Sourdough Bread Class

[Donna M.]

Welcome! I'm glad you joined me for the Sourdough Bread Class. I am going to walk you through making a free-form loaf of sourdough bread. The recipe we will be using is posted below. If you don't have white whole wheat flour you can sub regular whole wheat or just plain white flour. Let's get started!



Deluxe Sourdough Bread

1 1/4 cups sourdough starter, proofed*
1 cup water
3 tablespoons powdered milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup instant potato flakes
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons salt

1. *To make proofed starter, take 2 Tablespoons of your starter and stir it into 1 cup of water; then stir in 1 cup of flour. Cover and let sit (proof) overnight, or 8 to 14 hours. Measure out the 1 1/4 cups needed for the recipe and return the rest to your starter pot.

2. Combine the first 5 ingredients. Mix in the flour just until the mixture is a shaggy mass.


3. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

4. Add sugar, butter, and salt and mix until all is incorporated.

5. Knead dough until it is smooth and satiny.

6. You can mix this dough in a bread machine if you wish, but take the dough out of the machine 10 minutes before the final kneading cycle is done to avoid over-processing the dough, which will cause it to become slack and wet.

7. Cover and let dough rest for 45 minutes.


8. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Pat each dough portion out into a large, flat circle. Gently stretch and fold the left side over the middle, then the right side over the middle (like folding a letter). Pat down with the palms of hands and repeat the folding with the remaining two unfolded ends. You will notice that the dough firms up a lot after folding.




Shape loaves, always keeping the folded side as the bottom. I do free-form oval loaves and place them on parchment paper.


9. Spray the loaves with Pam and cover with plastic. Place in the refrigerator overnight (this is called 'retarding'). You can also just let them rise and bake without any refrigeration. The flavor improves with the overnight refrigeration, though. The next day, take loaves out and let them finish rising at room temperature. They should be very light. Do not rush it or your bread will be dense.


10. If you prefer, you can refrigerate your dough immediately after you finish kneading it and do the folding, shaping and rising after you take it out of the fridge the next day.

11.Preheat oven and stone to 400°F for about 30 minutes prior to putting bread in oven. I also place a shallow pan of hot water on the bottom rack for steam.

12. When bread is fully risen, slash top and slide onto hot stone. If you don't have a stone, just bake on a baking sheet. After 10 minutes, turn the oven heat down to 375°F.


13. When loaves start to show color, water pan can be removed. Bake until loaves are a nice golden brown. Time will vary according to the shape and size of loaf.

14. Cool on a wire rack. You can brush crust with butter while still hot if you like a soft crust.


15. The small addtion of white whole wheat flour that I use in this bread gives it an interesting depth of flavor that I like. It does not change the color of the bread. I don't know if white whole wheat flour is easily available just anywhere. I am fortunate to live in an area where wheat is grown and milled so I have easy access to various flours.

[Rita~]

Good morning!
Happy Baking!
I will be making this but not at this time. I also hope to pop in inbetween my clients this morning!

[Rita~]

Oh this is a beautiful presentation!

[Donna M.]

Thank you, Rita! I'm sure there will be others who will be doing it later, as well.

[duonyte]

This is a wonderful presentation, Donna. Unfortunately I do not have any refreshed starter handy, but I am sure there will be others who are actually organized! This will be such a great reference tool for everyone.

[Donna M.]

I thought about the refreshed starter factor last nite as I was working on the post. Actually, if the starter has been fed and proofed within the last three days and has been kept in the refrigerator in the meantime, it will work fine.

[Susie D]

I guess I will bake tomorrow. I now have my starter proofing so sourdough is in my future!

[2ManyHobbies]

Thank you!
I stumbled onto this class and am very interested in making sourdough bread. You've shown me what I need to get started and I can't wait! My weekends are pretty much spent in the kitchen now.

Double D

[Sweet Sass]

Thankyou for the pics and instructions, I love sourdough bread

[Mrs_Kohls]

I'll confess that I didn't use your method (I used Bergy's Sourdough Starter) because I had yeast on hand, and didn't have pineapple juice.

Anyway, I've had some issues that I thought might prove valuable to anyone else taking this "class".

Quote:
I took it out of the fridge the night before I wanted to make it, but I forgot to put the new flour and water in until about an hour before I started to put it together. I tried to let it rise for about 2 hours (which it didn't rise), then I kneaded it and shaped it into the loaf pans before letting it rise overnight. It was to the top of the loaf pans before I put it in the oven this morning.

Since I don't like a lot of "brown-ness" on my crust I laid some foil over the top for the first 35 minutes and then had to broil it for about 5 more minutes to get some browning, so I think that I'd only "tent" it for about 20 minutes next time to avoid using the broiler altogether.

Quote:
The texture is gorgeous, moist, spongy, smooth....however, it tastes like flour--what did I do wrong?

Quote:
I think I might have found my culprit for the funky taste--silicone loaf pans. I have one pyrex and one silicone pan, the one in the pyrex tasted a lot better (still had a slight bit of a "raw flour" undertone though--which may be attributed to under-proofed flour or something) than the one in the silicone pan.

Bergy's recipe is pretty forgiving it seems, unless you decide to cook it in silicone loaf pans. I guess I'll be needing to buy another loaf pan. I'm also going to have to buy a bigger (non metal) mixing bowl too, as the biggest one I have is stainless steel, which I read somewhere that metal and sourdough don't mix.

[Secret Agent]

Just in case you chefs have not discovered it yet, King Arthur supplies a nice white wheat flour.

I am looking forward to baking this bread with the pineapple starter!

SA

oops, forgive me I meant flour.....

[Erin R.]

I just cannot stop loving this recipe. I made it again for our Easter dinner this past Saturday, and I came here and peeked at the lesson one more time before I started. I let my little loaves rise up in the fridge for two days before baking, sprayed them with water to stop the crust cracking apart, and ended up with two delicious, picture perfect loaves that my family went nuts over. Of course I forgot to take the picture... Anyway, thanks again for the step-by-step directions and the wonderful recipe.