Ever since I went to Hyderabad for the meet, I have been baking with sourdough. Varada gave us dehydrated sourdough flakes and taught us how to hydrate them and use it for bread baking. So as soon as I returned from Hyderabad, I revived the starter and kept feeding it regularly. I also tried to bake with the sourdough discard as I didn’t want to throw it away. Internet is a treasure if you want to learn any art. This happens to be true with bread baking also. I kept reading about sourdough recipes and kept trying them. I haven’t yet got the courage to try out a perfect sourdough bread, but I am happy with trying easy recipes which can be made in a day.
The climate here is hot and I really need to understand how to bake sourdough in this climate. The recipes I get in the internet are not working because of the climate differences and the difference int he quality of flour. So it is a huge sea which needs to be explored. So for now I am sticking with some easy breezy recipes. So what is the difference between an yeast bread and sourdough? It is mainly the flavour. And also the texture. They are totally different. You can’t expect yeast bread kind of texture in a sourdough bread and vice versa. From the day I did my online class for Beginner’s bread baking, I have been getting so many messages asking for sourdough, but I need some time to figure it out before I could do classes. So until then enjoy these easy breezy breads.
The first time I tried a sourdough loaf, I used Peter Reinhart’s recipe from Bread Baker’s Apprentice. But this one is totally different and I got this from Holy Cow blog. I have linked to the original recipe, so if you want to take a look at that gorgeous rolls, do follow the link in the recipe. I haven’t got the perfect result but again that would be because of the climate variations and flour variations. I also made this with 3 parts wheat flour and two parts of maida. I loved the final texture of the crumb. Next time I would add some butter to the dough for some flavour. The original recipe was for two regular sized loaves, but I had a huge loaf tin lying in the shelf which I used only once to bake ever since buying it. So I decided to bake the whole dough in a single tin and it was a huge beautiful loaf. From the day I baked, myself and Sruti are enjoying a slice a day for our dinner. I was thinking of naming the starter for a while now and yesterday I suddenly felt that I need to call her Raga. Yes, somehow I felt that I should call my starter her, a sister to Sruti.
Recipe Source: Holy Cow
Makes 2 Loaves
Cup measure used – 200 ml
Ingredients:
Sourdough Starter – 1 1/2 cups
Warm Water – 2 cups
Whole Wheat Flour – 3 cups
Maida/ All Purpose Flour – 2 cups
Oil – 1 tbs
Salt – 2 tsp
Procedure:
In a large bowl, take sourdough starter, salt, oil, water and two cups of maida.
Mix well and cover with cling film and set it aside for 2-4 hours.
Now add one cup wheat flour at a time and keep mixing the dough until you have added all the wheat flour.
Take it on to the counter and knead the dough for 7-8 minutes until soft and elastic.
Place the dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with cling film and set aside for 2-4 hours or until it doubles in volume.
Take it back on to counter, divide it into two equal portions if making two normal sized loaves or just start shaping if doing a huge loaf.
Press it into a rectangle with one side measuring the length of your tin.
Now roll it into a light log pinching the dough during every roll.
Once the log is shaped, place it into a parchment lined tin, cover the tin with cling film loosely and set aside for another 1 hour or until you see a dome.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200°C.
Brush the top of the loaf with milk and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes baking as two loaves and 45-50 minutes if baking as a single loaf.
Remove from oven and let it cool for 5 minutes.
Now remove the loaf from the tin and place on wire rack and allow it to cool completely before slicing it.
Raga,my sourdough baby!
Easy Sourdough Sandwich Loaf Recipe
Ingredients
- Sourdough Starter - 1 1/2 cups
- Warm Water - 2 cups
- Whole Wheat Flour - 3 cups
- Maida / All Purpose Flour - 2 cups
- Oil-1 tbs
- Salt- 2 tsp
Instructions
- In a large bowl, take sourdough starter, salt, oil and two cups of maida.
- Mix well and cover with cling film and set it aside for 2-4 hours.
- Now add one cup wheat flour at a time and keep mixing the dough until you have added all the wheat flour.
- Take it on to the counter and knead the dough for 7-8 minutes until soft and elastic.
- Place the dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with cling film and set aside for 2-4 hours or until it doubles in volume.
- Take it back on to counter, divide it into two equal portions if making two normal sized loaves or just start shaping if doing a huge loaf.
- Press it into a rectangle with one side measuring the length of your tin.
- Now roll it into a light log pinching the dough during every roll.
- Once the log is shaped, place it into a parchment lined tin, cover the tin with cling film loosely and set aside for another 1 hour or until you see a dome.
- Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Brush the top of the loaf with milk and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes baking as two loaves and 45-50 minutes if baking as a single loaf.
- Remove from oven and let it cool for 5 minutes.
- Now remove the loaf from the tin and place on wire rack and allow it to cool completely before slicing it.
Hi Gayathri, you have an amazing blog. your receipes are really great. i have been trying to bake a sourdough bread. i tried garlic breadsticks with the discard. but it is very, very sour. can you please tell me how sour the bread should taste.
Hi Magalakshmi, they say that sourdough must taste really sour, but most of us hate that sour taste. I usually don’t take it to that extent. My breads are not at all sour and you need to understand the starter’s working to work around the taste. And when using discard, you should use 1 part discard and two or three parts flour so that it won’t be too sour.
Hi Gayatri, thank you for the recipe. Can I add whole wheat flour alone? Or might the bread fail? And can we add jaggery to make it less sour? (I am not for sour tasting bread.. I just needed healthy bread!)
With just wheat flour, the bread would become very dense and heavy. Fresh starter is more sour than aged starters. By the time I made the bread, it was pretty new. But after nearly 9 months, my starter has come down in sourness and the breads are not sour any more. I am not sure whether jaggery would cut down the sourness.
Gayathri-
In the method, no where does it tell you to add the water.
I will add it now along with the rest of the flour to see if I can salvage this dough and give it another rise.
We’ll see if this works.
Jolene
I am really sorry. Water needs to be added with the starter. I have updated the recipe.