Sourdough #6: Focaccia and Sourdough Loaf

So now we have our happy little starter.  You're itching to bake, aren't you?  OK, so other folks have explained this way better than me.  There's a trove of good stuff out there to explore

Get Your Bread On 

But I promised to help you to get to your first sourdough bread, and I will do my best!  

The loaves that I bake like this one involve using a dutch oven or a Le Creuset type pot.  You need something that has a tight-fitting lid, retains heat well, and can stand up to a 500-degree oven.   I know that not everyone has one, or it may take some time to acquire one.  Here's what I have.



If you don't have one, do not fear! We will still get you delicious sourdough bread.  The recipe below can be used for Focaccia as well as a loaf like the one above.   Follow the steps below and when it comes time to proof and bake, the focaccia folks will take one road and the loaf folks still take another.  But both lead to deliciousness!!  

Equipment

Focaccia makers:
  • A sheet pan
  • Medium and large bowl
  • Measuring cups or scale
  • A scraper or something that will scrape the sticky dough off your counter/board, like a large, metal spatula
  • A container to proof your bread in.  This could be a large bowl or a food-grade plastic container that can comfortably hold 3 quarts
Loaf peeps:
  • Same as above, except dutch oven instead of a sheet pan
  • A sharp knife, kitchen scissors, a clean utility knife or razor blade for slashing the bread

Ingredients

You will need:
  • All purpose flour or bread flour
  • Whole wheat flour if you have it
  • Salt
  • Your active starter, well fed.
Focaccia makers:
  • Olive oil
  • Your choice of toppings, like a potato, herbs, tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, salami, etc.

The Night Before (The Leaven)

As you have probably figured out, sourdough takes time and you have to plan a bit ahead.  The night before you want to bake, make your leaven (sort of a starter kickstarter) as described below.  

Helpful hint:  Plan your baking day (the next day) on a day when you are NOT on back to back Zoom calls and don't have any breaks.  You'll need to tend to the bread several times during the day (5-10 minute breaks).


Leaven Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp of starter (about 35 g) - Make sure it's active and well-fed.
  • 100g of your 50/50 all-purpose/whole wheat starter food mix (about 2/3 cup) [Use 100 All-Purpose if you don't have whole wheat]
  • 100 g of warm water (a bit less than 1/2 cup)

Leaven Process

  1. Before you go to bed, put the starter in a bowl.  
  2. Add your water and give it a stir to mix it up. 
  3. Add your flour(s).  
  4. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let it do its magic overnight.   Put is somewhere warm, ideally.






Good Morning:  Making the Dough 

Is it ready?


Your leaven should be busy and active by the morning.   Here's mine.  You can see the bubbles and air in it.

One trick is to get a spoon of it and drop it in some water.  If it is ready, it should mostly float to the top.  Mine sunk.  This test doesn't always work, especially if you have mixed it up a bit like I had.  Just make sure you have bubbles and air in your starter.  If it was particularly chilly at night, wait a bit longer.   If you never get to this bubbley stage, then you'll need to start over and get your starter super active.  Sorry - just saving you some heartache!

If it's ready, and if you did not mix it up like I did, it should not sink like this.  It will rise to the top.


Mixing the Dough

Ingredients

  • 125g whole wheat flour (about 3/4 cup) 
  • 375g of All-purpose or bread flour (about 2 3/4 cup)
  • 75g of leaven from above
  • 425g of warm water (this is about 1.8 cups of water)
  • 13 grams of salt (about 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp) [this goes in later]
Note: If no whole wheat, total flour should = 500g

Process 

  1. Put your leaven in  large bowl. 

  2. Add in the warm (not hot) water.
  3. Swish it around with your hands to dissolve and break it up in the water.
  4. Then add your flour(s)
  5. Mix it up and scrape it together.  A scraper is handy here, but a spatula will be fine.

Let It Rest

Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap.

This phase is important. Don't skip it.  It lets the water fully absorb into the flour.  It does some chemical magic, too, which seems to improve the texture of the bread.  This is called the autolyse.  Some recipes say you can let this sit for hours.  I let it sit for at least 30 minutes.  If I'm on a Zoom call that lasts an hour, I let it go for an hour.


Bulk Fermentation

This is the phase where you develop the gluten and the flavors of your bread.  This is also a period of 3-5 hours where you will want to be able to tend to your bread every 30 min to an hour if you can. 

  1. First, add the salt. You will need to squish it around in the dough.  It will likely be very sticky.  Just do your best.

  2. Don't worry if it doesn't fully absorb.  It will get absorbed eventually.
  3. Smoosh it all together, and then transfer it into a clean container with a lid or leave in the bowl.  Cover the bowl with saran wrap or something that will keep it from drying out.  I use this type of container.

  4. Write down what time it is.  This will help you keep track of what happens next.
  5. After 30 minutes of sitting there like a blob (the dough, not you), it will be ready for the first turn.
  6. Wet your hand, and then stick it in the tub or bowl and stretch and fold the bread from the bottom on top of itself.  Turn the container and do it again.  Do this about 3 times so everything has been folded on top of itself.  
  7. After 30 more minutes, do this again.
  8. Then wait 1 hour, and do the fold move again.  By now, you might notice bubbles starting to form and the texture changing.  Be a little more gentle with the folding here on out.
  9. Then wait 1 more hour, and do the fold move again.
  10. And you guessed it, 1 more hour and the fold move again.   So we are at about 4 hours now.  Inevitably, I forget at some point.  Don't worry.  Just make sure you get at least 5 folds in.  This gives the bread structure.  If it looks like it's not quite so airy, give it another turn and another hour.
  11. The dough should look roughly like this.  It should start to more easily come away from the wall of the container when you go to fold it.

