Irish Buttermilk Sourdough (Taos Géar Bláthach Éireannach)

Welcome to another step-by-step recipe from BreadClub20. Why not drop by our main Facebook page by clicking here... If you like what you see and enjoy the recipe, we hope you join us by 'Liking' and 'Subscribing'. 

The Irish have used buttermilk in their baking for centuries. Irish wheat was soft and low in gluten and best suited to soda as a leavening agent. 

These days, traditional Irish bread is leavened with commercial yeast and soda reserved for the eponymous Irish Soda Bread. 

However, there have always been kitchens and farmhouses that have used a natural levain or sponge to leaven their bread. 

In the BreadClub20 recipe, we're combining the traditional with the more modern. 

We're producing a sourdough loaf that is leavened by a traditional sourdough starter but hydrated by buttermilk. 

INGREDIENTS

1000 gms of strong white bread flour

440 gms buttermilk

310 gms tepid water

20 gms fine sea salt (2%)

270 gms fresh active sourdough levain (27%)

This produces a dough that is hydrated to 78% and uses 58.6% of the liquid as buttermilk.

Remember: 

1. Weigh the buttermilk - it's heavier than water and the container is likely to be in mls and not gms. 

2. This dough has a high hydration. This is partly due to the fat levels in the buttermilk - if you work on a 70% hydrated dough, you'll find it is far drier and less responsive than usual. 

3. The % of levain to flour is high. Keep an eye on your timings, this mau bulk ferment a lot quicker than you may think. 

4. The buttermilk will give you a softer but closer crumb and a slightly softer crust. 

METHOD

Add the buttermilk and water to a large bowl. Stir in the sourdough levain. Add the flour and bring it together into a loose mix. Mix well for a few minutes. 

Cover and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

Add the salt, mix well, re-cover and leave for 40 minutes. 

Stretch and fold the dough, ensuring that the whole dough has some stretching. Re-cover and leave for 40 minutes. 

Repeat the stretching and folding. Re-cover and leave for 40 minutes.

Repeat the stretching and folding. Re-cover and leave for 40 minutes. 

Leave to bulk ferment according to the following: 

18⁰C - allow the dough to double

21⁰C - allow the dough to reach 75% increase

24⁰C - allow the dough to reach 50% increase

Gently tip the dough out onto a prepared surface. Divide into two. 

Gently bring the edges of each portion together into a loose boule. 

Cover and leave for 10 minutes. 

Re-shape to ensure good surface area for prepared bannetons (prepared by dusting generously with rice or semolina flour)

Cover in plastic wrap or place into a plastic bag and place in the bottom of the refrigerator for at least 12 hours and up to 24 hours. Ideally, the refrigerator temperature should be as close to 3⁰C as you can manage. 

Preheat the oven and your baking containers to 240⁰C. 

Place the dough into the baking containers and replace the lids. Bake for 30 minutes at 240⁰C, then remove the lids and continue to bake at 230⁰C until the bread is golden and hollow when tapped on the underneath and has an internal temperature of about 98⁰C.

Cool on a rack and leave until thoroughly cool before cutting (approximately 2 hours). 

Expect the crumb to be even...but a little more close than it would be had you now be intrioducing the buttermilk. 

Happy Baking.