Sourdough - it's about time to 'go off-piste'. Forging your own recipe.

I read hundreds of Facebook comments every week. Comments from newbies and time-served bakers, all on their individual bread baking journeys. Comments from people who have bought bread machines and trust them implicitly, even when the machinery doesn't deliver. Comments from people who have bought bread mixes from the supermarkets and make their own loaves by adding water, stirring, waiting and baking. Bakers who like sourdough, some who prefer yeasted breads, sweet breads, breads with added cheese, chillies, chocolate and coffee. Bakers who score with the skills of a modern-day Caravaggio and others who are just as pleased with a 'rustic look'. 

However this is about Sourdough. If you bake Sourdough, chances are that you have your own sourdough starter. You will probably have a handful of 'go-to' recipes that you like because, well...they work! 

Have you ever considered that you may well know enough to leave the recipe books alone and 'go off-piste'. Produce your own recipe and surprise yourself, family and friends with phrases like:

'No this isn't from Bake with X, this is my recipe,' or, 

'I've called this one Pain de Moi, It's one of my own!'

It's not that I'm against recipe books. Good Heavens, I've got a shelf full of very useful and inspiring books to which I refer almost daily. They're there to give me ideas when I think I'm getting staid; or to introduce me to breads of which I wasn't aware of their existence, especially ones from far-flung corners of the World and cultures I've barely experienced. 

This is about breaking habits...you will already have a barrow-load of skills. You're used to handling starters, you have all the equipment known to Man and are fully familiar with using it. This is about taking your trust away from the written word or the YouTube video and empowering yourself.  

Making your own recipe is really not that difficult...it even helps to consolidate your skills and thinking about how bread is constructed. If you want to branch out, leave the recipe books alone and give it a go....read on. 

Let's put this in context. Way back in the mists of time, someone invented bread. It's a manufactured commodity like a chair or a table or a clock. Someone began to experiment by adding grain to water, mixing it and then applying heat. 

Bread was born. Simple ingredients: water, flour, yeast and salt. We apply a leavening agent and nature takes over. A little bit of manual interference helps to dictate the end product that we desire. That's us being in control. 

Well, you've got this far.....so presumably you'll like a step-by-step guide to going 'off-piste'? 

Let's go....

Step 1 : Ingredients

Flour

A higher protein level in strong white bread flour means a higher level of gluten. Gluten produces elasticity and lightness in the dough and chewy bread that has an airy texture. Try and give yourself a margin. No less than 11% per 100g and you'll probably find most offer up to 13.5% per 100g.

If you're planning to use a whole grain or whole wheat flour, including spelt, rye, khorasan or similar, remember that you're likely to have to increase your water content. 

Also, producing 100% whole grain bread is not for the faint-hearted. I rarely find it 'useful'. It's fine in small quantities, but I usually Mix it 60:40 with strong white. Most times, my 'daily bread' is 80% white to 20% wholemeal. 

Water

Always, always, filter your water. If you can't, buy the cheapest still mineral water your supermarket sells. There is a difference between tap water and mineral water. I started baking in my current house when we were on spring water. It was fabulous. When the spring dried up, we started being supplied with Welsh water. It's lovely water..but it does transfer a taste that the bread absorbs if I don't filter it. 

Salt

I always use non-iodised, sea salt. I measure it out and then pound it quickly in a pestle and mortar. Iodised salt is not good for bread. Therefore, leave it for cooking your food and buy some lovely sea salt for your bread. 

Starter

This is such a matter of personal choice. You'll read so many differing judgements and opinions about starters. There are some basic truths:

a) a starter can be made with any flour and water. You can also make a starter with fermented fruits or non-gluten flours. 

b) a recently-fed starter will produce the very best results. However, people will tell you that perfectly good bread can be made from starter that has not been recently fed or discard. I often use discard, but I do slip a little instant yeast in as well to give it a bit of a boost. 

c) you can add your starter as a 'starter' or a 'poolish' or a 'biga' or a 'sponge' or a 'levain'. They're all variations on the same theme. All you need to remember is that they are a blend of 'starter' and water..so you need to remember how much of each ingredient was added. 

d) I always feed my starter 1: 1: 1. That is, one portion of starter to one portion of flour and one portion of water. This is the regular pre-feed for my main starter. I feed using spelt or rye flour and every so often I use strong white...the starter finds white flour more easily digestible. 

e) I have two starters. The first is the one described above. The second is an old starter that came from the 1847 Gold Rush. This is a slightly more temperamental starter that required feeding 1 : 2.5 : 2.5. One portion of starter to two and a half portions of all-purpose or plain, low gluten flour, two and a half portions of water and 10% granulated sugar. 

Step 2 : The blend

The big decision now is about the nature of the bread. This is largely controlled by the hydration. 

A low hydration dough will give you a closer crumb but it will be a dough that is more easily handled and more forgiving. 

A higher hydration dough will allow you to work towards a more open crumb but takes some handling and is far less forgiving. 

As a rule of thumb, I would say a dough of 60% is low and a dough of 80%+ is high. My usual doughs work within a margin of 70% - 80% hydration. 

We achieve this % figure by calculating the total water content as a % of the total flour content. Remember that your starter also contains both water and flour and, therefore, their water and flour content has to be added to the calculation. We'll deal with salt in a moment. By the way, if you add eggs...then they don't need to be considered in the calculation. Nor does sugar. 

