How To Make Sourdough Bread Masterclass

Summary

This script offers a detailed guide on crafting traditional sourdough bread, highlighting its historical significance dating back to 5000 B.C. The process involves creating a sourdough starter from flour and water, which captures wild yeast and ferments over 7 to 10 days. The recipe emphasizes the importance of kneading to develop gluten strength and the slow, natural rise of the dough due to the sourdough culture. The script also provides tips for maintaining the starter, shaping the dough, and baking the bread, including the use of steam for a perfect crust and the 'window-pane test' for dough readiness.

Takeaways

• 🍞 Sourdough bread is an ancient form of leavened bread with a history dating back to 5000 B.C.
• 🌾 The process of making sourdough starts with a simple mix of flour and water to create a sourdough starter or culture.
• 🕒 It takes approximately 7 to 10 days to develop a mature sourdough starter, but once established, it can be maintained indefinitely.
• 🔄 The sourdough starter needs to be fed regularly with equal parts flour and water to keep it active and prevent it from spoiling.
• 🌡️ The fermentation process relies on wild yeast present in the environment, which ferments the proteins in the flour causing it to rise and fall.
• 🍽️ Sourdough bread-making involves kneading the dough to build gluten strength and achieving the 'window-pane effect' for elasticity.
• 🧊 The dough requires a longer proving time compared to regular yeast bread, typically around 3 hours for the first prove and another 3 to 3.5 hours for the second prove.
• 🍽️ Shaping the dough can be done using a proving basket or improvised tools like a Pyrex dish, which provide support and help maintain the dough's shape during proving.
• 🔥 Baking sourdough bread requires high temperatures, ideally around 230 degrees Celsius, to create a good crust.
• 💧 Steam is important during the initial baking phase to allow the dough to rise and prevent a crust from forming too quickly.
• 🎨 Scoring the dough with a sharp knife helps control its rise and gives the bread its traditional pattern and appearance.

Q & A

What is the significance of sourdough bread in history?

Sourdough bread is the oldest form of leavened bread, with its history dating back to about 5000 B.C. It represents a traditional and natural way of bread making.

How does the sourdough starter work?

The sourdough starter is a mixture of flour and water that captures wild yeast from the environment. This yeast ferments the dough, causing it to rise and develop a unique flavor.

How long does it typically take to create a sourdough starter?

It usually takes about 7 to 10 days to develop a sourdough starter, depending on the environment and the activity of the wild yeast.

What is the purpose of feeding the sourdough starter?

Feeding the sourdough starter with more flour and water regularly keeps the yeast active and prevents it from dying out. This ensures a continuous supply of starter for baking.

What happens if the sourdough starter is overfed or underfed?

Overfeeding can lead to an excess of liquid and a heavy dough, while underfeeding may cause the starter to become inactive or die out, affecting the bread's rise and flavor.

How do you maintain the sourdough starter when not in use?

When not baking frequently, the sourdough starter can be stored in the refrigerator to slow down the fermentation process. It should be taken out, fed, and brought back to room temperature before using for baking.

What is the ideal temperature for baking sourdough bread?

The ideal temperature for baking sourdough bread is at least 230 degrees Celsius to create a nice crust and ensure proper rise.

How does scoring the bread affect the baking process?

Scoring the bread allows for controlled expansion during baking, preventing the dough from bursting irregularly and creating a pleasing appearance on the finished loaf.

What is the purpose of creating steam in the oven during baking?

Steam helps the dough to rise evenly by keeping the crust soft initially, allowing the bread to expand before the crust hardens. It also contributes to a better crust formation and overall texture of the bread.

How does the use of a Pyrex dish aid in baking sourdough bread?

A Pyrex dish can be used as an improvised proving basket. When covered and placed in the oven, it creates a steamy environment that helps the bread rise and develop a good crust without the need for additional steam equipment.

