Rye sourdough bread

Bread baking with Doris #2, see here for #1 Principles of bread baking, and here for #3 Fermented Buckwheat bread

Ingredients for two loaves of bread

Takes 24 hours

In the evening, mix

§ 1000ml or 4 cups of warm water

§ 500g or 4 cups of rye flour

§ 1 tablespoon of starter.

Mix well and let stand overnight. Should be ‘alive’ by the morning. Now you have a bowl full of renewed starter!

Take away 100g (3 tablespoons) of starter before you proceed. This is now renewed/refreshed starter.
Store in the fridge and discard the old starter.
It will stay well for around 4 weeks.

Each time you make a loaf, renew/replace the starter.
If you don’t want to bake a loaf, just renew your starter every four weeks by mixing ½ cup of rye with ½ cup of warm water, and adding some starter and let it stand overnight, and you have renewed starter in the morning.

After you have taken away some renewed starter, add the following to the remaining mixture:

§ 1 tablespoon of molasses or any other sweetener

§ 12g (1 tablespoon) of salt

§ Optional: 3 tablespoons of oil (rice bran, sunflower oil etc.)
Not olive oil as the flavour of olive oil is too strong; olive oil is perfect for focaccia/pizza dough.

Mix well with a sturdy wooden spoon, and then add

§ 450g — 500g (3½–4 cups) of flour.

Use whatever ratio and combination you like (e.g. half white/half wholemeal, or more rye, or including ¼ cup of rolled oats).

§ Add the flour gradually until it just starts to come ‘off the bowl’, clumping into a ball, but still too sticky to knead. You may like to take extra time for this part and let the dough sit for ten minutes and then stir some more.

§ Optional: Add soaked and rinsed sunflower seeds, sesame or linseed seeds.

§ Put the sticky mixture into two oiled tins

§ Leave to rise on the bench for 6–10 hours (depending on the temperature, summer or winter).

Preheat the oven to 220oC with an ovenproof dish full of water to provide moisture.

Bake in 220o C for 20 minutes and then turn down to 180o–200o, for another 30–40 minutes. You need to experiment what is the right temperature for your oven, as ovens greatly vary. The actual time for baking can also vary with the different types of ovens.

· Remove loaves promptly from the tins so they remain crusty.

If they stick to the tins, put the tins onto their sides for a few minutes and try again.

If not crusty enough, put back in the oven for ten minutes, outside of tins.

I like the taste of rye, but this recipe also works with wholemeal flour.

Artisan sourdough loaves

§ I am having fun experimenting with free-standing Artisan sourdough loaves, mostly white flour based, (about 80–90% white flour).

§ I followed the ‘Tartine way’ by Martha Stewart and it worked well, using my starter.

I found that I needed to reduce the amount of total water used in her recipe from 750ml to 700ml and add more salt (up to 25 g instead of 20g).

§ You will need the wooden rising baskets (banetons) and a very sharp razor blade to cut the loaves before baking.

§ I am promoting my style of sourdough baking, as described above, as simple. I can’t promote the ‘Tartine way’ as easy and simple. It is fiddly and you are at it all day long! For example, needing to ‘fold’ the dough every 30 minutes in the first three hours. But I enjoyed it and had a great outcome!

And where do I get a starter from? Or how do I start a starter?

§ The easiest way is to find a friend with a starter! I am always giving away starters and I am happy to be contacted (doris.zuur@gmail.com). I have sucessfully experimented with drying my starter (spread out thinly on baking paper, and after two days you end up with crumbs), for mailing out.

§ Starting from scratch takes about ten days.

Day 1: Mix ½ cup of flour with ½ cup of warm water and let it sit for 24 hours.

Day 2: Make a new mix of ½ cup of flour with ½ cup of warm water, add a tablespoon from the day 1 mix, and discard the remaining mix.

Day 3: Make a new mix of ½ cup of flour with ½ cup of warm water and add a table spoon from the day 2 mix and discard the remaining mix (or become creative for using this mix for a baking mix of sorts!).

Days 4–10: Continue as above. It is the same process described above for ‘renewing starter’ repeated over ten days.

You can see why finding a friend with a starter is easier and less wasteful! Be creative and invent something that you could do with the ‘old starter’, such as adding some eggs, milk and pinch of salt and turn it into a pancake batter of sorts. See here as an example for making crumpets from discarded starter.

So you could ‘multiply’ your starter for all your neighbours and friends. Mixing a 1–2 cups of flour with 1–2 cups of warm water, add some starter and 12 hours later you have an abundance to give away! Share the love and life that sits in a starter. Mine is 7 years old! Carefully look after it and nurture this legacy for passing on and sharing around.