I’ve been craving sourdough for about a week now, since I first put my starter together. Today, I finally got it.
It’s not as sour as it ought to be yet – my starter smells amazing but isn’t quite as flavourful as I want – but the crumb on it is beautiful and it crusted amazingly well.
So, here’s how it goes (this makes two loaves):’
1/4 cup starter
1 cup whole wheat flour
5.5 cups high grade (bread) flour
2.5 cups water
2 tsp salt
Whisk the starter and the water together. Then whisk in the wheat flour, then the salt. Change from a whisk to a wooden spoon and start adding the high grade flour, a cup at a time, and stirring in. Eventually the dough will need to be turned out (it won’t be stirrable) and you need to do this onto a well floured surface. Knead until it’s bread consistency (passes a windowpane test).
Then, let it rest for 30 minutes. I actually didn’t do this – maybe that’s why my bread’s so ugly?
Then, form it into loaves, or rounds, or baguettes, or whatever floats your boat. Cover it, and let it rise at room temperature until doubled. Typically, this takes 12-15 hours. Patience is key.
When it’s risen, preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Once it’s at temperature, slash the tops of the loaves (with a razor blade, or scissors like I did) and pop them in the oven with a pan of water at the bottom to help with crusting.
Bake for 45 minutes. Yummy! Slather with butter directly out of the oven.
Ooh, and a fun fact: the larger the surface area, the faster the bread stales. So, for keeping, loaves and rounds are best. You learn something every day!
Pre-baking: not the most attractive loaves I’ve ever seen.
Recipe can be found here. I used a different starter, though (and my recipe is here).
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