Outlines

00:00

🍞 The Art of Sourdough Making

This paragraph introduces the process of making sourdough bread, highlighting its historical significance dating back to 5000 B.C. It emphasizes the simplicity of creating a sourdough starter using just flour and water, and the importance of wild yeast in fermentation. The speaker explains the stages of fermentation, the bubbly and vinegary signs of a healthy starter, and the maintenance of the starter for future use. The paragraph also touches on the practicality of keeping the starter in the fridge for home bakers and the potential to obtain a starter from a local bakery.

05:01

📚 Sourdough Starter and Baking

The second paragraph provides guidance on obtaining a sourdough starter and preparing the dough for two loaves of bread. It mentions the Real Bread Ireland website as a resource for finding local bakers willing to share their starters. The recipe includes 800 grams of strong flour, 460 mls of water, 10 grams of salt, and 320 grams of sourdough starter. The paragraph details the kneading process, the importance of not over-kneading, and the signs of a well-kneaded dough. It also discusses the longer proving time required for sourdough and the use of a proving basket or alternative to shape the dough.

10:01

🗑️ Shaping and Proving the Dough

This section focuses on the shaping and second proving of the sourdough dough. It explains how to coat the dough with flour to prevent sticking, the technique for shaping the dough into a loaf, and the use of a proving basket or Pyrex dish for support. The paragraph also addresses the option to place the dough in the fridge for slow, overnight proving and the importance of not over-proving the dough. It concludes with the preparation for baking, including scoring the dough and the use of steam in the oven to ensure a good rise and crust formation.

15:02

🔥 Baking the Sourdough Loaves

The final paragraph discusses the baking process for sourdough bread. It emphasizes the need for high temperatures, around 230 degrees, to create a good crust and suggests a method for creating steam in the oven using a pre-heated Pyrex dish and hot water. The paragraph also provides tips on scoring the dough with a sharp knife to control its rise and ensure even baking. It concludes with a reminder to be confident when cutting into the dough and the importance of catching the dough on the rise for optimal baking results.

Keywords

💡Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread is a type of leavened bread made using a sourdough starter, which is a naturally occurring mixture of wild yeast and bacteria. It has a distinctive tangy flavor and a dense, chewy texture. In the video, sourdough bread is presented as a traditional and trendy food item, with a history dating back to 5000 B.C. The process of making it involves a fermentation period of about 7 to 10 days to develop the starter culture.

💡Sourdough Starter

A sourdough starter is a fermented mixture of flour and water that captures wild yeast and bacteria from the environment. It serves as the leavening agent for sourdough bread, causing the dough to rise through fermentation. The starter needs to be fed regularly with more flour and water to maintain its activity.

💡Fermentation

Fermentation is a metabolic process carried out by microorganisms, such as yeast and bacteria, which convert carbohydrates into alcohol or acids. In the context of sourdough bread, fermentation is the key process that causes the dough to rise and develop its characteristic flavor.

💡Wild Yeast

Wild yeast refers to strains of yeast that are naturally present in the environment, as opposed to cultivated yeast strains used in commercial baking. These wild strains are captured in the sourdough starter and are responsible for the unique flavor and texture of sourdough bread.

💡Kneading

Kneading is the process of working dough by stretching, folding, and pressing it to develop the gluten network, which gives bread its structure and texture. Proper kneading is essential for achieving a smooth, elastic dough that can rise well during baking.

💡Proving

Proving, or proofing, is the final rise of the dough before baking. It allows the dough to expand and develop its final shape and texture. Sourdough bread requires a longer proving time due to the slower fermentation process.

💡Steaming

Steaming is the process of introducing steam into the oven during the initial phase of baking. This helps the dough to rise more effectively by keeping the crust soft and preventing it from setting too quickly, allowing the bread to expand.

💡Scoring

Scoring is the practice of making shallow cuts into the surface of the dough before baking. This allows the bread to expand in a controlled manner, creating a pattern and preventing the dough from bursting randomly during baking.

