I am a total bread baking noob but I love to eat it. Sourdough is my absolute favorite, so I need to give this a try.
I know I will need starter (I was planning on buying some online as I don’t know anyone irl), and I have a Dutch oven. Yes, there are tons of recipes online, but I want your tried-and-true ones, especially if they are suited for altitude.
Or maybe I need to read a book? If so, which one?
Basically, how do I stuff my face with homemade sourdough in the easiest way possible?
Thank you all!
Starter is easy to make, just mix unbleached flour and water and let sit, then twice a day discard half ,replacing it with more flour and water. Unbleached flour makes a difference.
As for baking ,mix starter, flour and water until it is the.right volume and consistency, let raise ,kneed, let raise again, shape, and let raise, and bake. You can add salt (often recommended but it is fine without), oil, raisins, herbs. Spices, but that is it. There is debate about how many kneed and.punch down steps to take as well. Measuring is useful until you know what a good consistency is, but this isn’t a chemistry lab: people have been doing this in primitive conditions for several thousand years.
Have fun. The hard part it is takes days to do well so it is hard to mix with travel.
Unbleached flour is TOTALLY the way to go. Otherwise you’re not really buying flour per se, different brands have all sorts of different crap at least here in the U.S
If anything it’s easier than a tamagachi was because you can leave starter in the fridge and forget about it for a few weeks and it’s basically fine.
Thank you, I like how you say it’s not a chemistry lab - baking can seem intimidating because of that. I don’t travel much, so I think I’ll be able to find a routine to make a loaf once in a while.
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😂 totally something I would say. Our tiny friends whose sacrifice will not go unnoticed.
What a beginner needs is not so much a recipe, but the perseverance to practice until you learn proper technique.
Almost everyone makes a few bad loaves before they figure out what works.
That being said, a good basic recipe is this one: https://www.pantrymama.com/how-to-bake-simple-sourdough-bread/
If you want my recipe, it’s linked in some of my recent bread posts, but a bit complicated for a beginner.
You don’t need to buy starter if you can wait a couple weeks to make one. Just need flour, water, jars and patience.
Thank you! The link is awesome, I see she goes in great detail about the process. She gives a timeline of 3 days, is that typical? Is there sourdough that can be made in one day? I can be patient, this is more curiosity than anything.
You need about 2 weeks to breed a new starter from raw flour.
Once you have an active starter, you can bake sourdough start to finish in as little as 6 hours, but that’s working at a warmer temperature, which makes it harder to shape and easier to accidentally overferment.
For my bread, on the afternoon of day 1, I give the starter a big feeding. Before bed on day 1, I mix the dough and leave to proof overnight on the counter, 11-14hrs depending on the temperature. Morning of day 2 I divide and shape the dough, typically into 2 loaves, one of which I bake late morning after proofing an hour on the counter, and the other I put in a banneton in the fridge to bake the next day.
I see, thank you. Two days is definitely doable, so I guess I need to get a starter going. Soon, I will be one of you.
Good luck! Don’t forget to name your starter!
Ok, so I saw that online and thought it was a joke. I really name it? I am excited about that. So it’s like a new pet?
Yeah, it’s like a slimy pet, and most folks name theirs. Mine is named Ecma, which is mnemonic about where I bought the flour.
OK, I’ll have to let it come to me as it grows (ferments? idk what the proper term is… yet).
I’m in Colorado, around your elevation I think. Make sure to keep it around 68-70 degrees the whole time it’s rising, low 70’s is ideal.
150 g starter (I usually do 50g starter + 50g water + 50g flour a day before I plan to make it)
Mix with 25g olive oil and 250g water, mix until well combined
Add 10g salt and 500g flour (preferably bread flour), mix until combined it should still be shaggy
Wait 30-60 minutes (60 is better than 30), form it into a smooth ball
Wait 1 hour, stretch and fold (pull up part, wiggle and stretch it a bit, fold it on top. Rotate 90 degrees, repeat until you’ve done 4 total)
Do it again after another hour or so, I usually do it 3 times total
After around 8 hours after adding the flour and such, form a boule and place it in Dutch oven with parchment paper and flour (keeps it from sticking to Dutch oven)
Heat oven to 450, leave it for around an hour or so
After an hour, put flour on the bread, spray it lightly with water if you can. It should be kind of fluffy/bouncy. Make a cut with a razor or sharp knife
Reduce the oven to 400 and put it in the oven (with the lid on the Dutch oven)
Bake for 20 mins with the lid on, remove the lid and bake for another 40-50 minutes
Remove from the oven and take it out of the crockpot, put it on a cooling rack
Don’t cut it for at least an hour to let it finish bakingI’m in CO too, in Northglenn. Thank you so much, I am definitely saving and trying this!
Oh cool, I’m in foco! I hope the recipe works out for you! I bake a loaf every weekend and this recipe has worked pretty consistently. Also feel free to message me if you have any issues or questions
Thank you, I really appreciate it!
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laheys bread
That’s not a sourdough, is it?
Awesome, I found a NYT recipe and will be trying that next week. Thanks!
