[food] bread (& roses): some notes on sourdough

[kaberett]

Getting start(er)ed: I used instructions from Shipton Mill, lo these many years ago, but you can equally well refer to Leiths or Doves Farm or wheresoever you prefer. Shipton Mill are particularly good to my mind in that they're clear about how adjustable proportions are and explain what you're aiming for; they don't explain in quite so many words why they recommend wholemeal stoneground organic flour, but the idea there is that it's likely to come pre-inoculated with at least some of the kinds of wild yeast you're trying to catch, in a way that more processed flours (with less of their remaining exteriors) won't.

We have a water filter jug, and I find the starter's much happier being fed with that than with mains water straight out of the tap. roadrunnertwice's recent excessive bread exposition indicates that actually the key thing going on here is probably that water from the filter jug has typically been sat around for a few hours, allowing the chlorine to evaporate.

I've only done this -- the starter-capture -- once, so I don't have a good sense of how necessary throwing portions away as you go along is. (Probably fairly unless you're willing to end up with a frankly ridiculous amount of starter you'll never get all the way through.)

(You can absolutely use buckwheat or other gluten-free flours to catch and maintain a gluten-free sourdough. Doves Farm provide further advice about gluten-free sourdough preparation, but this isn't something I have any direct experience with. eta 2020-05-29: the Graun's also just put out a guide to gluten-free sourdough.)

For bonus motivation, you can catch yourself a starter for science!

Maintenance: most places will tell you to throw away half your starter, then feed it; there's an enormous range of recipes for using up "discard" rather than just binning it.

I don't bother with either of those -- the discarding, or the frantic Using It Up baking. (Mostly. Blini are a good time if I'm feeling enthusiastic.) The key principles are:

• you need to at least double the mass of your starter when you feed it (to give it enough to eat, keep its environment comfortable for it, etc);
  
• you want to feed it a very roughly 50:50 mix of flour and water each feed;
  
• you want to aim to have a minimum of ~2tbsp left over once you've extracted a portion for baking, to keep it going.

I use 100g of starter for each loaf I make. After I've removed the required quantity, the pot it lives in goes into the fridge and lives there until the night before I next want to make a loaf. The morning of, I give the breadpet roughly 50g of flour and 50g of water at about the same time I have my breakfast. Come lunchtime it's bubbled up, increased in volume, and ready to start using -- so I'm removing pretty much exactly the 100g I fed it for breakfast, which gets me back down to a stable baseline quantity rather than, you know, exponential growth.

How long your starter takes to be ready to bake with after feeding is down to the specific culture you end up making. Mine's usually good to go (from a room-temperature start) after about four hours; from fridge temperature it needs a bit longer; but 12-18 hours is often quoted, and it will probably take some experimentation.

... bread? I swear by the Leiths recipe, somewhat modified for laziness. To whit:

• 350ml + 25ml water
  
• 100g starter
  
• 500g flour
  
• 8-12g salt

Measure out 350ml (or grams! I just do this all on a scale) of water, and whisk in ~100g of starter. (If your starter is wetter -- higher hydration -- you'll want less water to begin with; if it's dryer you'll want to add a little more. You'll get a feel for it.) Despite my initial scepticism, if the starter's happy and active it really does bob around happily on the surface of the water when it goes in (but also you can cook with a less active starter and get slightly denser bread, it's fine).

Add 500g flour. I have varied this from ~75:25 wholemeal:white to 100% white to 90:10 white:rye and quite a lot in between, and have yet to need to noticeably adjust water to take into account flour type. Whisk it in with a fork, as the Leiths recipe says, until it's combined and sort of lumpen but there aren't any remaining big clumps of flour.

(If I'm adding caraway seeds, or similar, I whisk them in at the same time as the flour.)

Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes (but it's very forgiving about being left longer): you're giving the flour a chance to absorb the water evenly and for the various proteins to start doing their thing. You can cover with a tea towel; I mostly don't bother, and it's fine. It's fine.

Mix the salt (I aim for 10g) with another 25ml of water. It won't all dissolve; that's fine. You just want it mostly in suspension. Swirl it around, pour it over the dough, and do your first round (~30s) of fold-and-turns (see the Leiths recipe for more detail, or ask me to send you photos, or shake Youtube until something useful falls out).

