Last weekend, I taught a couple of friends how to bake sourdough from scratch.
Over the course of the morning, I discovered that as a face to face teacher, I have limitations. I try to provide a lot of information, which can be difficult to take in fully during a few hours on a Saturday morning. Sometimes it works well – Helen sent this photo of her first solo loaf the following day, and it was perfect…
A couple of days later, I had a text from my other friend which began with…“Ok, so the Japanese tea towel caught fire..”
Hmm. I thought I’d better write notes.
I’ve written several sourdough tutorials over the years – our original Overnight Sourdough Tutorial, which I wrote in 2014, is still one of the most popular posts on our blog. Following that came our High Hydration Overnight Tutorial in 2016, which was almost as popular. But the way I make my dough is constantly evolving – the High Hydration tutorial adopted the newer trend of using a much smaller proportion of starter to flour, and I’ve reduced it even further after reading Emilie’s excellent book, Artisan Sourdough Made Simple.
So this blog post is a rundown on how I’m teaching my friends to make sourdough in 2018. I’ve cheated a bit and used notes and photos from our previous tutorials – the method has been tweaked, but it’s still basically the same. There are also a couple of new videos showing the current shaping and slashing techniques I’m using.
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An integral part of the process is the baking of the dough in an enamel roaster. This makes a world of difference to the finished loaf. If you haven’t already invested in one, they’re very affordable, especially compared to enameled cast iron. You can buy the Wiltshire brand at David Jones, or the Falcon brand at Peters of Kensington. If you’re in the US, there are heaps available on Amazon at very reasonable prices…
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Begin with your starter bubbly and active. Start feeding it up about eight hours before you need it. Don’t even contemplate making dough if it doesn’t look like this. Test it by putting a small spoonful into a glass of water – if it’s ready, it will float.
Please, please, please read this post on how to feed and care for your starter…
Start at least an hour before you’re ready to go to bed and measure out 100g of bubbly starter into a large mixing bowl…
Add 700g of cool or room temperature water…
Add 1kg bakers or bread flour…
Add 18g fine sea salt…
With a clean hand, squelch everything together, then scrape off your hand and cover the dough with a shower cap or tea towel. Let it sit on the bench for half an hour or so…
After the dough has rested, uncover it and give it a quick knead (for about a minute or so)…
Cover the dough with a shower cap, beeswax wrap or wok lid and leave it on the bench overnight.
The following morning, it will look like this (but without the speckly bits as I no longer add wholemeal – sorry, it’s a recycled photo)…
Dust the bench really well with fine semolina (rye flour, rice flour or just bakers flour will also work). Scrape out the dough…
It will be soft and puffy, and a bit sticky…
Now here’s the trick…using your spatula, scrape under the dough on one side and stretch it up…
Fold it over the top of the dough…
Repeat with the other side…
Do the same thing with the bottom part of the dough…
And again with the top section…
These four folds enclose all the sticky bits of the dough inside, leaving a completely semolina dusted (and therefore much easier) exterior to work with…
Using your spatula, divide the dough in half.
A note at this point: I have a large oven and several enamel roasters, so I always bake at least two loaves at the same time (usually three). If your oven can only fit one loaf at a time, you can either make a half batch, or divide the dough in two and return one half to the covered mixing bowl. Begin preshaping the second loaf when you place the first loaf into the oven…
Shape each half into a rough ball by folding the edges into the middle…
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Leaving the dough balls seam side up, dust the tops with semolina…
Cover with a clean tea towel and allow the dough to rest for about 15 minutes. This preshaping process makes the dough much easier to handle…
Uncover the dough and flatten each ball, then shape them into oval loaves. I do this by folding the edges in at the top and bottom, then folding the dough in half. Here’s a new video of my current shaping technique…
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Place each shaped loaf onto a sheet of parchment paper, seam side down, then cover them with the tea towel again and allow them to prove for a further 30 – 60 minutes…
Alternatively, you could put them into tea towel lined bannetons – roll the shaped loaves gently in fine semolina first if you’re planning to do that, and put them gently into the baskets seam-side up (you’ll invert them out onto the parchment paper later). Let the dough rise for a further 30 – 60 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature in your kitchen.
At this point, turn your oven on and preheat it to 230C with fan.
Once the loaves have puffed up a bit, it’s time to slash. If the dough is in bannetons, turn it out carefully onto parchment paper.
The easiest thing to do is to make just one long slash down the side, and it’s a technique that works well. You can use a serrated knife, a lame or a razor blade…
If you’d like to try something fancier, you might like our “half starburst” slash. Use a sharp razor if you’re going to attempt it – the single slash will be fine if made with a serrated knife, but the fancier patterns need a thinner blade. Remember to slash with panache!
Here’s a new video of my slashing patterns – I gave up on using a lame ages ago and now just wield my razor commando style. I end up with a lot of tiny cuts on my fingers, but I like the control…
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Lifting by the sides of the parchment paper, lower each loaf into an enamel roaster. Spritz the top of each loaf with a little water, if you like (it’s not essential). Cover with the lids, then put them into the oven, reducing the heat to 220C with fan. Note that the pots are cold – I don’t think it’s necessary to preheat them.
Set the timer for 20 – 25 minutes (you’ll figure out how your oven bakes after the first couple of tries. I now bake for 23 minutes with the lid on!)…
At the 20 (to 25) minute mark, uncover the pots to release any remaining steam – the loaves should be well risen and just starting to brown. Leaving the lids off, rotate the pots, then close the oven again and set the timer for a further 15 -20 minutes (again, you’ll figure it after your first bakes – I now do 15 – 16 minutes lid off, depending on how Bobby is behaving that day).
One other thing to note – I usually bake three loaves at a time, if you’re baking a single, you might need less time. Experiment and find the timing that best suits your oven.
After the second 15 – 20 minutes, the crust will be dark brown and crisp. At this point, I pull the loaves out of the oven and let them cool on a wire rack. If you’d like the loaves darker, take them out of the pot and place them directly on the rack for a further 5 – 10 minutes.
Here’s a photo taken from our cooking class…
The finished loaf should feel light and crusty. It will sound like a hollow drum when tapped on the bottom. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing…
Here are the loaves I slashed in the video above…
I’ve found that the loaves keep well for a couple of days in a beeswax wrap (make sure they’re cool first)..
If you’re new to sourdough, I hope you’ll give this method a go. I don’t have any starter to share at the moment, but lovely Emilie’s book has clear instructions on how to grow your own, and I believe she’s also selling her starter Dillon via mailorder. Have fun! ♥
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