How to Make Easy Sourdough Bread

Sourdough simply uses wild yeast in place of commercial yeast to leaven the bread.  It relies on the wild yeasts that are in the air all around us and cultures those yeasts in a warm, wet environment created with water, flour, and sometimes other components.

When creating a sourdough starter, we always felt like we were on an expedition trying to trap invisible yeastie beasties with our flour and water concoctions.  Because we couldn’t see the beasties, we were never sure what we had captured.  While usually successful, we never felt like we were in control.  Maybe that is the way sourdough bread should feel, a symbiosis with nature.

But there is an easier way: use commercial yeast in the starter.  I know, that’s heresy to the sourdough bread zealot but we only care about the bread.  Using commercial yeast is easier, it’s the alcohol from the long cool fermentation that creates the sourdough-like flavor, and the wild yeasts will eventually take over the starter anyway.   Because it's easy, it’s no big deal if you abandon your starter after a few weeks; you can readily start another when you’re back in the mood or have the time.

Using this recipe for sourdough bread, a small amount of yeast is used in the starter.  As the starter is used and refreshed with new feedings of flour and water, wild yeasts are introduced and cultivated.   

Here is the recipe:

For the starter:
1 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 cup high gluten unbleached flour.   

Mix the starter in a glass or steel bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set it aside at room temperature until it is doubled and bubbly, maybe 4 to 6 hours.

For the sponge: 
A sponge is a pre-ferment, a wet mixture of flour and yeast that acts as an incubation chamber to grow yeast at the desired rate.  It is added to the dough.

1 cup of the starter
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour

Mix the one cup starter with the flour and water, cover, and set aside to ferment until it has tripled in volume.  At room temperature, it will take four to eight hours.  You can put it in a cool place--about fifty degrees--and let it perk all night.  (In the winter, your garage may be just right.)  You can also put it in the refrigerator overnight.  At temperatures of forty degrees, the yeast will be inactive but the friendly bacteria will still be working and enhance the sour flavor of the bread.  If you retard the growth with lower temperatures (“retard” is the correct term for slowing the growth of the yeast), simply bring the sponge to room temperature and let it expand to three times its original volume before proceeding. 

For the dough:
All of the sponge
11/2 cups flour (more or less)
2 teaspoons salt

Mix the salt with the flour.  Knead the combination into the sponge by hand until you have a smooth, elastic, slightly sticky dough, adding more flour as needed.  Put the dough in an oiled bowl and let it rise again until doubled, about an hour.

Bakers note:  Notice that the salt is not added until the last stage.  Salt in the sponge would inhibit yeast growth. 
 
Form the loaves: 
Though you can make this bread in pans, it works best as a large freestanding round or oval loaf or two smaller loaves.  Place a clean cotton cloth in a bowl or basket in which to hold the loaf.  Lightly dust the interior of the bowl with flour.  Place each formed loaf upside down in a bowl on top of the dusted flour.  Cover the loaves with plastic and let them rise again until doubled.  This rising will probably take less than an hour.

Bakers note:  You want a light dusting of flour on the cloth to be transferred to the bread, not a heavy caking.  Softly sifting flour from a strainer is the easiest way to achieve an even coating.   A stainless steel strainer is available in The Student Commissary. 

If you choose to bake the bread in pans, omit this step.  Instead, let the dough rise in a greased bowl covered with plastic until doubled.  Form the loaves for pans, place the loaves in greased pans, and let rise until well-expanded and puffy.  Bake at 350 degrees until done, about 30 minutes. 

To bake crusty bread:
To form the thick, chewy crust that is typical of artisan breads, follow these instructions:  Place a large, shallow, metal pan in the oven on the lowest shelf.  You will pour hot water in this pan to create steam in the oven.  (High heat is hard on pans so don't use one of your better pans and don’t use a glass or ceramic pan which might shatter.)    An old sheet pan is ideal.  Fill a spray bottle with water.  You will use this to spray water into the oven to create even more steam. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.   When the oven is hot and the bread is fully risen and is soft and puffy--being very careful not to burn yourself with the rising steam and with a mitted hand—turn your head away and pour two or three cups of very hot water in the pan in the oven.  Quickly close the oven door to capture the steam.   With spray bottle in hand, open the door and quickly spray the oven walls to create more steam and close the door.  The oven is now ready for the loaves. 

Work quickly to get the bread in the oven before the steam subsides.  Gently invert the loaf or loaves onto a slightly greased non-insulated baking sheet on which a little cornmeal has been dusted.  With your sharpest knife, quickly make two or three slashes 1/4-inch deep across the top of each loaf.   This will vent the steam in the bread and allow the bread to expand properly.  Immediately, put the bread in the steamy oven.  After a few moments, open the door and spray the walls again to recharge the steam.  Do this twice more during the first fifteen minutes of baking.  This steamy environment will create the chewy crust prized in artisan breads. 

Let the bread bake at 425 degrees for fifteen minutes in the hot steamy oven  then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for a total of 35 to 40 minutes.  Check on the bread ten minutes before the baking should be complete.  If the top is browning too quickly, tent the loaf with aluminum foil for the remainder of the baking to keep it from burning.  The bread is done when the crust turns a dark golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 210 degrees.   It is important that the bread is well-baked to drive moisture from the loaf.  If the bread is under baked, the excess moisture will migrate to the crust and you will no longer have the dry chewy crust of a great artisan loaf. 

This sourdough bread is to die for.  The prolonged rising gives the yeast plenty of time to convert the starch to sugars and the friendly bacteria a chance to impart their nut-like flavors. 

Storing your crusty bread:
Unused crusty bread should be stored in a paper bag at room temperature.  If the bread is stored in a plastic bag, the crust will become soft.