Sour Culture Final Product

Good Morning Readers,

The long-awaited "Sourdough Issue" has arrived!  I will be bringing you through all the steps necessary to making your own homemade loaf of sourdough!  I hope you took care of your starters, and fed them well, because they will be put to good use today!  There will be a recipe posted in the beginning, but this recipe is just a basic formula!  You have creative freedom to be adventurous; after all, it is your loaf of bread.  And the good news is if it doesn't work the first time you can try again until it does.

Are your ready?  I know I am.  Let's get started!

MEP List:
1. Scale
2. Towel (To Cover Dough While Resting)
3. Large Bowl
4. Sour Culture
5. Water (80 deg or lukewarm to the touch)
6. Flour (Flour in photo is not what I used, just for show)
7. Salt

Now, for the formula...

Sour Culture              260 gr  or 10 oz
Water                         422 gr  or 15 oz
Bread Flour               612 gr  or 22 oz
Whole Wheat Flour   45 gr    or 2 oz
Salt                            18 gr    or 1 oz

I have placed all these ingredients in the order you should place them in the bowl.  Please note: ounce weights are not the same as ounces in volume- be sure to weigh it out to ounce weight.  1 oz of Sour Culture is not equal to 1 ounce of water in volume, only in weight.  This is very important because if you   measure it out in ounce volume it will mess up your whole recipe!  The saying, "A pint is a pound the world around," is not correct!  A pint of flour, especially sifted flour, is not going to weigh the same as a pint of water.  Now, with that cleared up I have consulted a book called, "The Book of Yields," that can convert all of these weights into cup measures if you prefer a volume approach or you simply do not have a scale handy.

Sour Culture                 1 Cup
Water                           1.9 Cups
Bread Flour                 4.6 Cups
Whole Wheat Flour     .5 Cups
Salt                              1.5 T

These numbers are not precise, so you might need to add some flour or water depending on how the dough feels.

Get ready for the long haul because we are mixing this dough by hand, and this process will take over 2 hrs until we are completely finished.

First, place the water and culture in the mixing bowl and dissolve the culture in the water.  Make sure to have some culture left over to feed.  (Side note: You can feed the culture now or after we are finished mixing.  If you want to keep it going feed it and leave it out as usual.  If you don't plan on using it for a while, feed it and place it immediately into the fridge.)  Back to our regular scheduled program.  Once the culture is dissolved, add your flour and salt on top.  Start mixing by hand, making sure to incorporate all the flour.  You should be left with a very sticky clump of dough.  The dough shouldn't be extremely stiff and tough to mix, but it also shouldn't be soupy either.

After everything is incorporated, cover with a towel and look at the clock.

Time is essential in this exercise.  This dough is going to bulk ferment for 2 hours, and every 20 minutes we are going to fold the dough.  Now, you might of just heard a few words that are foreign to you so let me explain.  Bulk Fermentation- time we let the dough sit, allowing the culture to do its magic producing alcohol and carbon dioxide.  During this time we are starting to develop some flavor and also allowing the gluten in the dough to relax.   Folding- process of stretching and lifting the dough over itself to develop the gluten and de-gas the dough.

The folding technique shown can be done with two hands, but for me my other hand was preoccupied with the camera.  We want to do this to the dough every 20 min for 2 hrs.  By the end, the dough should become less tacky and more of a smooth ball of dough.

  
After the 2 hrs, we are going to be dividing the dough evenly to be shaped.  You can either cut the dough in half and make two 1.5 pound loaves or if you have a scale you can cut it into whatever size pieces you desire!  Before we get started on dividing, we need to get our MEP for finishing ready.

MEP List:
1. Flour (for dusting the table)
2. Bench knife (to cut the dough)
3. Bowls (for the dough to ferment overnight)
4. Pan Spray

Once the MEP is setup, get the dough out of the bowl and place it on a floured table surface.

We are now going to divide the dough into desired weights.  I wanted to use some of my dough for pizza so I cut mine a little differently.

When you have the dough divided, we are going to shape it into a ball or boule.  The rounding technique is something that I am so used to doing I didn't think about having a video for you.  If you are unsure how exactly to round a ball of dough, go to YouTube and type in "rounding dough"!

Now that the dough is shaped we want to place it in our bowls to ferment overnight in the fridge.  Before we just place it in the bowl we need to spray the bowl with our pan spray and then flour over top of the spray.  If you just place the dough into the bowl without spray or flour, you would find that the dough would be stuck and it would not come out tomorrow morning!  Let me tell you, that is one of the most frustrating experiences ever.  All the time invested into that loaf of bread only to be destroyed because it will not come out of the bowl!  So please, make sure to spray and then flour very well.

