Sourdough

We are on the sourdough wagon! Thanks to the starter shared by my brother-in-law, we are off to an easier start.

I experimented with several methods (no-knead and knead) and recipes, and in the end I gleaned the wisdom of a few people and here is my way of doing sourdough bread now, with a slightly more consistent result.

This starter has been in the fridge for half a week. You can see from the hooch (the liquid) that it needs feeding. I take it out 6-8 hours before I want to start making the dough. Sometimes I may feed the dough (using the method below), let it rise, dump out most starter but 113g (Recently I used 50% rye for my new starter and I only use 75g of beginner starter, not 113g), just to get it active again.

I stir the hooch in, and discard all but 4 oz (113g, or 75g see above) of starter.

Then I added 100g of flour (I have been adding 50% of more nutritious flour like rye or whole wheat for my new starter) 

and 100 g of water. Because my recipe needs about 180-200g of starter. (Then I will be left with 113g of starter to keep for next time)

Stir starter.

After 4 (sometimes 6, and recently 2!) hours on the counter, the starter had grown double.

You can see the foaminess.

I added 180-200g of start to 250g (recently 230g, really depends on humidity) of water. See the starter float? It is ready for leavening. The rest of the starter I put it into the fridge until the next time.

Next I added 10g of vital wheat gluten. You can use bread flour. This is my cheaper way of achieving the higher gluten level.

415g of all purpose flour was then added.

Stir them up, until incorporated. Make sure no dry flour but not soppy wet either. Will be lumpy. Cover and rest for 30 minutes. Sometimes I leave it for an hour to two. You can leave it up to 4 hours apparently. This is called autolyse when the flour gets hydrated. I find this stage important.

Next I added 1 teaspoon of salt to about 30g of water. After adding into the mixture. I used this method (pincer?) to mix the salty mixture into the dough.

This is a good time to see if the dough is hydrated enough. If not add a little more water. It should be a fairly wet dough (but still a dough. not a wet mass that cannot be kneaded)

Then I cover and rest for 30 mins.

Every 30 mins for the next 2.5 hours (basically do it 6 times), I fold in the flour. Pull up to resistance,

And fold over. Repeat 4-8 times.

After the 2.5 hours (of folding every 30 mins), the dough is "gluteny" (stretchy) and more smooth.

Then I dump the dough onto lightly floured surface. 

Flouring my hands, I fold them a few times to loosely shape into a ball.

Like this. And let it rest for 30 mins.

This is my proofing basket with the linen cover. It has been used numeral times and the dough does not stick anymore. I don't wash it. Just tap out the flour everytime and put it in the fridge. I don't think putting into the fridge is needed, but I have a small fridge, I like to know that there is always to space in there for my bread. Once in a while I do see mold!! Time to wash.

I use a sieve to sprinkle more flour into the basket. Quite a lot more.

After 30 mins of resting, I pat out the dough.

Fold them sideways.

Fold over.

Then top to bottom. And lastly, bottom to top.

Pull the seams to underneath and start pulling the dough towards me. After doing a few times, you can see that the top part of the dough is pulled tautly causing some nice tension.

The finished ball.

Put some flour on top

Hold it up (with the help of the dough scraper). If your dough cannot be held up (with a gentle hold, for it's still softer then some dough) then it's too soft.

Flip it over onto the proofing basket, seams up.

sprinkly some flour over, and cover (nowadays I cover with tea towel). I do this step because I find condensation happening in the fridge and don't want my dough to be wet.

I then put the basket in a plastic bag like this and put it in the fridge. For the next 14-18 hours. I found that if I leave it in the fridge for too long, the bread does not puff up as much. Maybe it's overproofed?

When I am going to bake, I will put the dutch oven with the lid in the oven (I will put the lid on the side now. Easier) and preheat to 500 deg F.

This is the dough all proofed in the fridge for 18h. (I shoot for somewhere near 14-16h nowadays) Nice and puffy.

I flip it over into the pot, and do some scoring with a sharp lame (A lame makes a HUGE difference) Make some some scoring is deep. Cover. Bake in 500 deg F oven for 20 mins. Then turn down heat to 450 deg F, bake for another 8-10 mins. Then I opened the lid and bake for another 10 mins or so, depending on how brown I want the bread.

The finished product, after cooling down for 30 mins (if you can wait!!!), slice and enjoy!

I learnt a lot from this site. The videos here are GREAT teaching for the folding, proofing, baking etc. I watched a few times!