Bench Rest

Now we get to take the bread out and let it rest.  My hands were very sticky at this point, so I did a poor job of photos.  This site has some nice photos on the process for this Bench Rest and the Final Shaping.  Their dough is not quite as sticky as mine, but helpful still to see the process.

  1. Scrape out the dough with a dough scraper or a spatula onto a lightly floured board.
  2. Fold one edge of the dough over the middle.  Repeat with all 4 sides, You want to end up with a parcel of sticky dough that is sort of round.
  3. This will be impossibly sticky and it will stick to the board.  Use a scraper or a metal spatula to help get it off the board.  You want to create a taught sticky mound.  Use a little more flour to help things along, but try not to add too much more.
  4. Now that you have this sticky mound, dust a bit more flour on it, and cover it with a towel.  You want to avoid getting a crust on the dough.
  5. Let this rest for 20-30 minutes on your board. 
  6. After this time, if your dough has spread out into a very thin pancake (some spreading is normal), then reshape it as described above and let it rest another 20-30 minutes.

Focaccia Makers Read Here!!

Loaf makers skip on down.

Now is the time to gather up your toppings.  I describe a potato topping here, but you can do whatever strikes your fancy!  Light tomato sauce would be nice, too. I have no photos of this, but here is someone who has made it and documented it.  

  1. Take a waxy potato or two.  Thinly slice it.  If you have a mandolin, use it. If not, just slice thinly.
  2. Toss your potatoes in 1.5 tsp of salt. Let them drain for about 30 minutes in a colander to release some water.
  3. Squeeze your slices to get out the rest of the liquid.  You could also wrap them in a dish towel and squeeze.
  4. Toss the potatoes with olive oil and fresh herbs. I like rosemary or thyme.
  5. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.
  6. Take a baking sheet and brush or coat it with olive oil.
  7. Take your lovely bread with your oily hands and smoosh it gently into the pan.  Let it rest a few minutes, and then stretch it some more.  It probably won't fill up the whole pan.  You want it to be about 3/4 inch thick roughly. Be gentle as to not push out all the gas.
  8. Lay your potato slices on top.
  9. Put in the oven and bake from about 20 minutes.  Be sure to rotate it halfway through.  You want your toppings cooked and the bread brown and crust on the edges.
  10. Slide off the sheet pan.  Grate on some parmesan or romano cheese.  Maybe top with a handful of arugula.
  11. Dinner!


Loaf Makers - Final Proof and Bake

We're in the home stretch.   I"m a little light on photos in this process too.  I'll try to update it next time I bake.

  1. After your bench rest, you are going to do the final shaping.  See this site for visual tips.
  2. Firs prepare your proofing container.  If you have a basket you could use that, but if not, take a medium-sized bowl and line it with a clean dishtowel.  Liberally dust the towel with flour.  If you happen to have rice flour round, use some of that as well.  You want this to very well coated so that the bread doesn't stick to the towel too much.  It might be easier to dust the towel first and then put it in the bowl.  It's okay if there is a puddle of flour at the bottom.
  3. Slide your scraper or spatula under the dough on one side, and pull it over to the middle.  Repeat on the other side.  Think of it as a letter getting folded into thirds.  YOu want this to be taut.
  4. Now do the same thing with the open end of the letter, pulling them to the middle.
  5. You want to send up with a nice roundish blobby like ball.
  6. Using your scraper or spatula, transfer this ball into the bowl with your seam side up.
  7. Cover this with a towel or loose saran warp and put in a warm place.
  8. Let it rise for 4 -5 hours in a warm place.
  9. Here's mine after 4.5 hours.
  10. 45 minutes before you are ready to bake, put your dutch oven with the lid on it in the oven at 500 degrees.  Let it heat up.  It's gonna get hot.  So make sure you have dry oven mits or towels.
  11. Sprinkle some flour (rice flour is good) on the top of the bread.  You are going to invert this into your dutch oven and the flour on top will be on the bottom. I will help keep the bread from sticking.
  12. Take the dutch oven out of the oven, and remove the lid.  Quickly invert your bread into the oven.  If using a combo cooker, this will be on the lid part. If you have a regular dutch oven, it will be the bottom.  Flip with confidence!  Going slowly will make a mess of it all.
    Regular dutch oven bottom on the left;  Combo cooker lid on the right.
  13. Carefully use your sharp kitchen knife, scissors or utility knife to slash the top.  I usually make a square or 3 parallel slashes.
  14. Return the very hot lid/bottom to the pot, and put it in the oven.
  15. Bake for 20 minutes at 500 with the lid on.
  16. Reduce the heat to 450 and bake for another 10 mins.
  17. Then remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the crust is pretty dark, but not burnt.  Mine went a little long.
  18. Take out of the oven, and remove from the dutch oven.  Cool on a rack.  It will make this crackling noise if you listen carefully.
  19. You should ideally wait until fully cooled, but I will not judge you if you only wait 20 minutes and slather with warm butter.
  20. Enjoy!


















Comments

Unknown said…
Thanks Melissa! This is great post and perfect timing. I am just starting my starter and your blog made things super clear. Looking forward to my new pet.
April 6, 2020 at 4:54 PM
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