A loooong while back, I posted a recipe for making your own sourdough starter. I had intended to post a bread recipe shortly after, but it took me this long to get one that I was completely happy with. Some recipes were too wet, some not enough flavour, and others too dense. I kept trying new ones, and new methods until I had one that I knew would work every time. And here it is!

This recipe started out as a San Fransisco sourdough recipe from my old school textbook, On Baking: A Textbook of Baking and Pastry Fundamentals. It’s a great book that teaches the science and fundamentals of all manner of pastry and baking techniques, and includes recipes for almost anything you could think of! I often think that I need to really work through my recipe books, and this one is definitely high on the list. It’s got such a wide variety of recipes and explains them in full detail.

I tried making the sourdough recipe, as it’s described in the book, and it was okay, but not quite sour enough for my taste. That could be simply because of the unique wild yeast that lives in San Fransisco (L. Sanfranciscensis), or because this particular recipe was too ‘quick’ to develop a sour flavour. It actually used a small amount of commercial yeast in the dough, so that you could bake the loaf the same day you make it. Great if you’re strapped for time, but it leaves a bit to be desired in taste. However, it did explain one thing I had been wondering in the past – how to achieve what I consider a San Fransisco sourdough crust.

See, in Victoria, BC all sourdough that is labeled as “San Fransisco” has this soft glossy crust. It’s not the super tough stuff you associate with artisan bread, but something almost more akin to buns. While you can definitely make a San Fransisco sourdough with a traditional crust (like they do at Tartine in San Fran), for me, the key to making a San Fransisco sourdough bread (besides the yeast) is that soft crust. And you want to know the secret? Egg White! You simply brush the loaf with whisked egg whites all over before slashing and baking. It adds the glossiness from the egg proteins and softens the crust by preventing the chemical reaction that normally occurs.

Okay, but back to this bread recipe – I took the original one from the book, and started changing things, one at a time. First, I reduced the amount of flour in the recipe, to create a higher level of hydration. See, the higher the percentage of water in a recipe, the larger the holes and glossier the texture will be in the final bread. Really good sourdough bread has a slightly chewy texture, and large aeration holes – which can only occur with more water. Too much water and the dough will become very wet and difficult to work with – which I had at first. Of course, if you can master bread with a high level of hydration, it’ll produce an amazing loaf. However, for this recipe, I wanted something a bit easier to manipulate.

Second, I omitted the commercial yeast. I didn’t add anything to replace it, but simply went from a quick fermentation and proving, to a much longer one (overnight, in the fridge). Third, I added a series of folds instead of simply kneading the dough. This was partly due to the higher level of hydration (and how annoying it was to knead) but also because a longer bench time and folds produce a nicer crumb structure. And finally, I changed the oven times and temperature to the style of bread I was now making – and baked it in an ovenproof dish. Oh, and I omitted the egg wash, as I was now proving the bread in a floured banneton.

And that produced this recipe! Now, I will give a few tips to help you along with it.

1. If you don’t have a banneton, you can use a well-floured tea towel in a bowl. The bowl should be a small mixing bowl size, and you really want to work the flour into the towel. Start by just rubbing flour into the towel surface, then drape it in the bowl, and dust over even more flour. If you end up with too much on the bread, you can always dust it off with a pastry brush before scoring. I like to secure my towel with an elastic.
2. If you’re uncertain if your bread has proved enough, try gently pressing a floured fingertip in it. If the indentation remains, you are ready to bake. Just shy of doubled in size should be perfect, as it means the yeast still has a bit more energy left.
3. If you don’t have the time for all of the folds, simply knead the dough twice as long, until smooth. You’ll develop a nicer texture with the added time and folds, but you’ll still have a great loaf without.
4. Don’t fight the bread during folding – as the gluten develops it will not stretch as far. Just stretch it as much as it will let you, even if it means only 3 sides instead of 4.
5. You can turn the bread out directly into the baking dish, but I prefer to use parchment paper. It allows me to shift the bread in the dish to center it, and provides more room to score the bread. I traced the bottom of the dish onto parchment paper, cut it out, and scrunched it up many times to soften the paper. I reuse it each time I bake.
6. If you don’t have a lamé (scoring knife) use the sharpest paring knife you have or a serrated knife. You want to cut about 1cm or so deep – too deep and the bread will open up too much, and too shallow and the bread will tear elsewhere to allow steam to escape.
7. If you’ve never shaped bread into a boule or batard, watch some videos online. There are many great ones out there to show you how to do it (it’s hard to put into words). If the bread doesn’t hold its shape well after your initial shaping – you can let it rest for 20 minutes and then shape again.

That’s it! A great sourdough recipe, for days when you have lots of time (folds) and when you don’t (just kneading). Oh, and once you’ve got it down, why not experiment with adding in some flavour? My most recent bread had walnuts and figs worked into the dough (100g figs, 80g walnuts). I can’t wait to keep creating new flavours with seeds, herbs, and spices. Perhaps olive and rosemary next? Or beetroot from our own allotment?

Now I must get back to my next bread recipe development – a proper 6-day loaf. And one with a San Fransisco crust!

