Tag Archives: bread

My Sourdough Bread

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Like many people, I started making my own sourdough in the COVID lockdown and it has been a learning experience. This is my tried and tested recipe and method for 50% brown flour/50% strong white flour loaf.

INGREDIENTS

  1. 250g strong white flour
  2. 250g brown bread flour
  3. 320g warm water
  4. 15g salt

EQUIPMENT

  • a hand blender or food processor with dough hook
  • a large stainless steel bowl
  • a spatula
  • a plastic bowl with a lid (for mixing the starter)
  • a loaf tin (this is one I buy from Amazon)

AUTOLYSE

In order to strengthen the gluten in the brown flour, I mix the flour, water and salt beforehand. This is called AUTOLYSING and it softens whole wheat flour and produces a better texture loaf. You are not supposed to add the salt at this stage but I kept forgetting it the next day so I now chuck that in too.

STARTER

Your starter is the most important thing in sourdough breadmaking. I keep mine in a small WECK jar with a wooden lid on the top shelf of the fridge, right at the back, so that no one will take it out to get to something and leave it out. It’s a good idea to have a loose-fitting lid but found that I kept breaking the original glass lids that came with the WECK jar:

3 tapas de madera Weck medianas, bonitas tapas de madera de haya. Tamaño mediano = 80 mm. Compra especial. Solo para adaptarse a tarros WECK.

FEEDING THE STARTER

I only feed my starter when I make bread. It is perfectly happy left in the fridge until then, and there is no problem if you go away for a couple of weeks. It might be a bit sluggish the first few times you use it, but it will soon pick up.

METHOD  

PREVIOUS AFTERNOON:
Take your starter out of the fridge and leave it on the counter.

PREVIOUS EVENING:
MIX THE STARTER:
I always keep back 63g of starter. When I want to make bread, I transfer it to the plastic bowl and mix it together with 63g of organic white rye flour and 63g of warm water. I then put 63g of the mixture in a clean jar and put this back in the fridge. The remaining 125g of starter mix is then covered and left overnight somewhere not too cold.

AUTOLYSE THE FLOURS:
In your large stainless steel bowl, use a hand blender or food processor to mix together the white flour (250g), the brown flour (250g), the water (320g) and the salt (15g). Cover the bowl with a large plate and leave overnight. 

BREAD-MAKING DAY
07:00: MIX FLOUR AND STARTER
I mix together the flour mixture and the starter using a hand blender or food processor.
My method for this is to spread the flour mixture as thin as possible up the sides of the bowl using the spatula. I then add the starter to the middle and fold over the sides to completely cover the starter. I then combine it thoroughly using the mixer. This is then left covered for 60 minutes.

08:00: 4 STRETCHES + 4 STRETCH&FOLDS
I first stretch the dough four times. You are basically pulling it apart between your hands. You then do four stretch and folds. Rather than explaining how to do this, it is probably easier to show you what I mean by this, so here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFaKId5ijNg

You then repeat the stretch and folds four more times every 30 minutes:

08:30 STRETCH&FOLD 1

09:00 STRETCH&FOLD 2

09:30 STRETCH&FOLD 3

10:00 STRETCH&FOLD 4

10:00 PROVING THE BREAD – 3 HOURS
Once you have finished all the stretch and folds, you prove the bread for 3 hours. For this, I place the bread in the loaf tin and put it in a warm place with a cloth over it.

Fortunately, I have a bread rising setting on the oven which keeps it at 40ºC. You should not use any higher temperature as this will start to cook the bread. 

In order to stop the dough sticking to the tin, I line the loaf tin first. You can use greaseproof paper for this. However, I prefer to make my own liners from BBQ silicone liners so that I can reuse them.

Here is a video to explain how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnVogHJ5kFM

This is a photo of the bread once it has been proved:


13:00 BAKING THE BREAD – 60 MINUTES
Remove the loaf tin from the oven. Heat the oven to 180ºC and then bake the bread for 60 minutes.

Remove the bread from the tin and leave to cool.

Baking Sourdough Bread in a Bread Machine

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sourdough bread in a bread machine

MY SOURDOUGH LEARNING CURVE – UPDATED 25/9/2021

I’ve been making sourdough bread now for about a year now and today I think I’ve made my best loaf yet. Although I had originally been using 350ml water to 500g of flour, I’ve recently decreased the amount of water to 320ml and this seems to work better and the texture of the bread is not so gummy. The original proportions might work better in a conventional oven where there might be more evaporation, but I tend to bake the bread in a bread machine and these proportions seem to work better.

 

PREPARATION

The day before I am going to bake the bread, I take the sourdough starter out of the fridge at about 17:00 and leave it for a couple of hours to warm up.
I don’t want to have to throw any of the starter away and so I save the smallest amount possible to bake the next loaf. At the moment, I am saving back 60g.

