A few weeks ago I got the bright idea that it would be interesting to learn how to make sourdough bread. The price of the bread we eat is inching closer to $8 a loaf each time we go to the grocery store and I decided I'd had enough of paying those prices. Ugh, inflation is real.
I’ve baked bread before and actually got quite good at it back in the 1990’s. Back then I had a baking stone and a spray bottle to make sure the oven was at the proper humidity level and everything.
I’ve quickly learned making sourdough bread is an entirely different level. As I usually do, I jumped into it with both feet. I binged sourdough YouTube videos to learn everything I could. I bought an enameled cast iron dutch oven, banneton basket, scouring lame, and several fancy dough scrapers. Oh, and of course the starter culture. My confidence level was off the charts at this point. I was going to slay it.
I followed the instructions to the letter and I can tell you taking care of a sourdough culture is much like taking care of a pet. You have to feed it (flour) and water it at least once a day to keep it going when you’re planning on baking. It takes real commitment.
Baking Day
After about seven days of pampering this culture it was baking day!
After a series of rises, stretches, folds, and the final shaping it was ready to put into the oven. The dough wasn’t quite rising like I expected but I was determined to see the process through. I felt like a proud father, I was looking through the little oven window rooting for it.
After about fifteen minutes of baking, the bread began to fill our condo with the most delicious smell. Then came the moment of truth, it was ready to take out and cool down on the rack. It smelled like bread and the color was decent, I was happy.
The loaf rose in the oven more than I thought but it still kind of resembled a UFO. I mean, if I put little green action figures around it and painted it silver it really could have been the centerpiece of a Roswell diorama.
After the grueling hour of cooling I cut into loaf and the middle of the bread was hollow. What was worse, the dough around the crust was super dense and heavy.
I managed to hack off a few of the better pieces and made a sandwich out of them and the bread tasted great. The only problem is it sat in my stomach for the entire rest of the afternoon like a lead ball.
So, I’ll try again. I’ll master this yet. In the meantime, the birds and the squirrels around here are going to be rooting for me to fail so they can continue to feast on my mistakes.
I hope you enjoy what’s left of your weekend.
--
(Gif compliments of Giphy.com and it is the kind of sourdough loaf I aspire to make.)
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Oh yeah, this is one of my goals! It will soon be perfect, just keep going LOL. I have not yet tried my hand at sourdough, but am still in the devouring youtube video stage hahaa. It seems to me I recall seeing something about scoring the dough before baking to allow the 'spring' to burst through the slits.
You are ahead of me by leaps and bounds as I have not yet gathered together my baking utensils but I will get my starter going this coming week. I can almost smell your bread baking, my favorite scent in the world .
I'll definitely keep going. I can't wait to fall into more of a rhythm with the making so I don't have to buy bread. You're right, you have to score it to allow a full rise. I tried but the cut must not have been deep enough. The smell of baking bread is right up there with a campfire for me. : )
That looks really awesome and tasty! To new years eve we are baking bread with a coin inside. The one who finds it, is going to have good luck for the year.
No tooth lost so far :D
Thanks! It actually did taste good. I'm thinking the density of it was due to the starter. You can never have enough good luck. I think I've heard of similar traditions before, where are you from? I'm glad there's been no broken teeth! : )
We learnt how to make bread in the first year of pandemic. We also know making some traditional foods similar to bread. This year the price of bread has doubled in my country. Also considering global food crisis, this knowledge will be useful in the future.
These types of skills are very valuable to have, even if you don't always need them!
I had the same thought recently, that I should start making my own bread. I, however, completely forgot about the sourdough starter I had started and it's absolutely hooched itself. 🤣 Treating it more like a pet... that's what I need to do.
Your bread looks fantastic! UFO-shaped, yes, but still. 😁
This reminds me of my first loaves! It seemed like I will never bake that perfect loaf, but in the end with loads of failed loaves, one afternoon the start of the journey to that perfect loaf began! Keep faith. Practice. I have baked sourdough bread now for over 5 years and worked in multiple bakeries and after reading countless books on sourdough and watching hours on end of YouTube videos, I want to say I am confident that there are a couple of secrets that no one tells you about baking. Making that perfect loaf of sourdough is actually very easy, but there are some key "road signs" you need to look out for.
I hope your journey will be nice!
(P.S., if you allow me to diagnose your bread, please read on, or ignore this if you already know the problem! It sounds like your bread was under-proofed/under-fermented. A very common problem.
