After taking a salt rising bread and sourdough class a couple years ago, I went through a delicious phase of baking sourdough bread.
The teacher’s method, as I recall, resembled what I learned for general bread making from my family: Add a few cups of water, and enough flour until it looks right. Knead until it looks right. Rise until it’s risen enough. Bake until it’s done.
Of course, the class provided a little more detail — such as keeping the baking loaf moist to improve the crust.
This method gave some pretty decent results: Tasty bread, crispy crusts, and all that. Not spectacular, but when I served it warm with butter, my family was content. It fell apart if sliced too thinly, so open faced sandwiches were the way to go with this bread.
During the pandemic, I found myself wanting a lighter and generally improved loaf to slice for traditional sandwiches. I joined the crowd learning more about sourdough baking while quarantining.
I bought some very good starter through the Round Right Farm CSA.
First I learned about methods with more steps than my usual bread making. To see how different the results were, I followed a few recipes step by step several times.
The recipes I tried called for similar proportions and techniques. First, mix water and flour into the sourdough starter (a mix of water and flour and wild yeast from the grain and air) and wait until bubbles appear. Meanwhile, separately mix more flour with water and hydrate for an hour – the proportions of ingredients are measured by weight and their ratios to each other.
Next, add the starter, salt and a little more water to the hydrated flour mixture to make an even stickier dough. Stretch and fold the dough every half hour to build up gluten over the course of about four hours.
Then shape the dough, let rest, move into a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight, before baking in a preheated Dutch oven with lid on for half the time.
This resulted in quite tasty loaves, lighter than my usual, and sliced thinly better. Continuing my journey down sourdough lane, I started skipping some steps and still ended with a good loaf.
Following similar steps made wonderful sourdough bagels. Sourdough cinnamon rolls called for a slightly different method and an enriched dough, and were worth the trouble.
Pancakes are the easiest and a great way to enjoy the full tangy sourdough flavors. Simply add a few cups of water and flour to some starter in the evening. In the morning add a couple eggs, and more water or flour if the batter seems too thick or not thick enough. Then heat them in a frying pan, on the one side until bubbles pop, then flip to the second side until cooked through.
Looking up recipes, I learned that sourdough tradition dates back at least to ancient Egyptians, who brewed beer and leavened dough with wild yeast. Miners in North America kept tins of sourdough on their persons to keep it warm. Their starters were especially useful when they camped between towns and needed to make their own food.
Once commercial yeast became available, many bakeries switched to the quicker option.
The slow process of making sourdough gives wild yeast time to eat up some of the sugars and carbohydrates. Protein in sourdough bread exceeds that in regular white bread.
During this pandemic, I’ve felt connected to my community and world through the fear and worry this mysterious virus instills. But I’ve also felt connected to home bakers around the country and internationally who turn to this ancient tradition with extra time at home.