I use rye flour (centeno) to feed the starter and add 60g flour and 60g of water to the starter. I transfer 60g to a new jar and put this back in the fridge. I then add another 15g flour and 15g water to the remaining starter and mix well. This is the starter for the next loaf and it should weigh approximately 150g. I leave this out on the worktop, wrapping it in a towel in the winter.

 

AUTOLYSING THE DOUGH

I have recently been experimenting with autolysing the flour overnight before mixing with the starter and this seems to work really well. Autolysing is basically mixing the flour and water together and leaving it for a number of hours for the gluten bonds to form. You generally leave white flour for around an hour and brown flour for about 4 hours.

At about 21:00, I weigh out 250g strong white flour, 250g brown flour, stir in 320ml water and gently knead the mix to bring in all the ingredients. I then cover the bowl with a plate and leave overnight.

 

ADDING THE STARTER

The next morning, I test the dough to see if it can make a window pane. I then sprinkle in 12g salt and 320ml water, mix well and leave for 60 minutes.
After 60 minutes, I stretch and fold the dough gently about 8 times and coil fold the dough about 4 times.
I do another 4 series of stretch and folds and coil folds every 30 minutes.
I then shape the dough into a ball, creating surface tension by pulling over and towards me a couple of times, turning the bowl as I go.

 

BAKING THE BREAD

I transfer the ball of dough into the breadmaker. I select the yoghurt cycle on the menu and time the breadmaker for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, I stop the machine and choose the bake cycle. On my machine, this takes 60 minutes.

Sourdough Bread – A Beginner’s Guide

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 My Sourdough Journey

My first attempts at re-invigorating a dried starter failed abysmally and it was clear that it was well and truly dead.

A couple of days into the process, I had added some fermenting blackberries and although there were a couple of promising bubbles, they soon popped and there was no further activity. I decided to try again, this time using fermenting grape juice.

We had picked the grapes to make wine towards the end of September and the must was about 10 days old when I used it. I followed Elly’s everyday low-waste method for making the starter and substituted the grape juice for the unsweetened pineapple juice that she used. This was the process I followed: 

Day 1 morning: In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup juice and 1/2 cup strong white flour. Cover with a plate. If the temperature drops below 20ºC, wrap the bowl in a towel.

Day 1 evening: Stir mixture thoroughly with a spatula. Cover.

Day 2 morning: Stir mixture thoroughly with a spatula. Cover.

Day 2 evening: Stir mixture thoroughly with a spatula. Cover.

Day 3 morning: Start the feeding process: In a new bowl, mix
together 3 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons water and 3 tablespoons
of the starter. Stir well and then cover with a plate.

Day 3 evening: Repeat feeding process.

Continue feeding starter twice a day until Day 14

By this time, the starter should be quite bubbly and doubling in size by feeding time. It should be ready to use by Day 12 – Day 14.

On Day 14, I attempted my first loaf of bread using Teresa Greenway‘s Sourdough Test loaf method.

As I was still feeding my starter, it wasn’t necessary to take it out of the fridge and reanimate it from hibernation.

DAY 1:
Take the starter out of the fridge at around 19:00 two days before you will be baking bread. Transfer the starter to a bowl and feed with equal amounts of white flour and water. Transfer 50g to a small jar and put this back in the fridge. Leave the rest of the starter on the counter until the next day.

DAY 2:
Start making the bread at around 12:00

The ingredients for the bread are as follows:

  • 100g sourdough starter
  • 330g warm water (80ºF)
  • 20g boiling water mixed with 10g salt
  • 500g bread flour

For the flour, I like to mix 350g white flour and 150g brown flour.

Put the water into a large bowl and add the starter, stirring with a whisk to break up the starter and mix thoroughly.

Cover with a plate, wrap in a towel and leave for 30 minutes.

Add the water and salt and mix thoroughly with your hands.

Leave for 60 minutes

You are now going to do 4 stretch and folds every hour, covering the bowl with the plate and towel after each one.

The stretch and fold process: by stretching and folding the dough, you are working and stretching the gluten strands in the dough. You stretch and fold each of the sides, then turn the dough over and repeat on the other side.

You are then going to do 4 coil folds every half hour, again covering the bowl with the plate and towel after each one.

Leave for 30 minutes.

Pre-shape the dough into a ball on the counter, pulling it from the bottom towards you to increase the tension on the surface.

Let the dough relax for 15-20 minutes.

Use the same technique to shape the ball of dough.

Put the ball into the breadmaker tin. Cover and leave in a cool place overnight.

Follow the following instructions for using a banneton:

Lay a tea towel over the top of a colander or banneton and dust the surface with cornflour.

Turn the ball upside down and drop it into the colander. Dust the top with cornflour and then cover with a plastic bag. Place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, get the dough out of the fridge and leave for 1.5 – 2 hours to come back up to room temperature.

Turn over and dust off any excess flour.

 

Score the top with a sharp blade. The idea of scoring is let any gases escape and ideally the cut should be about 1/2 deep.

If you want a soft-crust loaf, spray the top with water.

Bake.

Leave to cool for 30 minutes or so and then turn out onto a baking rack.

