• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Recipes
    • Cake
    • Biscuits
    • Bread
    • Pastry
    • Tray Bakes
    • Condiments
    • Bake with the kids
    • Anti Inflammatory Baking
  • Conversion Charts. Cups – Grams – Ounces
  • Blog

Cluck, Muck & Cook

Baking & Foodie Blog From Sunny Brentwood Essex

Blog

Easy sourdough

1 February 23, 2018 Blog

Easy Sourdough Recipe

I must admit that before the Great British Bake Off, bread was my nemesis. I am talking a basic white loaf. Sourdough was a world of wizardry that I thought I would never understand. Some of the bread gurus I met would talk about FDT (final dough temperature, I eventually found out), bakers percentages, autolyse times and the importance of bench rest. I will not baffle you with these terms but will give you the recipe in layman’s terms, as I wished someone would have done for me in the beginning.

Eventually I started to understand the terminology and coEasy sourdoughncepts which can be intimidating at first. Then I broke it down to plain English. Which soon demystified the process.

There is a scene in the “Wizard of Oz” where Toto finds the wizard working the controls of his machines from behind a curtain and when discovered, the less-than-wonderful wizard shouts into his microphone: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”. Like this I hope to remove the fear of the mystery of making a decent loaf of sourdough and show you what’s behind the curtain. Which in reality is not scary at all. All you need is a bit of time and planning.

Hopefully making this simple but delicious loaf will give you the bug. Then when hooked, please do delve into the art and science of bread making if you want. Or just play around with this great basic recipe and be a bit of bread maverick like me.

I am assuming you have a sourdough starter, you can buy them on line or make your own. If you are like me you will end up with a collection of them, they all have their own unique flavours. If you want to make one yourself I have made Paul Hollywood’s one in the past. Recipe here

Let’s start with planning. I normally start late morning on Saturday for the mixing and first proof. Then in the evening at least 3 hours before I go to bed I shape the dough and put it in a proofing basket. Then when I go to bed I stick it in the fridge. The timing all depends on the temperature in your house. I am assuming around 70 degrees.

Think of yeast in the sourdough starter as a reptile. If it is cold they are slow and just hang around not doing much. Warm them up a bit and they come to life. The speed your dough rises will be a combination of how strong your starter is and how warm the environment you are proofing the dough is.

The expression ‘wetter is better’ is so true in bread making, especially with sourdough. The downside to that is that shaping sourdough for the beginner is a pain.

Easy sourdough

My approach is that you shape the dough the best you can before putting it in the bread form. Let it rise until it doubles in size. Then my hack is to stick it in the fridge overnight, like a brioche dough it will firm up nicely, which is critical when you need take it out of the bread form before baking, otherwise it can be like wrestling a jelly fish into a string bag.

The other eureka moment was when Yanny and Chris explained what a difference baking a loaf in a Dutch oven makes. In English terms a cast iron casserole dish , think le Creuset or Van Chef. Looking on the internet I kept seeing recommendations for a 6 quart one in bread recipes. I had no idea what that size was, so I just got a big one, about 25-26 cm is perfect. This helps retain heat and steam, it’s like an oven in an oven and totally transformed my bread making. Failing that a pizza stone in the oven or heavy baking sheet to help retain some heat in the oven will also work well.

Easy sourdough

I have saved step by step photos and videos on my Instagram page under story highlights @cluckmuckcook

 

Ingredients:
150g active, fed starter
350g water, tepid, preferably filtered
500g strong bread flour
10g sea salt
fine polenta or cornmeal for dusting

Method:
In a large bowl, whisk together the water and sourdough starter, then mix in the flour and salt until it forms a rough dough. Cover with cling film and leave for an hour. This is the autolyse period. Basically this hydrates the flour and starts breaking it down and starts to build gluten.

For the next 2 hours, every 30 minutes, grab a portion of the dough, stretch and pull it upwards and then fold it over to the other side of the bowl and tuck under. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat until you have done it 4 times and the bowl has gone around 1 full turn, cover with cling film and repeat 4 times over the 2 hours.

On the final turn, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. Be patient, this will depend on the strength of your starter and how warm the ambient temperature is.

Once doubled in size, tip onto the work surface and gently fold it into a ball, pulling each side into the middle. Do not worry about knocking the air out before you do this. Flip the ball over, cup your hands either side of the dough and gently turn the ball a quarter of a turn, tightening the dough. Repeat 3 or 4 times to get a nice tension on the dough. Do not worry too much as the fridge trick will help later.

Liberally flour the bread proving basket and pop the ball of dough in it seam side up. Oil some cling film and lay it on top.

Allow to proof until double in size and pop in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven for at least 30 mins at 240c (220c Fan) with the Dutch oven in the oven.

When the oven has been preheated, remove the dough from the fridge. Cut a circle of baking parchment larger than the loaf and scrunch it up then flatten out.

Sprinkle the base of the loaf with polenta, lay the baking parchment on top, then place a tray on top of that.

Flip everything over carefully and allow the dough to gently release from the proving basket. Slash the top with a serrated knife.

Remove the Dutch oven from the oven, remove the lid (carefully it will be red hot), pick up the loaf on the baking parchment and drop it into the Dutch oven. Replace the lid and put it in the oven for 20 mins. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and bake for a further 30-40 minutes, depending on how dark you like the crust.

Remove from the oven and carefully take the loaf out of the Dutch oven. I use a couple of spatulas and cool on a wire rack.

