White sour dough

I “returned to the water” with this bake. My last attempt with my sour dough starter failed miserably. I partly put this down to getting ahead of myself, so I returned to the recipe book that I’d got the sweet rye bread from (The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard) and instead turned to the first recipe in the book.

Another non-pretty loaf.

Good looks are overrated

The first recipe was a simple white bread made using a sour dough starter fed with white flour. My starter was still a bit overpopulated with rye flour after the previous recipe, so I fed it for a few days with just white flour.

The baking day arrived. Breads made with a starter take a fairly long time to prove so I started early in the day. First step; combining the ingredients. Out came my large mixing bowl and in it went 200g of the starter and “325g cold water at 16°C” (luckily, the temperature it came out of the tap at). These got whisked together. Next, 500g strong white flour and 1 ½ teaspoon salt went in. Time to get messy, as this required mixing by hand. When it had all come together as a dough, I cleaned myself off, covered the bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes.

10 minutes up, the dough came out of the bowl onto an oiled worktop for its first knead. Dan Lepard is known for his low-intensity kneading method, so rather than a 10 minute arm workout, I kneaded the dough 12 times (10-15 seconds), shaped it into a ball and put it back in a cleaned mixing bowl that had been oiled lightly (covered, of course). Another 10 minutes later, it got a similar kneading, then went back into the bowl, this time for 30 minutes... and this was pretty much the stage where I had to re-read the recipe book about 5 times before each step just to check that I was up to the right one. It had another knead, then rest for 1 hour... another knead, another hour rest... another knead, and then 2 hours rest...

A bit of variation with the next step. The mix got halved this time and formed into 2 balls, which sat on the oiled worktop for 15 minutes while I rubbed flour into 2 tea towels which were then used to line two 20cm bowls. After the 15 minutes was up, I put the dough balls seam-side up in the bowls, covered them with oiled cling film and... yep, more waiting, this time around 4 ½ hours, until doubled in height.

The hours past and the dough puffed up nicely. I preheated the oven to 220°. Time to get the balls of dough turned out of the bowls. First attempt; place the baking tray over the bowl then flip the whole thing over. Result?... none. The dough was stuck to the tea towel. Should have seen that one coming. And it was stuck firm with both balls, so there was no chance of salvaging either in that shape. In a sort-of desperation, I scraped them off the tea towels as best I could and gently put all the dough back together again; not difficult, but it was still incredibly soft. I quickly oiled my loaf tin and plopped... yep, literally plopped... the whole lot in. And now the indecision; did I need to leave the dough to prove again because I’d essentially knocked it back with all this man-handling, or did I just shove it in the oven and cross my fingers because it was already about 7 o’clock?

I shoved it in the oven and crossed my fingers, fully prepared for another disaster.

The loaf came out of the oven after about an hour. There were a few positive signs; it had risen while in the oven and clearly gave off a hollow sound when tapped. I left it to cool and distracted myself in what I’ve found is the best way for me; a walk, far away from the bread that needs to cool.

I came back with an appetite, but with the belief that I’d probably have to defrost a bagel. I’d clearly not manhandled the dough too much after the tea towel disaster though because the slice of bread that I cut was laced with air pockets, was moist and flexible. Pretty damn edible, even if I do say so myself.

Although this bread had turned out alright, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m missing something when it comes to making breads with leavens. Am I feeding my leaven with too much water? Is that why the dough was still so sticky? Or is it down to the flour that I’m using? Or was it just that I hadn’t floured the tea towels enough? The latter point wouldn’t account for why the sweet rye bread didn’t work but the former ones would.

After taking in a sample for one of my tutors at college, it turns out that he sometimes bakes with natural leavens at home too. I may be asking him for some tips in future.

References

The Handmade Loaf, Dan Lepard, Mitchell Beazley, 2004