A new BikerDom adventure in the sticky stuff. Not mud this time, but flour. And not just any flour and dough, but sourdough, that creation of artisan bakeries throughout the pretentious world, but pretty much standard fare in France and Belgium where bread is to die for. So here goes – move over BikerDom: BakerDom, coming through!
The Sourdough Starter
The heart and soul of any sourdough bread, your sourdough starter is what gives your bread its pep, its oomph, its va va voom, and if you treat it well, you’ll get some joie de vivre in return.
A basic starter will take about seven days to develop sufficiently to be put to work. If you use the right flour, and rye flour generally works the best, you might be able to cut that to four days.
So first off, buy your flour, I tried white at first, but wasn’t happy with the results, in the end Skipton Mills Organic Light Rye allowed me to develop a healthily balanced colony of natural yeasts and bacteria to reliably bake decent bread. You can find that in supermarkets in the UK and I’m sure an equivalent is available here in Belgium too, but I wasn’t able to find the right translation on the shelf…
Sourdough bakers talk about weighing out ingredients when starting off, but when it comes to the starter, I was lazy, I just threw flour and water together into a paste. Only more recently do I understand the need for measurements, it allows you to better gauge the hydration of your sourdough after it’s all mixed, which has a big impact on the finished results. Back to the paste, and I mixed about 50g grams of the rye flour with enough (filtered or mineral) water make a thickish paste. Thick enough to feel resistance when stirred, but not thick enough to form peaks – thick paint is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's analogy, see his guide here (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/may/10/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-recipes-sourdough), which was the starter for my own sourdough learning. That’s it for the first day, you can rest. Well, I did.
Next day, or perhaps earlier if your house is on the warm side and your yeastie beasties are eager beavers, add about the same amount of rye flour and water, mix and relax again. There, this is easy, right?
Next day you might start seeing some bubbles forming; this is good. Most guides say scoop out half and throw it away, then add more rye flour and water; this is called “feeding”. Seems like a waste, and it is initially, but in the long run it stops your starter amount growing exponentially. You can safely compost the discards or make mini pancakes. The smell will evolve too, maybe unpleasant at first, but don’t let that bother you.
Next day do the same, more bubbles I suspect, if not don’t worry, you’ll get there in the end; keep going. The smell is also maturing, maybe becoming more pleasant, perhaps fruity like nail polish.
After about seven days you should now notice that when you feed your starter, after a few hours it will expand and become bubbly – great, you’ve given birth, now give your baby a name; mine is Horace! You’re ready to begin baking… almost.
Making bread
Once your sourdough starter is active you can use it instead of yeast in your bread recipes. Gather your ingredients: good quality strong (high gluten) flour, water, a pinch of salt, and your starter; and it is your starter, unique to you, so in principle the results will be unique to you too. Starters generally take on the naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria of their locality but each will be subtly different.
Mix your ingredients in a bowl, but don’t rush it, sourdough is bread making in dough motion…. It's that extra time that gives the yeasts and bacteria in the starter time to work their magic on the flour, all sorts of exotic chemical reactions are taking place right between your fingers as you mix and kneed, and when you sit back with your feet up, the starter continues its job for hours afterward, even working overnight to develop its complex flavours just for your palate.
After the initial mix, you let the dough relax in its bowl, cover it with a damp cloth and come back to it 30 minutes later. Kneed some more, but with less vigour, more of a folding technique to fold air into it and just a few folds will do. Wet hands will help to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers. The dough will still feel quite rough at this stage and easily separated and will not have a wholeness about it. Cover again and keep doing this folding process every 30 minutes or so for two hours. Gradually the dough will become silky and stretch between your fingers, and you’ll see the dough forming strands that will seem to stretch forever towards the end. The dough will begin to hold its shape and feel like ‘a thing’.
Then leave it, covered and come back in a few hours. It will have grown as tiny CO2 bubbles form inside the dough. Be gentle at this stage, you don’t want to lose those bubbles. Then a few more folds and again leave it. The trick is not to leave it too long or otherwise the gluten strands will start to breakdown and the dough will collapse and be useless for breadmaking. Another hour or so and you can start shaping the dough.
Shaping
Shaping is another art as you cajole your dough into a shape to form a tight skin on its exterior that gives sourdough its unique crust that is full of flavour. Sprinkle flour onto your flat working surface and pour (yes, pour) your dough out of its bowl or container. Once there, you can fold its exteriors into its centre, all the while the underneath will be developing a taut skin. A few outside to inside folds and you can then flip it over, now with the skin uppermost. Now you can gently pull it towards you, the lower edge rolling under the mass of the dough which stretches the skin even more. Then push it away from you turning as you go; the idea is to get a different part of the dough rolling underneath the dough ball the next time you pull it towards you. This will develop a tight rounded shape with a taut skin.
Advanced bakers will at this point put the dough (skin side down in a floured bowl) into a refrigerator to retard the fermentation process which adds additional complexity to the flavours. The development of flavours, sour or otherwise, is an art involving the ingredients, their ratios, the hydration level of the mix, how long its left, the retardation period (which slows some chemical reactions, but not others) and then the baking itself. Being rigorous about recording what you are doing helps to find what works and how to consistently achieve good results – it is very much a process of trial and error, but the internet is full of ideas about what to try. But beware it can become all consuming.
After an hour or so at room temperature the shaped dough will have relaxed so can be shaped again before you put it onto a floured baking tray, or a baking sheet, which helps prevent it sticking to the tray. Or if it’s had a few hours (or even overnight) in the fridge it can be turned out directly onto the baking tray / baking sheet – the cooled dough will tend to hold its shape better.
Then dust the dough with flour and then the magic step, a cut through the top of the dough with a very sharp blade (some use a razor blade for this). The idea of this cut is to provide a clean break in the skin through which the expanding dough (remember those CO2 bubbles) can rise unhindered and so rise higher, creating the highly sought after open airy texture of the sourdough “crumb”.
Baking
The rise during baking is further assisted by the skin of the dough remaining pliable as long as possible allowing the expanding dough to keep expanding. This is done by keeping a high moisture inside the oven. Professionals use moisture-controlled ovens, but us amateurs improvise by using a covered container; “Dutch ovens” are typically used. These are large iron pots with lids that seal the dough inside so keeping the moisture locked in.
The oven is pre-heated along with the Dutch oven container to 240-250C and the shaped dough put inside. 20 minutes should see the dough rise, then the lid of the Dutch oven can be removed. This is the most eagerly anticipated point as either the dough, now a loaf, will have inflated magnificently or failing that your ego will be deflated like your flat pancake-like and hard, dense loaf. The latter is a real buzz killer. Often a flat loaf emerges from the oven, and I just want to immediately start making a new mix to get it right.
But if you are lucky and you’ve got the process right, another 20 minutes or so in the oven, will develop a lovely golden crust on your new pride and joy. Out of the oven and on a cooling rack and the temptation to cut into it will be very strong, but resist that urge, because it will be a little gooey inside until it has aired for around 30 minutes. Only then can you cut with confidence and just a little apprehension – are the holes evenly distributed or is there one massive hole inside, another buzz killer.
Eating and Memories
Enjoy the fruits of your labour, spread thick with creamy butter is enough for a tasty treat, but go easy, it’s how I put on a few kilos through COVID, but what enjoyable kilos they were!
Update 2024: Now out of COVID, I don't have time to bake, but I remember with fondness that new skill I developed when the world was just a little bit crazy.
