Nourish the Planet: Sourdough Bread

April 3, 2020 Emily Buchanan

There is nothing more life affirming than being able to bake your own bread. Perhaps it’s because it has such a long tradition of sustaining people using two such simple ingredients: flour and water. Many people are intimidated by the process, but once you’ve made your own bread we promise, you’ll never look back.

Making your own bread has so many benefits. As well as the deep satisfaction of pulling a golden crusted loaf from the oven and sharing it with friends and family, making your own loaf from scratch allows you to be in control of the ingredients, a wonderful way to support farmers that grow their grains organically and use production methods that promote healthy soil and biodiversity. If it’s available to you, buying locally grown and milled flour heavily cuts down on transport emissions too, making it extra planet-friendly.

To make naturally leavened bread you must use a starter. While it’s a fairly simple process to create your own starter, it does take a little patience in the initial stages as you “feed” it daily with flour and water. As it harvests the natural yeasts from the surrounding air it becomes bubbling and alive, a fascinating process in itself of science and alchemy. Many recipes require you to discard part of the starter every time you feed it, which is hugely wasteful or requires you to cook several other recipes using your starter discards. We don’t find any of this necessary and the below starter recipe, which does not use this technique, results in a lively, active starter in just five days.

In a time when we are being asked to slow down and stay home, what better time is there to learn how to bake our own bread?

SOURDOUGH STARTER

Ingredients

2 cups (280 g) white bread flour (preferably organic)

Method

1. In a 1 quart (1 l) container, combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) of room temperature water and 1/2 cup (70 g) of the flour and stir until the water absorbs all of the flour and forms a soft dough. Cover loosely with a cloth and set aside at room temperature for 24 hours. The mixture should rise slightly with visible bubbles starting to form and may take on a faintly acidic aroma. Repeat this for 3 more days, each day adding an additional 1/4 cup (60 ml) of water and 1/2 cup (70 g) of flour to the dough. Each day the starter should rise slightly with bubbles starting to form and should become more acidic in aroma. By day 5 you should 1 pound (500 g) of lively starter. If you are in doubt, add 1 teaspoon of dry active yeast when combining the starter and water.

SOURDOUGH LOAF

Makes one 3-pound (1.5 kg) loaf

EQUIPMENT: An airtight container; a large bowl or linen-lined basket lined (banneton) ; a cloth; a shaker filled with flour for dusting (optional); a large bowl; a heavy-duty mixer fitted with a flat paddle (not the dough hook); a kitchen scale; a flat cast-iron grill pain or baking steel; a baking peel or wooden chopping board lined with baking parchment, a razor blade or very sharp knife; an instant-read thermometer, a baking rack.

Ingredients

1 pound (500 g) sourdough starter
7 cups (980 g) white bread flour (preferably organic)
2 tablespoons malt flakes or malt powder (optional)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Method

1. Line the bowl or basket with a clean cloth and dust the cloth generously with flour.

2. In the bowl of the heavy-duty mixer combine the starter and 3 cups (750 mls) room temperature water and mix on low speed to dissolve the starter. Add the flour, cup by cup, mixing just until the dough is hydrated. This should take 1 to 2 minutes. The dough should be sticky, thicker than a batter but not so dense that the dough could easily be kneaded. Mix at the lowest speed for 5 minutes. The dough should be extremely sticky and wet, with web-like visible strands of gluten.

3. Remove 1 pound (500 g) of the dough and transfer it to the airtight container and reserve as a starter for your next loaf (there is no need to feed your starter from this point on, simply store it, refrigerated in the airtight container, for up to 3 days. It can also be frozen almost indefinitely. Thaw at room temperature for 24 hours before the next baking).

4. Add the malt flakes, salt to the remaining dough in the mixer, mixing at low speed just until all the ingredients are well-incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. The dough will be sticky.

5. Carefully transfer the dough to the flour-dusted basket. Cover and let rise until the dough has risen slightly, about 6 hours. (To guage how the dough is rising, leave the starter on the counter in its airtight container. If the starter is rising nicely – with big air bubbles throughout – you can be assured that your bread dough is rising as well).

6. About 20 minutes before baking the bread, place the baking steel or cast-iron pan on a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C) .

7. Carefully turn the dough out onto the parchment-lined pizza paddle or chopping board. Score the top of the loaf with a razor blade. Carefully slip the dough, still on the baking parchment onto the grill pan or baking steel and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the loaf is evenly browned. Continue baking until the bread reaches an interior temperature of 200°F (93°C), 20 minutes more. Check the temperature by piercing the center of the loaf with the thermometer. Watch carefully, since ovens vary: If the bread seems to be browning too quickly, reduce the heat.

8. Transfer the bread to the baking rack to cool. The bread continues to bake as it cools so resist the temptation to cut the bread before it is thoroughly cooled, at least 4 hours. (If you do, it may tear, with an uneven texture.) Store the bread at room temperature in a cloth towel or cloth bag, slicing off only as much as you need at a time. The bread will stay fresh for 1 week.

VARIATIONS:

light wholewheat sourdough loaf

For a heartier loaf, substitute 3 cups (420 g) of the white flour for the following:

1 cup (140 g) light whole wheat bread flour
1 cup (140 g) rye flour
1 cup (140 g) spelt flour

multigrain sourdough loaf

For a multigrain loaf with wholegrain goodness:

Add 1 ½ cups (about 200g) mixed seeds (equal parts sesame, flax and sunflower seeds).

cranberry, pistachio and almond sourdough loaf

Add 3/4 cup (4 ounces / 125 g) dried cranberries, 1 cup (4 ounces / 125 g) slivered almonds, and 1/3 cup (4 ounces / 125 g) pistachios, at the same time as the coarse sea salt.

TIPS:

Be sure to keep your starter pure, nothing but water and flour. If the last loaf has not rise as you want, it is ok to add 1 teaspoon or less of active dry yeast when adding water to the levain, until your starter is lively and bubbly. As an insurance policy, you can add a touch of yeast to the dough when you thaw a batch of frozen starter.
Before you begin, measure everything. A dough scraper can be particularly handy. Be sure to dust your bowl or your linen-lined basket (banneton) with plenty of flour, measure out all the flours, have a clean container for your levain and so on. Your hands will get sticky and the more you do in advance while your hands are clean, the better!
Your first several loaves may not rise very much. Do not be discouraged and just forge on ahead! You can adjust rising time, from 6 hours to 24 hours, depending upon your schedule and the vitality of the starter. If you bake every few days, the starter will get more and more active and the bread will rise more quickly and will of course be lighter.
A starter can virtually be kept forever. When baking bread daily, keep the starter on the counter, in a securely covered bowl, at room temperature. If you won’t be making bread for several days, refrigerate in a covered container. And if you won’t be making bread for several weeks, freeze the starter in a covered container.
There is no getting away from it: Sourdough is a messy affair, with sticky dough that, well, wants to stick to everything in sight, including the bowls, the spatulas, your cloths, your arms. I clean up immediately after preparing the dough, making sure nothing has time to stick too much. I also reserve a sponge just for cleaning up, since it usually gets matted with bits of dough.
A great zero waste tip if you eat fresh mozzarella is to reserve the liquid that comes in the packet to preserve the cheese. Its faintly lactic flavors adds a special touch to the final loaf. Combine with the water in the recipe to make the 3 cups (750 ml) needed for a loaf. Do not use 100% mozzarella liquid as it can create a rather funky-tasting bread!

Nourish the Planet is a collaborative series by Patricia Wells and Emily Buchanan. Find our more here about why we think it’s important.