Sourdough baking

Tags

Baking, Bread, Bread project, Sourdough, sourdough starter

These little lumps of goo have transformed the breads I bake. I have finally mastered sourdough baking and feel like I have come as far as I want when it comes to breads (what will my next project be?). The breads I now bake rise well, take very little effort, come out of the oven with a crispy crust, are succulent inside, they last for several days in a tea towel; and last, but not least, they taste wonderfully!

Baking with sourdough is an ancient tradition, we’re talking thousands of years and ancient Egypt. There are some who claim to have starters going back to the 18^th century (the 17 hundreds). And what this is proof of, is how easy it is to do. There is no magic powder, secret ingredients, or blessings made by wizardy unicorns that gets the process going. What you need is flour (wheat and rye are the most used types), water, and a container with a lid. Flour grains and the air around us have traces of yeast spores in them. This is a natural type of yeast that our bodies digest more easily than the store bought dry or fresh yeast. Keeping flour, mixed with water, in room temperature the yeast is given perfect conditions for fermentation. The yeast takes some time to get going, but as soon as it has started it will quickly get very efficient.

Making your own starter takes about ten days. I have started the process and quit several times as I so easily forget to feed it every day. It takes no more than one minute, it’s just that I am so absent minded and easily distracted that I often don’t remember to do it. But a month or so back I managed, and then I managed to convert half of it from wheat to rye, which means I now have two working sourdough starters.

 

I’ll give you the step by step guide for how to making your own starter in a few days. If you live in the area and would like to have a go at sourdough baking I am very happy to share my own starter with you. Just give me a shout! 🙂

Bread recipe – spelt and wheat

Tags

Bread, Bread project, Recipe, spelt, Wheat

This bread recipe is very similar to the rye, wheat, and oat bread I shared earlier this week. This is, however, a version with spelt. Not very much is changed, but you still get quite a different tasting bread.

Start with mixing water and yeast, add a pinch of sugar.

• 6 dl water (a bit more than a pint)
• fresh yeast (about the size of the nail of your pinky finger)
• a pinch of sugar

Start with wheat flour and add a pinch of salt. Mix the flour with the water before adding the rest. Wheat rises easier than the other types of flour, and you thus want to mix that with the yeast and water straight away. Add a pinch of sugar to give the yeast a little extra oomph.

• 5 dl of sifted/bolted wheat flour
• a pinch of salt

The flour you add afterwards can be of any type you want. For this bread I added.

• 2 dl whole spelt flour
• 8 dl sifted spelt flour

Add a few handfuls of seeds and grains, for example:

• whole spelt
• sunflower seeds
• linseeds

I added a total of 2 dl grains and seeds.

Now, mix everything together and let some machine do the kneading for you. Let it run for about ten minutes. When kneading dough you would have to let Kenny (The Kenwood) knead it for over 30 minutes in order to do any harm to the dough. However, it’s a little different with spelt. Spelt should not be knead for more than 15 minutes, 10 minutes is perfect 🙂 While kneading, continue to add flour until the dough becomes a ball that no longer clings to the bowl. Afterwards cover the bowl with plastic and leave to rise for 2-12 hours (letting it rise much longer than that will cause the yeast to ferment and it will taste and smell of alcohol – not recommended!).

After having let the dough rise, knead it just a wee bit more. Add flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers and make two loaves and place in two bread forms. Let the breads rise for another 20-30 minutes. Bake in the centre of the oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 1 hour.

Test if the bread is done by knocking on it, if it sounds hollow, it’s done.

Bread recipe – oat, rye and wheat

Tags

Bread, Bread project, Oat, Recipe, Rye, Wheat

Freshly made home-baked bread straight from the oven

An easy recipe for a very tasty bread. Follow the guidelines given in the rules of the game and you’ll have get a perfect result.

Start with mixing water and yeast, add a pinch of sugar.

• 6 dl water (a bit more than a pint)
• fresh yeast (about the size of the nail of your pinky finger)
• a pinch of sugar

Start with wheat flour and add a pinch of salt. Mix the flour with the water before adding the rest. Wheat rise easier than the other types of flour, and you thus want to mix that with the yeast and water straight away. Don’t stress it though, just soak the flour.

• 5 dl of sifted/bolted wheat flour
• a pinch of salt

The flour you add afterwards can be of any type you want. For this bread I added.

• 2 dl whole wheat flour
• 4,5 dl whole rye flour
• 5 dl of rolled oats

With the flour add the seeds or whole grains you prefer. I added:

• sesame seeds
• sunflower seeds
• linseeds

Combined that came to a bit more than a cup of seeds. Add as you prefer.

Now, mix everything together and let some machine do the kneading for you. Let it run for about ten minutes, while adding a bit more flour until the dough become a ball that does no longer cling to the bowl. Afterwards cover the bowl with plastic and leave to rise for 3-12 hours (letting it rise much longer than that will cause the yeast to ferment and it will taste and smell of alcohol – not recommended!).

After having let it rise for that long, knead the dough. Add more flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers. Make two loafs and place in two bread forms. Let the breads rise for another 20-30 minutes. Bake in the centre of the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 1 hour.

Test if the bread is done by knocking on it, if it sounds hollow, it’s done.