See, sourdough isn’t a new thing. Despite its recent popularity, sourdough is what all bread used to be back in the day. Before breweries developed the commercial yeast that we now use today, the only kind of yeast we had was wild! Wild yeast is everywhere… in the air, on the walls, etc. – all you need to do is provide it with food, and water to let it grow!

They say Egyptians first discovered how to bake bread – someone left a bowl of a porridge-type dish (made of wheat) lying around and discovered it started bubbling. I love the idea of whoever thought “Let’s put this in an oven!” And since that day, we have been raising cultures of wild yeast to add air and flavour to our breads.

So, do you want to make your own starter? You can go about it two different ways – first, you can make one out of just flour and water, or you can use fruit and vegetables! Unwashed fruit contains lots of wild yeast on the surface, plus plenty of sugar inside to feed the yeast culture. Grapes are an obvious choice, but really any fruit and certain vegetables will do (apparently beets work).

In my copy of Justin Gellatly’s Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding, I found a starter recipe that used rhubarb! As I had let my last starter die, I thought I might give this one a shot! I had some leftover rhubarb to use up and figured why not? Not only does the rhubarb add food for the yeast, but it brings its own sour flavour to the starter.

The one thing to consider when using the different starters in a recipe is the water content. Some starters have a higher water ratio than others and will impact your recipe. If the recipe has its own starter recipe, do the calculations to determine the ratio. If your own starter is different, then you’ll have to adjust the amounts to match.

I normally like to keep my starter at a 50/50 ratio to keep things simple, but Justin’s rhubarb recipe came out just a little on the dry side. As I was planning on trying out his sourdough bread recipe, I didn’t bother adjusting the ratio. But in the future, I will feed it 50/50. That way I can add my starter to any recipe and keep my mental math to a bare minimum. I’ll also use only white bread flour, as I prefer it for flavour.

So if you want to make your own starter, why not try one of these?

The Kitchen Basic Sourdough Starter

(One of my favourites – the recipe link has great explanations)

• 440g all-purpose flour (divided)
• 440ml water (divided)

Day 1: Make the initial starter by mixing together 110g flour and 110g water. Stir into a smooth batter, scrape down the sides, and cover loosely with cling film. Leave out at room temperature overnight.

Day 2: Feed the starter by adding another 110g flour and 110ml water to the mixture. Mix well, scrape down the sides, and cover again with cling film. Leave overnight at room temperature.

Day 3: Feed the starter again, just as day 2. You will probably see bubbles by now, and the starter will begin smelling a bit sour, like vinegar.

Day 4: Feed the starter again, just as before. Your starter should definitely smell sour by now. Don’t worry if there is lots of liquid on the surface, but simply mix it all in.

Day 5: Starter is ready to use. You can bake with it today, or place it in the fridge until you need it. Remember to feed about once a week, by removing about half the starter and then feeding it to replace the amount lost. Keep the ratio 50/50 between flour and water unless you intend to alter your starter’s consistency.

Sourdough Starter Made with Grapes

• 120g unwashed, organic grapes
• 480g all-purpose flour (divided)
• 360+ water (divided)

Day 1-2: Mash the grapes thoroughly in a container, cover with cling film, and leave at room temperature for 48 hours.

Day 3: Strain the grapes to remove the juice, and add enough water to equal 120ml. Mix in 120g flour, cover loosely with cling film, and leave at room temperature overnight.

Day 4-5 (same for both days): Feed the starter by adding 120g flour and 120ml water. Mix thoroughly, cover with cling film, and leave at room temp. overnight.

Day 6: Your starter is ready to use. You can bake with it today, or place it in the fridge until you need it. Remember to feed about once a week, by removing about half the starter and then feeding it to replace the amount lost. Keep the ratio 50/50 between flour and water unless you intend to alter your starter’s consistency.

Rhubarb Sourdough Starter (Justin Gellatly – Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding)

(When I made this, I didn’t use rye flour and instead substituted it with more white or whole wheat. It’s up to you what flour you use for flavour. I also didn’t discard as much as I wanted to build a bigger culture.)

• 30g rhubarb, thinly sliced
• 500g water (divided)
• 285g white bread flour (divided)
• 185g wholegrain rye flour (divided)
• 60g wholemeal bread flour (divided)

Day 1: Place the rhubarb in a bowl with 100ml water, 50g white bread flour, and 50g rye flour. Mix together into a paste, cover loosely with cling film, and allow to rest at room temperature overnight.

Day 2: Mix in 50ml water, 25g white bread flour, and 25g rye flour. Cover, and allow to rest at room temp. overnight as before.

Day 3-4: Same as day 2. You should see fermentation starting.

Day 5: Pour 30g of the starter into a new clean container. Pick out any pieces of rhubarb (it’ll be mostly broken down now), and discard them. Whisk in 125ml water, 80g white bread flour, 30g rye flour, and 30g strong wholemeal flour. Discard the rest of the starter (I know, wasteful).

Day 6: Same as day 5.

Day 7: The starter is ready to make bread! You can bake today, or refrigerate until needed. Feed with whatever ratio you want, about once a week.