It is best to let it cool thoroughly before cutting.

 

Easy Sourdough Recipe
 
Save Print
Prep time
60 mins
Cook time
60 mins
Total time
2 hours
 
This is a super easy recipe that hopefully demystifys making process of making a delicious sourdough loaf.
Author: CluckMuckCook
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Ingredients:
  • 150g active, fed starter
  • 350g water, tepid, preferably filtered
  • 500g strong bread flour
  • 10g sea salt
  • fine polenta or cornmeal for dusting
  • .
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the water and sourdough starter, then mix in the flour and salt until it forms a rough dough. Cover with cling film and leave for an hour. This is the autolyse period. Basically this hydrates the flour and starts breaking it down and starts to build gluten.
  2. For the next 2 hours, every 30 minutes, grab a portion of the dough, stretch and pull it upwards and then fold it over to the other side of the bowl and tuck under. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat until you have done it 4 times and the bowl has gone around 1 full turn, cover with cling film and repeat 4 times over the 2 hours.
  3. On the final turn, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size. Be patient, this will depend on the strength of your starter and how warm the ambient temperature is.
  4. Once doubled in size, tip onto the work surface and gently fold it into a ball, pulling each side into the middle. Do not worry about knocking the air out before you do this. Flip the ball over, cup your hands either side of the dough and gently turn the ball a quarter of a turn, tightening the dough. Repeat 3 or 4 times to get a nice tension on the dough. Do not worry too much as the fridge trick will help later.
  5. Liberally flour the bread proving basket and pop the ball of dough in it seam side up. Oil some cling film and lay it on top.
  6. Allow to proof until double in size and pop in the fridge overnight.
  7. In the morning, preheat the oven for at least 30 mins at 240c (220c Fan) with the Dutch oven in the oven.
  8. When the oven has been preheated, remove the dough from the fridge. Cut a circle of baking parchment larger than the loaf and scrunch it up then flatten out.
  9. Sprinkle the base of the loaf with polenta, lay the baking parchment on top, then place a tray on top of that.
  10. Flip everything over carefully and allow the dough to gently release from the proving basket. Slash the top with a serrated knife.
  11. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven, remove the lid (carefully it will be red hot), pick up the loaf on the baking parchment and drop it into the Dutch oven. Replace the lid and put it in the oven for 20 mins. After 20 minutes, remove the lid and bake for a further 30-40 minutes, depending on how dark you like the crust.
  12. Remove from the oven and carefully take the loaf out of the Dutch oven. I use a couple of spatulas and cool on a wire rack.
  13. It is best to let it cool thoroughly before cutting.
3.5.3229

0 January 1, 2018 Blog

Matt Inwood’s Instagram Workshop

Last year, post the Great British Bake Off, I realised I needed to up my game on social media. Whilst I had dipped my toe into social media before GBBO, I so learnt how engaging the medium could be, especially as I like to share my trials and tribulations of baking. I have always been a keen amateur photographer but felt I needed some fresh inspiration.

Chillis

I came across a class that looked right up my street. Run by Matt Inwood at the Cinnamon Club in Westminster, a stunning Indian restaurant that I had not been to in years. So I jumped at the chance of a morning improving skills in Instagram and photography, in a beautiful building with a delicious lunch thrown in.

Matt is the first to humbly acknowledge he is not a photographer, he is an art director and designer and every shot he takes is on an IPhone and edited using (what I would soon find out is a very powerful tool) Instagram’s photo editing capabilities.

Don’t let Matt’s comments around not being a photographer fool you. He takes a mean photo that I can only aspire to. Check out his Instagram feed. He has designed many beautiful cook books along with all of the Cinnamon Club’s cook books. Hence access to a great venue and lots of food props.

Eggs

The course starts in a lovely room with a group of like minded individuals who I throughly enjoyed chatting with over lunch later. In the first part of the course, Matt focuses on Instagram as a tool and social media platform as well as the editing suite. He walks through how to get the most out of Instagram and engage your audience. How to curate a great feed and, for the pictures you want to share but not necessarily keep in your main feed, how to use the story mode. A function I had previously ignored.

One of the biggest lessons I learnt (apart from that natural light is king) is that when you take photos it is better to be under exposed than over exposed. This is because you can pull the detail out very easily from an under exposed shot. Matt also showed us quick ways to create a light reflector to bounce lights into the shadow. It’s all the little tips and tricks that fascinated me. I had spent my last 6 months flooding my shots with too much light.
Matt took a photo that was very under exposed and walked us through the key editing functions to pull back the photo into a stunning picture.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes

His skill with managing light was something I have always struggled with but has improved greatly since the course.

Also Matt challenged us to think about the layout of our photos and plan this ahead of constructing the picture.

After coffee we got to play ourselves with lots of lovely produce and spices from the kitchen and Matt’s seemingly endless supply of photo props. I have never been so proud of the photos I had taken.

Matt was a lovely person to spend time with and is a great teacher. He is a warm, friendly and very generous with his time and advice. I would throughly recommend this course to anyone wanting to improve their Instagram photos and photography skills.

Matt and Me

Matt and Me

Follow Matt on instagram  @Matt_Inwood

Talking of like minded individuals, by chance Urvashi Roe, the Botanical Baker and a previous GBBO contestant was also there at the same time. It was lovely sharing tent stories with one of the GBBO Alumni.

Urvashi and Me – Photo by Matt Inwood

Copyright© 2022 · Cookd Pro Theme by Shay Bocks