When I started thinking about sourdough bread as an art not a science, it made all the difference! Although I had been baking yeast breads for years, it took a paradigm shift for me to finally find success with my sourdough bread making.
Prior to this paradigm shift, I would have inconsistent results and sporadic success. Sometimes my loaf would work, sometimes it would be rock hard, or it wouldn’t rise at all. Then other times I would have a pretty good rise and half way decent loaf. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. And all those recipes where you have to fold and stretch every 20 minutes? Forget it. I would set timers, tell myself I could make it happen and inevitably something would happen and I would not keep to the schedule.
The breakthrough came when I took a course with The School of Traditional Skills: Traditional Sourdough Breads with Maureen Diaz Maureen was the first person to describe to me how sourdough baking is really more of an art than a science. As a mother of 9 she has been baking sourdough bread for 30 years and her confidence and experience is obvious.
Keep Sourdough Bread Simple
What I loved is that she just made it so simple. As a homeschooling, gardening, home cooking Mum of seven, I do not have time for complicated or fancy when it comes to the kitchen. I love baking and making all our meals from scratch, but it must be practical and fit in to my busy schedule. It kind of felt like she was a mother teaching me as I watched the lessons… she took all the drama out of it and made it attainable.
Since completing the course, I don’t think I have had a complete fail. Another benefit of Maureen’s method is that she teaches you how to adapt and work with it when things don’t turn out perfectly. Do you accidentally or through environmental factors overproof your dough? No problem… turn it into a focaccia and you have a yummy useful bread to feed the crew. No waste needed.
It was just empowering and I can’t recommend the course highly enough. (As an aside, The School of Traditional Skills have tonnes of other fantastic courses that you may find helpful… we sure have!)
Learn Sourdough Bread Basics and Grow From There
So, this blog post is not a recipe as such. It is not a how to make sourdough post. There are literally hundreds of recipes out there for people to find and try. Instead, I wanted to give a basic description of what I do. Combined with a couple of tips, I hope this might help someone like me. If you want more detailed instruction, I highly recommend you consider taking the course over at the School of Traditional Skills.
Healthy Starter
Six to twelve hours before I plan to start a loaf, I feed my starter. That is I add a half cup of organic bakers flour and a half cup of pure water and mix it in. Because I am making sourdough bread almost every day, I keep the starter on the bench top and feed it daily. If you were making bread less often, you may need to pop it in the fridge in between baking days.
Mix and Knead the Initial Dough
When I’m ready to start the dough, I mix a cup of starter, with a cup of water and a cup of flour in a large bowl. I make sure it is well incorporated and then let sit for anywhere from 20 minutes to 4 hours.
Now I’m just going to pause right there and say… isn’t that lovely! The freedom in that statement – 20 minutes to 4 hours. Just lovely! If my day is super busy and I’m in a hurry to get this thing done, I wait 20 minutes and move to the next step.
On the other hand, if I get busy helping a child with maths, or hanging out the laundry, or reading a book to someone, or moving the chickens, it doesn’t matter! Whenever I’m ready I move to the next step with no drama at all.
Next, I add another cup of flour, another cup of water and mix. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Keep adding flour until it forms a sticky dough.
Kneading the Dough
Sprinkle flour liberally on a clean bench top and tip dough out to knead. Knead for several minutes until the dough becomes smooth, somewhat elastic and bounces back when you poke it with your finger. That’s it. It is quick and simple.
Letting it Rise
Pop it back in the mixing bowl and let rise in a warm place 12 – 24 hours. Again there is a lot of wiggle room in that time frame. So much freedom.
Now a couple of things to keep in mind with the rise time. Temperature and humidity have a big impact on your dough. If you live in Texas, or central QLD Australia like I used to, it won’t take as long to rise as it might in Canada. On a really hot day, I would finish the rise in the fridge overnight. If it was super cold, I might pop it by the stove where it was warmer.
Being armed with a little knowledge helps a lot. With the ability to observe what is happening with your dough, you can make the judgement call. Remember, sourdough bread is an art, not a science. Watch, feel, smell and practice. And trust your ability to learn the skill.
Final Knead and Shaping
Usually I have let the bread rise overnight. In the morning I take it out onto a lightly floured bench top. I then stretch and fold it over on itself several times. The number of times really depends on the dough. If it has been very warm and the dough is very soft, I will repeat the stretch and fold more times. I will continue until it has regained some shape.
If on the other hand the dough is quite stiff, I might only do this stretch and fold 2 or three times. Each time I turn it 45 degrees before repeating. When I think the dough looks smooth and bounces back when I poke it with my finger, I am done.
At this point I either pop it in a banneton basket for the final rise, or put it on a piece of parchment (baking) paper and shape to rise.
Final Rise and Bake
The sourdough can then be left to rise anywhere from 45 minutes to a couple of hours. Again there is that lovely freedom. It doesn’t have to be an exact number of minutes.
Transfer the dough from the banneton basket to parchment (baking) paper and score the top with a blade or sharp knife. Some people do all kinds of fancy art on top of their bread when they score it. It is beautiful. It really is. I love looking at the beautiful designs some people do. But it is completely unnecessary.
If you are busy and just want to get a good, yummy, wholesome loaf made for your family, don’t stress about the art. You can play with that when you have time. The main requirement is to make a shallow cut in the top of the loaf to allow it to expand and rise more easily when you pop it in the hot oven.
Place on a baking stone in a hot oven (420 Fahrenheit or 220 Celsius) for about 40 minutes. The exact time depends on your oven. It may be anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes. An extra option is to pop a tray of ice on the rack below the bread. This will give it an injection of steam to help it rise.
Enjoy Your Sourdough Bread
There is just nothing like the smell of hot bread when it comes out of the oven. It is close to divine!
In our family we like to serve it hot with a generous slather of butter and maybe even a drizzle of local honey. So good!
Be Grateful
My final tip for delicious, easy, homemade, sourdough bread, is a bit different. Be grateful.
Although my mum never made sourdough, she used to make yeast breads quite often when we were kids. She swore that if she was grumpy when she made the bread, it would never turn out right. And if she was cheerful and maybe even sung a song while she was kneading, the bread would be better. Now I don’t know if there is any scientific truth to that, or if it falls into the old wives tale category.
But I do know that attitude is everything. Food always seems to cook better and taste better if it is prepared with some TLC. So I always think about that when I’m baking my bread and do my best to say a prayer of thanks and bless my dough as I work.
Happy Baking!
You may also like to check out this recipe for Chicken Broth My Kids Love
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