Give the dough at least 10 minutes to rest between each round of folding. Again, it's very forgiving: you can in fact forget about it, wander away, go "... oh right I was making bread" Several Hours Later, wander back, and poke it. It'll be fine.

Eventually (5-10 rounds later) you'll have a smooth elastic dough that doesn't want to stick to the bowl (or you) more than it wants to stick to itself any more. If I'm adding nuts and dried fruit and similar, I usually do so after about 3-4 rounds of folding, when the dough is recognisably transforming into bread but isn't all the way there yet.

At this stage, you can do the Leiths-recommended thing of two more rounds of very deliberate specific folding. I... mostly don't, because it's extra executive function; as best I can tell the primary function of this step is to reduce the extent to which the finished loaf contains Massive Bubbles.

You then want to set the dough to shaping. It's rather runnier than standard yeasted doughs, so it does need something to give it shape and structure: I have a banneton, but I've also used a bowl lined with a (heavily) floured tea towel, and that perfectly well too.

At this point you can leave it around two hours and bake it, or you can leave it overnight (and bake it first thing in the morning, for breakfast bread). If I'm leaving it for an overnight ferment, I pop it in the fridge: this slows down the yeast activity, meaning that (1) it's still relatively happy and enthusiastic in the morning for a final burst of excitement in the oven, and also (2) less by way of acid is produced, resulting in a better shape -- while the acids are good for flavour they're also (en masse) damaging to gluten, so you end up with a trade-off between flavour and structural integrity.

Baking: pre-heat your oven to ~220°C, optionally with a heavy-duty baking sheet or griddle in it. Once it's up to temperature, turn the dough out onto your baking substrate (this is the point at which you find out whether you developed the gluten and floured your proving vessel adequately, but never fear, if you have to peel the dough off tentacle-by-tentacle it'll still be perfectly well food), deeply score the top with a sharp knife (so that the poor thing can actually expand in the oven), and fling it in for 30 minutes. Turn out to cool; consume.

I engage in the superstition of dumping a mug of boiling water in a roasting tray in the bottom of the oven right before I put the bread in, but I'm honestly not sure how much of a difference it makes to the crust.

There are variants involving baking in a lidded casserole or Dutch oven, on a similar keep-the-steam-in basis, but this isn't something I've particularly experimented with.

And finally...

Ornamentation! you have so many options, my goodness. Link is to a YouTube video of exciting scoring options (with timelapse photography!), including 100% of the motivation for the title of this post.

Comments

[karen2205]

What does the bread starter smell of when it's in the fridge? Is it like having a camembert or something like that that has it's own permanent smell?

Sort of tempted to try making my own for variety of bread, but worried about having something with a strong smell semi-permanently in the fridge.

[recessional]

depends: I had to throw out my first starter (thanking it for its efforts) because it developed A Smell I Could Not Tolerate, but the current one just smells very faintly like sourdough (if you stick your nose right over it) and is unnoticeable.

[wildeabandon]

I don't notice the smell of mine unless I actually open and sniff the jars that they live in. Indeed, if they start smelling strongly and unpleasantly then it's probably a sign that they've grown some less good yeast/bacteria and should be thrown out.

[chiasmata]

We keep ours in a lidded yoghurt pot with the lid slightly ajar, and I've never been able to smell it.

[kaberett]

As others have said, in the fridge I really don't notice the smell! On the side if it gets really warm I can smell it from about six inches away, but otherwise... nah.

[roadrunnertwice]

I used to fridge mine between uses back in the First Bread Era, but I am Extremely out-of-sight-out-of-mind, and I was irregular enough about feedings/bakings that it would start to get seriously unstable/unreliable. (Could generally be brought back, but it could take some days.)

So in the past while, I’ve been leaving it out and feeding it twice a day, but only using 20g of flour per feeding. Might be able to get that lower, we’ll see! It seems reasonable for now, since I’m baking a lot more.

[roadrunnertwice]

Oh, also, I’m on team cover-to-steam. I have tiles in the oven to bake on, so I just throw an overturned roasting pan on top. The difference is unmistakeable.

