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