Sweet • Sour • Savory

Food blog on scandinavian style food done right.

Sourdough bread

Easy Sourdough bread

Bread, Breakfast, BrunchTove Balle-PedersenComment
Easy Sourdough bread

Easy Sourdough bread

My favorite sourdough bread is the Basic Country Bread a la Tartine, but It is time consuming. I have been trying to make a cheat version, with the same good result. This is the closest I have been able to get to it. And I’m very satisfied with the result.


Makes 2 loafs.

Ingredients:

Leaven:

  • 3 tablespoons (55 g) sourdough starter

  • 150 g water

  • 140 g all-purpose flour

  • 25 g whole wheat flour

Bread:

  • 250 g leaven - save the rest as your new sourdough starter

  • 710 g water

  • 800 g all-purpose flour

  • 200 g whole wheat flour

  • 20 g salt

  • 50 g water

Directions:

Feed your starter the night before you want to bake.

Day 1 morning

Mix the ingredients in a medium bowl, and let it sit covered on the kitchen counter for 7-8 hours. To test leaven's readiness, drop a spoonful into a bowl of room-temperature water. If it sinks, it is not ready and needs more time to ferment and ripen. If it floats, it's ready to use.

Save your leftover leaven.  It will be your starter/sourdogh for next time you bake. Read here how to feed and keep a sourdough starter.

Mixing the dough - 5pm day 1

Pour the warm water into a the bowl for your stand mixer, adding leaven, stir to disperse. Add flours and mix dough until no dry flour remain. Let rest covered for about 30 minutes. Add salt and remaining 50 grams warm water, and head the dough for about 5-6 minutes. Transfer the dough to a medium plastic container or a glass bowl. Cover with lid or kitchen towel. (I use a dough-rising bucket like this. Let the dough rise for about 2-3 hours.

Shaping the dough - 8-9 pm day 1

Gently pull the dough out of container, onto an un-floured surface, using a dough spatula. Lightly flour the top of the dough and use a bench knife to cut the dough into 2 equal pieces. As you cut the first piece, use the bench knife to flip it over, so the floured side now rest on the work surface. Do the same with the second piece of dough.

While working with the dough you want to incorporate as little flour as possible. Work each piece into a round using scraper and one hand. Tension will build as the dough slightly anchors to the surface as you rotate it. By the end, the dough should have a taut, smooth surface. Dust tops off rounds with flour, cover with a tea towel, and let rest on the work surface for 20 to 30 minutes.

The final shaping:

To form the loaf's, carefully turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface with the floured side down, using the bench knife. Now the underside is facing up. Be careful not to deflate the dough. This final shaping builds up tension inside each loaf, so it holds its form and rises substantially when baked. This is called "oven spring."

Fold the third of the dough closest to you up and over the middle third of the round. Stretch out the dough horizontally to your right and fold this right third over the center. Stretch the dough to your left and fold this third over the previous fold. You are now starting to get a neat package. Stretch out the third of the dough farthest from you and fold this flap toward you, over the previous folds, and anchor it in place with your fingers. Then grab the dough nearest to you and wrap it up and over, while rolling the whole package away from you, that the smooth underside of the loaf now is on the top and all the seams are on the bottom. Let the shaped loaf rest on the counter for a minute. Fold the other loaf the same way.

Line two baskets with clean tea towels generously dusted with rice flour. These bowls will hold the fermenting dough overnight in the fridge to proof. Using the dough scraper, transfer each round to a basket, smooth side down, with seam centered and facing up. Cover the dough loosely with tea towel, and place it in a large ziplock bag - do not close the bag. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight.

Baking the Bread - day 2.

Pull the loves out of the refrigerator, removing the bowls from the ziplock bag. Let the bowls on the kitchen counter while you preheat the oven and dutch/French oven to 500℉ (260℃), with rack in lowest position.

Flip one bread into hot dutch/french oven. Score top twice using a razor blade matfer lame. Cover with lid. Return to oven, and reduce oven temperature to 450℉ (232℃). Bake for 20 minutes.

Carefully remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes more.

Transfer loaf to a wire rack. It will feel light and sound hollow when tapped. Mix the topping and spread it on top of the hot crust, then let the loaf cool. Letting the bread cool, is the hardest thing.

To bake the second loaf, raise oven temperature to 500℉ (260℃), wipe out dutch/French oven with a dry kitchen towel, and reheat with lid for about 10-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Levain Bread

Bread, Breakfast, BrunchTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments
Levain Bread

Levain Bread

Levain means wild yeast in French, but is also covers the use of sourdough. A bread kan be called a Levain if the amount of compressed yeast (live yeast) doesn't exceeds 0.2%

This Levain is more sour than the breads I normally bake, but I really like the sourness with the rye flour. This bread is a good bread for artisan cheeses or as a side for dinner.

