Sourdough bread tutorial

As you might have understood I love to bake cakes and desserts, but when the autumn and winter approaches I like to drag my stoneware bowl out from the cupboard and make sourdough bread.

Sourdough bread has more flavor than other breads and I like to think it's healthier for you. Making your own bread has many advantages, first of all you know whats in it (no hidden sugar or anything else you don't want or know of), secondly you can ad any ingredients you like maybe sunflower seeds, porridge oats or dried apricots.

However even if this is a really good bread any quite easy to make it require time, it takes at least two days.

Rustic sourdough bread

Makes 2 loafs

Sourdough:

3 dl water (preferably cold)

3 dl sifted rye flour

25 g yeast (dry or normal doesn't matter)

Preparing:

Whisk the sourdough together, be sure that the yest is dissolved. Cover and let stand in room-temperature for on day, for an even richer flavor do variety 2.

After one day (variety 1):

7 dl cold water

about 2 tbs salt

1 tbs spices, like cumin (this is not a necessary ingredient and can be left out)

½ dl oil (canola, olive or sunflower oil)

2 ½ l flour (I usually tend to take about half sifted rye flour, one quarter of rye flour and one quarter of flour but it doesn't really matter what kind of flour you use everything is tasty in this bread)

If you want you can ad linseed, oats, dried fruits and that kind of ingredients but remember that with oats and others like oats you have to take away the amount of the ingredient from the flour.

After one day (variety 2):

Whisk in ½ dl water and ½ dl sifted rye flour into the sourdough and let be for another day then continue like after one day variant.

Mix in the other ingredients and work the dough well (according to the original recipe it should be beaten for 10 min in a machine, by hand that's 15-30 min but I've come to the conclusion that less time work just as well)

Let the dough rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours under a baking cloth, at this stage you can let it heave longer if you for example want to have fresh baked bread in the morning, you set the dough the evening before and bake it next morning.

Shape the dough into two loafs by kneading the dough a little and then cut it in half. Make two thick plates that you roll together and put on a baking sheet with oven paper on, the seam of the bread should be on the baking sheet.



Let the bread rise for 30 min under a baking cloth while the oven warms up to 250-275°C (or as high as your oven goes). Cut the bread with a sharp knife and then put the sheet in the lower part of the oven.



Toss in three ice cubes or squirt water into the oven until steam forms (about 6 squirts). Close the oven and lower the temperature to 200°C.
Bake the breads for about 45 min until they are golden-brown (they should almost look burned). Leave them to cool on a rack under a baking cloth. The flavor of the bread will increase the next day and they freeze perfectly.