Sourdough Success

This weekend was my first attempt at making a loaf of sourdough bread, using my newly created starter. I do not have a photo of the result, as anyone who has produced a failed loaf of bread would recognize it. It was flat on the outside and gummy on the inside. We still ate it, but I was dogged by the failure. I did learn a few things, such as how to use a dutch oven and how to get a thick, dark crust. Determined to succeed, I decided to try again midweek. Making sourdough bread is a bit of a process. The second time around, I embraced the long period of time each step took.

What is probably the most critical step is to make sure the starer is fully active. I took my storage jar of starter out of the refrigeration midday, removed half the mixture for flatbread, and fed the remainder with about 5 grams of rye flour, 10 grams of all-purpose flour, and 15 grams of water. The next day, the starter was bubbling away, so already some success by restarting the starter. At lunchtime, I transferred about 25 grams of starter into a quart canning jar and added 10 grams of rye flour, 40 grams of all purpose flour, and 50 grams of water. The bulked up starter then went into the oven with a hot tea kettle of water to provide some heat. This is where I went wrong on my first loaf. In my first attempt I used the starter after only a couple of hours. For the second attempt, I let the starter grow for 6 hours. It was much frothier, and this time I tried the float test - taking a dollop of starter and putting it in a glass of water. If the starter is producing plenty of carbon dioxide, the dollop will float, which mine did. I then combined the starter, flour, water, and salt.

After folding the dough periodically for a couple of hours to develop structure, I transferred the dough to a large oiled measuring cup. Rather than putting it into the refrigerator for a slow bulk ferment, I left the covered container out on the counter overnight. While I was worried about overproofing, I figured the cold temperature of the house in winter would slow the ferment, but not as much as being in the refrigerator.

Eight hours later, I was rewarded with a dough that was airy and doubled in size, which it had not been the first time. I shaped the dough, transferred it to a banneton basket, covered with plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator all day. I then baked it in a dutch oven after dinner.

The results? A perfect loaf of sourdough bread! It was a good, dark color, with a nice 'ear', open crumb, and crusty. We have a hard time waiting until bread cools, and found we had eaten half the loaf before bedtime. There will be less bread tomorrow, but is there anything better than a slice of warm, fresh bread and butter? You have to enjoy these things when you have them.