My life has been very hectic lately, but I did not abandon baking and cooking altogether. I wanted to keep it simple and baked 2 sourdough sandwich loaves of bread once a week. For that, I used my old Pullman loaf pans. Each of them measures 13.58 x 5.39 x 4.72 inches. According to the manufacturer, each pan can accommodate 2.2 lbs of dough.
You already know that every dough is different and the volume of the bread largely depends on the type of flour used and the strength of the leavening agent. The 2.2 lb refers to yeasted bread made with white all-purpose or bread flour. For my sandwich bread, I use different proportions of organic all-purpose flour and white rye flour. The following proportions are just for your reference.
A Pullman loaf pan works best, but any loaf pan will do just fine, even without a lid.
Ingredients:
Active Sourdough — 300 grams
Water — 1125 grams
Flour combo — 1500 grams
Sea salt — 30 grams
I used a 50/50 percent combo of organic all-purpose flour and white rye flour respectively, and a 30/70 percent combo. The higher the percentage of rye flour you use, the more pronounced the sour taste you get. It is not very sour in both combinations.
Mixing and the First Fermentation:
I mixed the dough at medium speed for 5 minutes, stretched and folded the dough onto itself 3 times at 20-minute intervals, and let it rest for 4 hours.
Then, I divided the dough into 2 parts and shaped each half into a long cylinder.
I used Ghee (clarified butter) to grease my Pullman pans. You may use butter or olive oil.
I put my cylinders of dough into the prepared Pullman pans, covered them with greased lids, and placed them in a warm spot for 1 hour.
Baking:
Preheat the oven to 450 ℉ (230 °C).
Bake at 450 ℉ (230 °C) – 25 minutes
Then at 400 ℉ (204 °C) – 15 minutes with the lid off
Reduce the oven temperature to 350 ℉ (176 °C) – 10 minutes freestanding on a baking sheet (no pan)
The following photo guide is about the 30/70 formula (30% all-purpose flour and 70% white rye flour).
This photo guide depicts the 50/50 formula (50% all-purpose flour and 50% white rye flour).
I prefer the 50/50 formula. Because of its mild taste, it would be an agreeable accompaniment to any type of sandwich. The 30/70 formula is more demanding.
I usually freeze the second loaf (it keeps well in the freezer for several weeks) until I defrost it overnight (while it remains wrapped) on the kitchen counter. It works well for a busy lifestyle.
When I started baking from the refrigerator, I did some research on how long can one keep the shaped bread in the refrigerator without compromising the quality of the finished product. A great number of baking books and websites unanimously state that for the best tasting bread you should give your bread 8-12-24 hours of cold fermentation. This is ideal. Many bakers agree you can keep your unbaked bread refrigerated up to 72 hours after shaping.
I followed these guidelines myself and planned to work with the dough twice a week. A few times I baked my bread after 4 days in the refrigerator and the bread turned out well.
Last week I refreshed my sourdough on Saturday, made the dough on Sunday evening, and baked the first loaf of bread (out of two) on Monday evening.
Inside the Dutch Oven
On the cooling rack
Baking after 24 hours in the refrigerator
The second loaf of bread stayed in the refrigerator for a week. I baked it on Saturday evening one week later. My experiment with the long fermentation proved to be a success.
Baking after 7 days in the refrigerator
The second loaf lost some volume, but other than that the bread looked well and the taste was excellent.
Every homemade bread starts with inspiration. I liked the idea of the popular Jewish Rye bread, which combines white and rye flour with caraway seeds. Traditional Jewish Rye bread has about 30% of rye flour. My bread has higher rye content, and it is sourdough bread.
The night before, I refreshed my sourdough, as I described in my post about my new sourdough:
“If, like me, you like sourdough bread that is not too sour, then your sourdough feeding schedule will roughly be 1: 3. That is 1 part sourdough to 1.5 parts flour and 1.5 parts water. The acidity of the starter will be about 4.2-4.5 pH. The leaven can increase in volume by three or more times. This largely depends on the individual qualities of your flour and the sourdough itself. Gradually, you will develop your own schedule for feeding and working with your starter culture.
If I need 200 grams sourdough in the morning, then I take 60 grams sourdough from the refrigerator and refresh it with 90 grams of water and 90 grams of flour in the evening before mixing your dough. That way I will have 200 grams of active sourdough in the morning and extra sourdough to keep in the refrigerator for future use. This is what ratio 1:3 means for sourdough feeding.
I would feed this extra sourdough with 1 teaspoon of water and 1 teaspoon of flour and put it into the refrigerator until my next baking session. I bake 2-3 times a week. My sourdough does not get too inactive.
