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Homemade Sourdough + Sourdough Workshop

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Good morning!  I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am posting the sourdough recipe I have been working on this month.  The previous sourdough recipe was posted and made in the bread machine.  I know not everyone has a bread machine, and I wanted to post this alternative along with my workshop notes.

I had a lot of success with the following tips:
-It is hard to overwork sourdough.  So I knead it in the stand mixer for 4 minutes on low and 4 minutes on med-high.  This works great and saves me from kneading by hand.
-I put a pizza stone on one rack lower than the Dutch oven to bake the bread.  Then the bottom doesn’t get nearly as dark brown-almost burned.  I don’t put the stone under the Dutch Oven directly, but one rack lower.

Book Update:
Here is the book I’m currently reading: The Marshmallow Test by Walter Mischel.  The book is all about the famous “test” that he states he never called a test.  It’s just the term the author at the New York Times gave the very, very lengthy name of the study done at the Stanford pre-school back in 1972.  Basically, another psychology book trying to find the holy grail of success.  His focus is on self-control after noticing those kids that had self-control in their pre-school “test” correlated with better life outcomes.  #1 I learned that he did NOT use marshmallows.  The child could choose the treat.  #2 The researcher illustrated to the child that they would come back by testing the bell.  When the child rang the bell, then the researcher came back even at the beginning.  Why is this important?  One of the main counterarguments to Mischel’s research states that untrusting children or children from traumatic experiences would not believe the person would come back and therefore alter the results.


(Photo: Amazon)

Recipe:

After several loaves and lots of Youtube videos explaining how to make bread dough, I arrived at one that does not my entire life away.  The chocolate cherry sourdough loaf is really a labor of love that took me all day to make.

Here is a link to my SOURDOUGH WORKSHOP.

It includes the recipes I explained, how to keep your sourdough starter, and the basic method listed here for making a sourdough loaf.  I have seen different ratios of water to flour all over the place and this is the one I am happy with.   I usually start the sourdough on Saturday or Sunday and make it on Monday or Tuesday.  Since it is soup season, I’ve been offering workshops.  The folks bring a jar, and I fill it with a part of my starter.  They get instructions on how to feed it and put it in the fridge until it is ready to use.  Then, I show how to make a sourdough loaf (that I started 2 days before and pull out of the fridge) as well as how to make pancake batter.  This way everyone gets to try the sourdough loaf and the sourdough pancakes all fresh.


Homemade Sourdough
 
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:
Ingredients
  • 100 grams bubbly and active sourdough starter (1/2 cups)
  • 375 grams warm water (1 and ½ cups)
  • 600 grams bread flour (4 and ½ cups)
  • 12 grams salt (2 and ½ teaspoons)
Instructions
  1. Mix everything together in a mixer or by hand. Allow to sit 30-60 minutes covered.
  2. Mix with a bread hook in mixer for 4 minutes on LOW and then 4 minutes on MED-HIGH.
  3. Move dough to a greased bowl and rest 30 minutes.
  4. Now use a strength-building fold. Basically take one side, pull up and over. Then turn 90 degrees, and do this again. Until you do this to all 4 sides. Complete 4 of these over 2 hours. I forget sometimes. It's okay.
  5. Allow dough to rise in a warm place for 3-10 hours. Until double in size.
  6. Shape the dough into a ball. Pinch all the dough on one side, so that the other side is smooth. I keep it seam-side up in my greased bowl. Put it in the fridge covered for 1-48 hours. This loaf shown here in the blog post was 24 hours of proofing.
  7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put a pizza stone or steel stone on the lowest rack of the oven if you have it. This keeps the bottom from getting too dark. Put your Dutch Oven in the oven as well to get hot.
  8. Put the rack you will bake on the next rack up. So it should be in the lower half.
  9. Place parchment paper in a Dutch oven. Flip the dough over so it lands seam-side down in the Dutch oven.
  10. Make ½" slashes in the dough - one dough in the middle or several small ones or both.
  11. Put lid on the Dutch oven. Bake 30 minutes.
  12. Remove lid CAREFULLY.
  13. Bake another 15-20 minutes. Bread should be golden brown.
  14. Allow to cool and cut.

 

Sourdough Bread (Bread Machine Recipe)

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Good day!

I can’t believe we are at the end of the school year!  I am now starting year 2 out of 3 for school counseling and LPC license hence the few and far between recipes.  After completing a Master’s program right after undergrad and doing one now, I would highly recommend completing a Master’s program right after undergrad.   It was WAY easier!

