Sourdough in a Summer Kitchen
I was afraid I'd have to give up my sourdough for the summer, but I've found a schedule that works beautifully.
At breakfast time I mix up my leaven (a tablespoon of starter with 150 grams each of flour and water). I let it rise until about 3:00 in the afternoon. It's flexible, I can leave it for hours later; I just need to work with it so that there are still three or four hours before bedtime.
At 3:00 I mix up my dough for the bulk rise. I'm usually home during the hot part of the afternoon anyway, because in the summer I like to get errands done early while it's still cooler. So in the later part of the afternoon I make sure to turn my dough every half hour or so, until it's had a three-hour rise.
Right after dinner I shape it, set it into my Pyrex bowls, and leave it in the refrigerator overnight for its bench rise.
First thing in the morning, while I make my tea, I heat the oven to bake, and within an hour the loaves are out on the counter smelling delicious.
What's so great about this schedule?
1. The hot oven baking is done first thing in the morning, not during dinner prep.
2. Fresh bread is ready to share during the day if you want to give a loaf away. I never found that convenient when my loaves were finishing at 6 p.m.
3. The second rise is much more controlled, and the finished dough comes out of the towels much better.
4. A warm summer kitchen doesn't compromise the quality of the bread.
21 comments:
Food for thought there, no pun intended! That's an interesting schedule Anna and, with one or two tweaks, I could make it work for my day.
Dan Lepard whom I mentioned to you recently outlines a not dissimilar schedule in The Handmade Loaf.
Is this a daily routine or just a once or twice a week routine? i.e. does sourdough bread keep well or does it need to be fresh every day?
Mira, I make bread Monday through Friday. The bread keeps really well in the breadbox, but I keep the loaves in the freezer until I need one. I give at least two away, which means we're eating eight over the course of the week (wow).
Thanks for your reply Anna. It sounds like an interesting bread to try but I'm guessing that it would need a much longer first rise to make up for the cool, damp conditions here in Wales.
Oh, goodness - I was just thinking again yesterday about how I prefer sourdough.
But what do you mean by turning it every half hour? Does it speed up the rise? I don't think I've heard of that.
Lisateresa
Lisa, the turning is literally turning the dough in its bowl. It takes the place of kneading, and you do it five or six times over the course of the first rise.
I'm beginning to discover there are many ways to make bread. What a wonderful study that would make!
Sonya
Can you tell me your recipe, or where to find it? I have a much different system buy yours bread looks much more lovely than mine--I'd love to try your method! My starter I feed daily and each recipe, for 2 loaves, calls for 2 cups of starter.
Thank you,
Suzanne
Suzanne, I bake from the book Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. It seems like there might be two schools of home sourdough baking. One involves a large quantity of starter, used in similar large quantities. Mine involves a tiny bowl of starter that's never more than half a cup at a time, used at a rate of a tablespoon per two-loaf baking.
Rose, I've got to see the rest of that book! Checking Amazon . . . .
This bread is gorgeous! And thank you so much for sharing your summer technique......I really want to give it a try.
I have a question. What kind of flour do you use, and where do you procure it?(~All right, I guess it is more like two questions;) I find that the good quality flours at the grocery store are quite pricey, and so I try to stock up when they go on sale.......still, it is amazing how fast our family of six goes through flour....even though I don't use it every day! I would love to find a source for bulk good quality flour which would fit into our budget, but so far haven't been able to locate any. Any suggestions you might have would be very appreciated.
Thank you and God bless!
~Kate
Kate, I'm buying King Arthur bread flour at my local grocery store. I wish it were cheaper, but it's worth the premium to me.
Well, I have to agree that King Arthur is certainly the best of the best. When I bake with it the results are always far superior to anything else. Maybe someday I'll get over cringing every time I look at the price....;)
~Kate
If you had to choose between the Artisan in 5 Minutes or the Tartine book which one would you recommend? I'm torn between the two and can't purchase both right now. I'm really enjoying the bread posts! Thanks for all the tips and hints.
Well, Artisan Bread is much simpler for a novice baker. Tartine will take your bread to the next level, but I wouldn't start out there with zero baking experience.
Anna, I would love to read more posts like these. More day in the life of homekeeping and activities. Please, pretty please? ;)
Anna, I have the book, and just tried mixing the starter from my 15 year old starter, using only the 200 grams. It rose exponentially! I have a question since I'm about to retard the dough in the fridge overnight,- in the morning, when you take it out of fridge, about how long do you leave it to rise before baking? You wrote that you heat the oven to bake and within an hour your loaves are on the counter. Do you bring the dough to room temperature before baking? If you place the shaped loaves in oven when oven is preheated, I'm thinking the dough will still be rather cold. But it sounds like it works for you. Hope you can answer my question by tomorrow. :)
I don't bring it to room temperature any longer than it takes the oven to heat--20 minutes (if that, because sometimes I sit down and drink tea before I remember to get the bread out of the fridge!). I think it can go right from the fridge into the hot pots. You'll get a great oven spring--I hope you are using covered pans. Good luck!
Anna, thank you SOO much for your prompt reply. It is such a relief to hear that it can be done right out of fridge, cause in the past, when I retarded dough, the surface would dry out while bringing to room temp. I know the author advocates using those covered pans, and I do have a Le Creuset dutch oven, but I think I'm just going to use my stone. I'm afraid if I use my dutch oven, they'll get all dark and stained. Plus I think the lid should only be heated to under 400F due to the rubber thingy on top. I am in the market for one of those cast iron lidded pans he uses.
Anna, Do you find yourself feeling that all that discarding and feeding wastes a LOT of flour? Perhaps I'm not managing my starter properly. Discarding 80% each time, after I've fed it - is hard. Sandra
Sandra, the way I do my starter makes almost no waste. The total quantity in my starter cup is less than 1/3 cup of flour. Every day i use a tablespoon of that to start my new leaven, then I scrape about half of what's left into the trash. I add a new 1/4 cup of flour and about the same of water, stir it, and set it in the fridge for the next day. I know the book has you save half your leaven over for the next day, but I mix up a leaven of 150 g water/150 g flour/1 T. starter and use the whole thing for my batch of bread. Feel free to email for further discussion!
Yes, that works very well. Thank you. Sandra
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