The Only True and Accurate White Sourdough Bread Story

After many, many attempts, finally I succeeded in making two fairly presentable loaves the other day.  So, let me caution you my lovely readers do not expect to make an acceptable loaf first time around.  I’m a fairly competent baker and if I count up, I think that I must have failed seven times before I got a result!  BUT when you do succeed, wow, it both tastes delicious and makes a chap proud! You should definitely have a go.

I have a delightful friend who is a professional baker of many years standing and she really knows what she is doing!  And as well as that, she’s French – possibly the greatest asset a baker can have.  For her, the key ingredient can’t be bought!   Its LOVE and I’m inclined to agree with her, although I’ll add to that, PATIENCE.

So, here goes with the recipe. 

The first thing that a “sour dough” mix needs is a natural starter, there is no shop bought yeast in a sourdough bread, it comes from the air all around us, in the atmosphere and in the flour its self.  Yeast and bacterial cells float all around us, the trick is to catch some and breed (ferment) them up into a culture called a “starter.” 

How sourdough bread was invented

I can only assume that one of our prehistoric Yorkshire women ancestors noticed that, (yes, no apologies for assuming early bakers were women, since I’m convinced that because  there was no football on a Saturday, for fun, the men went off catching deer and boar and wild aurox.) her flour had been left out in the rain, got wet and was forgotten about, so that when she found it, it was beginning to bubble up, and she said to herself “ahm not goin’ to waste this, I might as well cook it, an see wot ‘appens,”  “It might mek a decent Yorkshire pudding for when t’ lads get back.” So she mixed it up then threw it on a stone in the fire and noticed it rise a bit. Being a true Yorkshirewoman she wasn’t going to chuck it out, had a taste and liked it so she gave it to the lads with their dinner when they got back, to fill ‘em up and mop up the dripping from the meat; and they loved it!  They asked her “wots this ‘ere white stuff lass? Its reight tasteh,” so she made it all ovver again!!!  And there you have it, sourdough bread was invented in Yorkshire thaasands o years ago!!

Making a starter

Equipment and ingredients

1 x Large, clean, lidded Kilner jar or Tupperware container

Warm tap water

Organic white bread flour

Method

Put 100gm flour in to the container

Add 100ml water and mix

1.       Put the lid on the container loosely, and put the container in a warm place, undisturbed for a day,

2.      After a day there should be bubbles in the mixture in the jar and on top of the mixture, this shows that a fermentation has started.

3.      Throw away half of the mixture and top the remainder up with another 100gm of flour and 100ml of warm water, stir well and replace in its warm place.

4.       Repeat step three, three times, so that on the sixth day you have a vigorous mix of fermenting flour and water in the jar.

Making the Bread dough.

Ingredients

500gm strong organic white wheat flour

250gm starter

250ml tepid water

10gm table salt

Method

Take 500gm strong organic white flour and put it into the bowl of a “Kenwood” or similar food mixer.  Using the bread hook, mix the dry flour slowly.

If you don’t have a food mixer prepare for some hard work. First put the four on to a clean surface in a pile, like a volcano.  Then put a mug into the pile to create a flour free circle or “Atol”. Finally pour about half of the starter into the “Atol” and with your hands begin to draw flour from the sides and mix, adding more starter, the water and salt as the mixture gradually forms into a sticky dough.  Knead for about ten minutes until the dough becomes silky smooth, then go to * below and follow from there.

Whilst mixing at slow speed add the starter.

When the flour and starter are combined, add the 250ml tepid water and continue to mix.

When the mixture in the mixer bowl has fully blended, add the salt and gradually increase the mixing speed to about 2/3 maximum for about ten minutes or so until the sound made by the mixing contents sounds like a child’s bottom being spanked as the dough slaps the sides of the mixing bowl and the mixture has a silky texture!

Tip the dough out of the mixer bowl on to a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes to *shape the dough into a well-formed ball.

Put the dough ball into a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth and put it in a warm draught free place to prove (ferment) until the dough doubles in size.  The rise is caused by the gas released in the fermentation process, mainly carbon dioxide, being trapped as bubbles in the dough!

Now be patient, do not try to rush the fermentation, you really must wait for the dough to ‘prove’ i.e. double in volume.   Depending on the virility of your starter, this could take between two and eight hours. Stay cool!

When the dough has proved, remove it from the bowl to a floured surface, divide it into two pieces. Stab each piece with your outstretched fingers to get rid of most of the bubbles of trapped in gas, then knead it by pulling and folding it back on to itself two or three times. 

Finally shape each piece into a ball and put it into a well-floured “banneton” to prove a second time; A banneton is a ‘loaf sized’ rattan bowl especially made for proving bread. Cover the banneton with a damp cloth and for the second time put it to ferment or “prove” in a warm place, until the dough rises to once more, double in volume, or thereabouts.  But you say “A banneton” who the blazes has a banneton lurking at the back of cupboard?  Bloody no one!  So, here’s how to improvise.   Take a linen napkin or even a tea towel and flour it well, then line a colander with it.  Voila!  One make-shift banneton, then go to look for the big sieve you use for sieving cake flour, same trick, but sit it in a pan for stability.  That’s your second banneton!

Now here’s a tricky point.  This second proving could take quite a while, depending on how well or not your yeasts and bacteria are working.  In some cases, it only takes a couple of hours for the dough to rise but at other times it might take four to six hours.  This is where experience comes in.  Under prove the dough and the loaf turns out like a brick, it doesn’t contain enough gas to make a light loaf; over prove it and the bread will contain too much trapped gas and rise too much, where the gas bubbles that are trapped in the dough are too big and the structure of the dough can’t support its own weight. It will collapse as it is transferred to the baking sheet and end up looking like a cowpat!

Finally, its time to bake your sourdough.  Heat the oven to 220° C and prepare a baking tray by generously covering the base with flour, then carefully tip up the content of each banneton in turn into the palm of your hand to release the risen dough. Finally place the dough carefully on the baking tray and repeat with the second.  Put the tray in the oven on a lower middle shelf, set the timer for 35 minutes, then wait!  After 35 minutes take out the tray and turn the loaves over to brown the bases, set the timer for five more minutes, finally remove the finished bread and check that it is fully cooked by tapping the base with a knuckle.  If it sounds hollow its cooked, if it doesn’t put it back to cook for a few more minutes.  Lastly when your bread is finally cooked take it from the oven and put it on a rack to cool. 

Wait at least five minutes before cutting a first slice, oryoull burn your fingers.  Then slather it with butter and scoff it – Yuuuuuummmm!!!