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Low Effort Sourdough Bread

Making artisan sourdough bread is not simple and I recognise it. It took me years to experiment, learn,  note, understand and progress. The pandemic time made sourdough a star... it became so popular that everybody wanted to do it. Many made their own starter, others borrowed starter. Many launched themself into baking, some got the sourdough "virus" and continued to bake, and others slowly slowly dropped making it due to less time or they were not very satisfied with the results and finally, their starter died somewhere in the fridge.

But there is a huge mass of people hearing about sourdough who never tried or, tried once, failed and easily gave up. Do you recognise yourself in one of the categories above?

I find myself in the category of people starting to bake bread with sourdough years before the pandemic, intensifying and learning much more during those 2 years and continuing to experiment nowadays. Learning about sourdough is a subject that I'll probably do my whole life as you never feel you know enough.

But for those newbies and for those busy persons who never have time to make 15 steps to put a loaf on the table I made a recipe that simplifies the entire process:

Simplifying is a complex process in itself when you talk about sourdough. You can take out a step if you know what is the impact. Would you be able to still get an acceptable result? I've run maybe a dozen of bakes for this recipe to get it right. But I've learned even more about the importance of each step.

This recipe is for busy people and for newbies. But even for an experienced baker, there are times in our lives when other priorities take over our time and we still want to put sourdough bread on the table. It happened to me too. Did I miss my fancy chewy crumb? I definitely did but I used my time for more urgent or important things and still enjoyed sourdough.
In the video, I compare bread made in a simple way with one made in a complex way. When time and experience are not at stake, I know the winner recipe. But if you do not have time, to buy bread with 22 ingredients inside that were industrially risen in an hour, compared to putting 15-20 minutes of effort to make this bread, I would personally advise trying the second option. It is much healthy and at least you know what you are eating.
Needless to say that this is not my favourite bread recipe but becomes my favourite one when I am absorbed by other activities.

What about you? What do you think? Would you like to try it?


Ingredients (1920g, 65.2% hydration):

  • 400g kamut flour (or any favourite flour)
  • 600g strong bread flour
  • 600g water
  • 300g sourdough starter
  • 20g salt


Directions:

  1. [Day 1, Saturday, 19:00] Scaling. I started by scaling the ingredients using a balance and putting them on the table to ensure that nothing is forgotten.
  2. Mix water + flours + starter. I mixed the flour, water and starter with a mixer for 15 minutes. Then, I let the dough at room temperature (20ºC) for 2 hours.
  3. [Day 1 Saturday, 21:00] Salt. I added the salt and mixed it again for 5 minutes. Then, I let the dough relax again for 1 hour at room temperature. 
  4. [Day 1, Saturday, 22:00] Divide and shape the loaves on the lightly floured board. Stretch the dough into a rectangle, then fold it in 3 and roll it. Place the dough with the seam down into pans seasoned with oil and flour to avoid sticking. Repeated the process for the second piece of dough.  Let the dough in a warm place (25ºC) overnight covered with plastic bags or shower caps.
  5. [Day 2, Sunday, 8:00] Bake at 220ºC for 40 minutes with steam.
  6. [Day 2, Sunday, 8:40] Cool. The bread needed to cool for at least 2 hours until it reaches room temperature. The cooking process continues slowly even after taking the bread out of the oven, so this is why it is important to not skip this step and to resist cutting it too early. You can remove the loaves from the pans soon as you can touch the pans with your hands,
  7. [Day 2, Sunday, 11:40] Cut. Time to enjoy a slice of bread... 

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