I am seriously chuffed with today’s bread. See the coveted “blistered crust” in the photo above? It takes a lot of skill and technique to achieve that…or in my case, blind luck. I’ve never been able to identify what I do that causes the crust to occasionally bubble and blister, but when it does, I feel very pleased with myself nonetheless.
I had to bake four loaves of sourdough this morning, because those sons of mine eat like wolves. They devour a 650g loaf of sourdough bread every day, plus the occasional loaf with dinner, which means that I need to bake a large batch twice a week. Fortunately, my sourdough starter is now so well trained that it’s a pretty easy process. It involves very little handling on my part, but lots of time.
Here’s my twice weekly Winter schedule (it changes in Summer because the dough proves much faster):
Day 1, 9am: Take the starter out of the fridge, feed it some flour and water.
Day 1, 2pm: Feed the starter another serve of flour and water.
Day 1, 7pm: Mix up the dough, let it rest briefly. Give it a short knead, then pop it into a large, oiled plastic box to prove. Actual amount of time spent handling the dough at this stage is about 10 minutes all up. Go to bed.
Day 2, first thing in the morning: Turn the risen dough onto an oiled bench, divide it up, and shape it into loaves. Pop them into plastic wicker baskets to prove, covered. Turn the oven on.
Day 2, an hour later: Turn the loaves onto a peel, slash the tops, then shovel them into the oven. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
That’s it. Once cold, I slice the loaves up and store them in the freezer, taking one or two (loaves) out each morning, as needed. It’s now so ingrained in our weekly rhythm that I can’t remember the last time we purchased a loaf of bread.
One of the best things about baking your own is that it frees you from the daily supermarket trek – we only have to go once a month, if that. Plus it saves us a fortune – a good loaf of sourdough can cost between $5 and $8, whereas our loaves work out at about 65c each. And that’s using premium extra virgin olive oil and top quality bakers flour. When you multiply that by at least eight loaves a week, it’s a pretty substantial saving!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Wow Celia – that is a VERY impressive looking crust!! And it looks just like the loaf of sourdough that I bought at Brasserie Bread yesterday…yes, for about $7!! I am most jealous of your bread baking routine…not to mention your ability to eat it without the guilt (about eating gluten in my case) or after effects. Sigh.
BTW, you are a very bad influence…. Did a bit of online shopping at PoK last night and ordered a Romertopf. The $39 R is not so much of a problem as the other six indulgences I also ordered…..
So now you had better hurry and post some recipes etc with that romertopf thingy…
And I had better do a clean out of a kitchen cupboard so I don’t get the raised eyebrows and sighs from Andrew when the big PoK box arrives!
Sorry about waving temptation in front of you, love. But wait until you get the Romertopf – it’s so beautiful, you’ll want to just look at it for a while. I actually thought last night that your smoky porky beans might work really well in the terracotta. So, what else did you buy at Peters? And it’s always SUCH a big box, isn’t it – Pete always has apoplexy when one arrives.
PS. Adding your website to my favourite links! :)
I ordered a couple of stainless steel drink bottles – part of my never ending quest to find drink bottles that do not have plastic (the standard metal ones you see everywhere are aluminium lined with plastic…better than straight plastic but still not great). Some chicago metallic bakeware including a muffin pan to add to the large collection of muffin pans I already have but that are starting to rust (chicago metallic are fantastic – have some I bought a couple of years ago and they still look brand new). Some new measuring cups for Sam so he does not have to guess partial quantities using the full cup dented measure that I currently use. Can’t remember what else. At the last minute I took off the Emile Henry tagine though…will have to save that one for another day. Tempted to get a hand made tagine I came across on the internet made by a local potter instead. Really have to clean out a cupboard and make room first though…
I can’t wait to try the Romertopf…I really like the idea of it all going in cold, in one dish, and coming out as a lovely slow cooked beauty in a couple of hours.
