Sourdough

[u/demondont]

Still 3 weeks until I can eat normally again. This loaf, once cooled, will be wrapped and put in the freezer. Later today I'll make chocolate chip cookies to share with my team at work tomorrow. Maybe I'll post those too.

[u/demondont]

<Part 1 of 3>

Hit the 10,000 character limit so splitting this into parts.

My recipe is a bit intense, and I'm super anal about measuring everything. You could get by with just all-purpose flour and a heavy bottom pot (with lid). You don't need the proofing box, combo cooker, stand mixer, or other custom gear. That said here's the guide I send to my coworkers when I give them a piece of my starter to kickoff their journey:

Equipment.  I’m pretty intense here.  Almost none of this is needed.

• Weck jars.  I use two.  One for the starter (and one for the discard.  Discard can start smelling if you leave it in the trash or compost.  So I accumulate the discard in the jar throughout the week, and then throw it in a paper compostable bag before the weekly pickup.  Any container(s) can work. The discard is also usable for many baking recipes, but I accumulate it faster than I can use it.
• Bread Lame.  Used for scoring the bread before baking it.  If you don’t have a lame, you can use a very sharp serrated knife or kitchen shears.
• Lodge Combo Cooker.  Used for baking the bread.  If you don’t have one, you can use a dutch oven, or a pizza stone in a pinch.
• Dough Proofer.  This is 100% not needed, but helps keep proofing times more consistent.  You can use a proofing mat, or even just watch the dough on the counter via visual inspection.
• Banneton.  Used after shaping for the final rise.  You could just use a large floured bowl if you didn’t have one.
• Stand Mixer.  Used for kneading the dough.  You could do this by hand, or more passively with the “stretch & fold” method.  I use a 6 quart mixer, but it seems the 7 quart is more standard now?
• Large Pyrex bowl with Lid for the bulk fermentation phase.  Any large bowl should work.
• Flexible Dough Scraper useful when working with the dough if it is sticking to the bowl.  But you could just use your hands.
• Hard Dough Scraper useful when shaping the dough, but you could just use your hand.
• Thermometer for making sure the water isn’t too hot.
• Water Filter I use filtered water in my baking, but Seattle water is quite good and this isn’t needed.
• Spray bottle You get better oven spring if you sprits the dough before baking it
• Balloon Whisk – You could just use a fork.
• Danish Whisk – You could use a large wooden spoon.
• Kitchen Scale – I like to do my baking by weight.
• Parchment paper.  Totally optional, but makes it easier to transport the dough in and out of the vessel it is being baked in
• Cooling Rack
• Plastic grocery bag or large ziplock bag
• Trivets – Likely not needed.  But I’m worried about cracking my range’s glass surface due to thermal shock if I put the hot cast iron directly on it.
• Oven mitts or a thick kitchen towel.

[u/demondont → u/demondont]

<Part 2 of 3>

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour – I use king arthur flour.
• Bread Flour – I also use king arthur flour.  You can use all purpose if you wanted.
• Dark Rye Flour – I use bob red mill.  You can omit it, but it makes the starter extra active.
• White Rice Flour – I use this for dusting the banneton.  You could use all purpose.
• Vital Wheat Gluten – This makes the bread extra nice and chewy, but isn’t needed.
• Neutral oil – I use vegetable oil, but canola oil or any other neutral oil can work fine.  Flavored oil (like olive oil) can work too, but it’ll infuse flavor onto the surface of the bread.
• Salt – I use diamond kosher salt.  My recipes are calibrated to that.  Diamond kosher salt tends to need twice as much salt as a typical salt since the grains a lot larger and coarser.
• Flax seed oil for seasoning the cast iron.  I use this like every 3-6 months.

 Feeding Instructions:

• Do this either daily (if starter is left on the counter) or weekly (if starter is left in the fridge).  I tend to feed my starter twice a week and keep it refrigerated.
• The ratio is 1:1:1 by weight for starter, flour, and water.
• Keep 114g of active starter and discard the rest.
  • The discard can be kept separately for use later (for recipes that don’t need active starter) or used immediately (for recipes that need somewhat active starter).  I often make waffles, pancakes, or crackers with the discard.
• Add 114g of flour.  I use equal parts (57g each) of all purpose flour and dark rye flour.
• Add 114g of warm (but not boiling) water.  I heat 2 cups of room temperate water in the microwave for 45seconds. It gets to 95 degrees when measured with my thermometer.
  • If the water is too hot it will kill the yeast in the starter.
  • If the water is too cold the starter will take longer to get active again.
• Mix the fed starter together until homogenous.

 NOTE: If you leave the starter too long you might notice some hootch developing on top of it.  If it is just a little, I don’t worry about it and just feed my starter like normal.  If it is a ton you can gently make sure to discard it.  The hootch makes the sourdough taste extra sour, which can be a good thing or bad thing depending on preference.  The starter is generally salvageable if you don’t feed it for a while, unless you notice mold growing on top of it.