I’ve never had notable success with water-to-steam; every home oven I’ve ever met was designed to vent steam out of the cooking box ASAP (except one, which gave someone a steam burn when they opened it), so making an enclosed inner area is the only thing that’s worked.

[kaberett]

Oooh, interesting. Our domestic oven definitely has sufficient seal that our glasses steam right up when we open it, but I've been considering experimenting with baking in e.g. one of my big cast-iron casseroles, so maybe I will get around to giving it a go. Hmm.

(I'm baking on a heavy cast-iron griddle rather than a tile and I'm sufficiently convinced about the steam that I'm not going to stop doing it but I'm Pleased about the data from a True Believer.)

[kaberett]

I have Regularly set up to remind me to feed it AT LEAST once a week and I use Regularly for a bunch of other stuff, so I'm mostly coping with the fridgery! But then I also have food-scarcity-hypervigilance that means I tend to know exactly what food I have where, so.

Yes feeding it small frequent meals seems like an obvious modification, though. <3

[tei]

We have a water filter jug, and I find the starter's much happier being fed with that than with mains water straight out of the tap. [personal profile] roadrunnertwice's recent excessive bread exposition indicates that actually the key thing going on here is probably that water from the filter jug has typically been sat around for a few hours, allowing the chlorine to evaporate.

Oh, this is interesting! I tried a few times to make a starter in the city I currently live in, and the only successful attempt was also with a filter jug. Which I started using after it turned out all of our tap water is full of lead, so I don't know if it's the lead or the cholrine (or something else!) that the starter objected to, but it definitely works better with whatever it is gone (or reduced.)

[kaberett]

<3! I am super interested in these shared experiences of What Worked And What Didn't, so thank you :)

(And also AUGH at your tap water sitch, obv.)

[shewhostaples]

That video was very soothing; thank you.

[kaberett]

You are welcome. <3 My mother asked How The Decorations Worked and Where The Lines Came From and I found it to explain to her with and then thought it really wanted sharing. :D

[wildeabandon]

My first starter was a child of the E5 Bakehouse one that I took home after a one day course there a few years ago, and I've still got it and one offspring going as my white and wholemeal, but I recently caught a new rye one.

I followed the advice in Super Sourdough by James Morton, which I've found generally excellent in terms of combination of sets of instructions that Just Work(tm), but also several chapters of Science for those of us that want it, so I've now got a better sense of where I can be lazy without making much difference to the bread, and where it would be a problem. Anyway, his suggestion with the starter is to use something slightly acidic in place of water, which gives an environment which is more friendly for the yeasts you want to thrive and less so for the ones you want to die off. He suggests pineapple juice, which I didn't have to hand, and instead used water with the juice of half a lemon. I didn't do any throwing away portions as I went, just started with 50g each of water & flour, stirred daily, doubled the volume after about 5 days when it was getting pretty lively, and then baked with it on day 6 to delicious effect.

On which note, I have some demi-baguettes that have been proving overnight, so I'd better go turn on the oven :)

[kaberett]

Oooh, thank you for the book rec! I am definitely into the Science -- this is some of why I'm so fond of the Leiths books (and indeed why I snapped up a copy of the Fat Duck Cookbook from a charity shop, even though I'm obviously never going to make anything out of it. probably.)

I hope the demi-baguettes were excellent!

[sfred]

I recently chucked out a starter after I'd left it unfed too long and it had developed an ominous, grey, dusty look, but I will get another one going soon.

I have been having fun with baking the bread in the slow cooker, which hadn't occurred to me until I saw people enthusing about it in the last few weeks.

[kaberett]

oooh, yes, I've been seeing people start to talk about that also! I think between the oven and the breadmaker I am unlikely to but I am charmed by technological innovation and applications.

[jedusor]

My stepdad learned to bake while working on his Ph.D. and takes a very scientific approach to the hobby; he's tried with and without water added to the oven for steam and recommends doing it, but he uses ice cubes rather than pouring in hot water and I find the ice much more convenient logistically.

[kaberett]

Oooh, thank you for the data! I suppose I do these days have a Fancy Freezer that will spit out ice at me but I tend to be boiling the kettle in the mornings for warm drinks anyway so it's pretty easy to just dump some more water in (& I have a deep tray set up in the oven permanently to contain it) & I can see how this would Not Be The Case For Everyone.

