Happy Thursday y'all. We are almost through this CRAZY weather. I hope you have all stayed safe and healthy throughout this blizzard. Now, there is a lot that goes into sourdough, so be prepared for an overload of information!
Why sourdough
I know I said I would save this blog post for a little later, and that was because I knew I had so much more to learn. I then thought, well what better way to share than share the people I have learned from! There are two accounts that I have followed for at least over a year that I have literally taken notes from on their sourdough methods. I kept putting it off because I knew I would have to drop a some money and quite a bit of time. Plus, I was very intimidated by it all and knew I would have to fail before I got some good loaves. Around the new year my friend, Juliane, traded a plant for some of a local girl's sourdough discard that she has been feeding for two years. Juliane then shared some with me so I could begin to grow my own so no more putting it off!
Who I learned from
The two instagram accounts that really drove me to bake sourdough are @turner.farm and @ballerinafarm. While either of them do not have official recipes posted, they do have numerous insta-stories and posts that include the ingredients and measurements. I wrote down these ingredients and measurements while basically studying everything they did. In addition, I recently found @marissa.froese and https://www.sourdoughschoolhouse.com/. I just started taking Marissa's gluten-free sourdough course through "the sourdough school house" and have learned so much about different flours and grains. While I love gluten, most of Carson's family can't have it and so is why I am trying for gluten-free sourdough. I am sure this website has a free basic sourdough course as well, however, I have not taken it. I am sure it is super helpful though. Another great person I have learned from is Jill Winger who has The Prairie Homestead YouTube videos and Old Fashioned on Purpose podcast. She has a bunch of videos and podcasts on sourdough that are also super helpful.
How to start
There are few things you will need to get started.
- An active starter: The essential element
You can get this from a friend who has discard or start your own. Although I have not tried it myself, this is Jill Winger's recipe. This will also give you the rundown about how you feed it, what exactly discard is, and answers to common questions. I am working on starting my own soon and of course, I will post it's progress. My only suggestion that I believed helped me have a successful first loaf is really get to know your starter. It sounds weird at first, but I fed my starter everyday for a month before I baked my first bread. I baked discard recipes first, which I had a lot of. When I say get to know your starter, I mean learn the smell, what it is supposed to look like and feel like. This will help you learn what a good starter really is (bubbly and sour-smelling). The better your starter, the better your bread. All you need is flour, water and heat. I keep mine by our heater during the day, not too close of course. Once the A/C is running, (a while from now) I will keep it in the warmest part of my house. If you're not going to bake anytime soon, you can keep it in your fridge. When you want to bake in the next couple days you can take it out and reactivate it by feeding it. Save your discard! There are so many yummy discard recipes. I will share mine too.
There are also numerous baking tools you will need to make your bread: dutch oven, rising bowl, proofing banneton baskets, plastic scraper, bench scraper, scoring lame and bread bags to keep your bread fresh. Of course I got everything on Amazon and luckily, most of this comes together in a kit. I added everything I have to a list you can shop.
As for dutch ovens, I got my first Lodge 7 qt. dutch oven from HEB. It was $40 versus $60+ on the Lodge website and Amazon. The recipe I use makes two loaves, so I can bake both at the same time. I use the 7 qt for the rectangle loaf. I scrunch up parchment paper to make walls for the long sides of the loaf to hold its shape. I use the 3 qt to make my round loaves. I would recommend a 5qt for the rectangle loaves. The 7 qt is very big and the parchment paper walls are not the best. However, if you only want one dutch oven, get the 3 qt and make all the loaves round. (round bannetons or a bowl with a dish towel) They are the best, in my opinion.
How I feed my starter: 100% hydration
5 g starter
25 g white flour
25 g wheat flour
50 g warm water
How I feed my leaven ("newly fed starter" which will be what I add to my bread)
*make sure not to use all your starter when making this! Save some and feed it.
30 g starter
110 g bread flour
30 g wheat flour
125 g warm water
Don't forget to save your discard for other recipes!
Hydrations
Hydration is simply the amount of water in the dough. You can bake your bread at different hydration percentages. The lower the hydration, the stiffer the bread. The higher the hydration, the softer the dough. A higher hydration dough is stickier and harder to shape and while a lower hydration dough is easy to handle. Low hydration rises tall and higher hydration is more flat. Hydration effects basically every element of your bread: the texture, the crust, the flavor and the appearance. Many people prefer different levels of hydration for different baked goods. Pretzels and bagels are stiffer, therefor baked with lower hydration. Bread is soft, there for baked with higher hydration.
How to alter the levels of hydration is another story. 100% hydration is equal parts water equal parts flour. If you have a lower hydration there is more flour than water. You can calculate the hydration percentage by dividing grams of water by flour then multiply by 100. So the starter I use to bake my bread is 125/140 x 100 = 89%. This has worked great for me but I will experiment with different levels of hydration eventually.
There are other elements that effect your levels, other than the water you directly add. There is water in the air (humidity) which will effect your sourdough.
WOW that was a lot, and this isn't even close to all of it. I don't know everything either! But do not be intimidated. Watch the videos, read the links and take it one step at a time. Sourdough is all about trial and error. It is even more rewarding when you have put this much work into it. And if sourdough is for you, it is a skill you can pass for generations. I have grown to love it more and more with each bake.
Recipes coming soon!
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