Thanks for the website link :)
I’ve just bought some Chicago Metallic pie dishes and loaf tins. Andrew won’t thank me for telling you this, but the cheapest I’ve found them is at http://www.everten.com.au. I particularly like their commercial range, which is dishwasher-proof (not as keen on their non-stick stuff). The pie dishes are wonderful – perfect for Small Man’s apple pie.
omigosh..that is a very good site and prices. I can’t believe how cheap the chicago metallic is there – and they have a good range of the metal/commercial (rather than non stick which I also dont like). Too bad I just bought replacement muffin pans which are nonstick from PoK…and we know they are going to last me a very very long time. This is a great (but terrible) discovery…..thanks :)
Sigh. Do I need to send a formal apology to your husband? :)
Beautiful loaves! Just out of curiosity, what temperature is your home at overnight when you leave the dough for its overnight prove? Or do you put the dough in the fridge? I associate those blisters with what happens to my dough if it has a long cool prove in the fridge at about 4/5 degrees C, but who knows?
Love your blog, and I am going to turn an Ikea fleece blanket into one of those thingies you made when it gets cooler here.
Zeb
Thanks Zeb! I love it when I get comments from the diehard bakers.. :)
I don’t put the dough in the fridge, but it’s probably around 10 – 12C in the kitchen overnight at the moment. In terms of the extended proving time, I think it has a lot to do with the starter I use – I bought a couple from Teresa at Northwest Sourdough years ago – a Northwest and an Alaska. The NW is really resilient, and can seemingly rise the bread endlessly. I’ve left the dough on the bench overnight in summer at 30C as well, and it grew and grew, but was still able to do a second rise and spring in the oven. The only thing is the loaves are much sourer in summer, and I can’t let the bulk prove go as long – in winter, the dough can be left for 12 – 14 hours, in summer, it’s more like 8 – 10.
Interestingly, the Alaska starter can’t do any of that – it puffs the dough in about four hours, and then it’s gone. If I leave it too long, it has no oomph left – the overnight dough I tried with it resulted in practically unleavened bread. I think it consumes all its fuel really quickly, and then just dies. It’s great for sourdough pancakes, though.
Thanks for the headsup about the blisters. I wondered if it had anything to do with spraying the shaped loaves with water before putting them in the oven. Either way, as I said, whenever it happens, I feel very clever. :)
Hope you like the polarfleece sack! I really feel the cold, so last night I was in my sack under the sheets and blankets. Fell asleep and woke up as hot as toast! :) One suggestion – you might want to try a fabric store – fleece by the yard is usually cheaper than a pre-made blanket. Although with Ikea, you can never be sure – some of their stuff is just ridiculously cheap!
Diehard? I’m a dilettante home baker, honestly. Still very much learning how to do it. I have two starters lurking here, one is the white one I made originally in January ’08, temperamental and gives up easily and would certainly not keep going as long as yours; the other is a rye starter that I got on a bread course, supposed to be old and russian in origin – resilient and hardy and good tempered and does whatever it is asked. But I love them both…
I have never left a dough out overnight in the house, assumed it would just be too long and too warm. So I will have to try one time just to see what happens. It’s summer here in England, it finally returned this last week, after a lot of rain thru July…
the ikea fleece blankets (polarvide) are 8.95 au dollars and are 1.3 x 1.7 m. I am sure it is cheaper to buy it by the metre. Have a good weekend!
Surely only a diehard baker has a gravatar of hands folding dough… :-) Your white starter sounds like my Alaska starter – it tends to peak and die very easily. But you could probably try the old Russian one overnight to see if it worked. I have a great pancake recipe using the Alaska sourdough which I’ll post up shortly – works perfectly for that.
Can’t believe the fleece blankets are so cheap! Over here, the minimum fleece off the roll is about $7/metre.
