Sourdough

Day 190: If you will forgive the pun, bread-making has experienced quite a rise in popularity since COVID-19 has left stores short of the ready-made product. I've seen a number of people complaining that yeast is also in short supply, so why not make sourdough instead? Can't find commercial starter? Make your own! Most homes contain enough free yeast spores to get a starter going from scratch. Here's how:

Using a wooden or plastic spoon (no metal!), mix together 1 cup of lukewarm milk, 1 cup of sifted flour and 1/2 cup of sugar. Allow the mixture to stand UNCOVERED for 4-7 days, stirring it down once a day. It may crust up; stir the crust into the liquid. When it has fermented sufficiently, it will be nice and bubbly. Your starter is now ready to use. Store it in the refrigerator. Separation in the starter is normal during storage. If a greyish liquid has risen to the top, stir it in until the starter is smooth and uniform before use.

You will need to allow two days to make sourdough bread. To begin, you will make a "sponge." Use only wooden or plastic utensils! The evening before you plan to bake, combine 1/2 cup of starter with 1 1/4 cups of flour and 1 cup of lukewarm water. Cover it lightly and set it in a warm place to "work" overnight. It should be bubbly and thick within 12 hours.

Recipe:
1 1/2 cups of sponge
3 - 3 1/4 cups of sifted flour (360-400 grams bread flour)
1 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup milk
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt

For those of you who prefer to measure ingredients by weight, here's the conversion, but note well that if you are using other than bread flour, you may have to adjust the measurement:

Sponge:
125g starter
150g flour
235g water at 110 F.

Dough:
380g Sponge
360-400g flour
14g Sugar
14g Butter
6g Salt
180g Milk.

To make the bread itself, warm the milk, to which has been added the butter, salt and sugar. Cool to lukewarm. Place measured "sponge" in a bowl. Return the remainder to your starter storage jar and put it back in the fridge. To the sponge, add 1/2 cup of sifted flour and stir it in well. Then add the cooled milk mixture and stir it in. Now begin adding flour. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir with a spoon, put it on a well-floured board and begin kneading. You should knead for 10-12 minutes to ensure a smoothly textured loaf. Never force the dough to take more flour than it will readily accept.

Place the finished dough in a greased bowl and turn it once so that all sides are lightly greased. Cover with a cloth and allow to raise in a warm spot for 2 hours. Punch it down (i.e., knead it for a minute or so between your hands) and return to the bowl, and allow to raise for another 30 minutes. Punch the dough down again, and form it into a loaf. The loaf may be placed in a greased loaf pan or shaped and put on a greased cookie sheet at this point. Cover with a cloth, and allow to raise for another 1.5 hours. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Before baking, slash the top of the loaf diagonally in several places. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and brush the top lightly with butter. To perform a "doneness check," turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack. It should sound somewhat hollow when tapped on the bottom.

I like to substitute 1/2 cup of millet flour for an equivalent portion of white. I also throw in a little golden flaxseed and golden flaxseed meal, and/or any other edible seed (teff, sesame, etc.) for crunch.

See? You didn't really need to go to the store, did you? And once you've experienced the delicious taste and hearty texture of homemade bread, you'll never buy the "whipped air" product again.