Sourdough Saga Chapter 3 …..
Chapter 3.
One of the great things that has come from blogging about my sourdough experience is the conversations it has sparked. One of the points of interest is measurement: volume or weight? Now I’m one of those cooks who finds it difficult to measure anything. But that’s cooking. When baking it is prudent to remind myself that baking is a science and as such requires a more exacting approach in order to expect success in the finished product. As a somewhat more ‘mature’ Canadian, I have a tendency to fall back on volume measurements. Whereas our European friends lean heavily to measuring by weight. A good resource of mine who happens to be of German decent has tried to school me in measuring by weight. She directed me to a website of Lutz GeiBler which is also German (as is his website). There is a translate link which failed to work for me. That probably says more about my lack of ability to navigate said site than about the site (or the link) itself. I strongly encourage you to have a go at navigating his website yourself. In the meantime I am going to give the instructions here verbatim :
The real way to bake bread – that is the sourdough. Lutz GeiBler bakes his sourdough variations with us and explains why this is the better dough, how it is Ade and how you can properly care for it.
Recipe for a sourdough for baking bread
- 270 g wholemeal rye flour
- 300 ml water (50* C)
- 6 grams of salt
- 60 g / starter / old sourdough
Mix the sourdough ingredients with a spoon until they are smooth and allow to mature for 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 20* C). During this time, the sourdough should roughly double, smell pleasantly sour and not have sagged. If it is, it can still be used, but the bread will be more sour. If the sourdough has hardly moved during this time, it should be allowed to ripen until it has doubled.
Main dough
- whole sourdough (prepared as described above)
- 300 g wholemeal rye flour
- 162 ml water (100* C)
- 24 g honey
- 7 grams of salt
Pour the boiling water into an empty bowl. Add the salt and sprinkle with the flour. Carefully pour the sourdough onto the flour. Now mix all ingredients in the bowl with a sturdy spoon, a spatula, by hand or machine to form a smooth dough.
Step by step: stretch and fold the dough
Step by step: stretch and fold the dough
Let the dough rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes. It should hardly open. Shape the dough into a round shape. To do this, sprinkle the work surface vigorously with flour, place the dough on it and use the palm of your hand to lift the dough from the back bottom up the the centre and press lightly. Turn the dough a little clockwise or courter-clockwise and then lift and press down again. Place the dough in a floured proving basket and let rise for about 45-60 minutes at room temperature. It should have increased in volume by about half.
In the meantime (at least 30 minutes before baking) heat a baking sheet together with the oven to 250*-270* C. The tray should be in the lower third of the oven (usually the first rail).
Bring the dough out of the basket onto the hot tray. Immediately reduce the temperature to 230* C and bake the bread until deep brown for 60 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack and in the meantime enjoy the incredible smell of bread.
The following is GeiBlers’ recipe for the sourdough starter.
Instructions for making a sourdough (sourdough starter)
Mix 50g wholemeal rye flour and 50-60g warm water and leave to rest for 24 hours at 28-30* C if possible.
Add another 50g flour and water and let stand until the volume has doubled.
Remove 10g of the sourdough and mix with 50g of wholemeal rye flour and water. Let it double again.
Mix in a ratio of 10-50-50 and allow to mature until the sourdough smells and tastes pleasantly fruity and sour. Then put in the refrigerator at 5-7* C and use as a starting item for a recipe within a week.
After a week at the latest, “freshen up” again in a ratio of 10-50-50-, let it ripen in the warm to almost double it’s volume and put it back in the refrigerator.
So there you have it. The traditional European process of making sourdough bread. I do encourage you to visit the site and see if you can’t have more luck than I at getting that translation link to work for you. I think it would be a very interesting site to peruse.
Let me know if you try this and what you think about the process and or his site. Let’s keep the conversation going.
Happy baking 😉
