I find bread-making a challenge. If it involves yeast, somehow it doesn't turn out like it's supposed to. Except this recipe...my step-dad gave me a cup of sourdough starter that he acquired from a funeral reception for Dale Dailey. This guy began this starter back in the 1950's. What I love about this one is that it's perfectly happy on all-purpose flour, and you "feed" it once a week, like a pet. Hubby's comment---> (although not a dog or cat, they like to be fed every day, so more like a snake, which is active when it is warm, and doesn't do to much when you put it in the fridge).
Here is the history and care instructions to make your own sourdough starter from the author Dale Dailey. Sourdough Care It's worth reading at least once to figure out how to care for your own particular sourdough start. I added the sourdough bread recipe to the bottom of my post. There is a PDF file available to print too.
So lets get started on feeding your sourdough starter to make bread loaves. I do this the night before I want to make bread. You will need to make the bread starter a little thinner than other recipes. Begin with your flour, water (bottled is what works for me, my tap water has way too many minerals in it for bread), and sourdough from the fridge. I keep it in a quart canning jar with just the ring holding on a couple layers of plastic wrap. That's so the fermentation doesn't break my jar and it keeps all the good bacteria in there and the bad stuff out. I haven't even cleaned out that jar in months. Really, the starter doesn't care. Stir the starter back together if it separated before measuring.
Measure out 2.5 cups of flour, 2 cups filtered water and 1 cup of starter.
Warm up your water to between 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix everything in your bowl that is large enough for expansion, and not metal. Metal is bad for the fermentation process.
Cover your bowl. I use plastic wrap. Then put it in a warm place for up to 12 hours. Approximately no warmer than 85 degrees. I found out that putting it in my oven with just the oven light turned on is the perfect place, and dust free. Each time you make this, the light will be on for almost 24 hours straight, so you may want to have extra light bulbs for your oven on hand, in case it burns out on you. Most likely if the bulb dies it will be when you turn it on, and not so likely when it is on overnight. This is the initial souring stage, and it will take 8-12 hours. I like to sleep in a bit, and like my sourdough bread a bit on the sour side, so 11 hours sounds good to me.
Wake up! If you fed your starter the night before going to bed, then your starter will look like this in the morning. Look at all those bubbles and it grew too! Pull it out of the oven and peel off that plastic. You can keep this plastic if it is still pretty clean and reuse it later.
Make sure a big portion of your counter is cleaned off and get all your ingredients ready. 6.5 cups flour, 1.5 cups milk, 3 cups of your starter (pour the rest of the starter back into your jar in the fridge, about a cup leftover), 2 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons salt.
Warm up your milk to somewhere around 85 degrees.
Mix 1 cup flour, the milk, melted butter, sugar and starter in a big bowl. And stir in another 1.5 cups of flour.
Then, let it sit and hydrate the flour for 15-20 minutes. I use a silicone spoon and don't care if I leave it in the bowl. I'm still staying away from metal bowls and utensils at this point. The dough looks like all the flour at that point has been absorbed.
Now you can mix in your salt, and a cup of flour at a time, until you can't stir it in anymore.
This is where you can dump it out on your really well floured board and more flour sprinkled on top.
You still haven't used all the flour yet. This dough is really sticky, so take off that jewelry. Dried out dough is really hard to get out of those rings. Get your hands floured and start kneading the flour on the board into the dough. There are videos online showing how to knead bread. The short version is to use the heels of your hand and press into the dough, fold the dough in half, turn a quarter turn and do it again. When the flour on the board is in the dough and it's still sticky, keep adding more flour until the dough is smooth and elastic, and only slightly sticky. You might use all the flour or there may be up to 1/2 cup of flour left in your bowl. It depends on the day.
Grease a bowl that is large enough for the dough to rise. I just use olive oil. Plop your ball in there.
Cover the bowl, again, reusing the plastic wrap from earlier and put it back in the oven with the light on for 2 hours, it should have doubled or at least expanded in size.
This is when you might punch it down to release large air bubbles, but it's still sticky, so don't put your fist in the middle. Instead, gently pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl and fold it into the middle all the way around. You'll have less dough stuck to your fingers this way. Cover and put it back in the oven with the light on, and let it rise some more for 30 minutes. Punch it down again, gently. Cover, and put it back in for another 30 minutes. The second 30 minute rise makes a difference in getting uniform air pockets in the dough.
Take out your dough, and gently dump it on that floured board again. If you still had flour left in your bowl, definitely use that. Then divide the dough in two even pieces. I just use a bench scraper to cut it.
Take half of the dough and press it out into a rectangle-ish shape.
Roll it up into a log and pinch the edges closed. Precision does not matter, because as I said earlier, the dough does not care.
Repeat with the other half and place your two formed loaves pinched side down in greased bread pans. Yes, I even grease my non-stick pans.
Cover them (you can spray the plastic if you want, or just be careful peeling it off later) and put them back in the oven with the light on so they can rise for 1.5 to 2 hours. Mine takes about 2 hours and I like to get the dough to rise about an inch above the edge of the pan. If your pans are a different size, you can decide for yourself when they are done.
Take them out of the oven, carefully peel off the plastic, and you can turn off the oven light. I don't have success scoring the tops of the loaves, so I don't. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and bake your bread for 35 minutes until the tops are golden. It will smell delightful at this point.
Turn your loaves out of the pan on to a cooling rack and brush butter on the tops of your hot bread. Not only is this step tasty, but it will help keep the moisture locked into your bread. When your bread has cooled a little but not still hot to the touch, wrap them up. I just use plastic wrap again, and it will also help keep the moisture in your bread.
My hubby and I only manage to eat one loaf a week. So, we circulate around the neighborhood giving away the second loaf to friends and neighbors. We tell them that the sourdough bread is fantastic toasted or served as grilled cheese.
This process is an all day thing, but you get periods of waiting for the dough to proof and get other stuff done. I work from home most days and I just work at my desk with the timer next to me so I can work until it is ready for the next step.
Sourdough Bread
By Dale Dailey
3 cups active sourdough starter
(Stir your jar of starter, then measure out and mix 1 cup of the starter with 2 1⁄2 cups flour and 2 cups warm water at 95 - 100 degrees. Cover and place in warm spot for 8-12 hours, when it is done, you should have more than enough starter for the recipe. Just put the excess back into your jar.)
6 to 6 ½ cups all purpose white flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 ½ cups warm milk (85 degrees)
2 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter
2 teaspoons salt
Put 3 cups of starter in warm bowl that will hold 4 quarts or more. Stir in 1 cup of flour and the 2 tablespoons sugar. Add the warm milk and butter.
Stir in about 1 ½ cups of flour and let it sit for 20 minutes to hydrate the flour. Your dough will be easier to work with and the bread will have a better texture if you add this step.
Add the salt and stir in enough flour until the dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon.
Turn out on floured board and knead in enough flour to make the dough smooth and satiny. Adding about 1 to 1 ½ cups of the remaining flour.
Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl that will hold 4 quarts or more. Cover and set in a warm spot (85 degrees) for 2 hours or until doubled. Punch it down and return it to a warm spot for another 30-40 minutes. Punch it down again and let rise in a warm spot for 30 minutes.
Turn out on floured board and divide into two equal parts and shape into loaves. Put them in lightly greased bread pans and let rise again in warm spot for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours. Bake in a preheated oven 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Turn out and cool.
Brush top of hot bread with butter, let cool to warm and wrap up.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete