Sourdough

One of my favourite breads is sourdough, and I've been dying to have a try at making my own for quite some time. Well now that we finally have some heating in the house I figured we had the kind of ambient temperature that might be condusive to sourdough production. Sourdough is naturally leavened bread - it has no yeast in it, just flour and water. Given long enough in a warm place it will naturally ferment.

Be warned though: If you are planning to make sourdough for the first time you need to start it nearly a week before you want to eat it. This is taking slow food (and anticipation) to extremes!
I started to make my sourdough on Monday morning, and we ate the bread for lunch on Sunday. Don't be put off by that though - its very low effort every step of the way, and the results are lovely.



Because I like to think I'm quite fancy I had by bread with smoked salmon. And then because I can eat fesh bread until it comes out of my ears, I had another chunk with honey.



Dan had just a smear of butter, which went all melted and lovely on the warm bread.

Want to know how its done?

STEP 1 (Monday morning)
50g wholemeal flour
pinch of ground cumin
15ml milk
15-30ml water

Sieve the flour and cumin into a bowl. Add the milk and enough water to make a firm dough. Kneed for 6-8 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp teatowel.
Total time: 10 minutes
Leave in a warm place for 2 days.

STEP 2 (Wednesday morning)
60ml water
115g white bread flour

Pull off the hardened crust from the dough, scoop out the moist centre (about the size of a walnut), and place in a clean bowl. Mix in the water. Gradually add the flour and mix to a dough. Cover the bowl with clingfilm.
Total time: 10 minutes
Leave in a warm place for 2 days

STEP 3 (Friday morning)
60ml water
115g white bread flour

Pull off the crust and discard. Gradually mix in the water. Mix in the flour and re-cover.
Total time: 10 minutes
Leave for 8-10 hours.

STEP 4 (Friday evening)
75ml very warm water
75g white flour

Mix the sourdough starter with the water. Gradually add the flour to form a dough. Kneed for 6-8 minutes until firm.
Total time: 10-15 minutes
Cover with a damp teatowel and leave for 8-12 hours (or overnight) until doubled in bulk.

STEP 5 (Saturday morning)
175ml lukewarm water
200-225g white flour

Gradually mix the water into your sourdough starter. Mix in enough flour to form a a soft, smooth dough.
Total time: 10 minutes
Re-cover and leave in a warm place for 8-12 hours.

STEP 6 (Saturday evening)
280ml warm water
500g white bread flour
1 tbspn salt

Gradually stir the water into the dough, then work in the flour and salt. This will take 10-15 minutes. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and kneed until smooth and elastic. Place in a large bowl, cover with lightly oiled clingfilm.
Total time: 20 minutes
Leave to rise in a warm place for 8-12 hours (or overnight).

STEP 7 (Sunday morning)

Divide the dough in half. Shape into 2 round loaves, place in lighly oiled & flour dusted tins.
Total time: 5 minutes
Re-cover and leave to rise for a further 4 hours.

STEP 8 (Sunday lunchtime)

Preheat the oven to 220C.
Place a roasting tin in the bottom of the oven.
Slash the top of the loaves with a sharp knife.
Uncover the bread tins, place in the oven and immediately drop a couple of ice cubes into the roasting tin to make steam.
Bake the bread at 220C for 25 minutes then turn the oven down to 200C and leave for 15-20 minutes further. If its done the base will sound hollow when tapped.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

So by my reckoning that's 1 hour 20 minutes of actual effort, which isn't too bad spread over 6 days, 40 minutes cooking time, but an astounding 6 days and 4 hours waiting time!
Yummy results though.