Rob & Yvonne's Az Living: Sourdough Country Bread

Sourdough bread April 19th and 20th, 2020

Loosely following the Country Bread recipe in Tartine Bread cookbook that Colin and Amanda lent us.

The Country Bread recipe will yield enough dough to bake 2 small loaves and 1 large boule of bread. The small loaves will be baked in bread pans while the boule will be baked the following day in a 12 qt cast iron dutch oven.

12 quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Kitchen scale

List of ingredients;

900 grams of white and 100 grams of whole wheat flour.
230 grams active starter replenished the night before baking.
20 grams salt.
750 grams water.

Note: Have at least 2 cups of sourdough starter on hand. You'll need approximately half (230 grams) for this recipe. The remainder can be refrigerated and will become your future starter.

Use a kitchen scale to measure and mix in the ingredients.

Use a large mixing bowl for Step 1

Warm 750 grams of water to 80 DegF of which 50 grams will be used later in the recipe.

Note: Professional bakers ofter refer to "Bakers Percentages" as a way to measure ingredients for their recipes. The amount of flour always represents 100%. All added ingredients are measured as a percentage of the flour weight. Bakeries often handle large quantities and it's often impractical to measure in gallons, cups and tablespoons. Weight is weight, plain and simple and you don't have to compensate for whatever sticks to the measuring cup. Let's say a bakery recipe for Rustic Bread calls for 100 lbs of flour to be hydrated to 70% hydration. You'll need 70 lbs of water for 70% hydration. Reducing these quantities for smaller batches suddenly becomes simplified. 50 lbs of flour needs 35 lbs of water. 100 grams of flour needs 70 grams of water and so on.

Step 1: Initial mixing.

Stir 230 grams of your starter into 700 grams of 80 degree water.

Zero the scale and Add 900 grams of white flour and 100 grams whole wheat flour.

With your hands, thoroughly blend until the mixture is smooth and all dry flour is dissolved.

Clean the bowl sides and your hands into the dough using a spatula and let the dough rest for 20 to 40 minutes.

Step 2: Bulk fermentation.

In a cup, dissolve 20 grams of salt into 50 grams of 80 Deg water.

Add the salty water to the dough mixture and hand blend till smooth.

Transfer to a smaller mixing bowl and let rest. Ensure the bowl will hold twice the starting volume.

Note: The dough temperature should be kept at 75 - 80 degF. Most kitchens are not that warm but this can be achieved by using your kitchen oven as a warm space while the dough goes through the fermentation steps. The oven light bulb should produce enough heat to warm the oven to 75 degrees. My oven has two light bulbs and will reach 100 degrees if I'm not watching.

The dough is now into the bulk fermentation step (first rise). This should take approx 3 hrs.

Every 30 minutes for the next 3 hrs the dough will need to be “turned”. To do this, hold the bowl with one hand and slip your other hand under the dough ball and fold it over onto itself 3 or 4 times. To keep the dough from sticking to your hand, wet your hand under running water prior to handling the dough.

Step 3: Proofing.

On a breadboard, divide the dough into two equally sized balls. Use minimal flour the breadboard. Avoid adding additional flour to the dough at this point so use a dough scraper to lift the dough and lightly flour your hands if you find the dough too sticky to handle.

Place one ball into a medium sized bowl for overnight proofing in the refrigerator. To prevent the dough ball from sticking to the bowl, oil the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. See Step 4B for baking the boule.

Next, divide the other ball into two equally sized smaller balls. Gently knead and fold both balls and place them into bread pans for proofing in the 100 degF oven.

Step 4a: Baking the loaves.

When the dough has risen, bake in a 450 degF oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

Note: I have a convection oven and I always select the "no fan" option when baking bread. The circulation fan provides even heat distribution but it also removes moisture for the baking chamber. When baking bread it is best to keep a high degree of moisture in the oven. Some bakers actually add steam by placing water trays in the oven.

Step 4b: Baking the boule.

Following the overnight proofing. Remove the proofed dough from the refrigerator at least one hour before baking time.

Meanwhile preheat the dutch oven to 450 degF.

The dough ball should not stick to the plastic mixing bow if it was oiled. Simply let the dough ball roll out of the proofing bowl into the hot cast iron dutch oven and replace the hot lid.

Place the Dutch Oven into your kitchen oven and bake at 450 degF for 20 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and further bake for 10 more minutes.