💡Baking

Baking is the process of cooking bread in an oven, which causes the dough to rise, set, and develop a crust. For sourdough bread, higher temperatures are required to create a good crust and ensure a proper rise.

💡Crust

The crust is the outer layer of the bread, which becomes firm and slightly browned during baking. The development of a good crust is a key characteristic of well-baked bread, and it contributes to the overall texture and flavor.

Highlights

Sourdough bread is the oldest form of leavened bread, trending since about 5000 B.C.

The future of bread is about going back to the past, embracing traditional methods.

Creating a sourdough starter is a simple process of mixing flour and water.

Wild yeast, present everywhere, is used in the fermentation process.

The sourdough starter takes about 7 to 10 days to develop.

Once the sourdough starter is established, it can be maintained indefinitely.

The sourdough starter can be kept in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process.

The dough needs to be kneaded to build up its strength and elasticity.

The dough should be allowed to prove for about three hours with sourdough.

The window-pane test is used to determine if the dough is ready for shaping.

Shaping the dough in a proving basket or Pyrex dish helps maintain its shape during the second prove.

Sourdough bread can be baked from a second prove that can last overnight in the fridge.

Steam is essential for the first 8 to 10 minutes of baking to allow the dough to rise properly.

Scoring the bread before baking helps control the rise and gives the bread its traditional markings.

High temperatures, around 230 degrees, are required for baking sourdough bread to create a good crust.

Transcripts

{\an8}

So what we're going to do now is,

is we're going to show you how to make some sourdough bread.

Sourdough has got quite fashionable and trendy.

It's on a lot of restaurant menus.

Sourdough is trending since about 5000 B.C.

It's the oldest form of leavened bread.

So while we think we've a big tradition with soda bread,

your granny might have made it -

this is what her granny's granny used to make.

This is what we're all trying to get back to.

So the big revolution, the big future in food,

the future in bread, is about going back. Back to the past.

And this is what we're trying to get back to.

Beautiful, beautiful sourdoughs,

naturally fermented, with our seeded sourdough

a bit of malthouse.

As I say, you could have a hundred different types.

In order to make sourdough bread,

is to make your sourdough starter, or your sourdough culture.

The process is very, very simple.

It's simply just a mix of flour and water.

So we've got 50 grams of flour

and to that we're adding 50 mls of water.

Stir it together.

And that is simply it.

Now what we're going to do is to leave that to sit out

in your kitchen, just gently covered,

ambient temperature, overnight, for about 12 hours.

So at the moment, we're surrounded by wild yeast.

It's a good strain of bacteria, it exists everywhere.

You breathe it in everyday.

And then basically over a process

of using simply just flour and just water,

it eventually picks up that bacteria in the air.

And that bacteria starts to ferment. It starts to live off

the protein within the flour, so it starts to rise and collapse.

Realistically it takes about 7 or 10 days to make it.

But for a lot of people, I know,

I'm not making a loaf of bread if it takes 7 or 10 days to make it,

but the idea is, once you get up and going once,

that's virtually about it.

As long as you don't use it all, you'll never run out.

So you only have to do it one time in your life.

So we'll mix it together, flour and water.

About 12 hours later, it looks a little bit like this.

So at this stage, we would be due to mix this

with another 50 grams of flour and another 50 mls of water.

Stir it together and that's it.

Again, we let it sit overnight.

Day 3 we repeat the process.

Then on Day 4, we can already see

it's starting to become lovely and bubbly.

You can see all these little bubbles coming lovely and active.

And this is the sign of life starting to form.

This is exactly what we're looking for.

It's starting to ferment.

It's all the good things in life - wine, beer, cheese, bread.

All based on the same principle.

So you will find it starts to take on a sweet, vinegary kind of smell.

But don't worry, that's exactly what we're looking for.

But if you find a little liquid starting to come away from it,

don't worry about that either, just put it straight back in.

