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decide that you are going to bake bread. For reals. This won't work if your heart AND head are not both into it. Trust me on this.
Take a glass jar ~1 liter/quart in volume, and dump 1/2 cup of flour into it. (that's roughly 70 grams... what? You don't have a scale? Go get one RIGHT NOW... one that can measure 2 grams, as well as 500)
Now, pour into that... the same VOLUME of WARM, CLEAN water (no chlorinated tap water... bottled or filtered, and it must be room temp-tepid)
Get out 2 spoons and...
Stir the flour and water together into a uniform slurry (use the second spoon to scrape off the proto-starter from the one you used to stir with)
Set the jar on a ~warm, draft free spot on the counter, or a shelf, or in a cupboard, etc. You want easy access, because...
EVERY DAY you are going to REMOVE EXACTLY HALF of this slop and ADD exactly the same amount back of NEW, FRESH flour and water.
Make a biscuit with the "discard" (or make another starter so you ultimately end up with 30 of them lol! no, don't... that's a joke!)
After about 5 days or so of following this regimen, you should see bubbles forming on and in the starter. These are from the gas ("farts") the little wild yeastie beasties are emitting as they eat the sugars in this slurry (there will also be bacteria in there that gobble up the alcohol the yeast "makes", producing vinegar) These are your babies now. Coddle them.
IF you are planning on baking EVERY DAY, you can leave the starter out, as you have done creating it. As long as it is being refreshed daily, and not left "starving" out in the warmth for more than 2 full days, you and your starter will be fine. Else, keep it in the fridge... but no longer than 2 weeks!
You see, there are OTHER MICROBES that also like this warm slop, and others that like the cold one. You are now in the business of keeping a symbiotic relationship of sorts between wild yeasts and wild acetotbacter bacteria, both of which act together to suppress the other ones which like to make the starter go yucky.
Now for the actual baking part...
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Remember when I said your heart and mind MUST be into this? That's because this process is rather involved and needs your full attention and all the necessary instruments and devices ready from this point on...
You will now need to find a comfortable and quick way to calculate and measure the needed ingredients. This is where the scale comes in.
You will be forming the dough using "bakers' percentages". Meaning you will calculate the water, starter and salt needed based on the weight of flour you are using.
Generally, the ratios are thus: 60% of the weight of the flour in water, 40-50% starter, and 2% salt (e.g. if 100 grams of flour are used, then you'd add 60 grams of water, 40-50 grams of starter, and 2 grams of salt... but obviously you'll want to use much more flour, so work out a way to figure out these percentages for "odd" amounts of flour)
A few notes on "hydration": You will not want to make a dough that has a hydration percentage lower than 50%, nor one that approaches 90%. The dry one will be too "hard" work and to rise, and the wet one will be too sloppy to bring it together. There's a sweet spot for you somewhere in the 60-80% range. You need to consider that the starter adds hydration, and also that it's always best to err too LOW on the hydration, as making the dough too wet will always lead to you ADDING MORE FLOUR, and you don't want to ever do that.
Here's where the fun starts...
You "work" the dough to stretch the gluten. This is all you are doing. The stretched gluten is what allows the dough to rise, while also holding it together so it sets/bakes into a loaf.
There are myriad ways to do this. Just use the turn and fold in a bowl method. You'll thank yourself later for never trying to bring a rather wet dough together on the counter. Also, watch some videos of people doing the "slap and fold" method. It's insane.
The turn and fold in a bowl is you merely folding the dough onto itself, then turning the bowl 90 degrees and folding the dough again. Do this about 5 times, once every 45 minutes. You can also "manhandle" the dough by scooping it up with one hand and "playing" with it (you can feel it tighten as you do this... again, watch some videos)
After the working is done, you'll need to shape the dough. Again, there are myriad ways to do this. I just make a sqare with the dough, stretch the corners all over onto each other, and form an oblong shape that will fit into...
A BASKET I have prepared for this purpose. A plastic french fry basket, lined with a "floured" towel, which then gets folded over the dough and set...
into a big, loose plastic bag (to keep it from drying out) and placing that whole thing into the fridge.
Ideally, you'll want a proofing box that is not as cold as a fridge, but I've not yet been able to realize that, so the fridge it is.
This is the proofing stage. "Proving" you've made your yeastie beastie babies happy enough that they make the dough rise, evem when they are cooled down. This step also adds the most flavor/sourness to the bread. Keep it this way for at least 8 hours, but never more than 2 full days (this will "overproof" the dough, and that's not something you want to happen)
Now it's time to bake...
You will want to heat a space up to ~500 degrees F, and figure out a safe way to introduce lots of steam into this blazing hot oven/space... many "novice" bakers use a pan of ice cubes, others use a "dutch oven" (which traps the moisture leaving the dough)... professionals have special ovens designed specifically for baking bread.
The steam is needed to keep the "skin" of the dough as moist as possible (but not wet) as the high heat causes the moisture IN the dough to vaporize into steam, causing the dough to rise further... what's known as "oven spring"
This process is so brutal that you will always need to slice an "escape valve" into the skin of the dough JUST before setting it into the oven, else the escaping steam will find the weakest point(s) in the skin and make the loaf look silly (it will blow out in one or a few spots, and a lot of times that collapses the dough)
Do that now. Place the dough into the steamy, hot oven.
Once this rise is done (it takes ~8-10 minutes) the temperature must be decreased drastically, to about 375-400 F, and the moisture source removed (or lid off the dutch oven) and the loaf baked another 20-30 minutes further (you will need to play around with the timing and temps, as all situations are different, as there is no "one size fits all"... it will only take about a dozen bakes to figure out a regimen that fits for you)
The loaf is done when it has a certain "hollow" sound to it when you tap the bottom... again, a dozen or so bakes will help you determine the timing.
Once out of the oven, place the loaf ON A RACK and allow it to cool COMPLETELY before slicing it open (this allows it to stop baking, and as much of the moisture to escape that's ever going to... you don't want a soggy interior, which it will be if it's still hot, plus slicing it open too soon will dry it out)
Use a REAL BREAD KNIFE to cut into the loaf. They are made SPECIFICALLY for this purpose, and the first time you use one, you'll see why they are made very long and with a serrated edge. Don't skimp on this.
Now...
eat what you just made. Toasted with butter is best IMHO, but also with honey or jam, too.
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