Then place the dough seem side up.  The seem would be the bottom part of the dough that was in contact with the table while shaping.  We want to leave the dough at room temperature for one hour and then place it in the fridge overnight.  Letting it ferment overnight in the fridge helps develop flavor in the dough.  Giving the yeast as much time as possible to produce.  While it is fermenting we want to keep it covered, I would suggest a plastic bag that fits loosely around the bowl.

And we wait.  Well, you don't have to wait, you can sleep!  You want to leave the loaf in in the fridge for roughly 18 to 24 hours.  Any more than 24 hrs and it will over ferment and leave you with a terrible product that will taste and smell alcoholic.

So, now that 18  to 24 hours have passed, let's pull the dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temp for 1 hr.  During this hour, you can get your oven preheated to 470 deg.  Also, ten minutes before you bake your sourdough, place a container of water into the over to create steam.  A loaf pan or 13X9 in pan half filled with water should do the trick.

If you are using a baking stone:
Place the baking stone into the oven when you turn the oven on for preheating.
When you are ready to score your dough, use hot pads to pull out the baking stone and place the loaf on the stone.  Score it quickly and place it immediately back in the oven.  This process would need to be done carefully and quickly, so the stone doesn't cool off too much.

If you are using a baking or cookie sheet:
If you are baking on a cookie sheet place the dough on the sheet and score.  Once you have it scored, place it in the oven and bake!  I would suggest using parchment paper in between the cookie sheet and dough.

Scoring the dough is the process of cutting the dough in a certain design, or shape, which will allow the dough to expand in that specific spot.  If you do not score your loaf it will not get as much volume and will also burst at the weakest point of the loaf, and that usually looks pretty bad.  I did a basic tic-tac-toe style score with a razor blade.  This can also be done with a serrated paring knife.

As soon as you score the loaf you want to get it in the oven quickly.  The longer it is out of the oven the more gas it is losing out of the cuts.  After 15 min in the oven pull out the water.  Depending on size, it could take anywhere from 25 min to 1 hr.  Make sure to keep an eye on it, there is no exact time that will always work.  It is done when it is done!  If you read farther down I have included a few tips for some visual cues that should help you determine the "done-ness" of your loaf. 

I had the convenience of using our amazing Llopis oven at work!  I figured I would give you an exclusive peak inside of our oven.

You want to get a nice golden to dark brown color on your loaf to maximize flavor.  I always say color is flavor, so the darker it is the more complex flavor you will get.  Until it gets black, now thats just burnt!

You now have your very own Sourdough!  From start to finish, it was all you!  Congratulations!  Before you get to eager and cut it open hot, one of the many important steps in baking is cooling.  So, allow it to cool and then cut it open and enjoy!  Make sure to taste it constructively, see what you can do better or different.  Maybe you want more acidity or maybe less!  If you want more acidity, try using colder water during your feeds or warmer if you want less acidity.  It is your sour culture now, take care of it and use it well!  

I hope this was helpful!  Please post a comment with a picture of your final product.  I would love to see them!

Bake That Bread,

Josh

Happy Wednesday!

Good Afternoon,

How was the Labor Day weekend?  Anybody forget about their culture?  Still feeding them everyday?  You have to make sure to stay on top of it everyday, and you will be rewarded in the end with a culture that could a lifetime!  Wouldn't it be an amazing opportunity to have something like that passed down through the family?  A family heirloom sour culture!  A weird thought, I know, but a very rewarding one as well.

If you have any questions at all with starting your own culture, please post them on here.  That way we can share the info with everyone!

Next week, I should have the start of a series on Sprouting Grains!  I am very excited about this experiment!  Sprouted Grains produce some amazing recipes and oh, by the way have great health benefits!  Make sure to stay tuned into the blog!  Also, if you have any topics, pertaining to bread or even pastry, feel free to post a comment about it, and I will see what I can come up with for you!

I want to leave you with this article a Chef sent me recently!  Some great info for you....

http://www.foodprocessing.com/industrynews/2010/096.html

Bake That Bread,

Josh

Sour Culture Day 5

Happy Saturday!

Today is the all important Day 5 of our sour culture feeding!  The feeding we do today will be will be continued for as long as you use it to keep the culture alive and strong.  Once you feel more comfortable with the recipe, you do have the freedom to tweek the amounts a little bit and see how it affects your final product.  Keep you eye on the blog, in the near future I will post an article on how to change the acidity levels in your sour culture.  One quick thought to keep in mind, more acidity equals less volume and less acidity equals more volume!