So we're going to give this another day.

And we're going to feed it again - one more time.

And by the time it's ready,

most likely on about Day 7.

Don't worry if you find that maybe,

on Day 6 or Day 7, it's not exactly there yet.

Don't be afraid to give it an extra day.

Because it will differ, depending on the environment it was kept in.

So if it needs an extra day, just give it an extra day.

But now we've got our lovely active sourdough.

It's got that lovely vinegary smell.

You can see it's been kind of rising up the glass.

This started about here earlier on and now it's climbed up to here.

So it'll continue to rise

and then it will drop back down.

So at this stage, it's basically ready to go.

Well, if I'm completely honest, this is Day 2.

This is Day 4.

And this is Year 9.

I've had this for 9 years.

So as long as I don't use it all, I'll never run out.

So all I'll simply do, for example after we make our bread today,

I will have 200 grams left over.

I will simply stir in 200 flour, 200 water,

and tomorrow, it's ready to go again.

Because I keep mine at room temperature,

I've to feed mine everyday.

But for the home-baker, who might only bake once a week,

or at weekends when you've a bit more time,

it can become quite an expensive pet to keep if you feed it every day.

So what you can simply do is keep yours in the fridge.

Because it's based on bacteria, cold won't kill it.

It'll just slow it down.

So for example, you're going to be baking on a Saturday morning.

Take it out of your fridge on a Friday, just leave it sit

in your kitchen to take the chill off it.

That evening, say whatever weight you have.

For example, 200 grams.

Stir in 200 flour, 200 water leave it sit in your kitchen.

Next morning it's going to be lovely and bubbly.

lovely and active, ready to make your bread.

Take what you need to make your bread,

whatever is left over, back in your fridge, that's it.

So you've a little once a week cycle.

You find it gets better with age - the flavour starts to develop.

So even if you're not baking,

you still have to feed it, because technically it is alive.

So if you're building up too much,

just bin some away, just keep back enough to keep it going.

And the easiest ratio to work off,

is whatever weight you have here,

same weight of flour, same weight of water.

Could not be simpler.

Now, in order to make our sourdough bread,

we've got our sourdough starter. As I say, it takes about a week.

Get it going today, you'll be ready by next weekend.

Ready to go, perfect to make your bread.

If not, you could always

get down to your local baker.

Most real bread bakeries will happily give you some starter.

If you check out realbreadireland.org

it's got all the real bread bakers across Ireland.

And most of them like myself, are happy to give you a little starter,

if you can't get your own going.

So with this one, we're going to make enough for two loaves.

The great thing about this is we can bake two loves.

We can pop one in the freezer and have one to try fresh in the day.

And sourdough comes back great from the freezer.

So we've get 800 grams of strong flour.

To this...

we're going to add 460 mls,

or 460 grams of water.

We're taking about 10 grams of salt.

Salt is an essential ingredient.

Salt acts as a natural flavour enhancer.

We've got our flour, we've got our water,

we've got our salt and then finally,

we just need a little bit of our sourdough starter.

So we're using 320 grams.

Just make sure we don't use it all.

Like you would any other recipe, just add your yeast straight in.

And in this case, our sourdough starter.

Once your ingredients are all in,

just start bringing everything together.

So once the dough roughly comes together,

just dump it,

straight out on the table.

The gluten forms once we add a liquid.

At the moment, the gluten is quite weak.

So we want to build up the strength of our dough,

by what we call kneading.

The idea of kneading is you simply stretch

and work the dough.

So you will find the dough goes a little bit wet

and a little bit sticky.

Generally everyone's reaction at home is to immediately

reach for some flour and keep adding in there.

But if you keep adding flour, the dough will quite happily soak it up.

And then the more it soaks it up, the heavier the dough becomes

and the tighter your bread will be.

So when it comes to kneading, you will get a lot of recipes

suggesting the best technique, how best to knead.

