until flour is thoroughly incorporated. Use the dough to pick up areas that have dried flour to incorporate.
  3. Rub your hands together to remove bits of dough and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  4. Cover and let rest for 4 hours in a warm place.

STEP 2: Fold Dough

  1. Pick up one end, stretch it up, and fold it over almost to the other side. Pick up that side, stretch it up and fold it to cover. Now fold the other sides in the same way. Don’t worry about scraps of dough in the pan, they’ll get covered as the dough spreads overnight.
  2. Cover and let rest 30 minutes.
  3. Repeat step one, cover and let rest 30 minutes.
  4. If it looks to be holding it’s shape a little better, then stop. If not, do another fold. Cover and let rest 30 minutes.
  5. By now it should be ready for it’s big rest. Keeping it in the same warm place, let it rest overnight about 12-13 hours. If your house is cool in the evening, find a warm place like the oven with the light on and the door cracked. I read a recommendation to place it on top of the water heater. You just want it to be somewhere in a consistent 72-75 temperature.

DAY TWO

STEP 1: Shape dough

  1. Gently turn your dough out onto a lightly oiled surface if it’s a wooden counter. If it’s granite or Formica, you don’t need the oil.
  2. Follow the video instructions on the tips page on how to shape your dough into an oval (batard) or round (boule) shape
  3. Prepare a proofing basket or a banetton, and place the dough in, seam side up.
  4. Cover with plastic wrap then proof in fridge for 6-8 hours.

Step 2: Bake

  1. Preheat oven and pot with a lid to 500.
  2. When it’s ready, remove bread from fridge and score. This is a great scoring tutorial from Breadtopia, with four videos for visual instruction.
  3. Bake at 475 for 20 minutes, then remove lid and back for 15-20 longer.