Quarantine Sour Dough
Hello! How are you? Maintaining your sanity, I hope!
It has been quite a while since I've hopped onto my blog and posted. Once you get out of the habit it is hard to get started again. But here I am, with something new and different for all of you!
Just like the rest of the world, I've been "safer at home" since March 14, 2020. I've been doing my best to keep our spirits up and to keep my family busy. It has been quite a transition but we are handling it pretty well. I am finding that we go through waves of things. For the first several weeks my business was pretty quiet. Then I started doing Front Porch Minis (more about those in a future post). I feel like I have been busier than ever just trying to keep up with crisis schooling, keeping my house clean thanks to a constant flow of traffic to and from the kitchen, having my hubby home more often, etc. But, I have also been able to spend more time working in the kitchen, not just cleaning it! And that brings me to the purpose of this post:
S O U R D O U G H B R E A D
A couple of weeks ago my wonderful sister-in-law was kind enough to provide me with sour dough starter and a fantastic recipe. I've been sharing some images of my creations on Facebook and many people have asked for the recipe. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to document the process and share it here. So today I give you the recipe, along with photos to help your sour dough journey! If you are local, hit me up for some starter. I am more than happy to share!!
XOXO,
Bonnie
{RECIPE}
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of filtered water
1/4 cup sour dough starter
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat or bread flour
You'll also need:
Mixer with dough hook
Ceramic Bowl
Glass bowl
Tea Towel
Tall plastic trash bag
Step 1: Combine 1 1/2 cups of filtered water and 1/4 cup of starter in mixing bowl.
Step 2: Mix until bubbles form.
Step 3: Add 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup of whole wheat or bread flour, and 2/12 cups all purpose flour.
Mix with dough hook until a ball forms.
Step 4: Put ball of dough in a ceramic bowl.
Step 5: Put ceramic bowl into a tall kitchen trash bag and trap air in it.
Tie if off and let it sit at room temperature for 18-24 hours.
After 18-24 hours remove the bowl from the trash bag. It will look like this.
Step 6: Turn dough out onto a floured surface.
Step 7: Shape dough into an oval. Fold each end into the center. Then fold the whole thing in half.
Step 8: Place a tea towel over a glass bowl and put dough on top of the tea towel.
I put a little of flour on the towel before setting the dough on it.
Step 9: Fold the tea towel over to wrap up the dough.
Step 10: Set dough aside and let it rise for 45 minutes.
Step 11: Heat oven to 500 degrees and heat Dutch oven inside for at least 30 minutes.
Let the cat help if he wants to!
Step 12: After 45 minutes, remove Dutch oven from the heat. Flour the bottom of it and add you're dough.
Put the lid on the Dutch oven and return it to the oven.
Step 13: Bake bread for 30 minutes at 500 degrees.
Step 14: After 30 minutes pull the bread out of the oven and let it sit
for ten minutes before removing it from the Dutch oven and cutting into it.
Isn't it pretty?
If you are really ambitious, try making three in one day!!!
Here is the full recipe without photos:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of filtered water
1/4 cup sour dough starter
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat or bread flour
You'll also need:
Mixer with dough hook
Ceramic Bowl
Glass bowl
Tea Towel
Tall plastic trash bag
1. Combine 1 1/2 cups of filtered water with 1/4 cup of starter. Mix until bubbles form.
2. Add 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup of whole wheat or bread flour & 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour. Mix with dough hook until a ball forms.
3. Put dough into a ceramic or glass bowl and place bowl into a tall kitchen trash bag for 18-24 hours.
4. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Stretch it into an oval and then fold the ends into the middle. Fold it in half.
5. Place ball into a glass bowl lined with a tea towel and fold the towel over to cover dough. Set it out for 45 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 500 degrees with Dutch oven inside. Let Dutch oven heat up for at least 30 minutes.
7. After dough sits for 45 minutes, put into floured Dutch oven and back inside the oven at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Once 30 minutes is up, remove from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting into it and enjoying!
*** Feel free to experiment with other additional ingredients. I've added in rosemary and it was amazing! My sister in law adds nuts, fruit, and all kinds of stuff. Have fun and enjoy!
A few words about your starter and how to nurture it...
Think of your starter as a new baby. It is cute, it smells funny, and it likes to EAT! Yup! You need to feed and nurture your starter to keep it growing and thriving. So, I thought it might be helpful to give you a bit of info on how to do that so that you can continue to make delicious bread for your family and friends.
Feeding: Feed your starter 3/4 cup of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of filtered water. Mix it together. A wooden handle from a wooden spoon seems to work well for stirring.
Frequency: How often you feed your starter depends on how often you intend to make bread.
~ Daily ~ If you plan to make a loaf each day, you need to feed your starter daily (and you can leave it out on the counter at room temp).
~Every other day ~ If you plan to make bread about 3 times a week, feed your starter ever other day. Again, you can leave it out at room temp.
~ Weekly ~ Feed it weekly if you only plan to make it once per week or less. Keep it in the fridge.