Last night, after 13 straight hours of dough preparation, I put 17 1/2 pounds of dough in the cool of the basement to rise. This afternoon, 4 hours of baking turned all that dough into 14 loaves of fluffy, crunchy, tasty rustic bread!
This is my "go-to" bread. When I started baking sourdough bread, just over a year ago, I decided that I would focus on one basic recipe and learn to make it the best that I possibly could. By "basic" I don't mean that it is lacking in any way. At this point I've learned enough to feel confident in putting this bread up against most of the fine baked breads that I've been served in restaurants. Rather, I mean that it is a recipe that is long on technique, but short on extras.
In the past year I've learned quite a bit. A few lessons stand out.
First, "sourdough bread" doesn't have to mean "sour bread". Too many people confuse the two. A better term is probably "bread made with wild yeast". The fact is that until the early 1850s, ALL bread was technically sourdough. The yeast used in bread making was cultured from the natural yeasts found on all grains. "Bread made from wild yeast" is what I make.
Second, there are many ways to vary the flavor of sourdough bread. In fact in the past year the most interesting parts of my Sourdough Adventure have entailed learning to use time, temperature, and dough hydration to adjust the flavor of my bread. Maintaining a sourdough starter at warmer temperatures creates a starter that favors yeast growth at the expense of lactobacillus bacteria (the same bacteria that give yogurt its flavor). Cooler temperatures retard yeast growth and give the lactobacillus the upper hand. The same is true of "proofing", or the process of rising the dough after the starter is added to it. Temperature is also used to control the rise time of the dough. Cooler temperatures slow the rise and result in a more sour bread. Warmer temperature speed the rise, and result in a very mild bread. Either way you end up with a bread that is more flavorful than that produced by commercial rapid rise yeast. And either way it takes longer. Commercial yeast will produce bread that is ready for baking in 2-3 hours. Using wild yeast produces a better bread, but at the cost of time. Proofing (rising) times of 12-36 hours are not uncommon.
Third, it is impossible to understate the importance of learning to properly shape dough when forming loaves. Proper shaping creates a firm membrane on the dough that allows for proper rise. Neglect proper shaping, and the loaf will fall flat.
Finally, a proper technique when slashing the dough (cutting slits in the top of the dough just prior to baking) has an incredible impact on the "oven spring", or amount of rise that the bread experiences during baking. Early in my sourdough adventure I simply cut a slit in the dough. The results were not good. It turns out that the angle of the cut, the depth of the cut, and the relative placement of multiple cuts all play into the quality of the final product.
There are many other great lessons that I could name. The importance of steam in the oven during the initial phases of baking would be one. The effect of dough hydration on rise would be another. And an interesting concept called "stretch and fold", and it's importance in working with high hydration doughs would be yet another.
In time I plan to cover all of these discoveries in detail. But for today I'm happy to have over a dozen loaves of bread that are headed off to support a great cause tomorrow. I sure hope they sell! If they don't, I don't want to know about it...
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