To be honest, the one piece of advice I give most people

is think about somebody you don't like, and just go for it!

So I tend to use the heel of my hand, a little short stretch,

and then use my fingers.

Just pin the dough between here and here and hook it back.

And if you can pick yourself up a little dough scraper,

absolutely great.

It's almost like a little extension of your hand.

Bring it all back together again and keep working away.

So most recipes will suggest how long to need for.

Most of them will say 8 to 10 minutes.

Most of them are lying, but the thing is,

it's very difficult for a recipe to be exact.

Because everybody is a little bit different.

Some people are just stronger than others, some days you're tired.

The dough will always tell you when it's ready.

There's a thing called the window-pane effect.

You can see it's getting elastic, it's getting there.

But as I stretch and work it out, it's just ripping, it's tearing.

And that's just the dough telling me it's not ready.

It just needs a little more work. So just keep on going.

And if you do have a mixer at home, feel free to use it.

The dough hook will do exactly the same thing as your hands are doing.

You're going to feel the dough starting to change.

You can even see already, how beautiful and silky

how lovely and smooth the dough has become.

Like you saw earlier, when we tested it initially,

it just kept ripping, it kept tearing. So we'll take a little oil

in your hands. It'll stop the dough from sticking to you.

And nice and gently stretch the dough, working it out.

You can see the shadows, the membrane behind it.

It's exactly what we're looking for.

So earlier, that just ripped and tore.

But now, that's holding. It's elastic.

It's got the strength we need, that's exactly what we're looking for.

So bring your dough back together.

Back into one piece. Into your bowl.

And now I'm going to let it prove.

With sourdough however, because it's a more natural process,

everything tends to happen much, much slower.

So where most yeast recipes need to prove for about an hour,

this one, we're going to be looking at about three hours.

So you need to leave it plenty of time.

So we're going to let this prove for three hours.

So when you come back to it,

you'll be looking at something like this.

What we'll be doing now, is we're simply knocking our dough back.

Because as much as we say the longer you prove it the better,

you don't want to over-prove your bread.

Simply take it out of your bowl

and try and make it into a round ball.

And again, don't over-think it.

By making it into a ball, you'll have simply

knocked it back knocked all the air from it.

So you're kind of back to where you would have been three hours ago.

So now, what we need to do at this stage,

is we need to shape our dough.

So with the quantity we made, it gives us the perfect portion

to make two lovely sized loaves.

So when we're shaping our breads, we use proving baskets.

Because it's going to be proving for another three hours,

it would just slowly start to prove out,

and go very, very flat.

So by using the basket, it gives the dough support.

It encourages it to take on that shape, so instead of proving out,

it proves up. But if you don't have a basket,

you could use absolutely anything.

A tin, a tray, a box, a bowl.

It's simply something that's going to support and help your dough out.

And probably, I'm sure all of us have...

a Pyrex dish at home.

If you don't have it, your mum has, your gran has.

They're always kicking around everywhere.

We take a little flour and dust it all over.

Coating it with a little coating of flour,

will stop the dough from sticking.

So the best thing to do is simply take a clean tea-towel.

You could use your mixing bowl, or whatever you like.

Pop your tea-towel in.

And again just a good generous coating of flour.

Just to make sure that the dough won't stick.

So all that's left to do now is to shape our dough.

So no matter what we're shaping,

we always kind of start from a round base.

Again, try not to use too much flour.

Just a very gentle coating if you find your dough is a little soft

or a little bit sticky. Simply flip your dough over.

Take all your little edges and push them down to the centre.

Go to the next one.

And then overlap the last.

Round and round you go and you can see

it naturally starting to curve around.

So I flip the dough over.

Put your hands out and simply drag them forward.

You'll find the dough lifts up.

Turn it 45 degrees and go again.

Keep repeating, each time

the surface of the dough is getting that little bit tighter.

A little roll around.

And now we have a perfect little loaf ready to go.

And pop it into our basket upside down.

