Sour dough bread - How local bakers make it (Sourdough)

Preparation steps

• Wild yeast (Starter): In a plastic or glass container with a lid, cook well mix water and flour, let it be textured as for a little fat pancakes. Leave for 24 hours at room temperature lightly covered. For me, it is sometimes a plastic container, and sometimes a glass jar that I cover with a small cloth, depends on the amount of bread I plan to bake. It is important that the starter can breathe while it is activated. It can be prepared from many types of flour. If he is just embarking on his exploration, I suggest starting with all-purpose flour. If you’re a little fussy like I was at the beginning of my starter career, try mixing flour and water in a separate bowl while feeding the starter, and then moving it to the bowl where it will stand. It is better that the vessel is clean while the starter is activated and that there are no traces inside the vessel walls. Bakers say that the most suitable air temperature in the room where the starter will be grown is 23-24 C. Feeding the starter: The next day, after 24 hours, add 50 g of flour and 50 g of water, mix everything well again, cover lightly and leave in the room temperature. For me, it’s usually the top of the fridge, the top kitchen element, or some other dry place. Repeat feeding in the same amounts for 5 days. I like to use an old baking trick in this and mark the dish with an eraser, or mark it with a felt-tip pen to make it easier to observe its growth and behavior. After 5 days, the starter is ready to use in most cases. On that fifth day of feeding, it should not take him more than 12 hours for the mixture to double. Test: If the starter has doubled during the last feeding on the fifth day within 12 hours or less, it is ready for use. This can be tested by taking one teaspoon and adding it to a glass of water. If it floats - the starter is ready, if it sinks, feed it an extra day or two. What can happen to a starter when it is naughty: - if it is too hot during feeding, water can accumulate at the bottom or top of the starter - if it is cold, it will stop growing for a while, so it can happen that some days notice no difference from the previous day - there is simply no activity Change his location, feed him the same amount, and prolong the feeding process. One thing is for sure, the starter is pretty hard to kill, he survives most conditions, sometimes just napping and getting lazy. And sometimes, for reasons known only to him, it can be pickled. The lid is lifted and the pure alcohol stinks. Sometimes because of a sudden change in temperature, sometimes because we didn’t feed him for a long time. They say that he just needs to be fed a little again and that he will get stronger. I don’t like this strong “smell,” and when this happens and the bass smells of alcohol, I throw it away. What about the excess starter: - if it is not planned to bake more bread in the following days, every day of feeding, leave only a tablespoon or two of starters from the previous day and start feeding with it, throw away the rest, or leave and fry pancakes or cakes from the mixture - if it is planned to bake more bread in the coming days / weeks, or open your own bakery, do not throw away the starter, but simply continue the feeding process in a larger container. Unused starter can be left in the refrigerator well covered. Just take it out 2-3 days before the next roast and feed it again to activate it. He is more or less always alive and wakes up when he eats.
• Pre-fermentation (Levain): The starter test has been performed, floats, is ready for use - the next step is pre-fermentation. Take 25 grams of starter, that’s about 2 full tablespoons, mix it well with flour and water in a small bowl, and leave covered overnight. I usually do this part in the morning. If the starter is good and active, it will not take more than 5-6 hours to pre-ferment the dough. When ready, the test can be repeated with a glass of water. Cork? Great, let's go. Autolysis: While pre-fermentation lasts, mix bread-free ingredients for the last three hours WITHOUT SALT. Mix both flours and water well with a food processor to combine everything, cover and leave in a warm place for 3 hours. This part of the process bakers call autolysis, and there will be several of them during the kneading of the dough. It is an important component of kneading, gluten develops, starch breaks down. Although nothing significant happens to the eye, the dough gains in elasticity by resting.
• Kneading the dough: We now have two doughs: pre-fermented dough, and bread dough that has been left to stand for 3 hours. Mix the pre-fermented dough well and spread over the dough in a bowl. With a damp hand, incorporate it into the dough from the outside towards the center. Knead for 3-4 minutes. If the dough is still a little firm, and depending on the time of year in which I mix it, I often add up to 50 ml of water, if I feel that it is not moist enough. The dough should be moist and sticky. Cover it and let it stand for 30 minutes. Only after that time add salt. Adding salt at this time will strengthen the gluten and slow down the fermentation of the dough - this is what we want to achieve. Sprinkle salt on top of the dough and knead it well with a damp hand for about 5 minutes. If the dough seems a crumb firm, sprinkle it with a little water. Cover it again in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Folding the dough: Spray the work surface with a crumb of water, moisten your hands, and throw the dough out of the bowl. Pull it slightly with your hand on the left side and fold it to the middle, do the same on the right side. Now fold the ribbon into a rectangle, and round it into a ball. Return to the bowl, cover and rest again for 30 minutes.
