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I've been swearing I would post my how-to for a long time, so here it is. I make sourdough bread from scratch (mostly) every few days. I generally make 2 small sandwich loaves per batch, but sometimes I'll make a big circular loaf in my le creuset (with metal handle swapped out) or baguettes on a baking sheet. I'm sure there are a million better ways to do this and I'm constantly tweaking my recipes to make it better/different.
(1) Get a starter growing. Mix roughly 1 part all-purpose flour to 1 part water. (I think I did 1 cup: 1 cup) in a medium bowl. Let this sit open to the air for a few days, you can cover it periodically. The idea here is to let the local yeast and bacteria start eating your starter! You'll see evidence of the bacteria and yeast as bubbles and sour smell.
(2) Gently thicken this up to a 3 Part flour: 1 part water mix (smooth dough) over the next few days, you want to make sure you are "feeding" (aka: refreshing) it to keep your new ecosystem alive. While you are nurturing your starter to life to get to a 1:3 ratio, you are going to want to toss some as you add new flour, this feels very wasteful.
(3) Store this in a glass/plastic container airtight if possible in the fridge, refresh it every few days (or once a week or so).
I refresh my starter whenever I make bread. I use a kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook, you could just knead by hand which I did before the Kitchen Aid.
(4) Take starter out of fridge and let it warm up to room temperature for an hour or so.
(5) Mix roughly 3 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup water in the Kitchen Aid on speed 2 w/dough hook.
(6) After it's mixed for a few minutes, mix in the entire starter by dropping in chunks.
(7) Break off roughly 1/3 of this mix (grab a chunk) and put back in starter container & pop back in fridge -- (this is your refreshed starter).
(8) Put the rest in a plastic bowl (sometimes I lightly oil the bowl, sometimes not) to rise (roughly double) for a few hours.
(*) Optional: Put this in the fridge overnight, (covered in plastic wrap) this tends to add a little extra sour punch when I do this... I mean "complex flavor"
(9) <<Making the actual dough>> Put roughly 3 cups (bread or all-purpose) flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp instant yeast (for faster rising if I feel like "cheating") & 1 cup water in the mixer and mix on speed 2. Add in the dough (there is another name for this "dough"...) you let double in step 8.
(10) Let this rise until double (the time depends on the yeast in your starter and if you did/didn't use the instant yeast) covered in plastic wrap.
(11) Take it out, loosely shape it into loaves and put into oiled loaf pans.
(12) Let the loaves rise more in the pans (roughly double) covered in plastic wrap.
(13) Bake at 425 for 30ish minutes. The brown color will depend on the humidity (loving the midwest for that!)
Someday I'll go back and update with the actual names for the steps, but for now I just know what I do, so there you go. Every batch is a little different, my starter is FINALLY getting sour. We were devastated when our starter that was older than dd was accidentally tossed during the move. I started a new one once we got here and figured it was time to post it here.
Enjoy.
(1) Get a starter growing. Mix roughly 1 part all-purpose flour to 1 part water. (I think I did 1 cup: 1 cup) in a medium bowl. Let this sit open to the air for a few days, you can cover it periodically. The idea here is to let the local yeast and bacteria start eating your starter! You'll see evidence of the bacteria and yeast as bubbles and sour smell.
(2) Gently thicken this up to a 3 Part flour: 1 part water mix (smooth dough) over the next few days, you want to make sure you are "feeding" (aka: refreshing) it to keep your new ecosystem alive. While you are nurturing your starter to life to get to a 1:3 ratio, you are going to want to toss some as you add new flour, this feels very wasteful.
(3) Store this in a glass/plastic container airtight if possible in the fridge, refresh it every few days (or once a week or so).
I refresh my starter whenever I make bread. I use a kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook, you could just knead by hand which I did before the Kitchen Aid.
(4) Take starter out of fridge and let it warm up to room temperature for an hour or so.
(5) Mix roughly 3 cups all purpose flour and 1 cup water in the Kitchen Aid on speed 2 w/dough hook.
(6) After it's mixed for a few minutes, mix in the entire starter by dropping in chunks.
(7) Break off roughly 1/3 of this mix (grab a chunk) and put back in starter container & pop back in fridge -- (this is your refreshed starter).
(8) Put the rest in a plastic bowl (sometimes I lightly oil the bowl, sometimes not) to rise (roughly double) for a few hours.
(*) Optional: Put this in the fridge overnight, (covered in plastic wrap) this tends to add a little extra sour punch when I do this... I mean "complex flavor"
(9) <<Making the actual dough>> Put roughly 3 cups (bread or all-purpose) flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp instant yeast (for faster rising if I feel like "cheating") & 1 cup water in the mixer and mix on speed 2. Add in the dough (there is another name for this "dough"...) you let double in step 8.
(10) Let this rise until double (the time depends on the yeast in your starter and if you did/didn't use the instant yeast) covered in plastic wrap.
(11) Take it out, loosely shape it into loaves and put into oiled loaf pans.
(12) Let the loaves rise more in the pans (roughly double) covered in plastic wrap.
(13) Bake at 425 for 30ish minutes. The brown color will depend on the humidity (loving the midwest for that!)
Someday I'll go back and update with the actual names for the steps, but for now I just know what I do, so there you go. Every batch is a little different, my starter is FINALLY getting sour. We were devastated when our starter that was older than dd was accidentally tossed during the move. I started a new one once we got here and figured it was time to post it here.
Enjoy.
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