Adventures in Baking: Sourdough Bread!!

I can't believe how excited I am about BREAD - it almost seems ridiculous to me.  However, after years of avoiding it like the plague because of issues I have with gluten-intolerance, I am SUPER-thrilled to have found a way that I can enjoy bread again (in moderation of course, which is tough when it TASTES SO DARN GOOD!!!).  Since I've never made a sourdough starter from scratch and have never baked bread with a wild yeast starter, I figured there would be some trial and error involved in the process.  My starter was a breeze to get going, despite the fact that I was less than scientific in my overall procedure.  I'm not a big fan of 'measuring' so I kind of estimated with my flour to water proportions but I still had a lovely bubbling starter after 5 days.

First bread attempt - kind of flat 

My first attempt at making the bread, however was not quite as stellar although it was edible and looked sort of pretty in a rustic way.  I used a mixture of rye, teff and sprouted barley flour combined with all-purpose flour and although I let it rise for almost 20 hours, not much rising occurred. I decided to bake it anyway to see if it would rise a little in the oven, as breads often do.  Alas, no additional rising occurred.  The bread was very heavy and dense, very sour for my taste and pretty flat, although it had a nice crisp crust.  There were not many air pockets at all inside the bread, which was to be expected considering how little it rose.

Interior was very dense, just a few air pockets

After some research, I determined that the problem might have been the lack of gluten in the flour I used.  Rye, teff and barley have low gluten content compared to wheat and this was evident when I kneaded the bread.  I didn't get a good, smooth consistency and it seemed to be lacking in stretchiness overall.  Based on everything I've read, it seems that gluten is what provides the structure for holding the air bubbles, so not having a sufficient amount of it really impacted the ability of my dough to rise.  Rye flours tend to rise less but ferment more quickly, which explains why my bread was very sour and had a low rise.  Back to the drawing board...

Let the dough rise in a warm spot covered with a damp towel

For my second trial I decided to stop overthinking it, (or maybe I actually decided to START thinking about what's really going on in this overall process?).  I took a cup of my starter, mixed in about 2.5 cups of BREAD flour, a teaspoon of himalayan salt and about a cup of water.  I dumped it all into my KitchenAid Stand Mixer with the dough hook attachment and let it go to town for about 20 minutes, adding in a little extra flour when I thought it needed it (too sticky).  At the end of 20 minutes I had what I'm used to seeing when I make bread, which is a clean mixing bowl and a nice, soft and stretchy wad of dough that was just slightly sticky to the touch, but not so sticky that I couldn't pat it into a nice soft, smooth ball without getting gunk all over my hands.  I coated this ball lightly with oil and placed it back into the bowl to rise.  Covered with a damp towel, I let it sit for about 8 hours until it was at least doubled in size.

After the 8 hours (or when doubled), I grabbed a large plate and spread a handful of bread flour on it, then scooped out my dough (which was quite loose, stickier and bubbly at this point) and dumped it onto the flour.  I folded it over onto itself a few times, made sure it was coated in flour and then turned it upside down so the folded part was on the plate.  I covered with the towel and then let it sit there to rest for another hour.  During that time, I put my Cast Iron Dutch Oven (with lid) into the oven and set it to 450F.  Any large heavy pot with a lid that can withstand high temps will work for this, it does not have to be cast iron, but I LOVE my cast iron pot because not only does it make killer bread, it has so many other uses in the kitchen - I use it for all my soups, stews, gumbo, baked casseroles - it's the bomb. Plus, it's kind of heavy so I get a little workout in every time I use it, lol!

Ta Da!

After about an hour, my dough had risen a bit again, but did not double in size.  It was pretty late at night when I was making this, so had it been earlier in the day I might have allowed it to rise a bit more, but I honestly don't really think it was necessary given the results I had.  I pulled the dutch oven out, removed the lid, sprinkled a handful of flour in the bottom of the pot to keep the bottom crust from sticking and burning and then fairly unceremoniously dumped in my dough and replaced the lid.  It doesn't matter if you dump it in crooked or off-centered, it somehow seems to work itself out in the oven.  I put the pot back into the oven and left it alone for about 30 minutes.  After this time, my bread was done.  Nice and brown, a gorgeously split and crispy crust and it sounded hollow when I tapped on it with a large knife.  A lot of factors come into play here so you might need to put your pot back in for a bit or pull your bread from the pot altogether and place it back into the oven to bake a bit more.

Crusty, perfectly sour and delicious!

My final product came out PERFECT! Crusty and crisp on the outside with a great rustic look, just the right amount of bubbles in the center, slightly chewy and sour enough to let you know it's sourdough without making you pucker.  As far as the crust is concerned, you can just let it do its own thing and bust open at random angles or you can put some quick slashes into the top either right before or immediately after you dump it into the pot. If you're going to be all artsy like that you will probably want to make sure you have a slightly firmer loaf so it'll take the slashes (knead in some additional flour before the second rise) before placing into the pot and you'll want to be more careful about getting it centered.  I kind of like the natural look personally, but that's just me.

Although this bread took several hours in total to make, the amount of actual work involved was pretty minimal.  Most of the time was spent waiting for the bread to rise.  With a proper sourdough, this is necessary as it's where most of the flavor gets developed.

Next time I think I will mix up my dough before I go to bed so that it's ready to bake in the morning.  Think that'll be a much better plan that trying to bake at midnight, don't you think? ;)

Gorgeous, inside and out!

If you're making this for a specific event you'll want to take into consideration the long rise time involved in the process - good things take time and wild yeast requires more time to work its magic than commercial yeasts.  What you end up with, however, is a much healthier final product, loaded with enzymes and beneficial bacteria that actually help to restore gut health, and which lacks the large phytic acid concentrations found in 'modern' bread.  Phytic acid is basically nature's way of protecting nuts, seeds, beans and grains out in the wild - all of these have an exterior coating which protect the seed so that it has time to sprout, but which is basically indigestible by humans.  Phytic acid binds with key minerals present in the grain (or nut, seed, bean...) such as iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, etc to form phytate, making these unavailable and effectively rendering a food product less nutritious.  It also inhibits several enzymes that the human body needs to break down proteins and starches, which is why high-phytate foods cause such digestive distress for some people.  Soaking or sprouting these items breaks down the coating, allowing them to be digestible - this is why many people who have trouble with regular wheat flour don't have the same issues with sprouted wheat flour.  The fermentation process involved in making sourdough almost entirely eliminates the phytic acid contained in the flour, allowing the minerals to be absorbed and preventing any inhibition of enzymes required by the digestive process.

For more information on sprouting and soaking, I highly recommend these books:

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

The Sprouting Book: How to Grow and Use Sprouts to Maximize Your Health and Vitality