I’ve recently been experimenting with other types of bread, but the staple at home is my sourdough loaf, which I bake about every third day. It’s a large loaf, but hey, we eat a lot bread.
A few people were asking about it, some wondered if it was a bit of a palaver to make it. At first, I agree, it seemed all a bit complex, but you get yourself into a little routine, you plan ahead and it really isn’t all that much work if you find your rhythm.
Here’s a little step by step to how I make my bread….hope it helps any of you who are planning to take the first steps in sourdough baking. This particular loaf was left to rise too long and fell “splat” onto the baking tin – it still turned out fine, it’s so forgiving! For a starter, head over to Sawsan’s blog
I feed my starter (kept in the kitchen in a cool spot) each time I make my bread, so approx. every 3 days. If it’s any longer between bakes I’ll just feed it anyhow – ¼ cup of flour and ¼ cup of water to replace the half cup of starter I remove. Apologies for the photos but it was dark at most stages of making the bread….real life cooking!
So, the night before I want to bake my bread I put half a cup of starter into a bowl with 250g of strong flour and 300ml of water. This is what it (the sponge) looks like a minute or two after mixing it up with a fork. Don’t forget to feed your starter to replace what you have removed.
This is my sponge 15 minutes later.
About 9 hours later, next morning, my sponge looks like this.
Then I add a further 300g of strong flour, a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of olive oil (optional) and start to knead in my mixer with a dough hook. It looks lumpy and heavy at first.
After 10 minutes on slow speed it looks glossy and comes away from the sides of the bowl and is ready.
I tip it onto a lightly floured surface then sprinkle a little flour on top, it’s a wet dough but don’t worry, it comes together easily.
Shape it into a round and place it into an oiled bowl then cover with cling film.
Leave until doubled in size (or come back from work about 9 hours later to find this…don’t worry).
Turn it out of the bowl onto a floured surface, flour the top gently and shape into a long sausage if you are using a floured banneton or put it into a bowl lined with greaseproof paper and cover with a tea towel.
After an hour it will have almost doubled again in size.
Flip out onto a hot baking tray (pop the tray into your oven as it heats up) or if you don’t have a banneton put your dough and greaseproof paper directly onto the baking tray or into a heated oven dish.
Bake for about 40 minutes until golden brown at 180 degrees (fan) or 200 degrees regular oven.
Cool on a rack before slicing.
Yes, you have to wait almost 24 hours for your loaf from starting the process, but good things, in this case, really are worth waiting for!
Chica Andaluza 