If you do not bake that often, start refreshing your sourdough a day or two before mixing the dough by refreshing it every 12 hours using the same 1:3 ratio. If your sourdough is very dormant, you can use 1 part sourdough, 1 part water, and 1 part flour to start up the refreshing schedule. For the next feeding, you will get to a 1:3 ratio (1 part sourdough for 1.5 parts water and 1.5 parts flour).“
This is what I got the next morning.
Floating test
Mixing the dough
Pour 750 grams of water into a mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Add all your bread or all-purpose flour and start mixing at a low speed.
When all the white flour is incorporated, gradually start adding white rye flour.
When all flour is mixed with water, stop mixing, cover your dough with a clean kitchen towel to prevent it from drying, and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
Add salt and mix the dough at low speed for 5 minutes. During the last 2 minutes of mixing, gradually add caraway seeds.
Let your dough rest for another 20 minutes.
At this point, the dough is ready for the structure strengthening technique, which I call stretching and folding in the mixing bowl. You can see how runny and sticky the dough looks before I proceeded with this technique.
Stretching and Folding
I have explained how to perform this technique in the post about my basic sourdough bread.
The dough after the first round of stretching and folding
After every round, my dough gets stronger. It means that gluten molecules build stronger bonds. Many bakers rely on the so-called windowpane test, to determine how well gluten has developed.
Usually, a baker cuts a small piece of dough and gently stretches it to see if the dough can be stretched to a paper-thin, translucent membrane. Bakers do it with both hands on the dough.
I wanted to take a picture of the translucent membrane, so I had to stretch my dough with one hand and hold my phone with another. Here is what I managed to do.
I gave my dough another 20-minute rest. Then I performed the 3rd round of stretching and folding, followed by another 20-minute rest. Now, the dough is ready for dividing and shaping.
After shaping, the bread goes to the refrigerator for the long final fermentation. I keep bread in the refrigerator from 12 to 48 hours (rarely 72 hours). This is how I do it.
Baking in a Dutch Oven
On my baking day, I take my large cast-iron Dutch oven and pre-heat it in the oven with a closed lid to 250 C (485 F).
Meanwhile, I take the bread out of therefrigerator and gently place it on parchment paper a little larger than my bread in width, but with long enough ends so I can put the bread into the Dutch oven holding the ends of the parchment paper without burning myself.
I take the Dutch oven out of the oven and put it on a heatproof stand. I also have a stand for the Dutch oven lid nearby.
Now, I make cuts in the bread with a sharp razor on a wooden kebab skewer. You may use a special lame for bread.
After that, I open the Dutch oven and put the bread on parchment directly into the heated Dutch oven.
After that, I cover it with the lid as quickly as possible and put it back in the oven for 27 minutes.
After 27 minutes, I remove the lid from the Dutch oven and turn the temperature down to 230 C (450 F).
I bake the bread for another 5-7 minutes. Then, I take the Dutch oven with the bread out of the oven, put the bread on a baking sheet, and return it back to the oven for another 5-7 minutes to finish baking.
After 5-7 minutes, I turn the oven off, briefly open the oven door to let some hot air and leftover steam out, and leave the bread in the oven for another 5 minutes.
For some bread, it is a requirement in order to avoid a sharp change in temperature, which might cause the crust to crack.
Another 20 minutes of cooling time on the wire rack and the bread is ready to be enjoyed.
20 minutes is the absolute minimum that the French bakers regard as a law for selling fresh bread. Of course, it is better to let the bread cool completely if time permits and your family members are patient enough.
It is a relatively simple and amazing method of making delicious and healthy homemade sourdough bread.
Baking on Ceramic Tiles
You can also bake this bread directly on a baking stone or ceramic tiles.
You should place a couple of half-sheet aluminum pans on the lower rack of the oven (one inside the other) in order to use ice cubes to create steam during the first 10 minutes of baking.
I usually slide the bread onto the ceramic tiles and immediately put 5-6 ice cubes into the preheated aluminum pans.
I lower the temperature of the oven to 218 C (425 F) after the first 15 minutes of baking and bake for another 20 minutes.
If the bread looks ready at that point, I turn the oven off, briefly oven the oven door to let leftover steam escape, and leave the bread in the oven for another 5 minutes to finish hardening the crust.
This recipe is a variation of my basic sourdough recipe with some extra ingredients. It is also quite distinctive in appearance and taste. While I was getting ready to write this post, I baked this type of bread twice using different olives.
Ingredients
Active sourdough starter (refreshed the night before mixing the dough) — 200 grams
Bottled water — 750 grams
Bread flour — 1000 grams
Rye meal — 100 grams
Salt – 20 grams
Olives and fresh rosemary to your liking.
