Sourdough Supremacy
Sourdough is often thought of as a special kind of bread for rich people, but in actuality, it is how bread was made for centuries before instant yeast became so readily available, tied with the Industrial Revolution creating a higher demand for quick bread. The side effects of which created a less nutritious bread in two ways.
The first, yeast breaks down the gluten over time; less time means it breaks down less, making it harder to digest (even causing many to erroneously self-diagnose themselves as gluten intolerant). The second, in order to give bread a longer shelf life and ensure loaves look exactly the same, many ingredients were added to the recipe, whereas bread only needs water, flour, and salt. Over time, much of the knowledge of how to make real bread was lost.
I learned this from working at a bakery. The oldest baker there had been baking for 40 years and could do anything you like with instant yeast bread but had no answers for me about how to make bread the old way, which sent me online to try and learn. I assumed the information would be readily available. What I found was surprising. Many of the people explaining it didn't understand what they were doing, thus adding various steps and methods that had nothing to do with the core issues. It is very hard to troubleshoot when you don't know how it works in the first place. So I will attempt to give a straightforward guide that will set you on your way, hopefully avoiding any unnecessary mysticism, only the necessary kind of mystical bread.
Things to focus on for making sourdough:
First tier: Time, Temperature, Ratio (Highest importance)
Second Tier: Mixing, Shaping, and Baking (Lower importance)
Time: A lot of the reasons a bread isn't coming out right is that it either hasn't had enough time to rise or too much time; this is the first thing to try and fix.
Temperature: This directly affects time; warmer water/dough speeds up the process, colder water/dough slows down the process. The refrigerator gives us control over this for the dough and the starter.
Ratio: The starter feeds off of new flour added and is activated by the water; the more water, the faster the process, and the more flour, the longer it will feed. Changing the ratio can change the strength and speed of rise.
Mixing: As long as everything is fully incorporated, you're going to have bread; many overfocus on the mixing process with things like autolyse or half a dozen folds. The dough will be in the fridge for 24 hours while it continues to come together.
Shaping: Shaping is only more important for doing intricate designs on your loaf because the top layer needs to be very strong so that it doesn't tear when scoring. Otherwise, not a big deal. If it's giving you trouble with shaping and scoring, you most likely messed something else up.
Baking: Baking the loaf should be the easy part. 450°F in a Dutch oven is great for beginning. Open baking is better for volume. Most people do a Dutch oven or a pan of ice in the bottom of the oven to incorporate steam; this makes the bread better generally, but it is still good bread without steam. The only way to truly mess up the baking is to burn your bread or undercook it.
No-Discard Starter:
1 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp water
Added to a jar and mixed. Repeat that process for 5-7 days, and the starter should double in size over 12 hours after that. The starter is ready for baking with. It can then go in the fridge and be fed 12 hours or so before you will use it.
Feeding: Generally, a good idea to feed it every week, but if you miss a week or two, just discard a lot of it and feed it again; it will restrengthen. If your starter ever looks weak (doesn't double in size on the table in 12 hours), discard most of it and refeed; this fixes most starter problems.
Ratio: 1:2:2, you'll see this around as a feeding ratio; it means (original starter: flour: water).
Sourdough Recipe:
100% Flour (all other ingredients are calculated as a percentage of this number)
65% Water
25% Starter
2% Salt
Example:
4 lbs. flour
2.6 lbs. water
1 lb. starter
4 Tbsp salt
Starter is ready if it floats on top of water or if you light a match and bring it just above the starter and it goes out. It will often still work even without these tests if you just wait really long because the starter will feed on some of the flour.
Mix water (temp 90-105°F) and sourdough starter together. Add flour and mix. Add salt and mix. Put in a container and let sit for an hour. With wet hands, fold the dough over itself a few times. Let sit another 30 minutes. Put it in the fridge for 12-24 hours.
Cut and shape into loaves and let sit until it passes poke test, usually an hour or two. (Put flour on your finger and poke the loaf; if it springs back quickly, it is most likely not ready; if it springs back slowly, it's ready; if it doesn't spring, you waited too long. Can still bake it; it just won't rise and will be extra sour.)
Baking:
Score loaf (one big slash on top and a couple of small slashes on the sides).
Oven Temp: 450°F Dutch oven (for fancy/nicer crust)
Place loaf in preheated Dutch oven.
Bake 30 minutes lid on, 10 minutes lid off.
Or bake at 350°F on a pan (normal bread, still tastes great, just no steam involved), uncovered for 45 minutes.
Dough weight for average loaf: 2.2 lbs.
Let it cool for at least 2 hours. Enjoy real bread.
