I’ve hardly written a recipe for bread since my first book, published over four years ago now. I’ve not written a recipe for sourdough since. I felt it was done – that bread deserved the respect of that entire book and to try and compress a way of life into a recipe was foolhardy. I still think it is, but I also think this is important to include here.
When winter is tough in Shetland and the boats are cancelled, bread is one of the first things on the list of stuff to panic about. This is something that has always confused me – bread disappears from the shelves, but flour remains.
Every time I head home, I make bread. And every time, I make a new sourdough starter from scratch. It’s just one of the things I do. It’s nice to have a hungry family to appreciate the efforts, and the sheer time to give proper care and attention to my loaves. This means that I have debauched access to better bread than virtually any money can buy, in one of the most isolated places in the country.
I think I have the process so down, now, that you don’t need to know the theory. If you want to you can still, and should still, pick up a book about it. But if all you want is awesome bread, no questions asked? Read on.
Ingredients and the equipment you’ll need:
1.5kg (3lb 5oz) any wholemeal, stoneground flour, preferably organic: rye, wheat, spelt or beremeal
1.5kg (3lb 5oz) strong white flour
table salt
water
large Tupperware or Mason jar
large mixing bowl
wooden spoon
accurate scales
lidded cast-iron pot, Dutch oven or baking tray
2 tea towels
plastic wrap
sharp knife or razor blade
Day 1
Clean a Tupperware box or a large Mason jar very thoroughly with soapy water and then rinse well. This is going to contain your sourdough starter.
Into this, weigh out 200g (1¾ cups) of your wholemeal flour. Run some cold water into a jug and top up with warm water until the water in the jug is tepid. Tepid does not mean warm – it should not feel warm to touch. But it should not feel cold either. Colder than lukewarm.
Add 200g (¾ cup) of the tepid water to the flour in your container and mix with vigour using a wooden spoon. Pop the lid on and leave it for a day somewhere that’s at a good room temperature, preferably 20–22°C (68–72°F).
Day 2
Open the lid and mix up your starter thoroughly using your wooden spoon. You might notice some bubbles already starting to show their face. Once mixed, cover again and leave for another day.
Your starter should be picking up now, so get some fresh flour in there. Don’t worry if it still doesn’t look like much. Add in 100g (⅞ cup) of your wholemeal flour and 100g (scant ½ cup) of your tepid water, and mix again. Tomorrow, you’ll have lift off, hopefully.
Day 4, AM
If your starter is ready to use, you’ll notice a lot of bubbling and activity in the 12 hours after feeding it the day before, as well as a sweet, alcoholic aroma. The starter is now filled with enough yeast to rise a loaf of bread. Pour 250g (generous cup) tepid water into a large bowl. (This recipe is scalable – for two loaves, just double all these quantities.)
Add 200g (1¾ cups) of your sourdough starter and stir together with your water until you’ve got a very loose gloop that’s largely mixed. On top of this, weigh 400g (3 cups) strong white flour and 10g (¼oz) salt (or 1½ teaspoons, to be safe). Use your fingertips to mix the salt into the flour, then your wooden spoon to mix everything together into a sloppy dough.
Cover your bowl with a wet tea towel, or some plastic wrap, and leave it for half an hour. After this time, take the bowl to your sink. Leave the tap running just a dribble and use it to wet your hands. Use a single wet hand – the moisture stops your fingers sticking – to fold the edges of the dough over and into the middle. You should feel it becoming stretchy. Repeat this for about 30 seconds.
Re-cover your bowl and repeat this stretching and folding every 30 minutes or so, three more times. Timings aren’t that important, as long as the stretching is done. After the fourth stretching session – 1.5 hours in – cover the bowl and leave it this time for 2 full hours, somewhere not too cool. Avoid draughty windows.
Day 4, PM
Flour a work surface with some of the wholemeal flour. Rub some more flour into a tea towel, and place this, floury side up, into a separate large bowl and sprinkle it with more flour.
Turn your dough out onto your floured surface. Move it around to make sure it’s not sticking and add more flour as necessary. Using lightly floured hands, press the dough out slightly flatter. Next, you want to roll up your dough as if rolling up a Swiss roll, or a Persian rug. Do this really tightly.
Turn the rolled dough 90 degrees and roll it up again. This time it will be harder – it will feel tight and try to spring back – this is good. (Don’t let it.) You’ll now have a square-ish piece of dough with a seam on the top and a smooth surface on the bottom. You want to keep this smooth surface on the bottom and sit the dough in your prepared tea-towel-in-a-bowl.
Leave your dough to rest in your homemade proving basket for another couple of hours. After this time, if you don’t have time to bake it that day, you can stick it in the fridge to rest overnight. If you are baking straight away, about half an hour before you want to bake, stick your cast-iron pot (if using) with the lid on into the oven. Preheat to 220°C (425°F)/200°C (400°F) fan/Gas 8.
Don your oven gloves, remove the pot from the oven and take off the lid. Taking great care not to burn yourself, turn your dough out into the pot, so the tea-towel side is on top. Gently peel the tea towel off the dough, leaving a floured surface. Score the dough in a cross shape with a sharp knife or razor blade. Replace the lid and put the pot back in the oven to bake for 20 minutes with the lid on.
After this time, remove the lid and bake for another 20–30 minutes, or until the loaf is golden brown and very crusty looking. Turn it out onto a wire rack to cool but wait for it to mostly cool before slicing. If you don’t have a heavy pot or Dutch oven, you can use a baking tray instead – just turn out the dough onto the tray, score and bake for 40–50 minutes.