Again, please skip this if you already know or if you do not want to read it! Just a little musing. Most successful sourdough bakers are intimately linked to their sourdough starters. That is, they know how long their starters take to rise and ferment a loaf. More specifically, they know how long their starter takes to completely over ferment. When they know this, they can time their baking. Normal baking with bread yeast is very forgiving, but sourdough is tricky as you only have one shot otherwise you will ferment through the gluten. Sourdough baking then in one sentence (according to me) is *having the knowledge of knowing when your dough has fermented 75% of the way to proof it for 15% and baking it whilst it is 5% under proofed for that nice oven spring.
Sorry for this wall of a text! Hopefully, you did not read it, and if you did, I hope it made some sense. Enjoy the baking.)
It sounds like you've gone down the same sourdough rabbit hole that I did! The challenge of it is kind of addictive. Thanks so much for the tips here! I suspected the problem may've been with the starter. Also, I've read that above 74 (F) is the ideal temperature for the culture to ferment properly and we struggle to get above 72 in our condo during the summer. Maybe we'll have to go without air conditioning on the days I bake?
Yes, that is indeed what happened! And I made it a way of living. My life is sourdough baking, in some sense.
Yes, I think that is the optimal range. But even in colder temps it will be fine. It just takes longer. Sometimes in the winter a 3-4 hour fermentation might take 8-10 hours. And that is where experience comes into the equation to know when the dough is right and when it needs more time.
I worked with people in bakeries that did not understand sourdough and tried to approach it similar to normal yeast baking. They never got the "touch" (or if you allow me to become philosophical, practical wisdom, phronesis). They tried to use normal methods and times. So the one baker just let it ferment two hours because the recipe said so, but the breads were always either under-fermented or over-proofed because he did not know how to work with it.
Timing is key but sourdough has a mind of its own!
Sorry for yet another lengthy reply.
That's incredible that you were able to make a living from your knowledge! I really admire people who focus on a craft like that and devote their lives to perfecting it.
I'm about to attempt my second loaf and am taking no shortcuts this time. The first recipe I used skipped many of the traditional steps, like the levain process. This time I'm going all in. Do you mix a little whole wheat into your dough? This recipe calls for 822g white flour and 64g whole wheat flour. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. This process has been an interesting and educational journey for me.
So sorry for only replying now. Things on this side have been hectic.
Yes, I love to add additional flours into the mix. I normally use a mixture between whole wheat, barley, and rye flour. If I use 1000g of total flour I usually add 800g of white and 200g of my mixture. I usually sell this as my "country loaf".
Yes, totally agree with that! Do not skip any steps. I have also tried but I have always failed. The most important thing to have is a very active levain. If you get to know your starter, you will have a solid idea of how to get an active levain.
(This is just my process if you want to read it, if not please just skip this! So normally I feed the starter the night before. The next morning, I use a 1:2:2 ratio of starter, water, flour in proportion to the dough. Say I want 20% starter, and I make 1000g batch, the 200g starter will be 40g:80g:80g starter, water, flour. The 1:2:2 ratio gets the starter really active! I hope this rambling helps a bit, if you read it and want more clarity or anything please ask! I will gladly share what I have learned maybe it can help you.)
If you have not yet started, best of luck on the second batch.
If you have started, how did it go?
No worries at all! Your advice is very helpful and I appreciate it! I've been feeding my starter religiously and will attempt my second bake within the next couple of days. I won't be following any recipes that use shortcuts this time so, hopefully, my luck will be a little different. I'll report back as soon as the bread is done! Thanks!
Please do that will be awesome! Best of luck, and yes, follow that advice: no shortcuts! I wait to hear from you, or to read a post about it! You can always tag me if you prefer!
The process is awesome, I get addicted to bread these days and the price of bread keep rising. I need to learn baking faster.
Thanks
Regular (non-sourdough) bread isn't too difficult to master. I bet you could learn it quickly.
I have to take some lessons by follow then.
Thanks
😂😂🤣😂😂😂 I read this laughing all through with your choice of words and I am sorry it didn't turn out as you expected but being the first time I would say you did great sir. I have no doubt there would be an improvement for the second time and so on it would get better till you master it. This is still a progress sir and well done.
Thank you my friend! I decided to take a lighter hearted approach vs. getting irritated that it didn't work. I'm too invested in it to give up now. I have to make at least $100 worth of bread to break even with all of the gadgets I bought. Lol
Hahahaha I love your favourable disposition to it. It's a matter of time, you will make the best one yet. How is your week going sir?
Thank you! The week was decent. Summer is so short in my part of the world that I do my best to get outside and enjoy the sun and warmth as much as possible. How was your week?
Glad it was a decent one and sorry about the summer being shorter there...makes you appreciate the beauty of the warmth.
Mine was a bit busy, swamped and stressful hahaha but it sure was great. Ended well and just enjoying a relaxed weekend. How is Amstel, sir?
Thanks, spring is glorious here. And, you're right, we appreciate each and every warm day.
I'm glad your week was a good one and I hope for less stress for you in the week to come. Amstel is slowing down considerably but he is going to be 14 years old this December. We're enjoying every day with have with him!
Wow...14 years. That's impressively amazing and give him belly rubs for me sir hahahaha.
Thank you so much sir and I wish you a wonderful week ahead too.
Oh, this did make me smile! Sourdough is quite a thing. Here I describe how I eventually got my own starter. I need to follow this up with the two sourdough products I bake each week for the market. Since I actually got it right (perfection is still a goal), we haven't bought commercial bread. That's more than 2 years now. The only bread we buy in is from a friend who makes a loaf for us each week. For the rest, it's what I don't sell at the market. I have come to the conclusion that home made bread beats the commercial stuff. Hands down. Every time. In every which way.
Perservere. Mother will eventually cooperate even if she's not tamed.
Thanks Fiona, I'll be sure to read your link later today! I agree with you, homemade bread is SO much better and I like that you know what's going into it. With the prices going up more and more people will be baking. I've seen loaves of bread here selling for almost $10. I will definitely persevere, I will prove myself worth to mother. Lol
Oh God, I tried to bake my own (normal) bread a couple of times, but in the end, felt it really wasn't worth it, time-wise. Though you're right, with these rising prices, you never know... Still, despite all the toil (seven days?!), yours turned out looking awesome! Hopefully next time, the taste's on par, too.
Thanks! Even making regular bread is really time consuming. The entire process is kind of relaxing to me though. Since I'm home all day I thought it would be time to master sourdough. Some people feed their starter twice that long (14 days) and that might be why mine didn't rise as well as it should've.
Thanks for the chuckle Eric! You should have seen my first loaf - it was hard as a rock, and I'm sure I could have used it as a weapon if an intruder dared come in :)
You need to look at the YouTube videos on the channel 'Our Gabled Home' that you introduced me to; her easy method of keeping sourdough starter alive, or making your own from scratch, but also the breadmaking process.
So...my second loaf was also way too dense, but we managed to eat some of it while it was hot, however the rest was soaked in water, broken up & left by the bird bath!
You will get it right, but watch that German lady for good tips.
I now use her method and it works like a charm; although it's not the perfect artisanal sourdough bread, it's delicious and I can use it for toasting and for making sandwiches.
Good luck!
You're welcome! I hope to have something that doesn't resemble and interstellar spacecraft the next time. : ) I'm hearing from just about everyone whose tried to bake sourdough bread that their first few loaves were "practice". I am going to celebrate once I get it right. I'll have to check out more of the videos on the 'Our Gabled Home'. I really like the channel. So much of the things she teaches have been lost in the modern world but with food shortages projected to come later this year these will be some valuable skills to learn. Thank you my friend and enjoy your weekend!
Oh and one thing my mother taught me about regular bread baking is to wrap it in a tea cloth as soon as it comes out the oven & let it cool in there otherwise it gets way too hard, so I do that with my 'mock' sourdough bread & scones as well (biscuits in America). Any linen cloth will do.
PS I hope we see your next loaf. This one was ready for take-off 😄
Ahh, thank you for that tip! I'll try it with loaf #2. I'll be sure to post about it. I could have skipped the first loaf, like a rock across the lake. Lol.
Hi Eric, it's great to watch you spend your day trying something new which is baking. I think it takes experience to make a cake to get a really delicious cake. As a beginner, of course, the results you get are great. Hope you enjoy your day.
Thank you Eliana! I hope you enjoyed your week!
I really love the look of the bread which I believe you did a great job in preparing it.
Thank you!
The price of bread is $8, in our currency it is around 120,000 Rupiah, that's a very expensive amount for me. 😁
The price of everything here in the US is rising rapidly due to inflation.
roughly when will inflation end
I have no idea. Some say by autumn and others say we could enter into a long period of "stagflation" like the US experienced in the 1970's.
If the problem persists, it will be very difficult for all of us, especially like us in developing countries, if something like that happens then our economy is very dangerous. as in the past, after being experienced by the United States in 1970, then a few years later experienced by Indonesia which was very critical, At that time, it was a pity that we saw a lot of people whose economy was destroyed