I have some coffee brewing in the Mokka pot on the stove, a requiem is playing, my wife is watering the plants, and I’m sitting on the sofa.
“You government might be telling you that the pandemic is over, but it’s not too late to learn how to bake your own bread.” 😁
I’ve been talking with my mom about bread baking. She has some very nice books and likes to use those recipes. I guess it takes a long time to do since she recently said she doesn’t like to do it often, so she freezes the bread they don’t eat and then use a toaster… I said: why don’t you just bake bread every two days? It takes too long, she said. I argued that I wasn’t using fancy recipes and just made it as fast as possible, and then I sent her some pictures.
This is how I make bread. The entire process should take about 15min or less. Not counting doing the dishes and time spent in the oven, of course.
I keep the sourdough in a jar. The quickest way to get one is to just buy some yeast and make pizza or whatever, but keep about 100g in a jar in the fridge. At first, the yeast will dominate, but the lactic acid bacteria that make the dough sour are all around us and soon enough you’ll notice how it changes. When I started out, I didn’t even add yeast because yeast is also all around us, so you’d have your mix of yeast and lactic acid bacteria after a few days in any case. Buying a bit of yeast just makes sure you can start baking bread today.
I use half the sourdough I have.
Image 1 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Add about 300g of flour. Currently I like to use about half spelt, a quarter rye, and a quarter whole grain wheat. Just use whatever you like. I like using spelt because the dough just has a better consistency. Experiment.
Image 2 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Add about 200ml of water. I have used anything from 180ml to 240ml and all it does is change the dough, but the bread has always been tasty!
Image 3 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Add a handful of salt. Even if you forget the salt, it’s still tasty, just a bit strange.
As you can tell, I’m not in favour of precise measurements. I’m in favour of variety. 😃
Image 4 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
I no longer knead the dough. Just take a sturdy spoon and mix it until it’s smooth.
Image 5 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Cover with a towel and let it rest at room temperature for a few hours. When I prepare the dough in the morning, I’ll let it rest until noon. When I prepare the dough in the evening, I’ll let it rest until morning. Anything between 3½h to 12h works!
Image 6 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Don’t forget to feed your sourdough. The idea is to replenish the half that you used for the dough, so add some flour. I like to just use four spoons piled as high as I can so that it is a challenge to transfer the flour from the paper bag into the jar without spilling it. I’m sure you can find a smarter way of doing it.
I keep using the same flour to feed my sourdough. I imagine the yeast and lactic acid bacteria to be in fierce competition and this is how I favour the ones best adapted at breaking down my favourite flour.
Image 7 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Stir until smooth. Get some air into the sourdough.
Image 8 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Cover with some paper. Don’t use an airtight cover.
Image 9 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
Put it into the fridge.
Image 10 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
When you have waited long enough, gently pour and scrape the dough into the vessel you’re going to use for the oven. Since we didn’t do any kneading, folding and stretching, our dough is limp and needs a nice bowl. Let it rest again for a while, maybe ½h up to 1½h, depending on how impatient you are.
Image 11 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
I bake my bread for 50min at 180°C with some water in a bowl.
Image 12 for 2022-03-04 It is not too late to bake bread
#Bread
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
⁂
Thanks for the tips. I look forward to trying this.
– Marinus 2022-03-05 03:23 UTC
---
Good luck! My starting point was a bit more complicated, so I’m thinking that many instructions out there are “too complicated”.
– Alex 2022-03-05 11:03 UTC
---
Thank you for sharing. What type of flour do you use for the sourdough? Is it the same spelt-rye-whole wheat mix as with the bread dough? (I have zero experience baking bread.)
– Blunder 2022-03-16 00:20 UTC
---
I feed the sourdough with just one of them and have settled on spelt. Occasionally I run out of spelt and then I use the whole wheat once or twice and that doesn’t seem to cause any problems. But yeah, by now my sourdough is probably “adapted” to it’s main flour type. 🙂
– Alex 2022-03-16 07:19 UTC