And it's into our little Pyrex dish with our tea-towel.

And just so it doesn't stick,

a little dusting of flour.

And now with the tea-towel, you simply

tuck it straight in.

So we just tucked our dough in and we're going to let it prove again.

It needs to prove for about another three to three and a half hours.

The great thing about this though is, at this stage,

you could go and put this straight in the fridge.

And it can sit there all night long, no problem whatsoever.

Because, with our sourdough, it's moving lovely and slowly.

And some yeasted breads would tend to overprove in the fridge.

Sourdough really lends itself to be proven overnight.

So we'll leave it there all night. First thing tomorrow morning,

we'll come back, take our dough out

turn it straight out and into our oven

and we'll bake it away.

Our sourdough has been proving, they've had a second prove now.

We had them shaping. We had one in our lovely proving basket.

And our second one in our lovely Pyrex dish.

So at this stage they are ready to bake.

Your dough should have a nice little bounce to it.

You should be able to touch it and there's no fear of it collapsing.

So if you kind of touch it and felt the whole thing was going to drop,

you've overproved it, so the idea is at least you know for next time,

catch it a little sooner. The idea is we catch it on the rise.

Have your baking tray ready.

If you're using a proving basket or lucky to have one at home,

so simply like a sandcastle, just turn your dough straight out.

So you can see all that beautiful pattern

which the dough picks up from the basket.

That's what gives this dough a lot of its traditional markings.

So then we've also got our lovely Pyrex dish.

It's a great way to improvise at home.

It's been tucked in for the last couple of hours.

We're going to gently waken it up.

And all you do, very simply,

just in case it's going to stick,

we'll put a little bit of flour on our dough.

So we take our lid, you pop your lid on.

And you literally just flip it upside down.

So take it off.

Nice and gently, just remove your flour and tea-towel.

Most professional ovens are fitted with steam.

The idea being for the first 8 to 10 minutes of your bake,

the dough is still rising.

So by having steam in the oven, it allows the dough to open up.

And it stops a crust from forming.

Because often what can happen if you don't use steam,

curst forms, the dough hasn't finished rising,

and sometimes it can't break through the surface.

It gets a bulge out the side

because it'll look for any weakness in the dough.

Or sometimes it won't rise at all. So by having steam in the oven

it protects the dough and allows it to continue to open up.

That's also what helps to create your lovely little crust.

This is why the Pyrex dish is so great, it's so brilliant.

Because no matter how crappy your oven is,

you don't even have to steam it, because basically

once we pop the lid on, it's going to basically self steam.

It creates its own little chamber.

And it'll steam the bread and does a perfect job for us.

Before we do that though, we're going to score our bread.

It dates back to central ovens.

Each village would have one, everyone would help maintain it.

So the only way to tell your bread apart is how you mark it.

It's called a baker's signature.

We use a razor blade.

The thing to remember when you're using it, it's not a bread knife,

so don't start doing this. Be nice and confident.

So a really sharp knife at home if you can.

When you're in full control...

And don't be afraid to cut into your dough.

Just make sure you cut all the way through.

So by scoring it, as well as aesthetics

it also helps you to control how the dough rises

and gives the dough somewhere to go.

So when it comes to baking your dough, don't be afraid

to turn the temperature of your oven up.

We all have a tendency to cook absolutely everything at 180.

It's like the universal setting on an oven.

But with bread, we need those good high temperatures.

So really crank it up. So you're looking at a minimum

of 230 degrees. We need that high temperature

to create that lovely, lovely crust.

So a great way we can create steam at home,

is by as we pop our bread in,

and pop in our little Pyrex dish.

Once you pre-heat the oven,

just turn it right up, put in a roasting tray

and pre-heat it and all I'm doing is taking some hot water...

Which is going to release that lovely blast of steam

into our oven which is going to help your bread rise. 360 00:15:54,879 --> 00:15:50,640 {\an8}