CRUSTY SAN FRANCISCO SOURDOUGH BREAD AND STARTER
"Everyone should make at least one loaf of sourdough in their lives to experience the ancient process of working with natural yeast. Before commercial yeast and baking powder appeared in the mid-nineteenth century, most Americans knew the sourdough technique and practiced it to varying degrees, though many considered the results unrefined. It became associated with western pioneers because, lacking ready access to new leavening products, they continued using the method longer than other people. Gold prospectors in California and Alaska took such pride in their breads that people called the miners "sourdoughs," a term eventually extended to all Alaskans. Partially because of a hospitable climate for yeast cultures, San Francisco developed superior versions of the bread, emulated here. We explain first how to create a sourdough starter, a homey treasure you can keep and "refresh" for years, and then how to turn it into a tasty loaf of bread."
Makes enough starter for two 1 1/2 pounds loaves plus extra starter for future breads or other sourdough products
FOR THE SOURDOUGH STARTER:
About 2 cups unbleached bread flour
A few unwashed organic grapes or a dribble of honey, optional
TECHNIQUE TIP:
Remember that sourdough starter is alive and needs to be fed and exercised every couple of weeks if you don't use it. Take the starter from the refrigerator, add to it a tablespoon or two of flour and warm water, stir, and let the starter sit out at room temperature overnight. Scoop it out and knead it a bit before returning it to the refrigerator. Every few times you exercise it replace half the starter with a similar amount of flour and water to give it plenty of nourishment. It can corrode metal, so store the starter in a glass jar or small ceramic container.
TO PREPARE THE STARTER:
Begin at least a week before you plan to make your first loaves of bread. It may not take that long to develop the starter, but you want to make sure that it has plenty of time if necessary. Think of this phase as similar to growing a plant from seed, taking pleasure in its daily changes.
Spoon 1/3 cup of the flour onto a work surface. Pour 1 tablespoon of water over the flour and work it in. Mix in 2 more tablespoons of water, or a bit more, as necessary to form into a simple cohesive dough. (If you overdo the water, just add a bit more flour.) Knead this little mass for about 5 minutes. It should look like putty and be lightly springy and just a bit sticky. This is all that's necessary to gather your yeast, but adding a grape or two or a little honey will encourage the process. Place the starter in a small bowl and cover it with a clean, damp dish towel or damp cheesecloth. Set the starter in a warm (not hot), out-of-the-way spot, and dampen the cloth once or twice each day as needed. By the third or fourth day, the starter should have developed a mild but not unpleasant sour aroma. It should have grown a tiny bit and look wrinkled. Give it another day or so, if needed, to reach this stage. If you used grapes in the starter, remove their solid remnants now.
When the starter is ready, place it back on a work surface, scraping off or pulling off any hard crust. Sprinkle over the starter 2/3 cup of the flour and then 2 tablespoons of water. Work the starter and new ingredients together into a soft cohesive dough, again adding a few more tablespoons of water if dry, then knead for about 5 minutes. Rinse the bowl if it is crusty and return the starter to the bowl. Cover as before and leave it for another couple of days until it looks a bit softer, with a touch more puffiness and spring to it. Remember to keep the cloth damp, and if you live in a particularly dry climate, you may want to wipe the surface with just a bit of water to make sure the starter itself stays moist.
Repeat the process again, this time adding 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water. After kneading, let the starter rise for about 12 hours, give or take a few hours. The starter should now look like a lightly raised dough, and if you poke it, the mark from your finger will remain. The starter is ready to be used. Divide it into 2 blobs and put one half in a lidded container and refrigerate, to save for future use. The other half can now be used to start the sourdough bread, or placed in a lidded container and refrigerated for later use. Always return 1/2 to 1 cup of dough to the starter jar before proceeding, to have it ready for the next batch of bread.
CRUSTY SAN FRANCISCO SOURDOUGH BREAD
"The bread is made in stages, or refreshments, as professional bakers call them. It's a slow process, but one that allows natural fermentation to work at its best, slowly developing a distinctive though pleasant tang."
1/2 to 1 cup sourdough starter
4 to 5 cups unbleached bread flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Place the starter in a heavy-duty electric mixer with a dough hook. Pour in 3/4 cup of lukewarm water and begin to mix slowly. The starter should dissolve partially, becoming soupy. This mixture will only fill the very bottom of the mixer bowl, so you may need to stop and stir it up from the bottom by hand. Pour in 1 cup of the flour gradually while mixing, then increase the speed to medium. Add the salt. Mix for about 5 minutes, adding another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour after several minutes as needed to get a very wet, stretchy, sticky dough. (You can get similar results by mixing the dough by hand, kneading it for about 10 minutes.)
Remove the dough from the mixer bowl, wash the bowl, and dry it. Grease the bowl with oil, then return the dough to the bowl and turn it to coat it evenly with oil. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise in a warm, draft free spot until doubled in size, 4 to 6 hours. Alternatively, refrigerate the dough for up to a day, then let it return to room temperature before proceeding. Place the bowl back on the mixer, pour in 3/4 cup of lukewarm water, and begin to mix slowly. Pour in 2 1/2 cups of flour gradually while mixing, then increase the speed to medium. Mix about 5 minutes, adding another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour after several minutes as needed to get a very soft, elastic dough. It should be just slightly sticky to the touch, but no longer clinging forcefully to the bowl or your hands, (you can get similar results by mixing the dough by hand, kneading it for about 10 minutes.)
Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and again wash the bowl and dry it. Grease the bowl with oil, then return the dough to the bowl and turn it to coat it evenly with oil. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in size, 4 to 6 hours. Alternatively, refrigerate the dough for up to a day, then let it return to room temperature before proceeding.
Punch the dough down, divide it in half, and form it into 2 free-form oblong or round loaves. Place them on a floured cookie sheet, cover with large inverted bowls, and let them rise in a warm, draft-free spot until larger by half, about 2 hours. You're almost there.
Near the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place an empty heavy skillet on the lowest risk of the oven and, for the best results, place a baking stone on the middle shelf. Transfer the bread to the oven, using a large spatula to place it directly on the heated baking stone if you are using one. Otherwise leave the bread on the cookie sheet and place it on the middle shelf. Before closing the oven, pour 1/2 cup of water into the skillet to create steam in the oven. Close the oven immediately.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the bread is deeply brown on top and sounds hollow when thumped. If it thuds rather dully, it's not yet ready. Cool the loaves to room temperature on a baking rack. Eat within several hours for the best flavor, though the bread keeps at room temperature for several days, making great toast after it loses the first blush of freshness.
DOUGH GODS
Sourdough starter is virtually a perpetual-motion bread machine. It's not as quick and convenient as the contemporary gadget sold under that label, but it's much cheaper and adds wonderful tang to food. Many cooks make pancakes and waffles from the starter, but real "sourdoughs" go further. In her Alaskan Cookbook (1960), Bess Cleveland uses it as the leavening in angel food and fruit cakes.
Cowboys in the old West judged chuck-wagon cooks by the quality of their sourdough biscuits, which they baked on the range over an open fire in a Dutch oven covered on top with burning coals. To make the "dough gods," as they were known, mix a cup of low-gluten biscuit flour with a cup of starter and a little salt. Knead the dough lightly a few times, pinch off pieces the size of an egg, and let them rise overnight or at least a couple of hours. Melt bacon drippings in a cast-iron skillet, dip one side of each biscuit in the fat, and put it in the skillet with the greased side up. Bake the biscuits for fifteen minutes and holler, "Come and get it."
Source: American Home Cooking by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison
