The lucky sourdough bread

Krhm – so now I had the right hydration leaven, also 56,3% – or at least closer to that than to a 100% hydration one. One can really see the difference between these two, huh? Well, at least I saw a huge difference in that, how well everything worked out this time – compared to the last Unlucky bread. So here is what one needs to make a good sourdough bread – also no commercial yeast needed;

Note! More pictures of the process are displayed on the Gallery-page and the terms are explained on the Dictionary- page.

Dough, makes two long or one round sourdough breads

370g              Sourdough 56,3% (refresh it according to the Unlucky breads link above)

370g              All-purpose white flour (I use 12% protein)

278g              Water

11g               Fine sea salt

Extra Virgin olive oil

Semolina

1. Weight out all the ingredients. The required dough temperature is 19-20°C.

2. Mix the water well together with the flour. Then add the leaven and work it hard, until it’s combined. Leave for 10 minutes.

3. Add salt, knead the first time and leave for another 10 minutes.

4. Second knead and further 10 minutes of rest.

5. Third knead and then you may leave it for an hour.

6. Then on an oiled tray do your first fold. Let the dough rest another 40 minutes.

7. If making two breads, divide the dough now. Use scale to make them equal, so that they both bake as fast. Then form the dough into a ball(s) and let it rest for another 15 minutes on the table covered by the bowl. Note: More detailed about this same process (parts 7 and 8 ) can be found from the White bread with overnight sponge II – parts 8-10.

8. Shape your bread. Then place into a heavily floured banneton, tuck the banneton into a plastic bag and place it into the fridge for 12-24 hours.

9. The next day put your oven to heat up to 250°C. Then wake up the sourdough breads by removing the plastic bags around them. Let them sit in the room temperature in their molds covered by kitchen towel for another 30 minutes.

10. Place them into the oven (don’t forget to slash). For help check now the parts 11-12 from the White bread with overnight sponge II. After 10 minutes reduce the heat to 210°C. Then keep baking for another 20 minutes.

11. Let ’em cool down and enjoy ❤

Ps. Later I’ll update more detailed info about how to shape and bake your bread nicely!

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And it lived happily ever after!

Only few days ’till x-mas – I mean, ’till your sourdough is ready to be used in baking. Just have to get trough this 5th and 6th feeding – rest is just building the leaven stonger and turning it into a real 100% hydration sourdough.

But, since this feeding process is becoming quite an everyday-thing, let us go on with it without extra chit-chat today.

Day 5

353g               The “total” mixture made the four first days

248g               To be removed and tossed (about 3/4 of the mixture)

105g               Mixture remaining

100g               Water (bottled)

125g               12-14% protein white flour (organic)

So, we again remove 3/4 of the mixture. Then we feed it, first stir in the water, and then the flour. Scrape down the edges, close the lid and leave in room temperature again until the next day.

Day 6

330g              Our creation so far

280g              To be removed and tossed

50g                Mixture remaining

75g                Water (bottled)

75g                12-14% protein white flour (organic)

So, this is our first 50%-50% water-flour feeding. Having opened the lid, you should have a bubbling and aromatic leaven in your jar. And to keep it active, you shouldn’t over feed your tamagotchi – maximum seven times the amount of the leaven you have after tossing some of it. Say, we’d have the 50g left, that times seven is  350g divided between water and flour is max 175g of each.

Anyhow, this feeding (50g of old 75+75 of new stuff) is a good one. Of course, when you know how much you’ll need for your baking the next day, you can feed your leaven according to that. The main thing is that the amount of flour equals the amount of water. Oh right – I think you know by now what to do with the ingredients, but just to rehearse one more time; Stir first the water and then the flour into the old mixture. Scrape down, close the lid and place in room temperature.

Day 7 and beyond

Keep making your sourdough stronger before getting it into too rough baking action. Doing this will make it even bubblier and the aroma gets stronger, too. Like said before, the feeding instructions from day 6 are very suitable for this part.

How to store your leaven now?

Assuming you’ll continue baking with me there is no need to forget about one’s sourdough. You can even keep it in the room temperature, if you have time for baking a few times per a week. Being a busy student, I store mine in the fridge . It works quite good since the summer is rather hot here at the moment and I have time to bake only once a week. Due to these facts my sourdough would be quite too active on the first day after feeding and then the next day all the bubbles would die out and it would be hungry again. I refreshen my leaven 2-3 times a week, to keep it’s belly full. When I feed it for baking I let it stay in room temperature. You should too, and the best it to feed it even couple times and days before using – but at least once is a must.

So, next we’ll get to the recipes – but before showing you sourdough-baking, here on the side is a little peek of what will be coming up next time!

Marika~

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Action – it’s time to remove the raisins!

So, you’ve succesfully survived your three first days with the new pet, and I assume it’s still alive. Maybe you can see some little brown stuff gathering into bunches on the top, maybe not. And maybe the raisins are coming up, maybe not. It depends alot on the temperature your tamagotchi lives in, and of course the ingredients used during the process. Anyway, all is fine and we’ll be finally making some changes so follow this – I appologize I have no pictures of this part yet, my camera was 200km away while I did this step.

Day 4

428g                The total mixture made during the first three days

300g               Remove about 3/4 of the mixture (and toss it)

128g                Mixture remaining

100g                Water (bottled)

125g                12-14% protein white flour (organic)

Ok, this feeding is now a bit different. First we fish the raisins away. We have to measure how much those weight, so that they can be counted  into the 3/4 we are tossing. So, if your scales is not so trustworthy, measure the weight of the cup where you’ll be placing the raisins first, and mark it down. Then one can start hunting the raisins from the liquid with a clean spoon and placing them into this cup.

So, done with that. Now, see how much they weight and count that off from the 300g we are tossing, e.g. I’d have 15g raisins taken away, I’d still have to pour 275g of the rest away. And so, we can do this now – just in case, you can still keep this extra liquid beside you, incase something goes wrong in the next step when we strain the liquid.

And then we strain the liquid in order to get rid of the bran from rye flour and possible raisins we didn’t spot before. This we don’t need to measure, since it won’t be so many grams. To help this process, you should already mix the 100g of water needed for this feeding into the leaven. Remember to place a bowl or something underneath the strainer or you’ll be cursing. And then you can pour this strained liquid back into the container and throw away the bran.

Now, the water we already added, so we only need to add the white flour into the mixture. After that, scrape down the edges, close the lid and leave in the room temperature again. As you can notice, now we start adding more flour to balance it with the amount of water. Your sourdough becomes more stiff and starts to look a lot more ready – just couple more days…

So, ’till the next one! Oh, and now you may finally toss the extra 3/4.

Marika~

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The second and the third day of your new building project

So, it’s been 24 hours since the last time you played with your tamagotchi and it’s hungry once again. The liquid looks probably rather layered now – some brown-yellowish liquid on the top and flour and raisins at the bottom. And this is quite ok – you needn’t mix it between the feeding, but doing so won’t kill it either.

Well, it’s time to keep building the sourdough and feed it a bit more with flour and water. At this point the mixture still remains rather liquidity, ’cause the amount of water added is higher than the amount of flour. Later in the building process this situation will change and you’ll end up with a 100% hydration sourdough. This means that the amount of water equals with the amount of flour.

I haven’t yet tried building the other sourdoughs, like 125% hydration or rye-sourdough, but we’ll get to them sooner or later. Perhaps a bit later, since the 100% hydration sourdough already allows us to bake many kinds of yummy breads. But just so you know, there are many sorts of leavens- unread amounts of them. But let us progress;

Day 2

210g                The mixture made on the first day

50g                Clean water (bottled)

10g                Real rye flour (organic)

10g                12-14% protein white flour (organic)

280g                Total amount

Stir first the water and then the dry ingredients to the mixture from Day 1. Scrape the edges down, close the lid again and leave in room temperature for 24 hours.

Day 3

280g                The total mixture made on the first and second day

100g                Clean water (bottled)

24g                Real rye flour (organic)

24g                12-14% protein white flour (organic)

Like on the second day, first stir in the water, then the dry ingredients. Scrape down the edges, close the lid and leave on room temperature for 24 hours.

Ok – that should get us a bit further. Enjoy experimenting.

Marika~

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