Whole Grain Sourdough Bread
 

Sourdough bread is easy to make and keeps extremely well. It takes a long time--about 8 hours in all, or longer if you do it in two steps. But you don't spend all that much time on task.

Sourdough "starter" is a mixture of flour, wild yeast, and bacteria, typically begun by using a little bit of commercial baking yeast. I use a "wet" starter, which some baking books call "barm."

I'll point out some basic principles here, then refer you to my blog post on it.

The basic idea is you mix up flour, water, and starter and let it ferment. Then you take out some of the newly-bubbly batter and put it in a one-cup glass jar with a plastic lid, and stick that back in the fridge. Then make bread out of the rest. The bread is flour, water, starter, and salt. That's all. It rises at room temperature.

For more details, see this: http://www.durfeewest.com/bread-simpler-better/

Since I wrote that blog post I've changed how I do the first rising. I make the dough into a nice round ball, cut it into two pieces with a dough cutter, and make each of them into a nice round ball, mist with a little oil, and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel, leaving them out on the counter to rise. The surface tension you create when you make the "boule" helps the dough rise nicely. Forming the loaves first prevents "degassing." When it has obviously gotten bigger (about an hour), I lift each one carefully with my palms on either side, shaping into a loaf shape and setting into greased bread pans. If you have time to let it rise (to just above the tops of the pans) and bake it, you can go ahead. If not, put them (covered) into the refrigerator overnight and bake the next day, as it says in the post.

It takes six days to make starter. From then on, you can use your own. The cookbooks say you have to add flour and water once a week to keep it viable. I haven't had that experience. I've had mine last two or more months without doing anything to it. It does form a dark liquid on top. Just pour that off. Here's a starter recipe (adapted from my ancient copy of Recipes for a Small Planet):

1 tsp instant dry yeast
2 tsp. honey
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. warm water

Stir together the flour and yeast in a large bowl. Add the warm water, stir to hydrate, then beat with a whisk or electric mixer until smooth.

Put the batter in a large crock or gallon glass jar. Don't ever use metal with your sourdough starter.

Cover container with a damp cloth secured with a rubber band.

Let the mixture sit out on your counter at room temperature for five days. Every morning, stir it with a wooden spoon and re-moisten the cloth. It should get bubbly and smell yeasty.

On the fifth day, add 1/4 c. warm water and 1/4 c. whole wheat flour. Leave it out on the counter at room temperature one more day. Then you can store it in the refrigerator (in a glass, plastic or ceramic container--no metal, not even the lid) or use it.

If you're going to use it, take out about 1/2 cup and store it in the fridge for next time, then go ahead with your recipe.

There are lots of fun sourdough recipes. You can make bagels. You can put sourdough starter with milk and cornmeal to make a yeast-raised cornbread. I recently made whole wheat pita bread. I followed the recipe, but I put a little sourdough starter in it too.