I quite like cooking and I love bread, but in the UK there is not much tradition of bakeries, and the bread from the supermarket is boring and tasteless. So, roughly three years ago, I started baking my own bread using the sour dough that my mom gave me. Apart from some initial troubles in getting used to it, after a while it becomes quite a smooth process, and I prefer it to using yeast because you really don't need much in terms of ingredients.
Here is a tutorial on how to bake bread with the sour dough. It does not cover the initial process of creating the sour dough itself, which is a bit more complicated, and a matter of trial and error. To start, I suggest you ask for some dough to somebody that already does it...it is quite trendy now, so you will easily find somebody.
THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU BRING THE SOUR DOUGH HOME:
-transfer the dough to a larger container (I use a 1L plastic yogurt container)
-dilute it with one small glass of warm water (~200ml)
-add one little spoon of sugar and one little spoon of salt
-add strong white flour until reaching again a gooey consistency
-place a lid on the container, but don't close it firmly
-leave it out of the fridge in a warm corner of the house for ~24h
TO MAKE THE BREAD:
-after 24h it should have more or less doubled in size
-place 2 glasses of warm water (~400ml) in a large mixing bowl
-add a large spoon of sugar and a large spoon of salt
-add all the sour dough and mix
-start adding strong white flour until reaching a gooey consistency
-take away 3-4 large spoons of dough and place them in the sour dough container. The actual quantity of dough that you keep aside every time depends on how big you want your loafs to be and how much you want them to rise, so you can play a bit with this and see how you get different results
-place the lid on the container (don't close firmly) and leave it in you sour dough corner
-if you bake every 2-3 days you can leave it out of the fridge
-if you bake more rarely keep it in the fridge
FINAL BREAD MAKING:
-with the remaining dough in the mixing bowl you can finish preparing the bread
-now you can add olive oil, seeds, or other types of flour
-add your chosen type of flour until reaching a solid, non-sticky consistency
-it should not be too hard though, otherwise it will not rise
IF YOU HAVE TIME:
-leave the ball of bread dough in the mixing bowl for a couple of hours, in a warm place with no air currents
THEN (OR STRAIGHT AWAY, IF YOU DON’T HAVE TIME)
-mix it and roll it in your chosen loaf shape
-place it on a cooking tray and in the oven (you can preheat the oven at ~30 C, and then turn it off, just so that it is more cozy for the bread)
-leave it overnight (if you mixed in the evening) or through the day (if you mixed in the morning). 8 hours are usually a good rising time
COOKING:
-take the tray out of the oven
-place a small bowl or cup with water on the bottom of the oven (in my experience this adds a bit of moisture and improves the bread crust)
-heat the oven (top and bottom) at 200 C. If your oven has it, use the fan.
-place the tray in the oven, roughly at the mid height
-cooking time depends on loaf size: when I do the bread with two glasses of water I cook it for about 35 minutes
-after the first 20 minutes usually i flip the loaf to evenly cook the bottom as well, but this might not be necessary if you have a better oven than mine
-smaller loaves will take less time, larger loaves will take more time
TROUBLESHOOTING::
-the sour dough does not rise: leave it out of the fridge, wait a bit longer before baking again, add a bit of flour, sugar, salt and water to give a little push to the yeasts in it
-the bread does not rise much: try reducing the amount of water you add when mixing, effectively increasing the sour dough to new-dough ratio. Also, try adding a bit less flour, leaving the loaf a bit more sticky/moist while rising. Finally try warming up the oven (never over 40 C though)
-the bread is too acid: keep the sourdough in the fridge, effectively slowing the yeasts a bit. Use more water when mixing, diluting more the sour dough and then using more flour. This should disperse a bit the acid taste. Bake more frequently, potentially reducing the size of the loaves if you think that you don't need all the bread.
IF YOU TRAVEL:
-the sour dough can easily stay in the fridge for a week and a half. this “vacation” could even boost it a little bit!
-when you come back the first couple of bread could be a bit more acid than usual, but if should all go back to normal if you keep taking care of it
-for longer periods I would store it in the freezer. When you do this, store it after it has rised quite a bit, to start the hibernation period with a larger number of yeast cells. When you come back, let it defrost slowly, feed it, give it time to re-adjust, don't be afraid if it does not start immediately to rise
DRY-STORING
-alternatively, you could try dry storing. I have never done this myself, but my mum has, and it has worked.
-again, start from a moment of maximum activity, so after the sourdough has had the chance to rise
-now dilute it with water, until it is very liquid (so a bit more water than for the usual bread making)
-mix it well
-spread the liquid on cooking paper placed on a baking tray: it should be quite a thin layer
-place the paper in the warm oven (20-30 C) to dry it out. You will be left with a thin crust of dough
-break the crust into flakes, store them into ziplock food bags squeezing out as much air as possible
-theoretically you could store the bag in a cool dry place for quite a long time
-to resuscitate the flakes place them in some water (not too much) and let them melt
-if the process has worked, after a couple of days the water will start bubbling again
-you can then start a slow process of adding sugar, salt and flour to reach again the sour dough consistency
Enjoy!