(On the one hand I sort of feel like I should experiment with steam vs not steam and on the other hand I like the results I get with steam and I don't want to risk a loaf turning out less well. :-p)

[watersword]

I am extremely fascinated by this idea of sourdough without masses of discard; I have questions but don't know how to articulate them!

[kaberett]

ALRIGHT HERE'S SOME BURBLING.

I think the idea with masses-of-discard is to (1) double the mass of the starter with each feed without actually achieving exponential growth, and (2) probably Affect The Flavour Profile... somehow, I haven't entirely worked that bit out, but if you're throwing away excess then you're obv also going to be throwing away some of the acids etc arising rather than letting them build up?

The approach I'm taking (1) keeps a low total mass of starter, so it's v v easy to at-least-double-it with a feed, and (2) doesn't rely on feeding every 24 hours regardless of how much you're baking (because you can store it in the fridge or the freezer or...)

is makes sense?

[watersword]

I think? Maybe? Can you walk me through the feeding and baking sequence? Maybe I'm getting caught up in what is "starter" and what is "breadpet" in the "I use 100g of starter for each loaf I make." paragraph.

[kaberett]

HELLO I CAME BACK TO THIS EVENTUALLY I got overwhelmed with comments but am slowly catching up on, like, the last week.

I am using "breadpet" interchangeably with "starter" -- both are referring to the 50:50 mix of water and flour that contains the active yeast culture. <3

My feeding and baking sequence looks like this:

Day 0
get the starter out of the fridge in the evening and leave to warm up to room temperature overnight (though in practice it's actually also fine if I don't do this til the morning)

Day 1
~8.30am: feed the starter ~50g of water and ~50g of flour, and stir thoroughly with a fork to combine. cover. leave in a warmish (or at least not cold!) spot.
~1pm onwards:

• measure out 350ml of water into a bowl. is the starter active enough? it should be happy and bubbly and a bit domed and definitely bigger than it was this morning. if I'm dubious, drop ~1tsp of starter into the water: if it floats, it's good to go. if it doesn't float, give it a little bit more of a feed (~20g of flour + ~20g of water, ish) and leave it for another couple of hours.
  
• once I've got floating starter: add 100g of starter to the water. (if your test teaspoonful doesn't float, you can just fish it back out and add it back to the main starter mass.) whisk thoroughly with a fork.
  
• add 500g of flour, and stir thoroughly with fork to combine. leave to rest for 30 minutes.
  
• add 25g of water and 10g of salt. start folding in.

2pm-10pm, depending on how distracted I get: periodically come back to turn & fold the dough until it's smooth and stretchy and wants to stick to itself more than anything else.
~10pm: transfer the dough to the proving vessel, and stick it in the fridge. Set the oven to come on automagically in the morning.

Day 2
~8am: bread out of fridge and into oven.
~8.30am: bread out of oven and onto cooling rack!
~9am: bread! THE BREAD OF BREAD IS BREAD.


It doesn't have to be this spread out: in principle it's perfectly possible to go from "fridged starter" to "warm tasty bread in about twelve hours. If you're organised and less prone to distraction than me, the folding-and-turning can all be completed in <2.5h (rather than the eight I tend to spread it out over good grief, but this also means that if your starter isn't properly active until ~6pm you can still perfectly well get a loaf prepped over the course of the evening). The dough only needs to sit around in its proving vessel (I use a basket, but a bowl lined with a floured tea towel also works perfectly well, etc) for 2 hours at a warmish room temperature, so you can actually bake on the same day you feed it. You can just slow everything down by sticking things in the fridge (at any stage!), and that works better with the rhythms of my daily life than getting it all done in one day!

Pls let me know if I remain unclear or confusing -- I am happy to babble more ♥

[watersword]

This is so helpful omg. May I ask how big the starter is while it lives in the fridge?

[kaberett]

Mine lives in one of these (secure lid! breathing vent!), and when it's happy and bubbly and enthusiastic it does actually end up occupying most of that volume, but while it's *actually in the fridge* it's generally at... about 2-3tbsp volume? Not generally more than ~25g I think!

[watersword]

You have given me much to consider, thank you.