This is a recipe for a relatively simple sourdough sandwich bread. My motivation is to provide a recipe that reduces as much as possible the number of tricky techniques. For this reason, we'll use a recipe that bakes in a standard 4x8" bread tin (to mitigate any mistakes in shaping) and we'll do a traditional knead of the dough with a stand mixer rather than a hand knead or any alternate gluten development strategies. Still, there are plenty of steps that require a judgement call. Be patient (good bread takes time) and don't stress too much. Pay close attention to what the dough looks and feels like at each step each time you bake. As you bake more bread, you'll begin to notice those subtle, hard-to-describe cues that tell you when youre ready for the next step.
A few quick notes for context before starting:
You'll find a lot of bread recipes give just a bunch of percentages for the ingredients. What it is is the ratio of <ingredient> to total flour by weight. So if there's just white flour, flour itself will be 100%. If you have white/wheat, the flour might be 70% and 30% for each. This lets you give a recipe that scales easily to whatever loaf size you want (500~550g flour is pretty typical for normal round boule shape). It also makes it easy to compare and talk about the differences in recipes.
You'll also see references to "hydration," this is basically the baker's percentage of all liquids: 100 * <total liquid>/<total flour> = <hydration pct>
- 55-60% is considered a stiff dense dough for things like soft pretzels or bagels
- 65-70% is about what you'd have for a standard bread you'd find in a cookbook, gives a very even distribution of small holes (known as a closed crumb)
- 75% and up is "artisan" bread territory - french baguettes, artisan boules. This gives more uneven, open crumb (read: lots of big ass holes) but as it gets wetter it gets harder and harder to work with.
Note: whole wheat absorbs more water than white flour (dat bran) so a 30% whole wheat dough is going to be a lot less sticky and moist than a 100% white wheat dough at the same hydration level. This extra complexity is why I recommend setting whole wheat to the side to start.
Total recipe percentages: 100% White flour 42% Water 27% Scalded milk 1% butter 2% salt
The night before, start a sponge: 100g White flour 100g Warm water 20g (approx) Active sourdough starter
Optimally, mix the starter with the warm water first, then add the flour. This isn't strictly necessary, but may help distribute your culture a little more evenly throughout the sponge. Cover (plastic wrap, foil, or damp towel) and set on the counter.
In the morning, check the sponge. It should have noticible bubbles, have noticibly increased in size, and have a pleasant fermented smell to it. If it doesn't look active enough, let it sit out a few more hours until checking on it again.
Dough: 220g sponge 135g scalded and cooled milk 90g water 390g flour 10g salt
Before mixing the dough, heat the milk gently to at least 180F to scald it. This can be done in the microwave or in a saucepan, just dont burn it. Let it cool before continuing
Set the salt to the side. Add all ingredients besides the salt to your stand mixer's mixing bowl and stir by hand or with the paddle on low just until mixed consistently. Let sit for 30 minutes. This is called the autolyse rest - resting here lets enzymes in the flour bread down sugars and unwind proteins before you mix/knead to develop the gluten. It also lets the yeast get a head start before the salt takes away some of its moisture.
Attach the dough hook and add the salt. Mix on 4 (Kitchenaid) for 4-6 minutes. At the end of this, you should be able to slowly and gently tease a bit of dough back and gently stretch it between your fingers until it has a thin translucent "window" in it. This is the "windowpane test." Try it, but dont stress over it - after 4-6 minutes you've probably mixed enough.
Note You can do this part by hand, but you'll need to give it longer - probably 10 minutes or longer. You'll also need to ensure you dont add too much flour - a pastry scraper and a wood surface are useful when being stingy on flour for non-stick purposes
Grease a bowl with cooking spray, oil, or butter (optional - just makes it a bit easier to remove) and put the dough in it for it's "bulk rise." This is when the yeast will replicate, use up the oxygen, and start producing CO2 to leaven the bread. After about 2 hours, check on it every 45 minutes or so. In my kitchen in winter in a ~70F spot, this takes about 3.5 hours. When you check on it and notice "Whoa, that grew a bunch" i.e., it's noticibly bigger than the last time, it's ready to pre-shape. Also notice the feel of the dough at this point - it'll be a lot more soft, supple, and relaxed than when you put it in the bowl.
Dust a surface with flour (I like wood, countertop is fine too) and turn the dough out. Dust the top of the dough a bit and gently-but-firmly ("an iron hand but a velvet glove") press it into a rectangular shape. Pop any large surface bubbles that appear. Ensure your dough is not stuck to the surface (if so, use a scraper to unstick and re-flour). Fold it four times like youre folding some paper - top down, left to right, right to left, bottom up. Notice that by doing this, youre creating tension on the bottom side of the dough. Dust the seam a bit and flip the dough so the seam side is down. Let sit for 15 minutes.
Flip the dough again so the original seam side is up again. Press gently-but-firmly into a rectangle a little less wide than your pan. Stretching the dough as you go, roll it up from top down. You should be rolling tension into it as if you're rolling a stiff sheet of paper that wants to unroll on you. Place the roll into your loaf-pan. Cover with just-damp non-nappy towel (wet and squeezed out really well).
Here we have two options: a slow proof and a rapid proof. A slow proof is more forgiving if you forget about it and develops a bit more flavor but is easy to misjudge and bake prematurely. A fast proof is more predictible but can over-rise if you forget about it.
What we want is for the dough to have clearly increased in volume and to look "puffed up." When you gently poke the dough, the indentation should remain. Note: This is a less effective test when the dough is cold as it'll be stiff and not prone to rebounding even when not fully proofed.
Put the loaf pan in the fridge or on a cold (not freezing) porch or basement. You're aiming for 35-50F, higher temperatures leading to a quicker rise of course. At 35F, plan for at least 12-15 hours. If it's still not risen enough you can bring it out to room temperature to finish
Put the loaf pan in a warm place. For me, a fully-cooled oven with the light turned on works well (keep an eye on it - mine gets to well over 100 degrees after an hour or two). Check on it after the first hour, and every 45 min or so after that.
We'll bake at 425F with steam (optional) for 15 minutes, reduce to 375 for 25 minutes, and finally remove the bread from the pan and bake on the wire rack for the last 10 minutes or so. Internal bread temperature should be at least 198F by the end
Optimally, we'll have some steam in the oven for the initial baking. This'll delay formation of the crust so that the top of the bread can "spring" as the yeast warm up and work in hyperdrive and the gasses expand with temperature. This is optional.
Place a pan in the bottom of your oven while preheating (I like cast iron. If you use steel or aluminum, use a pan you dont care too much about in case it warps) and bring a teakettle to a boil.
Just as you put the bread into the oven, pour 1-2 cups of water into the pan - Don't get burned by the steam! Add more water if necessary if it dries up in the first few minutes
Let your bread cool before slicing it. Slicing it hot will let out a ton of moisture and dry out your bread. If you want an especially soft crust, brush the bread with melted butter when it's still warm. Keeping the bread wrapped well once cooled (I use foil) will also cause the crust to soften somewhat.