This is a blog post on sourdough bread-making at home. Sourdough bread has been headlined lately on social media in recent times and years. This is because sourdough bread is made from all-natural fermented yeast not from manufactured yeast found in ordinary bread. I am no expert in baking sourdough bread. But I have learned enough to master it and make decent bread. It may not make the headlines of Instagram as the lightest with many telltale sourdough holes but it is good enough. It took a few tries to make the dough rise but when I finally achieve the fully raised bread I was quite happy with it.
Most people write pages about the Sourdough bread process or even published a book in great detail so I can’t put everything in one blog post. One thing I have learned from making lots of this type of bread I now know how much an ordinary bread or pizza dough has to rise when it is ready.
Making sourdough starter
To start making sourdough bread one will need to make the starter. From the starter, it makes a leaven. It’s a like charge before it rises the big dough. To make a starter it’s pretty easy but it takes time like at least 5 days before it’s ready. I use an organic rye four which I got from my local grocers, supermarkets do sell them as well. I use about 30 grams of rye flour with 30mls of lukewarm (20-30 Celsius) water. Do this for the next 5 days. Some recipes do take away some of the starters before adding the new flour and water. it is entirely up to you. If some of the portions of partially fermented starter are taken away it does make it more concentrated. So it should speed up the process.
The test starter is ready to try the test float in the bowl water. Once the starter is ready you will see lots of bubbles and it feels light. The starter is live it reacts when more flour is added to it. It doesn’t do any of these then just wait for another day or two it will be ready. feed it constantly in the meantime like twice/ day.
Sourdough bread-making at home
When the starter is ready make the leaven. Measure out 40 grams and mix it with 30 grams of 50:50 rye flour and strong bread flour. Leave it to rise for about 2-4 hours. Then mix the bread flour in. In a bowl of lukewarm water (305mls to 400mls) add the leaven. Then add 150 grams of spelt flour and 350 grams of strong bread flour. Mix well together. The mixture will be quite wet. Leave to rest and rise in a warm place cover till it rises. Once it rises shape it into shape add some flour to your hands to prevent sticking together. Warm up the oven at 250 degrees with a water bath underneath plus the baking tray/pan/pot. Bake for 20 minutes cover in a lid or foil. Before that sprinkle some flour to prevent sticking to the pan. Then bake uncovered for another 20 minutes at 230 degrees Celcius.
Thank you for reading and dropping by. Do have a look at my other recipes like baking bread and making Margherita pizza.