Books I’ve Read: 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m currently reading “The Power of Regret” by Daniel Pink.  He never disappoints and provides oodles of interesting studies about the human condition.

 

 

 

 

 

I finished “Such a Quiet Place” by Megan Miranda which is a page-turning mystery fictional piece that I would recommend.

 

 

 

 

 

“A Molecule Away from Madness” by Sara Manning Peskin was my favorite so far this year.  A non-fiction piece written by a neuroscientist who covers several neurological diseases.  After much research into these diseases and going through the fascinating history, the conclusion is that one molecule is the difference between healthy and non-healthy.

Recipe:

I use my bread machine for EVERYTHING dough making.  I received it 20 years ago for a wedding present and have been baking bread in it ever since.  If the house is too cold, the dough doesn’t rise well.   Too hot, it rises too fast.    We make cinnamon rolls, pizza, bread rolls, and more all in the bread machine.  It kneads and allows the dough to rise at just the right temperature.   It is too big to keep on the counter, but over the weekends or holidays, I’ll get the machine out to mix and rise our ingredients.  I never bake bread in the machine.  I tried a couple of times and the loaves come out in a funny shape and very tough on the outside.  My Oster bread maker is a 2 lb. machine and is no longer manufactured.  I believe I used our wedding gift money to purchase it.

You can certainly make this recipe by hand or in a Kitchenaid mixer!

Timeline for how I make this sourdough recipe:

Note: When I say “equal amounts” I do not measure or weigh.  I eyeball when I feed my sourdough and it works so much better.  I only use a scale when I am baking a recipe.

7:00pm – Remove my sourdough from the fridge and feed it.  Allow to feed overnight equal amounts flour to water to starter

6:00am – Feed sourdough (discard half if you need to!) equal amounts flour to water to starter

9:00am – my starter has already doubled in size.  He is fed!  I place all the ingredients into the bread machine and hit start on “Dough” cycle

10:30am – Dough cycle is finished and allow to rise another 2 hours.

12:30pm – Form dough into a ball on floured surface.  Place on parchment inside the Dutch Oven and rise 4 hours.

4:00pm – Preheat oven to 450 degrees

4:30pm – Place Dutch Oven and bread into the oven and turn oven down to 400 degrees.  Bake 25 minutes

4:55pm – Remove lid and bake 20-25 minutes.

5:15pm – Check the bread is golden brown and remove from oven

5:45pm – Eat sourdough bread with dinner!

**To make this without a bread machine, you will follow the same rise times and everything.  Simply knead by mixer or by hand for 5-6 minutes at the beginning.  Rise 45 minutes.  Knead 1-2 minutes.  Rise another 45 minutes.  Then, follow the rest of the steps beginning with rise an additional 2 hours.

Print
Sourdough Bread (Bread Machine Recipe)

Ingredients

  • 120 grams (about 1/2 cup) sourdough starter, fed and ripe
  • 180 grams warm water
  • 360 grams bread flour (or AP flour)
  • 1 tsp. salt (or kosher salt)

Instructions

  1. Place ingredients into the machine per its directions. Hit start on Dough cycle.
  2. Allow to rise an additional 2 hours.
  3. Line a Dutch Oven with parchment paper.
  4. On a floured surface, form dough into a ball. Place smooth side up into the Dutch Oven.
  5. Cover and rise 4 hours.
  6. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  7. Remove lid and score top of loaf with 2 to 4 slashes about 1/4-1/2" deep.
  8. Place Dutch Oven with lid on into the oven for 25 minutes. LOWER the oven temperature to 400.
  9. Remove lid. Bake another 20-25 minutes. The top should be light to medium golden brown.
  10. Cool and eat!
http://www.whisktogether.com/2022/05/22/sourdough-bread-bread-machine-recipe/

 

 

Chocolate Cherry Sourdough

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Good morning!  It is snowing here in St. Louis, so I have a cat on my lap and recipes to post!

Our holidays were filled with laughter, travel, games and sourdough.  The first sourdough starter failed.  There were probably various reasons, but this first attempt was started from scratch.  My second attempt began with a 150 year old sourdough starter from Kensington Market.  Since I received a few gift cards for Christmas, I fell for the Facebook clickbait and purchased the sourdough starter packet for ten bucks.  I followed the directions and – POOF! – sourdough starter started.

