Sunday, April 1, 2012
Sour-dough, a sponge and its starter
1:00 PM
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As promised in my last post, I want to show you, how to do a starter for a sour dough and the sour dough itself. It's very time intensive, but worth the work. I love my sour dough breads, they are so fluffy and stay fresh way longer, then breads without the sour dough or sponge. I sourced the classic way of preparing der-Sauerteig. The idea for the regular sponge came up by reading that article and I adjusted it to my needs.
Starter
It takes 4-5 days to be ready. You need 100g flour and lukewarm water. You must mix enough water with the flour to a batter similar that of pancakes or waffles. Cover the batter and put aside at a warm place. Beat every 12 hours till it blisters and then put it covered aside. In the next days the batter will ferment a lot, rise and turn sour. You can smell the sour and depending on the bacteria multiplying in the batter, you can see it bubble. That will decrease, as soon as the batter has a stable acidity.
After a few days the yeasting starts and the batter begins to smell unpleasant. But that will also decrease and disappear, as soon as the bacteria settle and stabilise. Then a pleasant fragrance will appear, reminding fresh cottage cheese or citrus fruits, maybe balsamic vinegar or apples.
Sour dough
200 g brown bread flour (or preferable rye flour)
Mix the starter with the flour and just enough water to get again a batter similar to that of pancakes or waffles. Take a big bowl, as the batter will rise a lot. Place the bowl in a warm place, 30 °C is an optimal, but according to the source, with a good starter it works in lower temperatures as well. The optimal sour dough smells nicely sour, has a lot of air bubbles and there builds foam at the surface. If your sour dough doesn't look and smell as described after 24 hours, ad another 200g of flour and adequate water and let stand for another 24 hours. It can take up to 3 days, till the perfect sour dough is done.
You finish your bread by mixing 500 ml of sour dough with 1.5 tsp salt and 250g of flour. Let it rest and rise for 1 hour, knead the air bubbles out, form into a loaf or place in your bread pan. Cover with a kitchen towel and put aside to rise.
Preheat the oven to 225°C. Place a heatproof dish filled with water at the bottom of the oven.
Bake for 20 min, reduce the heat to 200°C and bake for another 20 min. Remove from the oven, leave in the pan for 5 min, take the bread out and let rest to cool.
Regular sponge
250g bread flour (brown or white)
300ml lukewarm water
1 pkg instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
starter (or motherdough)
I think, almost every baker will say, you don't need yeast for the sour dough, if your starter came out right. Yeast changes the bacterial structure in the dough. I'm still using it, by habit. And to be sure, my bread will come out right. It's like a security, in case my starter didn't come out right. One day, I will have the nerve and try it out without the yeast and will then report. According to specialized literature, you also add sugar only at the end and not while doing the sponge. I think what I'm doing is a mixture between sour dough and sponge. It works for me though. Anyway, let's start.
Bring your sour dough to 30°C, by mixing it with part of your lukewarm water (I store it always in a small jar in the fridge and just fill then up with lukewarm water and shake till combined. If it reaches 30 °C I can"t tell, but it seems to be enough).
Starter
It takes 4-5 days to be ready. You need 100g flour and lukewarm water. You must mix enough water with the flour to a batter similar that of pancakes or waffles. Cover the batter and put aside at a warm place. Beat every 12 hours till it blisters and then put it covered aside. In the next days the batter will ferment a lot, rise and turn sour. You can smell the sour and depending on the bacteria multiplying in the batter, you can see it bubble. That will decrease, as soon as the batter has a stable acidity.
After a few days the yeasting starts and the batter begins to smell unpleasant. But that will also decrease and disappear, as soon as the bacteria settle and stabilise. Then a pleasant fragrance will appear, reminding fresh cottage cheese or citrus fruits, maybe balsamic vinegar or apples.
Sour dough
200 g brown bread flour (or preferable rye flour)
lukewarm water
starter
You finish your bread by mixing 500 ml of sour dough with 1.5 tsp salt and 250g of flour. Let it rest and rise for 1 hour, knead the air bubbles out, form into a loaf or place in your bread pan. Cover with a kitchen towel and put aside to rise.
Preheat the oven to 225°C. Place a heatproof dish filled with water at the bottom of the oven.
Bake for 20 min, reduce the heat to 200°C and bake for another 20 min. Remove from the oven, leave in the pan for 5 min, take the bread out and let rest to cool.
Regular sponge
250g bread flour (brown or white)
300ml lukewarm water
1 pkg instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
starter (or motherdough)
I think, almost every baker will say, you don't need yeast for the sour dough, if your starter came out right. Yeast changes the bacterial structure in the dough. I'm still using it, by habit. And to be sure, my bread will come out right. It's like a security, in case my starter didn't come out right. One day, I will have the nerve and try it out without the yeast and will then report. According to specialized literature, you also add sugar only at the end and not while doing the sponge. I think what I'm doing is a mixture between sour dough and sponge. It works for me though. Anyway, let's start.
Bring your sour dough to 30°C, by mixing it with part of your lukewarm water (I store it always in a small jar in the fridge and just fill then up with lukewarm water and shake till combined. If it reaches 30 °C I can"t tell, but it seems to be enough).
Mix the yeast with the rest of the water and sugar, till resolved and let to rest for around 5 minutes. Foam will build on the surface.
Mix the flour with the yeast-water mix and your sour dough, till smooth. The dough is now more a batter, very fluid. Cover and put aside to rest for minimum 3 hours.
If you're in a hurry, you can proceed with bread baking, if not let it rest in the fridge for 12 hours and bake your bread then. If you one day try out both options, you will see the difference in the aroma. But both variations are tasty.
Whatever option you use, before you go on with the main dough, don't forget to put ca 8 tbsp of your new sour dough into a jar. If you know, you'll bake your next bread in the next two, three weeks, you can put the jar into the fridge, if you're not planing on baking bread for a longer period, put it in the deep freezer.
To bake the bread, follow the instructions in above or in my recipes.
To bake the bread, follow the instructions in above or in my recipes.
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