Recipe: Sourdough Bread

Here's the recipe for Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I definitely recommend buying his book, every recipe I've tried so far is fabulous.   You can buy it here at Amazon (Including the link so I don't get in trouble for sharing the recipe).  If you don't want to print out those images above for the recipe, you can copy the following that I've laboriously typed out for you ;)   The *** are my "helpful hints".  

Sourdough Bread

Makes 3-4 baguettes, 1 boule, or 12-16 rolls

Time: At least 48 hours for the first time, roughly 24 hrs thereafter, largely unattended.

Much has been made of the challenges of sourdough bread, but although making a good sourdough takes a little time, the process can be simple and routine with only a little practice.  To begin, you make a starter, and a couple of days later you begin the bread. From then on, you can use the starter to make bread in less than 24 hrs; always bring it to room temperature first.

Ingredients:

STARTER:

1 1/2 cups (about 7 ounces) bread or all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon instant yeast

1 cup warm water

SOURDOUGH BREAD:

1/2 starter mix (from above)

3 1/2 cups (about 1 pound) of bread or all-purpose flour, plus more as needed

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 1/3 cups water (scant- so less than), plus more as needed

2 teaspoons salt

1. At least 2 days before you plan to bake, mix together the starter mixture. Stir, cover loosely, and place on top of your refrigerator or another out-of-the-way place.  Stir every 8 to 12 hours; the mixture will become bubbly, and eventually develop a sour smell.  If your kitchen is warm, this may happen in 24 hrs, usually it takes a couple of days.

2. The night before you're ready to bake, place half the starter in the container of a food processor with a steel blade.  Add the remaining flour, salt, and yeast  for 5 seconds.  With the machine running, pour (don't drizzle) most of the remaining water through the feed tube.  Process about 30 seconds, then remove the cover.  The dough should be in a defined but shaggy ball, still quite sticky; you would not want to knead it by hand.  If the dough is too dry, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and process for 5 to 10 seconds after each addition. (If it is too wet, which is unlikely, add another tablespoon or two of flour and process briefly.

***If you don't have food processor, or one big enough, you can do what I do and just mix the dry ingredients with the starter in a big bowl with a wooden spoon, and then add 75% of the water and mix again, then adding enough to the right consistency as described above. It works just as well, I think.

[To maintain starter, add about 3/4 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of water to the remainder and stir well.  Cover and refrigerate.  Use within a week or add a little more flour and water to the starter to keep it going.  If you always take half the starter and rejuvenate this way, it will last forever.]

3. Dump the lump of dough into a large bowl.  Cover loosely with a plastic bag, plastic wrap, or towel.  Let sit for several hours or overnight at cool room temp. or in the refrigerator if the weather is warm (bring it back to room temp before proceeding).  

4.  Sift a very small amount of flour onto a counter or tabletop, and shape the dough into a ball, sprinkling with a little more flour if necessary.  Pinch together the seam that forms at the bottom of the ball.  

5. Place a clean kitchen towel in a colander or round basket about the size of a standard colander.  Sprinkle it very well with flour.  Place the dough ball, seam up, in the towel and sprinkle it generously with more flour.  Fold the towel over the dough and let rise from 2-6 hrs.

*** What I do is form the dough into a ball, then place in a bowl lined with parchment paper, seam down. Then let it rise/proof in a slightly warm oven (turned on for 30 seconds, then off and the residual heat will help the dough rise).  Don't let it rise longer than 5 or 6 hours, otherwise the dough starts to deflate and it gets a weird crust on the top.  I think the optimal rising time is 3 or 4 hours.

6. About 30 minutes before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450F.  When you are ready to bake, gently turn the dough ball onto a baking sheet or pizza peel; slash the top of the ball several times with a razor blade.  Spray the inside of the oven to create steam, then either put the baking sheet in the oven or slide the load from the peel onto a baking stone.

*** I don't have a pizza peel so I just bake the bread in my dutch oven, sort of the same process as the No Knead Bread with the dutch oven being preheated before.  Also, I don't have a spritzer, so instead of spraying the inside of the oven, I throw in a handful of ice cubes into the oven, so I assume that it'd help create a little steam...?

7. Spray 2 or 3 times during the first 10 minutes of baking. After 20 minutes, lower the heat to 350F.  Bake a total of about 45 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown (the internal temp. of the bread will be about 210F.) Remove, spray with a bit of water if you would like a shiner crust, and cool on a wire rack.

8. Let cool down and then enjoy!!

My preferences for ingredients:  King Arthur Bread Flour (unbleached and unbromated = healthy!), Calphalon dutch oven, tap water (because it's free!).

Here are some ways I like to enjoy my bread:

--Slice and toast, spread brie and preserves on top, best with raspberry or blackberry, or a mixture, spread on top of the brie cheese

--Slice and spread butter on top, then sprinkle with garlic power and toast for delicious garlic bread. 

--Slice and brush olive oil on top, then toast.  Dip in a mixture of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and minced garlic.  Or serve with caprese salad on top: sliced tomatoes with basil and mozzarella cheese (my parents' favorite)

--Use as a bread bowl for chowda or soup

--Slice and dip in a hearty soup

--Eat plain :)

I need to stop drooling right now 8)

Enjoy!  And let me know how you like to eat your sourdough bread!

-Belinda