You have a great weekend too! :)
I liked the little pictures and googled till I found out what they were. I think they make the posts look less anonymous, though I suppose it’s all an illusion. Didn’t know what they were until a couple of weeks ago. I thought of a picture of my dog (Zeb), whose name I so casually borrowed when I first joined the Dan Lepard forum, but decided not, so bread hands it was. We have overdosed on cake this weekend as we had guests, carrot cake and caramel hazelnut layer cake. Two cakes in one weekend, I must be mad. Joanna
Joanna, you had me fooled with Zeb, I assumed you were a guy! Nice to put a name to a pair of hands. :)
The caramel layer cake sounds wicked – we’re big caramel fans here! We spent the weekend trying to make grape jelly that wouldn’t set – the grapes must have been too ripe…
Celia
Your bread looks great – very professional – and I’m so impressed with your baking schedule. I’ve recently been on a bread making course and am now trying to make my own rye sourdough. Just made my 3rd batch last week. I’m really pleased with it as it tastes so good, but still trying to work out how to best bake it in my oven. First batch the crust came away from the bread, the 2nd batch I burnt the crust and the 3rd batch was somewhat undercooked. Hopefully I’ll get it right next weekend!
Thanks Choclette – I think bread baking is so much trial and error, but once you’ve nailed it, you’re good! Did you make your own starter? I ended up buying one – all I was able to grow was mould.. :)
We tried making our own starter years ago, but it was far too sour and as I didn’t like the bread, I gave up. This time we were all given some of Andrew Whitley’s rye starter that he got when working in Russia 25 years ago – it’s quite famous in the bread making world, so I was well chuffed to get hold of some. It works really well and I’m making bread which has flavour but is not sour – yum. He also gave us a wheat starter but as time (and space in our kitchen) is a bit of an issue and you have to knead the wheat bread, I’ve only made it once so far. It was very good though.
Having just read Zeb’s comment about her rye sourdough, it sounds as though she might have been on Andrew’s course too.
I remember reading once that if you want bread to be less sour, refresh it with a lot more flour and water before you bake. So start with a small amount of mature starter, and do two substantial feeds. I’ve never really noticed a difference, but the starter I use isn’t particularly sour anyway. The other things which I think affect sourness are the length of the rising time and the ambient temperature – I’ve found my bread slightly more sour in summer than winter.
Zeb is the bread baking queen! :)
Hi Celia
When you feed your starter again at 2pm on day 1, do you discard all but 1 cup and feed that, in the same way as (I’m assuming) you do when you do the morning feed? So that you are starting each feed with 1 cup active starter and adding 1 cup water and 1 cup flour?
Thanks,
Deb
Deb, I discard very little! I start with a small amount of starter, and give it a small feed first – say 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup bakers flour. Then I might give it the same or a bit more at the second feed. The aim is to build the starter up, so you don’t need to discard a bit each time. I know it all sounds a bit complicated at first, but it really does become second nature very quickly. And any surplus starter is usually turned into pancakes – there’s an easy recipe here. Good luck! :)
Thanks Celia! I made my first sourdough loaf last weekend and it was a surprising success. It wasn’t as holey as I’d like, but good flavour. But I’ve been discarding so much flour etc by feeding my starter 100g flour and 100g water every day, that I wanted to be able to leave it in the fridge and just feed when I was ready to bake. I will give your regime a try and post some piccies on my blog soonest!! Thanks again for your help, I hope I can pop in with a question every now and again!! (BTW, do yours have names??!!)
Deb, the secret really is in getting a good bakers flour – seems to make such a difference to the finished loaf. It is hard when you start, because you get into the pattern of feeding it every day – I now keep mine in the fridge (her name is Priscilla) and feed her once a week. I pour a little out whenever I want to bake and give it a couple of feeds before making the dough – or as many as is needed to get it all ripe and frothy. The overnight rise won’t work for all starters – ours is particularly robust and seems to bounce back no matter how over-inflated it gets during the bulk prove! Do try making pancakes from the starter you’re discarding – they’re a very popular breakfast here! :)
Celia, you say to turn your loaves onto a peel. Is that a misprint and am I being stupid, or what is a peel. Love your blog, always looking at your bread recipes. I’ve been using the breadmaker, but have now made a starter and produced my first ciabatta today. Most thrilled. Many thanks.
Judith, I’m using a pizza peel to put my bread into the oven. It’s a big flat metal shovel which looks a bit like the one below. If you don’t have one, you might be able to improvise with an upturned oven tray?
Great news about the ciabatta, glad to hear it worked well for you! :)