I made my own starter with the tartine method and used that for a few years. Then I ordered some “200 year old” starter on Etsy. I’m not 100% sold on it’s age, but it’s way funkier and more flavorful than my starter ever was. I might suggest buying some like that if you’re just trying to dip your toes in. Good luck!
I was looking on etsy too. Now my inner scientist wants to buy one and make one and compare.
Don’t. Starters contain the yeast that’s in the flour and the air where they are made. So whatever yeasts are in your bought starter – they will quickly be replaced by the ones you add.
You will end up with what you’ve gotten with your own flour anyway, so don’t bother.
The taste of the starter depends on the flour, a whole rye flour starter will be very different from an italian tipo 00 flour madre lievito.
And since nobody mentioned this: watch the quality of your water. Tap water is very good where I live, but it might be chlorinated at your place.
That makes so much sense! Ok, I shall start my own and experiment with flour. I think my tap water sucks (but I don’t think it’s chlorinated), so I would definitely use filtered.
Any water that will sustain a human can be used for making a starter. Good luck my friend!
That’s nonsense. Chlorinated water is harmless for any human but will make short work of your starter.
There’s chlorine in drinking water. There’s also chlorine in swimming pools. Go drink a bunch of pool water and see how you feel. Then bake with some drinking water. Then bake bread with pool water, and then try some bleach and see how it goes.
Thank you!
That’s really not correct. Yes the flour you use to feed the starter will impact the flavor but not change it. The starter is a colony of bacteria of a certain type, from a certain region. The flour is their food, not another bacterial colony that will replace the one that gives a unique flavor.
Maybe if you’re leaving your starter out in the open for days on end, or uncovered in a dark cabinet the local bacteria will take over. But if you leave your starter sealed in the fridge and only take it out to use and feed, then it will keep the flavor of what you bought.
Source: the starter I bought on Etsy still smells and tastes the same as it did when I bought it a year ago even though I’ve been feeding it my flour. Also, science.
Aha. Well, you’re right about one thing: sourdough is a symbiotic colony of not just yeast but also LAB. Everything else…
Where do you think the yeast and LAB in your starter come from? Why do you have regional differences in microbial composition? Why do rye and wheat starter have completely different proportions of LAB and yeast? What happens if you change the temperature of your starter during the growth phase?
Go ahead, split your starter, feed one part each with rye, wheat, spelt flour. Now go and take the same flour but grow one at a different temperature from the other. Come back again in three weeks, tell me they’re still the same starter.
Your starter is a product of it’s surroundings, that is your house microbiota, flour, also water and temperature. And maybe the defining variable is your local microbiota, not the flour, IDK. Doesn’t matter.
Source: the starter I bought on Etsy still smells and tastes the same as it did when I bought it a year ago even though I’ve been feeding it my flour.
I highly doubt that a) you have a proper recollection of smell and taste of something you assessed a year ago and b) your senses are a proper indicator of microbial composition.
Source: I studied sensory evaluation methods and conducted studies with several hundred participants.
Also, science.
Lol
Glad you got some laughs. You’re still incorrect. I remember exactly what it smells like. And I still have my original starter, both fed the same flour, both completely different. Again, I keep my starter sealed in the fridge, any trace amounts of small bacteria are overcome by the massive colony of bacteria already there.
Can you please explain how the puratos lab (https://sourdoughlibrary.puratos.com/en/) maintains their collection of starters if they all become the same thing when you feed them the same flour?
Source: I studied sensory evaluation methods and conducted studies with several hundred participants.
What does that have to do with bread? lol.
Starters contain the yeast that’s in the flour and the air where they are made. So whatever yeasts are in your bought starter – they will quickly be replaced by the ones you add.
Then you say: And maybe the defining variable is your local microbiota, not the flour, IDK
Which is it? Does the flour matter or not? lol that was the point I was disagreeing with then you flip flop or something.
Aye caramba man just bake some bread.
Can you please explain how the puratos lab
Yeah, I can explain that:
“… refreshed every two months with the original flour with which it was made, thereby replicating conditions in the original bakery.”
https://www.questforsourdough.com/puratos-library
Funny, mh?
What does that have to do with bread?
Nothing, it means you don’t have any idea how “that starter from etsy” smelled.
Starters contain the yeast that’s in the flour and the air where they are made.
Then you say: And maybe the defining variable is your local microbiota,
🙄 You really have issues reading, don’t you.
lol that was the point I was disagreeing with then you flip flop or something.
My point was that a bought starter will change at your home, but since your own source shows that it is in fact the flour, you probably should go bake some bread. aY cArAmBa.
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How old were they during the tamagotchi craze?
Good question. I know I was in middle school-ish, and I’m 40 now. But, this was in Russia where trends were delayed at the time.
So yeah, these people can have enjoyed 2 kinds of tamagotchi in their life
I made my own starter with the tartine method and used that for a few years. Then I ordered some “200 year old” starter on Etsy. I’m not 100% sold on it’s age, but it’s way funkier and more flavorful than my starter ever was. I might suggest buying some like that if you’re just trying to dip your toes in. Good luck!
