Sourdough: A Beginners Guide
What is Sourdough?
In simplest terms, it is a bread madew without commercial yeast, but rather a "Sourdough Starter". This starter acts as a natural leavening agent. Sourdough is known for its characteristic tangy flabour, cheby texture and crisp, crackly crust.
Sourdough Terminology
- Autolyse: An autolyse (pronounced “auto-lease”) is a gentle mixing of flour and water, followed by a 30 minute and up to 2 hour rest period. After the rest, the remaining ingredients are added and kneading begins. This simple pause allows for the gluten to bond without the salt.
- Benneton: A banneton is a type of basket used to provide structure for loaves of bread during proofing. If you don’t have a banneton you can use a glass bowl lined with a tea towel.
- Delayed Fermintation: This is a method of baking bread in which you mix all of the ingredients and then let them sit in the fridge. Delayed fermentation is the point in the sourdough process that adds all of the health benefits and tangy flavour.
- Proofing Bucket: A proofing bucket is just a big container that you make your dough in. If you don’t have a “proofing bucket” you can use a big Tupperware container with a lid or a big glass bowl instead, just refrain from using metal.
- Levain: A levain is essentially a starter but a higher volume of starter.
- Boule: This is a round loaf of bread!
Sourdough Bread Recipe
This recipe is for Pain de Campagne. It is a rustic country bread that
has a golden colour to its crumb, subtle round flavours from
fermentation and a chewy and delicious crust. It improves with age after
baking and can last nearly a week. A long overnight proofing of the
loaf in the refridgerator allows a nice complexity of flavours to build.
This recipe yields 1 loaf, about 1.5 pounds.
Ingrediants
Levain
- 50g bubbly, active starter
- 200g white flour
- 50g whole wheat flour
- 200g warm water (29° to 32°C/90°-95°F)
Final Dough
- 360g warm water (32° to 35°C/90°-95°F)
- 370g white flour
- 30g whole wheat flour
- 11g fine sea salt
- 1g instant dried yeast
- 380g levain
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