SOURBREAD RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. The night before you want to bake, make the levain starter. Pour 50ml of tepid water into a large mixing bowl. Use your fingers to gently stir in the mature sourdough starter until fully dissolved, then repeat with the flour until smooth and combined.
  2. Leave, covered, in a warm place for at least 8 hours – it’s ready when lots of bubbles appear on the surface and the dough has a milky-sweet aroma.
  3. The next day, to make the final dough, pour 325ml of tepid water into a large mixing bowl and add 100g of the levain, which should float (the remaining levain can be fed and used as a new sourdough starter, or gifted to a friend). Use your fingers to gently stir it into the water until fully dissolved, then repeat with both flours. Cover with a damp cloth and rest in a warm place for 1 hour.
  4. Now add the salt and 25ml of tepid water, scrunching them into the dough until fully combined. Set aside, covered, in a warm place for 30 minutes.
  5. Wet your hand slightly and give the dough four folds in the bowl, one at each ‘corner’. This is one turn. Repeat this process another three times at 30-minute intervals, turning the dough four times in total across 2 hours. After the last turn, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for another 2 hours.
  6. To shape the loaf, tip the dough onto a clean surface and gently dust the top with a handful of semolina flour. Roughly shape into a round, being careful to keep as much air in the dough as possible. Rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
  7. Dust a basket or cane banneton with semolina flour (or you can simply use a medium bowl lined with a clean, floured tea towel). Lightly flour the dough again and flip it over, so the flour side is on the worktop. Set the dough in front of you and gently shape into a round. Turn the dough over, then place it in your floured basket, banneton or tea towel-lined bowl.
  8. Cover the dough with a shower cap (or oiled cling film) and allow to rest for 1 to 2 hours, or until increased in size by a quarter and looking bubbly. Transfer your dough, in its basket or bowl, to the fridge to rise for another 12 to 16 hours, or until bubbly and risen by another quarter.
  9. Place a heavy lidded casserole pot on the bottom shelf of the oven, then preheat to full whack (240ºC/464ºF/gas 9).
  10. Bring your loaf out of the fridge and scatter semolina over the top. Working carefully, remove the hot pot from the oven, take off the lid and gently tip your dough out into the pot, so now the pattern should be the right way up. Score it with a sharp knife, holding it at a 40 degree angle to the surface of the dough for the best slashes, then carefully cover and return to the oven.
  11. Reduce the temperature to 230ºC/446ºF/gas 8 and bake for 30 minutes. Carefully remove the lid and bake for a final 20 minutes, or until a malted golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Steps:

• Starter – use this handy chart to help you keep track of your feeding times. On the first day, put one tablespoon of flour and one of water into a 500ml glass bowl and mix together. Wet a clean tea towel, wring it out well, lay it over the bowl and leave in a warm place for about 12 hours. After the 12 hours have passed, add another tablespoon of flour and another of water, mix together, cover with the damp tea towel and leave for another 12 hours. On day two (24 hours since beginning your starter), stir in a third tablespoon of flour and a third spoon of water, stir to mix, cover again with the damp tea towel and leave in a warm place for 12 hours. For the second feed of day two, add a tablespoon of flour and one of water, stir to mix, cover with the tea towel and leave in a warm place for 12 hours. For the first feed of day three (36 hours since beginning your starter), increase the feed by adding two tablespoons of flour and two of water, stir to mix. Re-damp the tea towel if necessary, lay it over the bowl and leave in a warm place for 12 hours. On the second feed of day three, add one tablespoon of flour and another of water, mix together, cover with the damp tea towel and leave for another 12 hours. At this point your starter should be bubbly and ready to create your ferment. If the starter is not showing bubbles, repeat the 12-hour feed and water routine, and ensure the starter is kept in a warm place. Ferment Once your starter is bubbly, stir it and measure 50g of the starter into a large mixing bowl. Pour 150ml water into the bowl and stir until lump free. Add 100g flour and stir to mix. Invert a larger mixing bowl over the dough bowl and leave in a warm place for 4-12 hours until bubbles appear. When bubbly, your ferment is ready to use (you can either dispose of any unused starter after bread making or keep and feed it regularly until your next baking session). 1st Dough Pour the tepid water into the ferment and mix well. Add the flour to the ferment and stir to mix. While the dough is still craggy and lumpy, stir in the salt. Using your hands gather everything together, gently pressing into a ball of dough. Knead the dough in the bowl for 100 presses without adding flour. Invert a large bowl over the dough bowl and leave in a warm place until double in size which may take 4–12 hours. 2nd Dough Dust the inside of the banneton liberally with flour. Run a spatula around the edge of the swollen dough. Pour the oil onto the dough and dip your fingers in the oil. Pick up the dough on the far side of the bowl, gently pulling and stretching it upwards then fold it forward onto the dough still left in the bowl. Turn the dough a quarter to the left or right. Repeat the action of lifting and stretching the dough then folding back onto itself five or six times, turning the bowl each time. Tuck the edges of the dough under to make a ball of dough. Transfer the dough into the floured banneton with the smoothest side down. Cover with an upturned mixing bowl and leave to roughly double in size, 2-12 hours. Baking Pre-heat the oven 20 minutes before you are going to bake. Rub some oil around the inside of an oven tray or insert a baking liner. Remove the upturned bowl and very gently tip the dough onto the oven tray. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Transfer the bread to a wire rack and leave to cool. Click this link to find a handy Sourdough Starter Chart which when printed has space for you to enter the day and time that you feed your starter with flour and water and to help monitor progress. This Guide to Sourdough Making contains lots of hints and tips for successful sourdough bread making.