Adventures in Sourdough Part 2: The Bread

Now that you have a sourdough starter turning out beautiful yeasty bubbles on your counter you are ready to make some bread.  I went through a few attempts before I finally found this recipe. 

I nabbed this recipe from The Good Hearted Woman, and have only made a few tweaks of my own to make it fit into my schedule better.

 

 

So lets get baking!


Collecting all the ingredients, yes I have a thing for green

First gather up the ingredients, this doesn't take long...

• 3/4 cup sourdough starter, unfed & room temperature
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Take all of that and mix it together in your stand mixer, with the dough hook.  Once it is thoroughly mixed let it stand for 20 minutes. 

Using the dough hook knead the bread for 10 minutes.  While you are kneading it (or the machine is) oil a large bowl for the dough to rise in.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic transfer it to the bowl and turn it over so every side is coated in a thin layer of oil.  This dough can be pretty sticky I usually remove my rings and sometimes oil my hands before handling it. 



Dough transferred to bowl

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise.  The original recipe said for six hours... but this was not working for me.  The half hour of preparation time, a six hour rise followed by another two hour rise and then an hour of baking meant this bread took 9 1/2 hours to complete, to have this ready for dinner time, which happens around 6pm at our house, I would have to start it at about 8am, which is before my kids wake up and thus not going to happen.  If the 6 hours works for your schedule great.  I have started preparing the bread before I go to bed and then letting it rise overnight and this has worked great.

Doubled in size, after rising 6 hours

Once it has doubled in size it is ready to be formed into a round loaf.  Again be careful because it can be sticky still.  Form into a loaf and place on a square of parchment paper, or a silicone mat.  If you are going to bake this in a Dutch Oven use the parchment paper (not wax paper, I learned the hard way that wax paper will simply adhere itself to the crust of your bread... whoops).  If you do not have parchment paper or a Dutch Oven you will want to put it on a silicone baking mat atop a cookie sheet, use a baking stone and then a large oven proof pan to put over the bread during the first half of the bake (I used my crock pot liner). 

Getting ready for the final rise

Using a wet serrated knife cut a few slices in the top of the bread.  Cover the loaf with a damp cloth and allow to rise for another two hours. 

During the last 30 minutes or so of this rise put the Dutch Oven or baking stone into the oven and then turn it on to 450 degrees F.  Let the oven heat up with the Dutch Oven or baking stone. 

Once the oven is fully heated take the Dutch Oven out and very carefully lift the loaf up by the corners of the parchment paper and place inside the pot.  Or transfer the baking sheet with the loaf on it onto the baking stone.  Cover the loaf with either the lid to the Dutch Oven or that large oven proof pan we talked about before.  Bake for 12 - 13 minutes then remove the lid and bake for another 12 - 13 minutes. 



Cooling

Once the crust is a nice golden brown take it out and immediately put on a wire rack to cool.  DO NOT cut into the loaf until it has cooled at least 30 minutes, it continues baking on the countertop. 

Finally, slice and enjoy a piece of the wonderful homemade sourdough bread you have worked so hard on.





A quick recap:



Well isn't that beautiful!?


Mix ingredients in stand mixer
Allow to stand for 20 minutes
Knead in stand mixer for 10 minutes
Put in oiled bowl and let rise for 6 or more hours (until doubled)
Form into round loaf and place on parchment paper
Let rise another 2 hours
Place Dutch Oven into oven and preheat to 450
Place loaf (using parchment paper) into Dutch Oven, cover with lid
Bake 12 - 13 minutes
Remove lid bake another 12 - 13 minutes
Cool on rack for 30 minutes