Bake your own whole wheat sourdough bread from flour, water and salt with this easy to follow recipe.
Sourdough bread takes a little time, but is easy to make. It will be a little heavier than ordinary store bought loaves, but has a delicious taste that you can enjoy with nothing more than good quality salted butter. Just one of many ideas to reduce your grocery bill while eating well.
Ingredients for Two Small Whole Meal Sour dough Loaves
- ½ pint sourdough starter . Ensure that your sour dough starter is active and bubbling.
- 1 ½ pints whole wheat bread (hard) flour. Why not use a Hand Grain Mill to grind your own flour from whole wheat grains to improve the nutrient content of your bread?
- ½ tablespoon salt. Unrefined sea salt such as Guerande Sea Salt from France is best.
- Approximately ½ pint water. If your tap water is heavily chlorinated, or otherwise unsuitable, use filtered or bottled water.
- Butter for greasing tins.
Equipment for Making Sourdough Bread
- Two small loaf tins are ideal, but you can use any thin walled, high sided, oven proof dishes if you don’t have loaf tins.
- A firm, clean surface for kneading the dough.
- Bowl and spoon for mixing.
How to Make Sour dough Bread
- Mix the starter, salt and flour in a bowl, add a little of the water . Stir to combine.
- Add more of the water until you have a soft, pliable dough that is easy to knead. The amount of water required varies a great deal, depending on the moisture content of your flour.
- Once the mixture is reasonably smooth, turn it out onto a clean surface.
- Knead for ten minutes with your clean hands. Stretch, fold and pummel the dough, adding a little water if the mixture becomes too dry, or a little flour if the mixture becomes too wet and sticky.
- Grease your loaf tins, or other oven proof dishes, with the butter.
- Divide the dough into two pieces, shape each piece to fit a loaf tin, and push into the tin, firming into the corners.
- Cover the tins with a damp tea towel to prevent the dough from drying out.
- Leave the loaves to “prove” or rise in a warm, but not hot, place such as the top of the refrigerator. The loaves should at least double in size. The time taken depends a great deal on your sourdough starter – this is a natural process and so is subject to the whims of nature! Six hours is typical, but it can take as much as 12 hours.
- Heat your oven to moderately hot: gas mark 6, 200°C, 400°F.
- Use a sieve to dust a little flour over your loaves; this prevents the crusts from drying out too much during making.
- Bake your loaves for twenty minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to moderately hot: gas mark 4, 180°C, 350°F for a further half an hour.
- Remove one of the loaves from the oven, tap the base of the tin hard to remove the loaf. Knock the base of the loaf with your fingers as if it were a door. If it sounds “hollow” it is ready, otherwise put back in the oven for a little longer.
- Remove loaves from tins, place on a cooling rack and leave to cool.
Although sour dough bread is easy to make, it can take a little practise to perfect. Do not be discouraged if the first couple of attempts are not perfect, although sour dough is very forgiving and the results will probably be tasty anyway. Simply experiement with the starter, proportions of ingredients, proving times and oven temperatures to give perfect sourdough bread every time.
The copyright of the article How to Make Sourdough Bread in Breads & Muffins is owned by Joanne E. Brannan. Permission to republish How to Make Sourdough Bread in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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