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!!!