There is a bakery near my mom’s house that makes the most amazing pastries and breads.  However, even when they say they are making more….you call up just to make sure and they were out of bread.  After trying to make a Japanese Chocolate milk bread, I realized that this what no where close to their chocolate cherry bread.  I realized that perhaps it was a sourdough base.  I asked offhand if it was, and they said yes.  So I decided to try and make the chocolate cherry sourdough bread myself.

As with all sourdough bread, it does take some time.  But there is very little actual work involved and your house will smell like cocoa powder.  Win Win, right?

I will be posting the other sourdough recipes I have made this week.  Ironically, I started this sourdough to make sourdough biscuits like at a local coffeehouse.  But, like I said, the first starter failed and when Christmas rolled around I didn’t have any starter for sourdough biscuits.  We still got Christmas Cinnamon Rolls 🙂

Here is my journey – I mean recipe – that I adapted from Modernist Bread.  I do not own the $500 tome, but I did find the recipe on their website.

If you are starting bread-making from the beginning, I would not recommend starting with sourdough.  I would recommend this hearty sandwich loaf type of recipe – check this one out which is 100% whole wheat flour.  My daughter won an award for her film on how to make it!  So it is super simple even a 10 year old can do it.
100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

If you want white bread made from all-purpose flour – try this recipe:  White Bread

Chocolate Cherry Sourdough

A beautiful loaf of bread that is no-too-sweet and full of chocolate flavor. The chocolate and dried cherries a prominent in every slice.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 hrs
Cook Time 40 mins
Servings 8 people

Ingredients
  

  • 230 grams sourdough starter, ripe or discard (1 cup +1 T)
  • 185 grams warm water 3/4 cup
  • 4 grams instant yeast 1 tsp.
  • 225 grams bread flour 1 2/3 cup
  • 30 grams cocoa powder 1/4 cup
  • 1 tsp espresso powder
  • 7 grams salt
  • 150 grams dark chocolate chips or small chunks 1 cup
  • 100 grams dried cherries, sweetened or unsweetened 1 cup

Instructions
 

  • In a large bowl by hand or by mixer with dough hook, mix the sourdough starter, warm water and yeast together. Add the bread flour, cocoa powder and espresso powder. Combine until it is a big shaggy ball. Cover and sit for 30 minutes.
  • Add the salt. Once incorporated well, move this dough to an oiled bowl that you can cover. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
  • After 30 minutes, fold the dough four times. Rest 30 minutes. Add the chocolate chips and dried cherries. Be sure to break up the dried cherries first since they tend to stick together. Fold and rest 30 minutes.
  • Fold and rest for 30 minutes FOUR more times. So this is SIX folds. Rest again 30 minutes after the last fold. This is to develop gluten. My windowpane test failed...but I think the bread still turned out well!
  • Now you can leave it as one loaf or divide into 2 right now. Cover well (it still has the folds/seam side up) and put the dough into the refrigerator for 14 hours. Yes, I said fourteen hours. That is not a typo.
  • Now, place a piece of parchment into your Dutch Oven. Gently flip the dough over into the Dutch Oven with rounded side UP. Put the lid on and allow to come up to room temperature for 1-2 hours.
  • Towards the end of the time is up, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Score the top of your sourdough with a knife. This should be 1/4"-1/2" on top in the shape of a cross or hashtag.
  • Put the Dutch Oven COVERED into the middle of the oven or upper rack (as far up as possible) and DROP the tempreature to 450 degrees.
  • Bake at 450 degrees for 33 minutes.
  • Remove lid and bake 5 minutes.
  • Crack open the oven door and bake another 5 minutes.
  • Remove Dutch Oven from the oven. Gently and carefully lift the parchment paper and bread onto a wire rack. Allow to cool. If that's even possible. I think I ate half before I allowed it to cool. 🙂
  • Enjoy by itself or with butter. Once completely cool, store at room tempreature in a sealed plastic bag.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Modernist Bread.  All measurements were done by WEIGHT.  I only gave the volume measurements so that we have an idea of how much starter, cocoa etc. that you need to have on hand to make the bread.  Starter can have the same weight and vary between 1 cup and 3 cups, so it is super important to weigh it.
I used sweetened dried cherries because that is all they sell here where I live.
I used King Arthur Bread Flour.
I used Rodelle Dutch-processed baking cocoa.  You can use natural cocoa.  
 

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