I used cured black olives for the first bread and a mixture of different olives marinated with herbs for the second bread. All olives had pits in them. In my experience, non-pitted olives taste better. So, I had to remove all the pits before cutting them into pieces. Rosemary comes from my garden. I also winterize at least one plant inside the house.
Preparation
Pour 750 ml of lukewarm water into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment.
Add 200 g of ripe sourdough and start mixing on a low speed. The water will look like milk.
Gradually add flour, starting with the whole grain rye flour, just until incorporated.
Do not add any salt at this stage. Cover the mixing bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Add salt and continue mixing the dough on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
You have the dough for 2 loaves of bread. You can divide the dough right after mixing and make one loaf of bread with no additives, and another loaf of bread with olives and rosemary.
After you divide your dough, you handle each part the same way up to the point when you finished 2 stretches and folds. You make 2 more stretches and folds (4 total) for the basic loaf and follow the basic bread tutorial for that bread.
Don’t forget to let your dough rest for 20 minutes before you proceed to the next step – stretch and fold the dough with your hands right in the bowl.
After you finished 2 stretches and folds in the bowl for your future rosemary olive loaf, you put your dough on the oiled work surface and stretch it gently into a flat rectangle.
Spread some of your chopped rosemary and olives all over the surface of the dough.
Fold the dough onto itself like an envelope. Then spread some chopped olives and rosemary all over the white part of the dough.
Keep folding the dough and spreading your chopped mixture after every fold. That way, you incorporate everything well and do not overwork the dough.
It is time for the first fermentation. Gather your dough into a ball and put it back into the oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it stand undisturbed for several hours.
The dough will not double in bulk, but it will be smooth and airy. You can see a few bubbles in the picture.
Take your dough out of the bowl and put it on your work surface, dusted with flour.
Stretch and fold each piece of the dough like an envelope. Do not force your dough. This is the pre-shaping stage.
Give your dough envelope another 20 minutes of rest. Cover the dough with a large transparent plastic box, as I do, or a clean kitchen towel dusted with flour.
Meanwhile, prepare your proofing baskets. I prefer using oblong bannetons (proofing baskets) for overnight proofing in the refrigerator. Two oblong bannetons can sit nicely on my refrigerator shelf. I make round bread as well. Round bannetons are more suitable for same-day baking. I like the visual appeal of bread art and certain cuts look better on round bread.
Dust the basket with a mixture of white wheat flour and rice flour. If you do not have any rice flour, then use white flour. Here, use more white flour to prevent your bread from sticking to the basket.
Shaping and Baking
To start the actual shaping process, you need a pre-shaped and well-rested piece of dough. The dough needs enough time to relax before shaping. Otherwise, it will resist your shaping manipulations and might even tear.
Shaping the boule (round)
The simplest way to shape the boule is based on the envelope fold technique, which I explained above. You start by folding your envelope of dough into a new, tighter envelope.
If your dough still feels too relaxed, you gather the corners towards the center to add more strength. This creates some tension on the surface of your dough, which is exactly what you are aiming for. You may need to perform 1-4 rounds of gathering corners towards the center technique. It all depends on the quality of your dough and your experience as a baker. You stop when your dough feels strong enough to hold the shape.
After you finished gathering the corners, you need to seal the seams you created. Flip the dough over. Then drag the dough against your work surface in a circular motion until it feels tight. Thus, you need only a little flour on your work surface to make this movement possible.
This boule, seam side down, goes into the prepared round basket for the final proof.
Shaping the batard (oblong shape or “torpedo”)
You stretch your pre-shaped and relaxed piece of dough to round it out. Do not overstretch.
Fold the right side of the dough towards the left a little past the middle.
Fold the left side of the dough the same way. You overlap the previously folded side.
Start rolling your piece of dough from the bottom up, stretching and tightening up the surface as you go.
When you reach the end, seal the seam with your fingers.
Put your batard into the basket seam side down.
I put the baskets in plastic containers and refrigerate my bread overnight before baking. You may bake your bread from the refrigerator with no warming up before going into the hot oven. You can keep bread in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days.
From this point on, you may follow the baking directions from my post about basic sourdough bread.
The formula of this bread is very simple and easy to remember. You can use this dough to make two medium-sized loaves of bread. I try to plan my baking for weekends, but sometimes I have to bake even on weekdays after work. Today I will show how it works out with a busy lifestyle.
Prioritizing and additional planning help to get things done. I will explain everything step-by-step.
Because of family circumstances, I had to bake this bread on Friday night after the full day of work. I had to mix the dough the day before (also after my workday). This is how I did it.