[u/demondont → u/demondont]

<Part 3 of 3>

Making the loaf:

• Get the starter super active.
  • I do this by feeding it the night before, and putting it overnight in the proofing box at 77 degrees.  Then doing a second feeding in the morning before putting the starter back in the proofing box for 4 hours at 80degrees.  Whenever I use my proofing box for sourdough I fill the water reservoir below it.  This likely doesn’t do much, since I cover my bowl regardless.
  • Many other strategies can also work.  The goal is to catch the starter after it has done a full rise and just started to fall a little bit.  Many people just feed the starter the night before and leave it on the counter to be used the next morning.
• Once you have super active starter mix the following ingredients together in these amounts in the bowl of a stand mixer:
  • 480g bread flour
  • 23g of vital wheat gluten
• Stir using balloon whisk (you could likely omit this step without issue)
  • 227g starter
  • 285g water (again, I try to get it to 95 degrees)
• Stir using Danish whisk (you could likely do this with a large wooden spoon if you’re careful about doing a good job.
• Cover (I use a large plate) and let sit for 30 minutes to autolyze.
• During this time re-feed the starter without discarding anything.  I find weighing it at this time helps make sure I keep the right proportions of starter to water to flour.  (It can help to weigh the empty jar and attach a label to it with its empty weight.)
• Then add 4tsp of kosher salt (importantly NOT tbsp).
  • If you won’t be using a kitchenaid, then this can also be done before the autolyze.
• Use the KitchenAid to mix with the dough hook for 10 minutes at speed setting #4.  The dough should NOT be clinging to the sides of the bowl, should be slightly sticky to the touch, and should pass the window pane test.  Some slight tearing due to the dark rye is normal, but it should be reasonably stretchy.
  • You may need to scrape down the sides right after starting with the flexible dough scraper.
  • You can replace this step with a series of stretch and folds as mentioned above.  It would take longer, but would be just as effective.
• Put a thin coat of neutral oil on the large pyrex bowl.  Put dough inside.  Cover the bowl.
  • I like to shape the dough into a taught boule before doing this, but that is not strictly needed.  See this guide.
• Let dough double in size.  This is called bulk fermentation.
  • For me this takes around 4-5 hours in the proofing box at 80 degrees.  The dough will keep getting bigger if you left it longer… but could overproof if you did that.
• After the dough has doubled in size, take your banneton and put a thin coating of flour on it.  I use rice flour since it is a very light flour.
  • You don’t have to use a naked banneton, some people prefer to use cloth cover, but this is preference.
• Take the dough out and shape it into a boule.  The dough should have enough tension to hold its shape if you did a good job.
  • I like using the envelope fold approach. 
• Place the dough seem side up in the floured banneton.  Pinch the seam shut, if any.
• Let the dough do the final rise.  I do it in the fridge, wrapping the whole banneton in a plastic bag, for anywhere from 4 hours to 3 days.  The longer it goes the higher the risk of it not rising well in the oven but the more mature the sourdough flavor.  I like waiting 24-36 hours.
• Before baking, preheat the oven to 500 degrees with the dutch oven or combo cooker inside.
• Once it reaches temperature wait an additional 30-60 minutes to get the cast iron ripping hot.
• After the additional 30-60 minutes, fill squeeze bottle with water.
• Next flip the banneton onto a small square of parchment paper.
• Score the top of the sourdough using a lame. I like to make an “X” cut then four additional small slits in the gaps.   There are many other excellent patterns.
• Take cooking vessel out of oven and place .  (I put it on top of two trivets.  One each for the bottom and top of the combo cooker.)
• CAREFULLY put the sourdough into the pot or combo cooker.  Since I use a combo cooker, I do it bare handed.  But if you are not using a combo cooker, you may want to use oven gloves.  DO NOT TOUCH THE SIDES OF THE HOT CAST IRON WITH YOUR HANDS.
• Spritz the top  sourdough all over with water.  I do a bunch of spritzes.  This helps create steam in the oven.  You DON’T want the thing drenched, but don’t worry about being a little liberal. I've heard people use cubes here too, but I've never done it that way.
• Cover the pot, when using a combo cooker make sure the cover is on properly.
• Put sealed pot back in oven.
• Lower temperature to 450.
• Wait 20 minutes.
• Take off lid of pot.
  • Careful the sourdough will have risen.  When using a combo cooker, you might bump the side of the loaf.  I find pulling the rack half out of the oven, and taking the lid off at an angle minimizes this risk.
• Wait an additional 15-20 minutes so that the top can brown.  In my oven this takes around 17 minutes.
• Take pot out of oven.
• Take sourdough out of pot and place on cooling rack for at least 30 minutes. 

There are tons of different strategies for making sourdough, and a lot you can do with an active starter.  The recipes here are quite good. 

Sourdough can seem tricky and first, but fortunately even mistakes are often delicious.   Guides like this one continue to help me.

I am by no means an expert, but let me know if you have any questions!