Let's see how that works. 

We have 100 gms of starter. That's 50 gms of water and 50 gms of flour. 

We also have 500 gms of flour. 

In total, we have (500+50) gms of flour = 550 gms. 

If we wanted a loaf that has a hydration of 70%, then we'd need

70% of 550 = 385 gms of water. 

Remember we have 50 gms of water in our starter so we would need (385-50) = 335 gms of water. 

And that's it...

Ah, but I hear you ask...what about the salt and how much starter do I add? 

OK...salt....work out 2% of the total weight of flour. That's all you need. For 500 gms of flour, you'd need 11 gms of sea salt. 

As for  how much starter, the less starter you add, the longer the fermentation time will take but the stronger will be the flavour. The more starter, the less time, the weaker the flavour. It's time that affects the flavour. 

I usually work between 10% - 20% of starter per 500 gms of flour. For 500 gms of flour, I'd add 100 gms of starter, but you can use 50 gms just as effectively...everything just takes a little longer. 

Step 3

You now have your recipe.

Now you need to think about how much you will 'interfere' with the process to control the outcome. 

The process is MIX - FERMENT - SHAPE - PROOF - BAKE

There are margins here. 

It's perfectly acceptable to mix the ingredients and then leave it - probably overnight - before shaping and baking. It will take time to complete the fermentation.

Alternatively, you can plan in various stages that will have an impact on your final loaf. 

Questions to ask yourself....

Q. Do I want to simply mix and wait for fermentation to happen? It's going to mean a closer crumb but it'll be quicker but less 'hands-on'.

Q Do I want to affect the outcome of the bread by helping to build up the gluten network? 

If you answered 'Yes' to either of these questions ...read on. 

Step 4

Now, mix the starter with the water in a large bowl.

Add the flour(s) and mix. 

Now wait for 30 minutes - this is Autolysing. It helps to start the process by thoroughly incorporating the flour and the water. Your choice - you can wait longer if you wish...up to 1 / 2 hours

Now add the salt, mix and wait 30 minutes. 

Your choice - you can now introduce a series of stretch and folds, coil folding and / or laminating. 

I would suggest that you leave 15 - 30 minutes between sets of stretch and folds and only do 3 or 4 sets. Alternatively, you can do one set of stretch and fold and then incorporate coil folding (again, suggestion 3 sets at 30 minute intervals) and finish with a lamination. 

Alternatively, just perform one set of stretch and fold and leave nature to do its magic. 

Step 5

Fermentation. 

You can ferment in a bowl or in a straight-sided container. The latter is ideal as you can see how much the dough increases by volume.

I use a guide:

Down the vertical axis is the % of starter you added. Along the horizontal access is the temperature of your kitchen. Where the two meet is the approximate time for your fermentation. 

As a rule of thumb, try and stop fermentation when the dough has risen 90% of its original volume. 

Step 6

Proofing. 

Your Choice - you can either proof in the fermentation vessel and then preshape / shape after proofing or you can preshape / shape before proofing. 

The key now is careful handling. I always cover my containers with shower caps. 

Cold proofing develops flavour. Cold proof on a low shelf in your refrigerator. Try to ensure it's no higher than 4⁰C - 5⁰C. 

When you're ready to pre-shape, either before or after proofing, gently shape the dough to match your banneton. Allow it to rest for 15 minutes, then reshape and place in the banneton. 

Encouraging surface tension on the dough is achieved by carefully dragging the dough towards you using your cupped hands. That way, the dough turns and the surface strengthens. 

Step 7

Baking

Your choice : you can bake in cast iron pots, or ones made of enamelled metal, or Pyrex or ceramic. 

What you'll need to remember is: 

a) get the oven as hot as you can. 

b) mist the dough and the pot before baking

c) bake with the lid on for 20 minutes to encourage oven-spring ad then finish off without the lid at 10⁰C lower until the bread is cooked.

d) scoring is useful and essential but it doesn't need to be artistic...but it's nice if it is...however, you can always bake with the seam uppermost and take advantage of 'natural scoring' as the dough rises through the torn seam. 

e) cool for at least two hours to allow the crumb to set. 

f) the internal temperature of the dough should be pretty close to 100⁰C

YOUR  CHOICE? Remember, you don't need to put cold dough into a hot pot into a hot oven. You can always use a cold start technique. The cold dough goes into a cold pot into a cold oven. Then,  when the oven reaches heat......start the clock! It works.....

Have a read of https://foodbodsourdough.com/cold-oven-baking/ for cold start baking...

Step 8

Review

If your loaf doesn't turn out as you wanted then the solution lies in one of three camps:

(i) Is the recipe right? 

(ii) Is your process right? 

(iii) Is the baking right?

Faults can often lie in over or under fermentation, over or under proofing, heavy handedness or in not waiting sufficiently for the crumb to set.

But, you probably know all this....all you need to do is to reach for a pad and a pencil and start to build a recipe....

Start with a view about what you want to achieve...

Work out the quantity...start with the flour and the salt and then calculate the water and the starter.

And then write out your stages...make brief notes...eventually, you'll be writing in code. 

Keep notes....you may want to come back this way again....

Happy baking....