Friday 1 March 2019

Regarding Sourdough Bread

We've been making nearly all of our own bread for years. I say 'nearly' because even I can be tempted by a tasty, fresh-baked interesting loaf at a bakers shop, and once in a while I get a craving for a cheese toasty and there's just no way anything but the pappiest bought loaf of sliced white will do for that. But other than a once every couple of months purchase, all of our bread comes from our own kitchen.

Like most bread wankers, we've got a regular loaf. For us thats a standard malted whole grain loaf made with dried yeast. Its a delicious loaf but variety is the spice of life, and our appreciation of it is boosted by having lots of other breads in-between. And sometimes that means sourdough.

Malted wholegrain sourdough.


I'm writing this blog post to sort of demystify sourdough culture, primarily for those who've been given subbings from one of our own sourdoughs. Its not an exhaustive guide or a list of recipes, the internet is full of those already. What I want to do here is talk you through the process so you understand how ridiculously easy and robust it is when you understand. Its not at all hard, and you'll be able to make artisan quality sourdoughs with ease.

I've summarised it in this video, but do read on for details.


What is sourdough?

The air around you is swarming with microbes. And I do mean swarming, they're everywhere. The surfaces around you are all covered in them. The food you eat is heavily infested with them. They're everywhere, all of the time. And thats fine, we've known that for a long time (although ironically that wasn't known in the time of Pasteur and Koch - the former, having discovered microbes everywhere but not that most were harmless became rather paranoid about it). Food in the open going off isn't about whether microbes find their way on to it, its about the way that the food is stored and handled creating specific environments where particular microbes dominate. Or in other words, if you store the same bread in the same bread bin, you get the same coloured spots of mold. Because the same conditions favour those mold species.

Sourdough is the same thing applied to certain species of yeast and bacteria. Yeast are simple fungi, they do most of the rising, making nice bubbles in the bread. There are a bunch of species you might find in a sourdough, and they're all cousins of the bakers and brewers yeasts you already know. But because they're wild ones, rather than the miracles of breeding that are used commercially, they're a bit slower, needing longer for the bread to get where you want it before baking. The bacteria are mostly what we call lactic acid bacteria, they're making it sour by fermenting the sugars mostly released from flour by enzymes from the yeast into lactic acid, which is the same glorious biochemistry as happens in yoghurt to make milk delightfully sour rather than off.

These things are everywhere, you've got yeast and lactic acid bacteria on you. Everyone has. And if you create an environment that favours their growth, then you too can have your own sourdough culture. Its really, really easy.

Ok then... How do I get sourdough culture?

You've got three options. You can buy one, either as a dried packet of mixed microbes or a wet culture, you can get one from someone who already grows their own sourdough, or you can isolate your own. None of these are hard. I'll only say I don't get why you'd use the dried culture, it doesn't save much time on isolating a wild one, and last time I saw a wet culture for sale it was £14.99, which is absurd. But if you choose to buy one then make sure its at least reasonably fresh. There's no point finding that its dead a week later when you could have made your own by then. Treat it according to the instructions it comes with and you'll be fine.

Alternatively, you may be lucky enough to get some from someone else. That also means you know someone who can tell you how to look after it, and thats great. But basically you're getting a way in thats brilliant and simple - there's no bad here.

But honestly? Making your own is a doddle. Its dead easy. You need four things - rye flour, bread flour, a container with a lid, and a little time. 

Wheat and rye with sesame, chia and sunflower seeds. Seedy breads are often dense, but delicious.

Making your own sourdough culture in 4 easy steps

1. Mix about a teaspoon each of rye flour and strong white bread flour with enough water to make a thick paste or very slack dough. Leave it until tomorrow in a loosely covered container - pick a corner of a kitchen work bench and leave it there.

2. Sniff it. Look at it. Poke at it impatiently. Then add another spoonfull each of white and rye flours, and enough water to get it to a thick paste again.

3. Ignore it for a day or two and nothing bad will happen, but each day you should be looking to add as much again as you have, until its growing gooey and yeasty all on its own. When you get as far as adding a couple of tablespoons of each flour, you'll maybe have to throw some away so you don't just have a house full of not-yet-ready culture.

4. After 1-2 weeks you've got a fast growing sourdough. Start making bread.

Ok, so how do I make the bread?

Oh, the internet is full of recipes for that. Its not hard. Make a dough by any of the recipes, and it will work.

My standard recipe uses 3 cups of flour (of which at least 1 is  white bread flour, but the others might be wholemeal, rye, malted wholegrain, or whatever else), 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt,  and about 8 tablespoons (give or take) if my sourdough culture, with enough water to make it in to a fairly slack bread dough. By 'slack' I mean that I like it a little wetter than a yeast bread dough. If I won't be able to use the bread up fast then a third of a cup of that water is replaced with oil. Sometimes I add some bread improver, just a couple of teaspoons. Its easy to buy now, it contains gluten and ascorbic acid, both of which give the yeast a boost and stabilise the bubbles in the dough. And I might also add some other flavours - I've used all sorts like seeds, fruit, herbs, beetroot powder, take your pick. 

Mix the dough up, kneed for a couple of minutes, cover it up and rest it. Doesn't have to be anywhere hot but out of any drafts is a good idea. Let it double in size and then punch it. Let the air back out, and shape it. You can put it into a loaf tin now, or one of those posh baskets for 'proving' bread. Or on a well seasoned baking tray.

In summer it'll be risen again in an hour or two but when its colder I don't mind leaving it overnight. Get an oven hot (200-210C) with a tray of water on the bottom shelf - this is important and really helps you get a good crust. Bake it for about 30 minutes, until it sounds kind of hollow when you flip it over and tap the bottom. And let it cool to 'set up the crust' before eating it.

And thats it. Its the easiest thing in the world.

If you have any questions, put them in below. Thanks for reading!