Homemade Sourdough Bread

After buying a bread-baking book for naturally leavened bread back in March I finally began baking our own bread. Naturally leavened means that the bread only needs little yeast. The bread rises by the use of a sourdough.So past week I started making the sourdough setup. Mixing flour and water, waiting patiently for the next day to come, adding another bunch of flour and water…

Finally after three days of mixing and waiting my first rye sourdough experiment was successful. At this point I decided to make the Black-Beer-Bread from my baking book. First I prepared the sourdough and the Poolish. After another day waiting I could mix the main dough, let it rise and start baking at last!!! Voila, it was worth waiting so long. I was rewarded with a wonderful fluffy, good smelling (and tasting) bread with a crunchy crust. Yummy!

: Franconian farmhouse bread

: Black Beer Bread

Since this bread was such a success I already baked two other breads in the meantime. A rye mix bread and a franconian farmhouse bread.

Preparation for the rye sourdough starter

Mix 10g rye flour (Type 1150) with 10g water, let sit for 24h at 24°C
Add 10g rye flour and 10g water, mix it, let sit for 24h at 24°C
add another 10g rye flour and 10g water, mix it, let sit .. guess what… another 24h at 24°C.

Your sourdough starter should now be the double of its starting volume and smell sourish, comparable to apple vinegar.

You can store your sourdough up to two weeks in the fridge without “feeding” it. If you want to use the sourdough for baking, just refresh it (feed it) as described in step 3.

Dark Beer Bread

Sourdough

120g rye flour (type 1150)
110g water
12g sourdough starter

Mix everything together and let ripe for 20h at room temperature. The volume should increase and the dough shall contain bubbles.

Poolish

110g whole wheat flour
110g water
0,1g fresh yeast

Same procedure as for the sourdough.

Main dough

Sourdough
Poolish
270g wheat flour (type 550)
115g black beer
6g fresh yeast
10g salt
(10g liquid barley malt; optionally)

Mix everything in the heavy duty mixer for 5 minutes on lowest speed and 5 minutes on second speed level. Let the dough rise for 1h at 24°C in a airtight container. Then fold the dough on a floured counter top and put it back into the container for one more hour.

Now knead the dough with hands and shape it to a ball. Let the dough relax for 20min. Make the loaf longish and let it rise for 45 min at 24°C in a proving basket with closing on top. Turn out the loaf on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Make a lengthwise 2cm deep cut.

Bake the bread in a preheated oven at 250°C for 45 min with steam (a bowl of water does fine). After 10min open the oven door and let the steam out (take the bowl out). Lower the temperature to 220°C. For the last 5 min open the oven door a bit for a crisp crust.

Let the bread cool down on a grate.