• Dough lamination: The technique of stretching and folding, which is used mainly in making puff pastry, is also used in making good sourdough, only shorter, and of course, without butter. - spray the work surface with a little water, moisten your hands - roll out the dough, top side down - stretch the dough gently and carefully into a rectangle approximately 1 cm thick - it is important to stretch it from the center to the ends so as not to tear - stroke the stretched dough by hand and break the bubbles that will appear during this process - this is an important part of the processing: these current bubbles are not important, they happened by handling and kneading the dough, and are not a sign of fermentation - transfer the stretched dough from left to middle, and then on the right, smoothing it a little all the time and removing the bubbles, with your finger or fingernail - fold the resulting strip of dough from the top to the middle, and then from the bottom - place the dough cube in a shallow glass or plastic container sprinkled with a crumb of water - bowl cover, and leave at room temperature for 45 minutes
• Stretch & Fold: Of all the other steps in preparing sourdough, this one is perhaps the most important. Flour is important, room temperature is important, super starter is important - this step is unavoidable. He is what will strengthen the dough. Repeat 3-4 times at intervals of 30-45 minutes, depending on the strength and elasticity of the dough. 1. In a glass or plastic container in which the dough has rested, grab it from the bottom with wet palms in the middle and pull it upwards. - the ends of the dough should be pulled under themselves and folded, at least the lower end - OK if the dough still sticks a little to the bowl and does not separate the easiest - moisten the bowl and palms a little more - rotate the bowl by 180C and repeat the same: grasp the dough in the middle with your palms, after the ends are pulled under you, rotate the bowl, and so on all 4 sides - the resulting dough will now look like a thick roller - cover it and let it rest for 30-45 minutes 2. After resting, with the dough nothing significant happened. Its volume hasn't really changed, it's still too early, it's just a little scattered on the dish, but it's starting to gain strength. - repeat the same folding of the dough as in the above step, cover on all 4 sides and leave for 45 minutes 3. Repeat the same process of pulling and folding the dough a third time. Each time you will feel the dough gain even more strength. This time leave it to rest for 1.5 hours. After this time, the dough should be ready for shaping. If it still seems weak, add a fourth pull and overlap.
• Shaping the dough: In this step, for the first time we will now flour a little work surface and palms. - shake the dough, pull some flour under the dough, remove the rest of the flour - transfer the left side of the dough to the middle by hand, and then the right - roll the resulting roll of dough from top to side, fixing it a little with your thumbs - lightly seal the sides by pressing the dough shape it into a ball - prepare a basket or bowl that we line with a cloth and in which the dough will rise
• Rising the dough: Sprinkle flour on the top of the dough ball. Bakers for this step suggest rice flour, white or dark, it doesn’t matter. By using rice flour, the dough will stick to the basket the least during rising. - if a professional beneton basket is used to raise the dough, or in my case a fake canvas beneton, the basket can be sprinkled directly with rice flour (if a bowl or plastic basket is used, cover it with a cloth and only then sprinkle with rice flour) - transfer the ball of dough in the basket so that its underside is now up - cover the basket A) If the bread is baked on the same day - raise the dough in the basket for at least 4 hours and follow the baking instructions on the lower step. B) If the bread is to be baked the next day, leave it to rest at room temperature for about half an hour and transfer it to the refrigerator for a slow night rise that will last from 12 to 16 hours. Bakers say that the ideal temperature of the refrigerator is 3 to 5 C. You will not see a very big difference the next morning, the bread will rise overnight, but not too much. We want to achieve this, it will explode nicely and grow while it is steamed covered. (Look at it overnight once, and if it started to rise too fast, don’t lift it a full 12-16, but shorten the process.) Alone, I use this nocturnal dough-raising procedure. Slowed fermentation will always result in tastier bread.
• Notching and baking: It's morning. We start by heating the baking dish. We lack a bakery and a professional oven - we don't have one. To create similar conditions and quality of bread, we use a heavier bowl with a heavier lid. They are super cast, earthenware, vessels made of heavier ceramics. For me, it is the last one, 24 cm wide and 11 cm high. Heat the baking dish together with the lid in the oven empty for 60 minutes, at a temperature of 240 C. Slicing bread: - take the bread out of the fridge and sprinkle it with a little corn flour if desired - we will not raise it further at room temperature, it goes to baking immediately - put baking paper on the basket, a board on it, and turn the bread out of the basket on paper - the lower smooth side will now be the upper one - if you want to flour it even more - cut it with a razor - this part is important so that the steam has a place to go during baking, and to control the cracking of the bread - if you want to achieve this baker's "ear" like mine on the right - cut the bread with a 45 degree razor at a depth of at least 1 cm - for all other designs, such as This one of mine on the left side is cut into plates and straight, so that the bread does not open too much when baking - play Baking bread: - carefully remove the baking dish from the oven, which was heated empty together with the lid for an hour - in it u, together with the paper transfer the bread - cover the pan, return to the oven and cover covered for 25 minutes - do not touch it and do not peek - after 25 minutes, carefully remove the lid, return to the oven and bake uncovered for an additional 20 - 25 minutes until it gets nice darker color (adjust the baking time to your own oven) This way of baking will ensure a soft inside and a crispy crust. The bread will be finely soft the next day as well.
• After baking: Leave the baked bread to rest for a full two hours before cutting. Yes, it is much easier to write than to do. :)
• OK, an hour and 49.