How to make sourdough bread - step by step

For those who love sourdough bread and not the "fresh" substances sold in modern stores today, here is a detailed "how to"...

WHAT YOU NEED

Ingredients:

Water

the cleaner the better

2 CUPS = 473.176473 ml

Filtered if possible

Rye Flour

You can order online in Australia, for instance from here

You need this to make Starter. Read below.

Rye Flour 5kg. Get it online or locally.

Baker's Flour or any wheat white flour

I usually bulk buy 10 kg because it goes pretty quickly.

5 cups  (just use the same measuring glass you used for water)

Caraway seeds

to taste

Yeast

Leave it out. All a good bread needs is the starter.

Salt

any

2 table spoons

TOOLS

Bread maker for mixing ingredients only. BUT DON'T USE IT FOR BAKING! USE OVEN.

Not a must but it will make your life easier. Get a cheapest one and only use the "Dough" function. It keeps the dough in the right temperature to grow. Mine is old Brevil and it needs 1,5 hours. I keep it in for 1-2 more hours.

Measuring container

any, as long as it measures, I use "cups"

A heavy cast-iron pot that you can put in the oven. This is where you will bake your bread. I found this to be the best method. It will make your loaf beautifully round.

STARTER

Starter mixture for sourdough

Starter is a fermented substance made of rye flour and water. It's the base of the bread.

Once you have rye flour, mix it with water. Leave it in a empty 1kg plastic 'honey' container for 1-2 days, then feed it 2-3 times with more flour until you have about 5 table spoonfuls of it. A good trick is to leave it on the sun (if that visits your kitchen during the day) for a few hours and this will ensure the required temperature which is 22 - 30 C. 

Only then use for baking.

Starter should have small bubbles in it and produce a 'sour' fermenting scent. Once you have it, you will use 4 full table spoons of it each time you make bread and then just leave a bit at the bottom of the container. You will fill it up with more flour and water each time.

HOW TO MAKE IT

Recap

Throw the following in your breadmaker container:

2 cups of water (or 475 ml)

5 cups of white Baker's flour

(.... that means that the ratio of water to flour is 1 : 2.5)

4-5 full table spoons of the Starter (described above)

1-2 table spoons of salt, or to taste

1 table spoon caraway seeds or to taste

Sprinkle just a little dried yeast

Check the dough in the mixer and make sure it stays a bit sticky. Too much flour will make the bread crumble. After two hours it should stop being sticky on the surface and only stay sticky inside. 

When the dough grows about twice in size,

pre-heat your oven with the cast-iron pot inside for about 20 minutes or whatever your oven indicates.

Dust your kitchen counter with a bit of white flour and tip the dough from the breadmaker contaner on it.

Scoop it from sides to unstick it from the counter so you can take it with two hands to the open oven. 

DON'T BURN YOURSELF! If you do, it's not my fault :-)

Bake for 40-43 minutes with the lid on in temperature of 240C. This is important, so time your oven ideally with an alarm.

When alarm rings, open the oven and take the lid out. Then bake for another 8-10 minutes for better crust.

You don't need to put additional water or ice cubes as recommended by many other recipies. The pot will do the trick as it keeps the moisture inside. 

That's it. You've done it. Now you're better than most today's bakers. Congratulations and enjoy!