On Thursday morning, I took the sourdough out of the refrigerator, refreshed it (fed it), and left it on the kitchen counter. I expected the starter culture to be at least near the peak of its activity by the time I get home from work. That would give me about 6 hours to work with it because the next morning I had to go back to work again, and I had no intention of staying up late.
Everything worked out well. As you can see in these photographs, my sourdough grew in volume very well, but the bubbles on the surface were still not enough for its peak form.
When you do not have enough time to wait for the sourdough to reach its pick of activity, you risk compromising the volume of your future bread. That means that your bread will not rise to its full potential in the oven. But it will still be a delicious bread because the long fermentation is the major contributor to the taste of your bread.
Ingredients
Filtered or spring water – 750 ml
Active sourdough starter- 200 g
White bread flour – 900 g
Rye, whole grain flour – 200 g
Sea salt, finely ground – 20 g
Caraway seeds – 20 g (optional)
Pour 750 ml of lukewarm water into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Add 200 g of ripe sourdough and start mixing at a low speed. The water will look like milk.
Gradually add flour, starting with the whole grain rye flour, just until incorporated. Do not add the salt at this stage. Cover the mixing bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Add salt and continue mixing the dough at medium speed for about 8 minutes. During the last couple of minutes of mixing, add caraway seeds.
Let your dough rest for 20 minutes before you proceed to the next step – stretch and fold the dough with your hands right in the bowl. You need to do this 3-4 times every 20-30 minutes.
This technique helps to strengthen the gluten in the dough to create a beautiful, airy structure of the crumb.
How it’s done
With your left hand, you will hold and turn the mixing bowl. Moisten the right hand with cold water to prevent the dough from sticking to your hand too much. Slide your right hand along the wall of the mixing bowl, pick up the dough from the bottom of the bowl and stretch it from the bottom through the top and over to the opposite side of the bowl. Turn the bowl slightly clockwise and repeat the same procedure again. Do this 4-6 times. Avoid over-stretching the dough. When the dough resists your stretching efforts, you stop and give it a rest. You will feel how the dough changes when you work with it.
Take the dough on a floured work surface and let it rest for about 5 minutes.
You need to make it a rule – let the dough rest after every manipulation. This is very important for the structure of the bread.
With a plastic scraper, divide the dough into two equal parts and move them slightly away from each other. Now you will work with each piece of dough separately.
Stretch and fold each piece of the dough like an envelope. Do not force your dough. This is the pre-shaping stage. Give your dough envelope another 20 minutes of rest. Cover the dough with a large transparent plastic box, as I do, or a clean kitchen towel dusted with flour.
Meanwhile, prepare your proofing baskets. I have different proofing baskets for my bread, but I love oblong bannetons (oblong bread baskets). They rest nicely on my refrigerator shelf. I make round bread as well. It is more suitable for same-day baking. I like the visual appeal of bread art and certain cuts look better on round bread.
Dust the basket with a mixture of white wheat flour and rice flour. If you do not have any rice flour, then use white flour. Use more white flour to prevent your bread from sticking to the basket.
Shaping and Baking
To start the actual shaping process, you need a pre-shaped and well-rested piece of dough. The dough needs enough time to relax before shaping. Otherwise, it will resist your shaping manipulations and might even tear.
Shaping the boule (round)
The simplest way to shape the boule is based on the envelope fold technique, which I explained above. You start by folding your envelope of dough into a tighter envelope.
If your dough still feels too relaxed, you gather the corners towards the center to add more strength. This creates some tension on the surface of your dough, which is exactly what you are aiming for. You may need to perform 1-4 rounds of gathering corners towards the center technique. It all depends on the quality of your dough and your experience as a baker. You stop when your dough feels strong enough to hold the shape.
After you finished gathering the corners, you need to seal the seams you created. Flip the dough over. Then drag the dough against your work surface in a circular motion until it feels tight. Thus, you need only a little flour on your work surface to make this movement possible.
This boule, seam side up, goes into the prepared round basket for the final proof before baking.
Shaping the batard (oblong shape or “torpedo”)
You stretch your pre-shaped and relaxed piece of dough to round it out. Do not overstretch.
Fold the right side of the dough towards the left a little past the middle.
Fold the left side of the dough the same way. You overlapping the previously folded side.
Start rolling your piece of dough from the bottom up, stretching and tightening up the surface as you go.
When you reach the end, seal the seam with your fingers.
Put your batard into the basket, seam side up.
I put the baskets in plastic containers and refrigerate my bread overnight before baking. You may bake your bread directly from the refrigerator with no warming up before going into the hot oven.
