LCBO Food & Drink Winter 2018

sourdough 101 from page 77

WEEKEND SOURDOUGH BOULE While you can of course make sourdough any day of the week, you may find that it’s easiest to schedule if you pull your starter out of the fridge on Friday evening, feed it to reactivate it, leave it out at room temperature, then feed it again and form the bread on Saturday and bake your loaf first thing on Sunday morn- ing. If you haven’t used your starter in a while you may need to give it several daily feedings before using. STARTER 50 g sourdough starter 100 g room-temperature water (about 75°F/24°C) 100 g whole-wheat flour BREAD 100 g mature (100% hydration) starter—ideally whole-wheat-based 320 g room-temperature water (about 5°F/24°C), divided 500 g white bread flour 12 g kosher salt 1 Friday night, remove starter from fridge, scrape into a clean bowl on a scale (scaled to zero) and discard all but 50 g. Add 100 g each room-temperature water and whole-wheat flour. Stir. Transfer to a glass jar. Loosely cover but do not seal jar; leave at room temperature overnight. Repeat the process on Saturday morning, and leave starter for 4 to 6 hours or until bubbly and active-looking and ready to make dough (put all but 100 g of the starter back in the fridge). 2 Pour 300 g room-temperature water into the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl). Add starter to water and stir until dissolved in the water. Add bread flour and mix on low or by hand until all the flour has been incor- porated. Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand 1 hour at room temperature (this resting time is called autolyse and will help create a dough that is both more elastic and requires less kneading). 3 Combine remaining 20 g water with salt. Add to dough in the bowl and mix on low until the dough is uniform and sticky. Scrape dough into a clear bowl or container. 4 The next stage, called bulk fermentation, should last 3 to 4 hours, assuming a room tem- perature of about 75°F (24°C). If room is warm- er or colder, you can compensate by mixing dough with warmer or colder water, or placing your dough in a warmer or cooler spot in your home, otherwise your bulk fermentation will take longer (or shorter, accordingly). 5 Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let stand 30 minutes. Then uncover, dip your hand into the bowl, grab the underside of the

dough, pull and stretch it up as high as you can, and fold it over the rest of the dough. Do this 4 times, turning your bowl and working with each side of dough as if it were a square. These 4 folds are considered 1 “turn” of the dough. Set the timer for 30 minutes again and repeat turn. Do this every half hour during the bulk fermentation phase, but handle the dough more gently as it begins to feel softer and more full of air. The turns are essential for creating the gluten structure. At the end of the bulk fermentation phase the dough should come away from the sides of the container easily when you do the turns and the folds left from a turn should keep their shape for a fewminutes. The dough should have risen by 20 to 30 percent. If it hasn’t, continue to fer- ment dough for another 30 minutes to 1 hour. 6 Gently transfer the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. You want to incorporate the least amount of flour as possible during the shaping process. Fold the dough in half onto itself so that the flour on the surface of the dough is all sealed on the outside of the loaf, then (with lightly floured hands) gently work the dough into a round shape like you would round up a bun. You want the dough to be slightly attached to the surface as you rotate it as this builds the surface tension. By the end of the shaping, the dough should have a tight smooth outer surface. Let dough rest, covered with a floured cloth, for 20 to 30 minutes. The dough will relax and spread during this “bench rest” but it should still appear fat and rounded at the edges. If it becomes a thin pancake, it means that the dough isn’t developed enough yet, in which case round it up again and let it rest another 20 to 30 minutes. 7 To form the final shape, lightly flour the counter and flip the dough so that the rounded surface is down. Fold the third of the dough closest to you up and over the middle of the dough. Stretch out the dough horizontally to your right and fold this over the centre. Stretch the dough to your left and fold this third over the previous fold. Stretch out the third of the dough furthest from you and fold this over the previous folds and use your fingers to seal the dough together. Then turn the dough over so all the seams are on the bottom. Round up as you did initially to tighten the tension on the surface of the dough. 8 Place dough, seam-side up, in well-floured proofing basket (if you have rice flour on hand, mix it 50/50 with bread flour as it does a great job of keeping the dough from sticking to the basket), slide inside a plastic bag, blow in some air to keep the plastic from touching the dough and seal with a clip. Place in the fridge for 8 to 12 hours (alternatively you can let it rise 2 to 4 hours at room temperature, but the longer cold fermentation will produce the most fla- vourful result).

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN STARTER There are innumerable ways to make your own starter. Some rely on simply a combination of flour and water while others involve honey, raisins, fruit juice and specialty organic flours to help encourage the right combinations of healthy yeasts and bacteria. I have found the method here to be relatively easy and effective. It will take several days of feeding for the starter to begin to look and smell active. Try to feed it at about the same time every day. ➤ Day 1: Combine 20 g whole wheat flour and 40 g pineapple juice in a jar. Cover loosely. Let stand at room temperature. ➤ Day 2: Weigh out 20 g of mixture (and dis- card rest). Add 20 g whole wheat flour and 40 g pineapple juice and stir to combine. Cover loosely and let stand at room tem- perature. ➤ Day 3: Repeat same process as Day 2. ➤ Day 4 to 9: Repeat process substituting 20 g water for pineapple juice. If a grey liquid appears on the surface it just means that the starch has been consumed and turned into alcohol. Stir it back in and feed as per usual. If a crust forms on the top of the starter, peel it back and discard and feed starter as per usual. ➤ Day 10: If you have been feeding it regu- larly, your room-temperature starter should begin to get bubbly within 3 hours of feed- ing and be rising and falling predictably. If this is the case, it should be strong enough to use for baking bread. You can increase your starter to whatever volume you’d like to maintain. I find I like to feed 50 g of my starter with 100 g each flour and water be- cause this gives me plenty for my bread with enough left to feed for another day without a lot of waste. Unless you plan to bake bread several times a week you should store your starter covered in the fridge between uses.

94  FOOD & DRI NK WINTER 2018