Baking Bread in a Wood Oven

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Pizza Oven Being Lit

We have another page about making cakes in a wood-fired oven here.

Here is a description of how I make bread in a bread oven.

The Heat:

Cooking in a wood fired oven is complicated because unlike an electric or gas oven, you can’t set an exact temperature which will remain constant.The temperature is more like a curve on a graph. The main idea of a wood oven is that the initial fire will cause the walls of the oven to heat up and that heat will be given back into the oven over a period of time. It is also possible to keep a small fire going at the back of the oven to maintain the temperature over a long period of time. This technique would be used for example for a pizza restaurant who have to serve pizzas over several hours. In our case, we just heat the oven up at the start and let it cool down slowly.

If possible, it is best to use the heat for as many things as possible. For example, the oven can be heated up to 450C to make some pizzas at 2pm. At 3.30pm the temperature is just right to make cakes, bread, or roast some butternut squashes for later use. Later on, we can roast some almonds, then use the heat to sterilize some glass jars for tomatoes and when the temperature gets down to 50C, we can even use it to dry some figs overnight. The oven can also be used for smoking fish. It is always best to try to make the best use of the energy that we have used. 

We use a thermometer which came with the oven which has a metal probe and a dial (as you can see in the photo above). It is probably not that accurate because it only measures the temperature at one place in the oven but after a few uses, the thermometer will give you a good, rough indication of the temperature. If you want to know the correct temperature in any part of the oven so that you could follow a recipe, it is best to use a hand-held digital thermometer.

There is an air cut off in the chimney and the door of the oven. Generally speaking, we leave the air vents open in the burning phase and close off the air for cooking. 

There is no substitute for trial and error when using a wood oven. You learn how much wood to use and more or less how the temperature curve will behave by getting a feel for it over time.

Making Bread:

Bread made in a bread oven

Obviously the most important ingredient is the flour. In our case, we buy ready mixed bread flour from Lidl supermarket which has all the necessary ingredients such as dried yeast and nutrients already added. This flour is actually intended for use in bread makers. I mix the dough in a Kenwood mixer with a dough hook for 4 minutes. I have it wetter than they recommend in the instructions on the packet. If you want to knead the dough by hand, then you would have to have a drier mixture. 

I let it rise in the mixer bowl until it has risen quite a lot (1 hour). I then put it in tins and let it rise again for another hour. Make sure you put some oil in the tins to stop it sticking. I always cut up an onion and add it to the dough and I also add some nuts such as walnuts or almonds. It doesn’t make it taste oniony but it seems to make it go stale slower.

Cook for about 45 minutes at 180ºC. People say that homemade bread is heavy but the secret is letting it rise enough. If it does not rise, you have either got bad flour with not enough gluten or bad yeast. In a wood-fired bread oven, all these time periods change every single time. If you don’t have any bread tins, roll the dough into balls (the size of a squash ball), put them on a flat baking tray and put them in the oven when they are the size of a cricket ball. It’s not a problem if they stick together as they will pull apart after cooking. When you take the bread out of the oven, knock it out of the tins or it will go soggy. If you can’t easily shake the bread out of the tin, it probably is not ready yet. After taking the bread out of the tin, leave it on a rack with air circulating around until it cools. If there is too much for one day, cut it into slices and put it in the freezer.

We have another page about making cakes in a wood fired oven here.

Migas

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Making migas with stale bread

Making migas with stale bread

Migas are fried stale breadcrumbs and while they do not sound particularly appetising they are in fact delicious and are served in many bars and restaurants in Southern Spain generally as a tapa. This is peasant food at its best: cheap, simple and tasty, using up left-overs and store cupboard inrgedients.

While most of the bread is fried as migas, some pieces are kept back and fried in oil as croutons. These can then be combined with the final dish to add a bit of texture.

There are several different ways of cooking migas and you can either use stale breadcrumbs from yesterday’s loaf or semolina.

Normal ingredients to add are garlic, chorizo or longaniza sausage (a thinner version of chorizo), green peppers, sardines, etc.). They can then be served with chunks of cold melon.

INGREDIENTS:
2 stale loaves of bread
4-5 cloves garlic, chopped
2-3 long green peppers, cut into strips
chorizo or longaniza sausage, cut into small pieces

Cut or tear the bread into fairly small pieces. Put in large bowl and sprinkle over some water.

Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan. First fry the larger chunks of bread as croutons. When they are crispy, transfer to a plate.

Fry the chopped garlic in the same oil, removing the pan when softened.

Add the pieces of chorizo or longaniza and fry until cooked. Remove.

Fry the green pepper in the same oil and then transfer to the plate.

Recipe for migas

Ingredients for migas

Add a bit more oil if necessary to the pan and add the bread. With a wooden spatula, turn the breadcrumbs, breaking them up into smaller pieces as they are fried. The finished dish will resemble breadcrumbs.

frying spanish migs

Frying Spanish migas

Combine all the ingredients and serve.