How To Make Sourdough Bread At Home

When my friend Renan taught me how to make bread, I found it simply wonderful. We started with something as inedible as flour, we added water and sourdough to it, and we helped nature to unfold its magic. It was a team effort. We mixed the ingredients, and she created a fragrant, warm, tender and delicious piece of bread.

Today I am going to share with you this sourdough bread recipe so that you too can achieve this magic in your own home.

We have spent centuries trying to dominate nature with dubious results, but when we make bread we collaborate with it to create something that does not exist as such and that is also good, healthy and nutritious.

Today, when we buy almost everything done, making bread is a wonderful way to recover human sensations, to connect with the rhythm of life.

The cereals allowed the human being to settle. He buried the grain in the ground and it was returned to him in the form of a plant full of more grains, curiously after nine months. The earth was considered the mother, and its grain the food of the body and the spirit.

Why does sourdough improve bread?

The natural yeasts of the sourdough slow down the fermentation against industrial wings, and act at a lower temperature, which enriches the dough. Along with yeasts, sourdough has bacteria, which create lactic and acetic acid.

In addition to improving the flavor, they keep the bread longer. They also produce a more moist bread, with a crisp crust and better color. Nutritionally, this bread tends to be better digested as the bacteria pre-digest the starch.

In addition, they reduce the content of phytic acid, which taken in excess, especially if you eat whole wheat bread regularly, can alter the absorption of some minerals. And the sourdough gives the bread better flavor and texture.

Why do it at home?

We can make bread for fun, for fun, for health, to make it to our liking, to create new recipes …

The effort pays off if you change your focus. Kneading bread requires concentration, being in what you need to be, and thereby relaxes, makes you forget about the rest for a few moments. Somehow it connects us with another rhythm, that of nature, where things have their time.

Also with our most human rhythm. But all that is easy to say. And I think the interesting thing is to try it. The best thing, at least for me, is the wonderful aroma that it leaves in the house long after it has been cooked. It is the aroma of protection, of well-being, of happiness.

The modern franchises of precious industrial breads know that well. They have been impregnating their premises with synthetic aromas of freshly baked bread for many years. They know that they touch very old threads in the fabric of our emotions.

Recipe for making sourdough bread at home

This way of making bread, developed by Dan Lepard in his Handmade book , is faster than usual and gives excellent results.

To make the sourdough

Day 1

• 50g of water.
• 2 teaspoons of whole rye.
• 2 of white flour of force.
• 2 raisins and 2 skimmed yogurt.

Mix everything in an airtight container, cover and let it rest at room temperature.

Day 2

• 50g of water.
• 2 teaspoons of whole rye.
• 2 of white flour of force.

Repeat the process, first adding the water and then the flours.

Day 3

• 100g of water.
• 4 teaspoons of whole rye.
• 4 of white flour of force.

Bubbles start to appear. Repeat the process.

Day 4

• 100g of water.
• 125 g of white flour of force.

Foam from fermentation should appear. Set aside and discard three-quarters of the mixture. Add the water and stir.

Sift to remove the raisins. Return the mixture to the pot and add the flour. Stir and leave covered at room temperature.

Day 5

• 100g of water
• 125g of white flour

It has already fermented and you can see a very acidic aroma when you open the bottle. Three-quarters of the mixture is again discarded. Add the water, stir, and then add the flour.

The more flour, the slower the fermentation. It is covered and if it is to be used daily it can be stored at room temperature. Otherwise, it continues to cool every 4 to 5 days, removing three-quarters and adding more flour. It keeps in the refrigerator.

To make the bread

To make two loaves of white plan, the following ingredients are required:

• 200 g of sourdough (or, failing that, 10 g of baker’s yeast).
• 300 ml of water.
• 500 g of unbleached white flour.
• 8 g of fine salt.
• Baking paper.

Mixed

1. In a large bowl, mix the sourdough with the water. Add the flour and salt. Mix everything well with your hands for about 5 minutes.
2. Let the dough stand for another 5 minutes.

Kneading and resting

1. Brush the countertop with oil and knead vigorously for 10 to 15 seconds. The movement is as if the dough were being pushed out, and the hand, on returning, folds it over itself.
2. Between each push, take a quarter turn. Form a ball and let it rest for 5 minutes covered with a cloth.
3. Wash the bowl, pat dry and brush with oil.
4. Do another kneading for 10 to 15 seconds. Roll it into a ball again, place it in the bowl covered with the cloth and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
5. Repeat the above and let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. Repeat the above and let it rest for 1 hour.
7. Repeat the above and let it rest for 2 hours.
8. Divide the dough into two balls, cover and let it rest for another 15 minutes.
9. Flour two bowls or baskets lined with clean cloths and flour. Flour the table and form the dough into two balls again.
10. Put in the bowls and cover with another cloth. Leave them like this, at room temperature, until they increase in volume by 50% (4 to 5 hours).

Baked

1. Preheat the oven to 220 ºC for at least half an hour so that the heat is even.
2. On the tray with a parchment paper, dump a loaf and make a cut, either in a cross, well all around or from side to side.
3. Ideally, a very sharp cutter or knife should be done quickly and decisively.
4. Soak with a water spray and bake for 50 to 70 minutes in the middle or lower part of the oven.
5. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Do the same with the other piece.