Homemade Sourdough Bread

Submitted by Pa. Hiker

"Soft crust, tangy sourdough flavor makes this one of my favorite sourdough bread recipes. A response to those who feel the bread is not sour enough. The taste of the bread relies heavily on the 'sourness' of the starter, which varies from area to area. Here is a suggestion from King Arthur Flour on making bread 'more sour', hope it helps: In general, you can achieve a more sour taste by allowing the dough to ferment for a longer time at a lower temperature. However, the climate you live in and the strains of wild yeast naturally present in the air around you also influence how sour your bread turns out. Some bakers add some extra zing by adding "sour salt" -- not actually a salt at all, but pure citric acid. (This is available through mail order from The King Arthur Baker's Catalogue(R) at 1-800/827-6836)"

 

• Ready In: 3hrs 5mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Yields: 2 loaves

ingredients

• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 6 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 1⁄2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• cornmeal

directions

1. Bring sourdough starter to room temperature.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine 2-1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast; set aside.
3. In a saucepan heat and stir water, sugar, butter, and salt just until warm (120-130 deg.) and butter almost melts.
4. Add to flour mixture.
5. Add sourdough starter.
6. Beat with until mixed and smooth, scraping bowl.
7. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
8. On a lightly floured surface knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic.
9. Shape into a ball.
10. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface.
11. Cover and let rise until doubled.
12. Punch dough down.
13. Turn out on a lightly floured surface.
14. Divide in half.
15. Cover and let rise for 10 minutes.
16. Lightly grease a large baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.
17. Shape each half of the dough into a ball, place on baking sheet, flatten to about a 6-inch circle.
18. With a sharp knife make crisscross slashes, 1/4 inch deep, on the top of the loaves.
19. Cover and let rise 30 minutes.
20. Preheat oven to 375-deg.
21. After heated place bread in oven and steam.
22. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, or till bread tests done.
23. Cool on a wire rack.

Reviews

[Hadice]

This recipe produced a really nice dough. It rose well and browned beautifully in the oven. After all the effort I have to admit I was hoping for a more sour taste, it smelled more like sourdough than tasted like it. Still a delicious bread. My toddler and I ate three pieces between us as soon as it was cool enough to chew! Side note: I had to google what you might mean by steaming, a foreign concept to me (worked well.) Maybe you could elaborate in the instructions :)

 

[plantfreek]

I get good consistent results with this recipe each time I bake this bread. And now that I have a new lamme to replace my old one that broke I'm even happier to use this recipe. I have a very, very old SF starter that has a really sour tangy flavor to it that everyone loves. I'll admit I've been baking for over 46 years, thousands of loaves of bread but in order to get a good result you have to have a solid recipe to start with. I use this recipe and make changes in the flavor with additions of my own but it is a good basic SD recipe. Thanks for posting!

 

[The Jelly Room]

A very nice Bread! Like all bread recipes, I feel you need to play with it a few times to see what works best for you. In my case, I added about 1/2 teaspoon yeast, because my starter wasn.t doing the job well enough. That did the trick though. I also had to play with flour quantities a bit to see what would get me the best consistency. This dough is silky smooth to the touch, and the bread comes out great, with a nice crackly crust, and makes great sandwiches and toast! Give it a try , maybe 2 tries. Definitely worth the effort!

 

[bitch'n kitchen]

Excellent!! It is so much quicker than traditional sourdough. I was crispy on the outside and very tender inside. I used 1 cup of buttermilk and 1/2 cup water. It was not as sour as traditional sourdough but still somewhat sour. I have trouble getting my bread to rise and make a nice round loaf. One loaf I did in the loaf pan and the other on a clay sheet. The loaf was absolutely perfect and the round was flat. When it rose it spread width wise instead of up. Not sure how to fix that but I know it was not the recipe because the other loaf was perfect.

 

[MrsMustHunt]

This is bar none the best bread recipe I have tried, and I've been baking bread since I was a teen. The bread had not only awesome flavor, but great texture also. I made loaves of bread, as well as hamburger and brat buns. The bread stays soft, so a loaf is still good for sandwiches 3 & 4 days later. It has enough texture to hold up to brat and italian sausage toppings.<br/>I have experimented with using 1/4 C vital wheat gluten, which I like. I have also used up to 3/4 C fresh ground wheat flour, which also works fine in this recipe. I plan to up the wheat flour to see where I get that balance of soft, yet still has nutrition value.