Weekly Sourdough Starter Schedule

Timing is EVERYTHING with sourdough starters & bread. Here's my weekly schedule to produce some great loaves each weekend:

Wed 2100 - Take sourdough out of the refrigerator

Thur 0500 - Feed Sourdough (stir, save 1/4 cup, add 1 cup water, 1 cup AP flour, stir)
Thur 1900 - Feed Sourdough (13h) (save 1/4 cup, add 1 cup water, 1 cup AP)

Fri 0800 - Feed Sourdough (13h) (save 1/4 cup, add 1 cup water, 1 cup AP)
Fri 2100 - Mix dough & Feed Sourdough (13h) - 100g used per loaf

Sat 0940 - Turn on oven to 450 with Dutch-Oven
Sat 1000 - Flour & kneed dough and let rest, Store Sourdough in the refrigerator
Sat 1030 - Transfer dough to Dutch-Oven and score
Sat 1100 - Remove lid from Dutch-Oven
Sat 1115 - Remove loaf from Dutch-Oven and rest on a wire rack
(Let cool completely)
Sat 1400 - Eat! (save any left-overs in a ziplock freezer bag, should be good for 5 days).

Enjoy!
-Matt the Weekend Baker

No-Kneed Bread

The no-kneed bread phenomenon all started with a New York baker named Jim Lahey from the Sullivan Street Bakery. He was discovered by Mark Bittman (the Minimalist) of the New York times and the famous article appeared:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

I wish I could say I found this article on my own, but I had two friends (HangerMike & DragonCoder) send me links to it because they knew my passion for baking.

This requires a 5 quart dutch oven, but a quick search of eBay for "Cast Iron Enamel Dutch Oven" will yield several in the $30-$50 range.

Here is a video of his technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU



-Matt the Weekend Baker

Three Bread Recipes

#1 - Simple

• 3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Yeast
• 1 5/8 Cup Water (will make a wet dough)

Mix & cover, Rest 12-18 hours, Minimally shape (scrape from sides of the bowl and cover with flour and/or cornmeal) - Bake in a pre-heated covered iron pot @ 425 for 27 minutes, remove the lid and bake for an additional 14 minutes.


#2 - Interesting

• 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 2/3 Cup Bread Flour
• 1/3 Cup White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 Tbls Buckwheat Flour (Optional)
• 1 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Tsp Yeast
• 1 5/8 Cup Water - or slightly less to make a DRY dough

Mix & cover, Rest 12-14 hours, Take out and kneed lightly, place on a parchment in a pot and cover for 2 hours - Bake in a pre-heated covered iron pot @ 425 for 27 minutes, remove the lid and bake for an additional 14 minutes.


#3 - Sourdough

• 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 1 Cup Bread Flour
• 1/4 Cup White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 Cup Rye Flour
• 1 Cup Sourdough Starter
• 1 Tbls Buckwheat Flour (Optional)
• 1 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1 Cup Water + Additional as needed - the dough should be DRY

Mix & cover, Rest 4-12 hours, Take out and kneed lightly, place on a parchment in a pot and cover for 2 hours - Bake in a pre-heated covered iron pot @ 425 for 26 minutes, remove the lid and bake for an additional 13 minutes.

Occasionally I will put 1/4 cup of Rye into #2, but to do that you have to take out 1/4 cup of one of the other flours to keep the total Flour to about 3 cups.

-Matt the Weekend Baker

Sourdough Starter

Baking bread is rewarding, but ultimately you will ask yourself "what can I do to really challenge myself?"

Ultimately the answer you will come to is - SOURDOUGH!

Bread books are filled with all sorts of starters, and some even describe how to cultivate your own local starter. I've done this, but nothing can beat the original Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.

My friend DragonCoder sent me this link for Free, live pioneer-era sourdough starter and HangerMike pointed me to http://www.sourdoughbreads.com/.

I went ahead and spent $9 to purchase the authentic San Fransisco Sourdough starter I'm currently using. Sourdough is a live culture so it takes a bit of time to get used to it's feeding schedule.

For more information I highly recommend you check out the Sourdough entry on WikiPedia.

If you are in the local area I'll be happy to provide you some starter.

-Matt the Weekend Baker

Fresh Hot Bread

This is what it looks like when you cut into fresh HOT bread right after it's spent 40+ minutes in a 450 degree oven. If you look very closely (and ignore the background noise) you can just barely see the steam coming out of the cut.

Normally I advocate waiting until AFTER it's stopped steaming... but we were hungry :)



-Matt the Weekend Baker

Focaccia Bread

Bread Baking is NOT a quick process. Sometimes if I find myself short of the good stuff and I need to whip up something quick and simple I've found a great focaccia recipie I use:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Focaccia-Bread/Detail.aspx

It's by Terri McCarrell and I have to say my only tweaks are adding a bit more sugar and more rosemary (fresh if it's available).

This really is just 60 minutes. 15 to mix, 30 to rise and 15 to bake.

-Matt the Weekend Baker