This bread came about by mistake. I was making the leaven for the basic country bread a la Tartine, but I used rye flour instead of whole wheat flour by mistake. So instead of discarding the leaven, I came up with this bread.

Makes 2 breads

Ingredients:

Leaven:

  • about 2 tablespoons sourdough (the starter you keep in the refrigerator and feed every other week) 
  • 200 g water (78℉)
  • 70 g all-purpose flour
  • 65 g rye flour

Bread:

  • 600 g water
  • 10 g live yeast (¾ teaspoon dry yeast)
  • 3½ dl (275 g) leaven 
  • 3 dl (200 g) rye flour 
  • 12 dl (840 g )all-purpose flour
  • 1½ tablespoons salt

Directions:

Leaven:

Make the leaven the night before you want to bake the bread. If you like a more sour note to your bread, make the leaven in the morning, and after about 8 hours fermentation, put the leaven in the refrigerator until next morning.

Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl, and let the leaven rest covered on the counter for 8-10 hours. To test leaven's readiness, drop a spoonful into a bowl of room-temperature water. If it sinks, it is not ready and needs more time to ferment and ripen. If it floats, it's ready to use. As it develops, the smell will change from ripe and sour to sweet and pleasantly fermented.

This time I just used 275 g of the sourdough 8 hours after the feeding instead of making the leaven.

Bread:

Next morning:

In a large bowl, pour in the water, yeast, sourdough, and rye flour, mix it well. Add salt and  the all-purpose flour a little at a time, until you have a firm but slightly sticky dough. You might not need all the flour.

I always knead my doughs in my stand mixer, and I knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes until the dough is a bit shiny and elastic. 

Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise for about 4 hours.

Pour the dough out on a non-floured kitchen table, divide the dough in 2 and shape them into rounds.

Line 2 baskets with clean kitchen towels, generously dusted with flour. Transfer each round to a basket, smooth side down and let to rest, covered, at room temperature, about 3 hours before baking.

Baking the Bread:

Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake the bread, preheat oven and dutch/french oven to 500 degrees, with rack in lowest position.

Gently flip one bread into heated dutch/french oven. Score top twice using a razor blade matfer lame. Cover with lid. Return to oven, and reduce oven temperature to 450℉. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes more.

Transfer loaf to a wire rack, and let it cool completely.

To bake the second loaf, raise oven temperature to 500 degrees, wipe out dutch/french oven with a dry kitchen towel, and reheat with lid for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site.

 

Basic Country Bread a la Tartine

Bread, Brunch, BreakfastTove Balle-Pedersen4 Comments
Basic Country Bread a la Tartine

Basic Country Bread a la Tartine

I finally got around to get Chad Robertson's Basic Country Bread on the blog, it only took 6-7 months.

Here goes:

Ingredients:

Leaven:

  • 1-2 tablespoons sourdough

  • 200 g water (78℉/25℃)

  • 100 g all-purpose flour

  • 100 g whole wheat flour

Bread:

  • 700 g water (80℉/27℃) + 50 g

  • 200 g leaven

  • 900 g all-purpose flour

  • 100 g whole wheat flour

  • 20 g salt

Sprinkles:

  • rice flour

Equipment:

Directions:

Make the Leaven:

The night before you plan to make the dough, put the matured sourdough from your refrigerator in water, and add flours. Mix well so you don't have any lumps of dry flour. Cover with a tea towel. Let rest on the counter for 8-10 hours. To test leaven's readiness, drop a spoonful into a bowl of room-temperature water. If it sinks, it is not ready and needs more time to ferment and ripen. If it floats, it's ready to use. As it develops, the smell will change from ripe and sour to sweet and pleasantly fermented.

Make the Dough:

Pour 700 grams warm water into a large mixing bowl, add 200 grams leaven, stir to disperse. (Save your leftover leaven.  It will be your starter/sourdogh for next time you bake.) Add flours  and mix dough with your hands until no bits of dry flour remain. Let rest covered with a tea towel on your counter for 30 minutes. Add salt and remaining 50 grams warm water. Transfer to a medium plastic container or a glass bowl. Cover with kitchen towel. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Folding:

The dough will now begin its first bulk fermentation (rise), to develop flavor and strength. The rise is temperature sensitive. As a rule, warmer dough ferments faster. Robertson tries to maintain the dough at 78℉ to 82℉ to accomplish the bulk fermentation in 3 to 4 hours. (Normally It takes 3 hours at my house, even when I have the air-con on.)

