My first sourdough bread: magical. I would say that “magical” is a juvenile word, but that's what this bread is. Wondrous, heavenly, and truly magical.
I finally started my own sourdough starter — without a kitchen scale. I scoured youtube for sourdough starter videos and each video required a scale and wasted starter. I randomly stumbled upon a video by The King’s Roost, and this man began to talk about milling his own grains, baking weekly, and starting a sourdough starter. He started his with pineapple water to provide sugar to the bacteria, and a ratio of 2 tablespoons of water to 3 tablespoons of flour. He also used distilled water, as he explained that some of the minerals in tap water were harmful to the formation of yeast, but I only had Brita filtered water on hand. I also didn’t have pineapple juice, so I searched youtube for more videos. I ended up watching a video of a man with a French accent experimenting with sourdough starters starting in raisin water, honey water, and another weird water I can’t remember. Luckily, I had honey in my cupboard. So I started my starter with honey water, a tablespoon measurement, and of course flour. I used all-purpose because that is what I had the most of. And it worked! Around five days later, I could smell the sourdough smell, a little citrusy, but pleasant once I had gotten accustomed to it.
For the bread, I had watched a video by Bon Appetite where a man from Tartine Bakery made three different kinds of bread. Then, I came across a recipe from New York Times Cooking called Tartine’s Country Bread. I read the description, and it turns out that Tartine Bakery was based in San Francisco! I had imagined it was in New York, where all the famous food is. But no, right here in San Francisco. Too bad it’s quarantine and I can’t go and try it. The country bread described in the recipe has reached cult status, so I had to try it. I didn’t realize until later that the country bread in the recipe was different from the video, but I followed a similar method and it worked. At the time, I didn’t have a kitchen scale, so I haphazardly measured my ingredients with the help of my google home, which would kindly tell me how many cups 200 grams of sourdough starter seemed to be. Magically, my sourdough worked! I woke up at 7:30 am just to preheat the oven, but it was worth it. My first sourdough was magical.
Ingredients
- 100 grams leaven (starter)
- 450 grams bread flour
- 50 grams whole-wheat flour (plus more for dusting)
- 20 grams fine sea salt
Directions
- Stir the starter and 350 grams of warm water (bath water temperature, to promote growth) with one hand holding the bowl and one hand mixing.
- Add the bread flour and whole-wheat flour until now streaks of dry flour remain. The dough will be sticky and ragged. Let rest towel-covered for 25 to 40 minutes at room temperature.
- Add salt and 50 grams warm water, using your hands to integrate thoroughly, keep mixing until the dough comes back together.
- Cover with a towel and transfer to a warm environment, such as your turned-off oven with the light on. Rise for 3 hours. Every 30 minutes, perform stretch-and-folds. (Wet your hand with water, pull up the edge of the dough and stretch. Before it breaks, fold it over the dough straight across. Do this four times total on the four sides of your dough.) At the end, the dough should be billowy.
- Transfer dough to a work surface and work into a taut ball, using flour as needed. Let rest towel-covered for 30 minutes.
- Use whole-wheat flour to dust bread-proofing baskets. (I used wicker baskets lined with towels. Also, you are supposed to use a mix of whole-wheat and rice flour to dust the baskets. You can make your own rice flour with a blender!)
- Fold the dough like you are folding a piece of paper in on itself from all 4 sides. Shape into a taut ball.
- Transfer round, seam-side up, into the prepared basket. Let the dough rise for 10 to 12 hours in the refrigerator.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator and allow it to return to room temperature. Place a Dutch oven into the oven, heat to 500F for 30 minutes.
- Dust the top of the dough and then gently turn it into the heated Dutch oven. Score the top of the dough to allow for expansion.
- Reduce the oven to 450F and bake for 20 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered. Be careful of the steam!
- Remove from Dutch oven immediately and cool at least 20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!