Now, on to today's feeding!  Let's get our MEP setup.

 MEP List:
1. New Bowl
2. Scale
3. Water (227 gr or 1 cup)
4. Flour (340 gr or 1 1/2 heaping cups)
5. Culture (113 gr or 1/2 cup)

MEP is pretty much the same as yesterday, just a change in the amounts of ingredients!  The ratio changes to 3 parts flour to 2 parts water to 1 part culture.

For mixing, scale the 113 gr of culture into the bowl, making sure to observe the culture using all of your senses!  Once the culture is scaled, add your water on top and give it a quick hand mix.  Now, place your flour on top and knead it together.  The culture will now become what we call a stiff levain which means the culture will be more of a dough than days past.  If you have a KitchenAid Mixer, it might be easier to mix it there with a paddle or dough hook.

Once you have it mixed, return it to the washed container and cover it until tomorrow.  You can now throw away the old culture leftover from today.  Everyday you will have a little culture leftover, and the leftovers can be thrown away or they can be used start another culture.  If you want to try one with a different flour blend or even some additions, now would be the time.  My suggestion would be to add a small percentage of Whole Wheat flour everyday, even just 5-10% is enough to change the acidity of the culture but not  affect the overall color or flavor.  It is you culture, have fun with it and take care of it.

For the next four to five days, feed the culture just like you did today.  The culture is not strong enough to make your own sourdough yet, but next Saturday I will post a recipe for you.  I will feed mine until then as well and make a loaf next Saturday with you.

After next Saturday, if you do not want to feed it everyday, feed it and immediately put it in the refrigerator in a sealed container.  When you want to use it pull it out and let it sit at room temp for one full day.  For the next two days, feed it like we did today, and your culture should be up and ready to go.
The culture can last in the fridge for 3 weeks, if you plan on having it in there longer, freeze it.  When you want to use it again, pull it out for a day and then give it at least 3 to 4 days of feedings before you use it again.

You now officially have your own Sour Dough Culture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Way to go!  It wasn't that hard at all, no magic or secret tricks.  Using and making your culture is one way to keep us connected to our past! This process has been used for thousands of years!  Keep the tradition going, pass it on, share it with a friend!  Baking is all about sharing! And Sharing is Caring!

If any of you want to post pictures of successful cultures, or in a week, pictures of successful sourdough loaves, be my guest!  I would love to see them.  Or, if you are having some problems, the best way I can help is by seeing the culture!

Have a great weekend and don't forget to take care of you culture!

Bake that Bread,

Josh

Sour Culture Day 4

Good Morning Bakers,

We are almost to the final step of the process!

Today, I want you to open up the container and observe the culture.  What do you see?  What do you smell?  What does the culture feel like?

My culture had a nice dairy smell to it, almost like a container of yogurt. It had a creamy yellow color to it, about the same color as a quality organic flour.  I also noticed the formation of bubbles on the surface, a good sign of life.  At this point, you should be seeing signs of life in the culture.  If you are not seeing signs of life, I would suggest starting over.  It felt very wet, but with some tackiness to it.  It coated my fingers when I pulled them out of the culture.

Now that we have observed all the changes, lets get setup for for feeding our culture.
MEP today is just about the same as yesterday!  The only change is in the amount of culture to be used, it is now doubled to 227 gr or 1 cup.

MEP List:
1. New Bowl (Wash the container)
2. Scale
3. Water (113 gr or 1/2 cup)
4. Flour (113 gr or a heaping 1/2 cup)
5. Culture (227 gr or 1 cup)

The process will stay the same for mixing.  First, the 227 gr of your culture goes in the bowl, add your 113 gr of 90 deg water on top and give it a quick stir.  Put your  113 gr of flour on top and mix until fully incorporated.  Once everything is incorporated, place the culture back into the washed container.

The culture should look the same as yesterday, even with the extra culture.  The reason for doubling the amount of culture in the mix is: to increase the acetic acid levels and to increase the amount of yeast that is producing in the culture.  We want to have as many yeast cells as possible creating CO2 and alcohol.  This CO2 production is what gives us our leavening.  So, the more cells the larger the loaf size.

That's all I have for today.  Enjoy the Labor Day weekend and I will see you back here tomorrow!

Bake that Bread!

Josh

Sour Culture Day 3

Welcome Back Fellow Bakers,

Day 3 is upon us.  First, we will start off with the MEP necessary to begin.

Quick Quiz:  What does MEP mean?