Instead of kneading, Robertson uses a folding technique to develop the gluten structure in the dough. Fold dough, repeating every 30 minutes for about 2½ to 3 hours. To do a fold, dip 1 hand in water to prevent sticking. Grab the underside of the dough, stretch it out, and fold it back over itself. Rotate container one-quarter turn, and repeat. Do this 2 or 3 times for each fold. After the 3 hours, the dough should feel aerated and softer, and you will see a 20 to 30 percent increase in volume. If not, continue bulk fermentation for 30 minutes to 1 hour more.

Pull dough out of container using a dough spatula onto an unfloured surface. Lightly flour the surface of the dough and use a bench knife to cut the dough into 2 equal pieces. As you cut the first piece, use the bench knife to flip it, so the floured side now rest on the work surface. Do the same with the second piece of dough.

Working with the dough you want to incorporate as little flour as possible. Work each piece into a round using scraper and 1 hand. Tension will build as the dough slightly anchors to the surface as you rotate it. By the end, the dough should have a taut, smooth surface. Dust tops of rounds with flour, cover with a tea towel, and let rest on the work surface for 20 to 30 minutes. During this stage, (bench rest), each round will relax and spread into a thick pancake shape. The edges should appear fat and rounded, not flat or "dripping" of the edge. if the dough is flat or the dough is spreading too much, the dough has not developed enough strength during the bulk fermentation. To correct this, shape the dough into a round a second time and let it sit to rest covered once more. 

 The final shaping:

To form the loafs, carefully place a dough round onto a lightly floured surface with the floured side down, using the bench knife. Now the underside is facing up.

Be careful not to deflate the dough. This final shaping builds up tension inside each loaf, so it holds it's form and rises substantially when baked. This is called "oven spring."

Fold the third of the dough closest to you up and over the middle third of the round. Stretch out the dough horizontally to your right and fold this right third over the center. Stretch the dough to your left and foldt this third over the previous fold. You are now starting to get a neat package. Stretch out the third of the dough farthest from you and fold this flap toward you, over the previous folds, and anchor it in place with your fingers. Then grab the dough nearest to you and wrap it up and over, while rolling the whole package away from you, that the smooth underside of the loaf now is on the top and all the seams are on the bottom. Let the shaped loaf rest on the counter for a minute. Fold the other loaf the same way.

Line 2 baskets with clean tea towels; generously dust with rice flour. Using the dough scraper, transfer each round to a basket, smooth side down, with seam centered and facing up. Let rest at room temperature (75℉ to 80℉), covered with towels for 3 to 4 hours before baking.

Baking the Bread:

Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake the bread, preheat oven and  dutch/french oven to 500 degrees, with rack in lowest position.

Flip one bread into heated dutch/french oven. Score top twice using a razor blade matfer lame. Cover with lid. Return to oven, and reduce oven temperature to 450℉. Bake for 20 minutes.

Carefully remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes more.

Transfer loaf to a wire rack. It will feel light and sound hollow when tapped. Let cool.

To bake the second loaf, raise oven temperature to 500 degrees, wipe out dutch/french oven with a dry kitchen towel, and reheat with lid for 10 minutes.

The Perfect crumb

BreadTove Balle-PedersenComment
Tartine Bread

Tartine Bread

The hunt for the perfect crumb started after I tried Jim Laheys 'No-knead Bread'. Maybe I wasn't making the bread the right way, maybe it wasn't the right recipe?

 

One of my friends came by with some two days old bread he had baked.

His bread had it all! Perfect crust, perfect crumb - I needed to get the secret. 

The secret was Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. You'll find my recipe for this bread here.

A sourdough bread made from scratch. 

I highly recommend getting Chad Robertson's book, It describes all you need to know about making the starter and this amazing bread.

 

 

The Perfect crust

BreadTove Balle-PedersenComment

I have always loved the crust on italian style breads. It was close to impossible for me to get the crispness. I tried using a Pizza Stone, adding water to the oven in the beginning of the baking process. But nothing worked.

Tartine Bread

Tartine Bread

Suddenly everybody was blogging about Jim Laheys 'No-knead Bread'. People called it the worlds best bread. 

The secret was baking the bread in a dutch oven at high temperature with the lid on - the first 20-25 minutes. 

Could this be the answer to all my troubles? 

In one word  - Yes  

The lid keeps the moisture inside the dutch oven, and it works similar to the steam you get in a professional oven. 

By baking the bread till its much darker than you normaly would, gives you the crispy crust, you'll find on italian style breads.

Getting the perfect crumb is another story. Jim Laheys 'No-knead Bread' didn't give me the chewy crumb with the big holes I was looking for.