Sourdough
care info
Basic Boule Recipe
Basic care for Sourdough starter and basic boule recipe for that artisan loaf.
For more in depth information visit https://www.theperfectloaf.com/new-baker-start-here/
Care for your sourdough: How to feed your culture to keep it alive and ready to bake.
You will need to feed your starter to bake or to just “keep alive” you can always keep feeding after doubling to grow your culture if you need more starter for a recipe. There are two different feeding styles or schedules one is a 1:1:1 (equal parts of starter culture to water to flour) By weight not Volume!!!! 100 grams of flour is much more in volume than 100 grams of water. A scale to measure instead of using cups will simplify your life, you can order one from my store or from amazon quite affordably. Or a ratio of 2:5:5 (more easily broken down into the measurements below) this feeds your starter if its already been going for a while and you want to bake within 3-8 hours of feeding. If not using to bake right away, store culture in the refrigerator after feeding and doubling.
40 grams of starter
100 grams of spring water (you can use your tap too if needed, best not to use water with chloramine, it could kill your culture over time, in Florida most tap water is treated with chloramines and needs to be removed by more drastic means. It’s probably easier to use bottled water in this case unless you have a whole house filter or want to use some citric acid to free the chloramines from the water)
100 grams of flour (I use a mix of organic all purpose, whole wheat and bread flour) but you can use all purpose flour
Add all ingredients into jar and mix well. Wait for starter to to double in size, I use a rubber band around the jar to mark the level after feeding, thats it! Once its doubled (can be a few hours to 24 hours depending on the temperature in your house, warmer is faster, colder is slower) you can use it to bake or put it in the fridge for use later. Make sure to feed your starter once a week-if stored in the fridge or everyday if left out on the counter. Sometimes a dark liquid (Hooch, or liquor) will form on top of the culture it just means its really hungry and time to feed! If your not going to use your sourdough starter and it’s time to re-feed make sure to either discard the extra culture and use the 40g, 100g, 100g ratio otherwise you will need to increase the amount of water and flour to fully feed your culture.
Use your culture (make sure to reserve some of your culture (I save at least 40 grams in my jar).
If you need more starter for a recipe, then feed your 40g, wait until doubled discard all but 80 grams then feed 80 grams wait until doubled. You can quickly grow large amounts of starter if needed. Just use the ratios as above. (for 80 grams you would feed 200 grams of water and 200 grams of flour) 2:5:5 or 1:1:1. It’s helpful to know the weight of the jar you’re using, you can write the weight of the empty on the jar with a sharpie so that you can weigh your culture without having to switch jars.
For the extra starter that has grown that you don’t feed, you can use it to make “discard” recipes. I like to simply pour off the amount that I don’t need into a hot cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and cook it like a pancake until its crispy and spongy ~10 minutes (I like to add parm and or onions to my “discard” or “mother” pancakes).
Basic Boule Recipe
that beautiful rustic loaf everyone thinks of when you say “Sourdough”
250 grams of starter (active) bubbly and on the “rise “not on the fall - use it quickly after it has doubled. If you’re not sure, check it by taking a small amount and put it in some water, it should float in water- if its active and ready, -if you waited too long it will sink and if you use it you might not get a good rise on your bread and may need to feed again.
625 grams of water
1000 grams of flour (I use about 100 grams of whole wheat, 200 grams of bread flour and 700 grams of Organic all purpose) but you can use just good old all purpose flour here.
10 grams of salt. Do not omit this even if you eat low sodium diet, your bread will not taste good without the salt, and it is really a small amount with a big impact.
I use a hand blender to mix all ingredients together in a big bowl. You can also just use a wooden spoon or a bread whisk. Mix until you get a shaggy dough. It will be lumpy and sticky, thats okay!. Cover with a clean kitchen towel over the bowl and wait about 30- 60 minutes. return to your dough and scrape the bowl (I use a bowl scraper) collect one “side” and pull and stretch it up as high as you can pull it and fold it over itself. Repeat three more times rotating around the dough as you go. Wait 30 minutes and return and repeat the process again “stretch and fold” you will stretch and fold your dough about 4-5 times total. It will get easer each time you do this process. If your hands get really sticky, wet them with water right before touching your dough. after you’ve completed your stretch and folds, cover bowl with kitchen towel and wait for dough to double in size 2-8 hours typically. (proofing) do not over proof or your bread might not rise properly in the oven. (to test for proof, you can use the poke test. If you press a finger onto the dough’s surface it should rebound, if it doesn’t, it may have over proofed and you might end up with a poor crumb in your dough. Once dough has doubled, dump it out of the bowl Onto a VERY LIGHTLY FLOURED SURFACE and cut it into two equal pieces (I use my plastic dough scraper to do this) stretch it into a rough rectangle and the roll and and pinch it into a ball shape. Tighten the skin by sliding the dough on the work surface (not rolling) keeping the top side up. I have videos linked to show what this looks like.
Place into a floured banneton or bowl with a well floured kitchen towel lining the bowl. Flour the dough and the towel or banneton cover with more flour and fold towel over place in the refrigerator and cold proof for 8-24 hours.
Bake after cold proofing for 8- 48 hrs or warm proof for a few hours.
To Bake:
Pre heat oven to 500° F for best bread pre-heat a dutch oven or sourdough pan in the oven for 30-60 minutes. Once your dutch oven is ready, get your bread out of the refrigerator and gently turn out so that the bread that was on the bottom of the bowl is the top. lightly flour bread and cut an expansion score (many variations on this) so bread can rise properly. decorative cuts can be made around expansion score. Place on parchement paper in dutch oven or your bakeware of choice and bake COVERED for 20 min. at 500° F. After 20 minutes, remove the lid, reduce temperature to 475 ° F and continue to bake for 15 minutes. Once baked remove from oven and get out your other boule (if baking back to back) and repeat the process. cool bread COMPLETELY before cutting!!!! If you cut your bread before its cooled you will squish it and it wont bounce back all the way. I know its hard but its worth it! wait that 30 minutes or so and then have at it! Enjoy!
Happy Baking
Never give up, Never surrender! (Galaxy Quest) Don’t give up if your first few tries don’t go perfectly- keep researching, reading watching you tube…going down the rabbit hole of the UNIVERSE of sourdough.
Here are some links to websites and videos that I find helpful.
https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/beginners-sourdough-bread-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-40698