Food Friday: Successful Sourdough Bread!

For ages I tried to make sourdough bread.  It was never successful.  Always flat and ugly even though it tasted good.  Dear One and I have watched a lot of YouTube sourdough videos in the last couple of weeks.  I wanted to try again, mainly because he was agitating for some sourdough bread!

On Sunday morning I took out the sourdough starter that had been sitting in the refrigerator for months, lonely from lack of use.  I had no idea if it was still alive in the jar.  Especially since there was no hooch on top!  I had left the lid slightly loose and the hooch had dried up.

Since one of the sourdough videos said to use four ounces of flour and four ounces of water to feed the starter, I set it on the scales and put in the required water and flour then stirred it well.

When we came home from church there were two bubbles on top!  I was so surprised.  I fed the starter again in the evening with the same amount of flour and water.

On Monday morning another feeding. There were a few more bubbles.  On Monday evening I slapped my forehead rather significantly because I had not been adding 4 ounces of water and flour I had been adding 4/10 ounces of water and flour!  Duh!  Double Duh!  So I put in 4 OUNCES of each and stirred again.

On Tuesday I was very busy and only gave one feeding.  Same with Wednesday and Thursday.  

On Thursday evening, since there was a LOT of starter by now, and lots of bubbles, I decided to give bread a try.

One of the wizards gave this recipe:

4 ounces active sourdough starter
1 pound 4 ounces (20 ounces total) flour
12 ounces filtered water
3/4 ounce Kosher salt

Mix until there is no dry flour then put into a gallon ziplock bag and let rise on the counter overnight.

The next morning flour the counter and put the dough on the flour.  Flour your hands and carefully begin turning and shaping.  When you are happy with the nice smooth loaf, put it into a bowl where you have put a flour sack cloth which has rice flour on it.  Cover the dough ball with the cloth and let sit 3 or 4 or 5 hours.  When you think you are getting there, turn the oven on to 475 degrees F. and let pre-heat for 30 minutes or more.  On a sturdy baking sheet that can stand the heat, put on a sheet of parchment paper.

At this point use some kitchen shears to makes some cuts in the top of the bread. I made five cuts. Carefully turn the bread out onto your hand then place right side up on the pan.  Put in oven and immediately reduce temperature to 450 degrees F.  Bake for 30 minutes.  If it does not look dark enough for you, let it cook some more.

Sourdough bread ball is rising under this cloth. I took the picture this way so I would remember which bowl I used for the rise.

This is the beautiful nice high loaf...of course taken from an angle that does not let the height shine forth.  Next time I will use something other than the shears to make the cuts.  Maybe a razor blade.  Or a very sharp knife.

This is the sliced bread.  Just as we were falling asleep I told Dear One I was not going to make any more of it.  He was very surprised (and not actually that pleased!) and asked, "Why?"  I told him it was because I have already eaten two and a half slices since it was so good.  Since he really really liked it, I will make it again but I may have to get my jaw wired shut for the duration,,..

Anyway, I would call this a total success, even though it could be better.  The taste was great.  The texture was great. It was lovely and chewy.  Just perfect. In my opinion.