#2 the sourdough project
I loooooove sourdough bread. The distance from the bottom of my toes to the very tip of my head does not even describe a fraction of how much comfort biting into a soft, squashy slice of bread with a crispy crust and good quality butter slathered on the top brings me. Let alone the smell and warmth of a fresh loaf as it is pulled, steaming, from a hot oven.
So, it is with this admiration that I, much like many of the things I love in life, couldn’t help but think “I can make that!”. Much of the reason I started this blog was because I wanted to celebrate home cooking from scratch. In an era when we want things “now” and it’s far easier and perhaps time efficient to buy ready-made food on the go, there is something to be said for making food yourself, at home, from scratch. The traditional process of making artisan sourdough is lengthy (NB: artisan means made by hand). It requires experimentation, time, patience and a whole lot of love and passion. It can be disheartening to pull a loaf out of the oven, only to discover it hasn’t risen, it’s dense when you cut it open or it looks as though it has “caved in”. But I have to admit, it was these failures (and let me assure you there has been many) that made me more determined to perfect my skills.
The fun thing about kick starting my sourdough project was that I was doing so with my dad. He is well known in our family for his homemade bread rolls, of which he makes weekly, and had been excited to give sourdough a try. Together, we attended a workshop, which enabled us to learn the basics of this glorious bread. While this was a great experience for us both, as we tried to implement the method we had learnt at home, it never seemed quite right. The process was vastly different to those I had read about in numerous books and relied heavily on “minimal effort”. Not to mention, the product certainly did not look quite like the number of artisan loaves I had devoured before. Because of this, I decided to hit the books and experiment with the more traditional process I had read about in what is now referred to as “my holy bread bible”: Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson (a big thank you to my darling love birds Haz and Lachy for the recommendation).
Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt opened the infamous Tartine bakery in San Francisco in 2002. Well known for their breads (Chad) and pastries (Elisabeth), Chad eventually released Tartine Bread divulging all of his sourdough baking secrets and recipes. It is through experimenting with this recipe that I have come to experience the incredibly rewarding and satisfying world of home made sourdough.
Through my sourdough journey, I have come to learn a number of lessons:
You don’t need a lot to create something magnificent. Flour, water, a little bit of salt and time is all it takes to produce a delicious loaf of bread. Perhaps the same lesson can be applied to life.
Patience is important. It can be tempting to jump through hoops and to take the short road, but the satisfaction derived from trusting the process and being patient is unquestionable.
Persistence. There will be challenges and the result won’t always look like what you thought it might, but be persistent and continue to practise. Trust me, it is soooo worth it.
Sharing my story on this platform is not necessarily about giving you the recipe and urging you to try baking sourdough at home. I am well aware that fresh loaves of bread don’t light every person on this planet up as they do me. Rather, through this I hope to inspire you to give some home cooking a try. Find one moment in your very busy week or weekend and use it to experiment making something at home that you usually love to eat out. The pleasure that comes from enjoying something you have put time and energy into cooking is great.
With that being said, if baking sourdough is something you’ve been interested in dipping your toes into, I cannot encourage you enough (and have included some of my biggest learnings and tips for you below)! Familiarise yourself with the process and find a recipe that works for you. Traditional methods tend to vary only slightly so do your research and give it a go. And by all means, please reach out to me. I am excited to celebrate your successes with you, learn from you and dish out any tips or tricks I can offer.
My 5 Top Sourdough Tips:
In this warm Queensland climate, it is important to be mindful of the temperature at which your mature starter is kept in. As I am not baking loaves every day, I now keep mine in the fridge and complete the process of discarding majority of it and feeding it once a week (frequency of feeding increases in the lead up to making a loaf). I have killed many starters by trying to keep it at room temperature without regular feeds, but unfortunately our climate is far too warm for this so they developed mould and a thick crust. If you are baking sourdough loaves very regularly and are feeding them everyday, keep them on the bench (out of direct sunlight is recommended), otherwise, leave them in the fridge. NB: Starters stored in the fridge will develop yeasts and bacteria that thrive at lower temperatures. These cultures will result in a different flavour to the loaf in comparison to starters kept at warmer temperatures. To balance this out, make sure you are discarding 80% of your starter and feeding it with equal amounts of flour and water, regularly.
Maintaining a healthy sourdough starter is all about developing a balanced yeast community. By discarding 80% of the starter and “feeding” it with fresh flour and water regularly, you are inevitably aiding that process of balance by ensuring a single yeast culture does not take over. This is important so make sure you don’t skip this process.
The temperature of the environment in which you perform the rise and proofing processes of the sourdough is vital. Make sure it’s not too warm otherwise the dough will over rise and/or over proof, resulting in a floppy, poor looking and tasting mass of cooked dough!
For a thicker crust, allow your sourdough to proof for several hours in the fridge. For a thinner (but still very delicious) crust, you can proof your dough on the bench for 2-4 hours - once again making sure it’s not too warm. As a rule of thumb, the warmer the climate, the faster the bread will rise and/or proof.
Take care when scoring your dough. I made the mistake of scoring my bread far too deep many times which resulted in a ‘caved in’ look. To avoid this, use a sharp knife or razor to very delicately tear the surface of the dough. You want to create a weak spot in the dough as this allows it to rise properly while it is baking in the oven.
