Baking recipe method for 2 loaves of Sourdough Bread
Recipe quantities:
1300 g freshly milled Wheat flour
400 g sourdough (starter)
20-22 g white sea salt
500-600 ml spring water
1. Mix sourdough with half of the water.
2. Add this mixture to the dry flour, together with remaining water until no dry particles are left.
3. Now add the salt and fold the flour over a couple of times, do not knead, don’t try to form a dough yet!
4. Allow this mix to rest 20-30 min., then with moist hands knead the flour for a few minutes until a dough forms.
5. Now let the dough rest about 60 minutes.
6. Knead again for a few minutes (add no more dry flour), use wet hands and a moist working surface. Then cur the dough in half, roll in flour, and place in oiled baking tins.
7. Leave the loaves to rise at no less than 22 *C room temperature. They should be ready to bake in no more than 6-7 hours, otherwise you will have sour tasting bread.
8. When the dough has about doubled in size or risen to the level of the baking tins they are ready to bake.
Place in a fully heated oven (250 *C) for 10 min.
Then lower the temperature to around 200 *C for another 50 minutes.
9. Now take the bread out of the oven, remove the tins and bake the bread a further 10 min. at a 140 *C.
10. Let the bread cool down on a wire rack, it’s best to wait 12 hours before eating the bread. Store the bread in paper bags.
Common problems
Bread takes too long to rise or not at all
It is important to have a very healthy sourdough starter - always use fresh flour to feed the sourdough and good clean water. Store sourdough in a clean glass jar in the refridgerator. Feed sourdough more often.
Baked loaves have burst or broken open
Probably placed in the oven too soon.
Uneven fermentation, salt added or absorbed too early.
After a few days sourdough bread drys out and lends itself very well to steaming. Cut the bread in slices, soak briefly in water and steam in a pot.
A Short Primer on Natural Leaven Baking
Baking by Principle
The aim of bread baking is to allow the various nutrients obtained from fresh-milled whole grain flour to increase, be better absorbed and thus become nutritionally more beneficial. To do this effectively, life’s laws must be respected through all of the transformations of grain into flour into the fermented dough and through the oven heat (dextrinization, caramelization) that perfects the loaf. It is important for the baking to duplicate the changes that the grain goes through: Germination, growth and maturity.
Yeast versus Natural Leaven
In books on baking and even in nutritional/medical writings, the two techniques: Natural Leaven (sourdough) and baker’s yeast are often mingled and confounded. We will clear up this confusion first then give you the simple detailed instructions that will enable you to bake with this almost forgotten method.
Baking with natural leaven is in harmony with nature and maintains the integrity and nutrition of the cereal grain used, rye, wheat or other .i.e. The process helps to increase and reinforce our body’s absorption of the cereal’s nutrients. Unlike yeasted bread that diminishes, even destroys much of the grain’s nutritional value, naturally leavened bread does not stale and, as it ages, maintains its original moisture much longer. A lot of that information was known pragmatically for centuries and thus, when yeast was first introduced (in France, at the court of Louis XIV in March 1668); because at that time the scientists already knew that the use of yeast would imperil the people’s health, it was strongly rejected. Today, yeast is used almost universally, without any testing, and the recent scientific evidence and clinical findings are confirming the ancient taboos with biochemical and bio-electronic valid proofs that wholly support that age-old common sense decision. For these reasons and for the health of everyone concerned, it is advisable not to bake nor to consume yeasted products.
Starter Leaven
Definition
A starter is a leavening agent that has been obtained by attracting into a raw barm (a mixture of flour and water) a broad spectrum of beneficial wild biological ferments, micro-alginic molds and digestive enzymes. These micro-organisms come from nature’s ferments that abound in the air. This multi-macro flora is made up of a multitude of micro-organisms in symbiosis - a mutually beneficial association - all contributing by their micro-algae structure to the health of the human digestive system and to its beneficial flora.
Primary Function
The starter serves to change the raw elements of wheat and other cereal grains into readily assimilated nutrients, more easily absorbed by the body.
Auxiliary Role
The combined action of the wild ferments and enzymes maintained within the starter added to the active enzymes existing in the fresh ground whole flour are creating carbon dioxide, alcohol and energy that will aerate and leaven the bread harmoniously.
Bonus Benefits
Among the multitude of elements present within the leaven starter bread, some serve to insure the bread’s keeping qualities while others serve to improve its taste during the baking and also during maturing (just like wine and beer improve with ageing).