Everything in Place

MEP List:
1. New Bowl
2. Scale
3. Flour (113 gr or 1/2 cup)
4. Water (113 gr or heaping 1/2 cup)
5. Culture (113 gr or 1/2 cup)

Now, place your 113 gr of culture in the bowl and wash the resealable container.  We will mix the culture in the bowl and then later put it back into the container for storing.  Scale out your 113 gr of water in a separate container.  You want this water to be 90 degrees or warm to the touch, if no thermometer is available.  Now, add it on top of the culture.  Remember, if your culture had an excessive alcoholic smell to it, try using colder water.  We are using all our senses in this exercise! Give this a quick hand mix!  After this, scale out your flour and add that to the watered down culture. Mix until the flour is fully incorporated.

At this point we can place the culture back in our clean container for storage.

The culture should have the same consistency as Day 1.  The ratio is similar, just with the culture added in.  This is a ratio of: 1 to 1 to 1.

What we're doing is creating an ideal environment for yeast to thrive.  By adding warm water we create a warm culture, and by adding the flour we are giving it the food it needs, allowing it to consume and produce our CO2 and alcohol.  Were not focused on acidity levels at this point as much as we are focused on keeping the yeast alive and strong as possible.

Also, if you wanted to add a different flour blend into the mix, now is the time.  Now, this next explanation can get a little tricky.  So you may not want to try this until you've gotten a hand on developing your sour culture.

I would suggest only adjusting up to about 25% of your flour weight.  For example, if your adding Whole Wheat flour the formula would be: 29 gr Whole Wheat flour and 84 gr of All-purpose flour, 113 gr water and 113 gr of your culture.  I used 25% Whole Wheat in that formula.  To get the 29 grams you simply multiply .25 X 113 = 28.25 gr.  If you want to add more or less just multiply the 113 gr by whatever percentage you want to use.  Make sure you subtract that number out of the 113 gr and not using that flour in addition to your 113 gr.

Who would have ever thought baking would involve soo much math?!?

Just a reminder,  make sure to do this at the same time everyday!

Bake that bread,

Josh

Sour Culture Day 2

Hello Readers,

Let's begin Day 2!  Baking is truly about using all of your senses to create a final product that uses the ingredients within, to their fullest potential!  With that being said, open up your container, look and smell!  See what is happening?  Observe any changes in appearance, smell.  Also touch the culture and see what it feels like.  When you get used to using all your senses, in the future, it will allow you to rely on more than just sight when a problem arises.

Just from looking at this mixture, I can tell there are many changes since we last took our photos.  There is a distinct color change; also, notice the formation of bubbles on the surface.  These are all early signs of yeast activity.  Now, if you are not seeing any bubbles or activity, do not fret.  This exercise is all about giving it time.  The culture might also have an alcoholic smell, which is a great sign! Alcohol and carbon dioxide are produced not only in cultures but in bread and beer as well when sugars are broken down by yeast enzymes, they produce those two ingredients as a by-product  You are really looking for just a hint of alcohol.  If there is an overwhelming aroma of alcohol,  that means the culture is over-fermented.  If that is the case, try using colder water and compare your results.

Today's step is very difficult and requires a lot of detail work.  Stir the culture and put the lid back on.  Now, we just wait until tomorrow.  Whew!  I told you it was gonna be tough!

We want to give the culture, more precisely the wild yeast cells, more time to eat and produce.   Tomorrow, we will feed the culture a different ratio of flour and water.  What we are really doing boils down to us just giving the yeast more food to consume and produce!

Starting tomorrow, if you so desire, you can add another type of flour to the mix.  Different flours add different flavors and acidity levels.  There are two types of acid present in the culture: acetic and lactic.    Lactic acids, will add more of a sweet flavor to your culture, whereas on the other hand Acetic acids will add more of a tangy bite to the culture.  Adding a flour such as Whole Wheat or Rye will add more acetic acid, while flours such as Durum will add more lactic acid.

It is also a possibility to add different types of fruits or vegetables into the culture.  I personally do not do this because I do not feel it adds enough flavor to warrant wasting fresh strawberries or grapes.  It does add some flavor, but these additions have to be added every time you feed the culture.  If you do this once or twice and never again, what little flavor is in there will work its way out, little by little every time you feed it.  But if this idea piques your curiosity, I encourage you to give it a try. After all, baking is all about trial and error, and learning on your own.   If you do start a fruit/veggie culture, I would suggest keeping this current culture going and starting a second one, using whatever additions you may want to add.  Just be sure to do some research on what you're adding before you just toss it in.

Respect the culture, and keep in mind that you want to take care of it as a living thing.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Keep Baking that Bread,

Josh