You can keep bread in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. In my experience, 2 days work best and in 3 days you might lose some volume of the finished loaf. I had to bake bread from the refrigerator after 4 days of cold fermentation a few times, and it was still delicious.
Baking in a Dutch Oven
On the baking day, I take a large cast-iron Dutch oven and heat it in the oven with a closed lid to 250 C (485 F).
When the Dutch oven is preheated, I take the bread out of the refrigerator and gently place it on parchment paper a little larger than my bread in width, but with long enough ends so I can put the bread into the Dutch oven holding the ends of the parchment paper without burning myself.
I take the Dutch oven out of the oven and put it on the table on a heatproof stand. I also have a stand for the Dutch oven lid nearby.
Now I make cuts in the bread with a sharp razor on a wooden kebab skewer (you may use a special lame for bread). After that, I open the Dutch oven, put the bread on parchment paper into the preheated Dutch oven. Then, I cover it with the lid as quickly as possible and put it back in the oven for 25 minutes for 1035 gram loaves (if you divide your dough into two parts).
After 25 minutes, I remove the lid from the Dutch oven and turn the temperature down to 230 C (450 F). I bake the bread for another 5 minutes. After that, I take the Dutch oven with the bread out of the oven, put the bread (still on parchment paper) onto a baking sheet, and return it back to the oven for another 5-7 minutes to finish baking.
After 5-7 minutes, I turn the oven off, briefly open the oven door to let some hot air and leftover steam out, and leave the bread in the oven for another 5 minutes. For some bread, it is a requirement in order to avoid a sharp change of temperature, which might cause the crust to crack.
Another 20 minutes of cooling time on the wire rack and the bread is ready to eat. 20 minutes is the absolute minimum that the French bakers regard as a law for selling fresh bread. Of course, it is better to let the bread cool completely if time permits and your family members are patient enough.
It is a relatively simple and amazing method of making delicious and healthy homemade sourdough bread.
Some tips on making smaller loaves of bread
All the instructions I gave so far in this post were about baking a loaf of bread weighing about 1035 grams. This is what you get if you divide your dough in half. You might want to divide your dough into 3 parts. You will get 3 loaves of bread. Each loaf of bread will weigh about 690 grams. Shaping directions would be the same, but you will have to adjust your baking temperature and timing.
I start with a slightly lower temperature of 248 C (480 F). I bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. Then I lower the temperature to 230 C (450 F) and bake for 5 minutes or until the crust just starts getting color. Then I take the Dutch oven out of the oven, put it on a heatproof surface. I put the lid on another heatproof surface and take the bread out of the Dutch oven. The bread goes back into the oven on a baking sheet (parchment paper is still in use) to finish baking. Another 8-10 minutes of baking and I turn the oven off. I open the oven door to let the steam escape and lower the temperature of the oven a bit. Then, 5 more minutes of rest in the oven and the traditional cooling down period on a wire rack on the kitchen counter. During these last 5 minutes, you may still want to open the oven door a few more times, or even keep it slightly ajar and warm up your house. Monitor your bread, especially during the first baking months. Oven temperature could be a tricky thing if you did not calibrate your oven.
This seems like a lot of precautions, but a good crust and not an over-burnt bottom of your bread are well worth it.
Baking on Ceramic Tiles
You can also bake this bread directly on a baking stone or ceramic tiles. You should place a couple of half-sheet aluminum pans on the lower rack of the oven in order to use ice cubes to create steam during the first 10 minutes of baking. I usually slide the bread onto the ceramic tiles and immediately put 5-6 ice cubes into the preheated aluminum pans. I lower the temperature of the oven to 218 C (425 F) after the first 15 minutes of baking and bake for another 20 minutes. If the bread looks ready at that point, I turn the oven off, briefly open the oven door to let leftover steam escape, and leave the bread in the oven for another 5 minutes.
This worked well for me with my old oven.
A few comments about different ovens and steam
My oven does not like the tile-steam combo that much. I have a convection oven and the oven fan started making some noise at the beginning of the preheating cycle.
I used to have a regular oven before, and a lot of steam was fine for it. Just make sure you do not drop your ice cubes on the bottom heating element or onto the bottom floor of the oven.
Taking all this into consideration, baking bread in a Dutch oven seems to be safer for most ovens. Decide for yourself. Your oven could be more steam-tolerant.
Ceramic tiles are wonderful for pizza and a variety of flatbreads (no ice cubes required). A serious home baker has to use both methods.
Many faces of the basic sourdough bread.
You may use this basic formula to create many varieties of bread. Here are a few examples of what you can easily do in your own kitchen.
