How do you make Sourdough Bread?
Do you own a bread maker or do you prefer to buy freshly made bread from a bakery?
I have recently visited a fantastic bakery in Northampton and this place makes delicious sourdough bread. This bakery is called Magee Street bakery, follow this link to read all about this bakery - https://mageestreetbakery.co.uk/
How do you make Sourdough bread at home?
Here is an example of the type of ingredients to use to make your own sourdough bread:
150g/ 5.35 oz bubbly, active sourdough starter
250g/ 8.80 oz warm water, preferably filtered*
25g/ .90 oz olive oil
500g/ 17.65 oz bread flour (not all-purpose flour)
10g/ .4 oz fine sea salt
fine ground cornmeal, for dusting
Part of the ingredient list is sourdough starter, you will need to make this from fresh or if you are a bakery, this is made, reused and topped up. This is what brings the flavour to the bread and Magee Street bakery call theirs Olive and they look after it, to keep the flavour.
Here are the ingredients for this so you can make a batch from scratch:
60 g (1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
60 g (1/4 cup) water
What’s next?
MAKE THE DOUGH - Whisk the starter, water, and olive oil in a large bowl. Add the flour and salt. Squish everything together with your hands until all of the flour is absorbed. The dough will be dry and shaggy. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes or up to 1 hour. Stretch & fold the dough within 30min of your rise time and before dividing the dough. After the dough has rested, work the dough in the bowl into a rough ball, for about 15 seconds.
You could follow Magee Street process by dividing the dough once after leaving the dough
“We only divide ours once after roughly 7 hours to cut and shape before we overnight refrigerate.”
DIVIDE UP THE DOUGH - Make sure that once divided you cover the bowls with plastic wrap or a very damp kitchen cloth. Leave these to rest in a warm spot to rise. The dough is ready when it looks dense and has doubled in size and this can take anywhere from 3-12 hours.
CUT & SHAPE THE DOUGH - Remove the dough from the bowls, and place it onto the floured section so that it does not stick. You do not need to ‘punch down the dough; it will gently deflate as you fold and shape it. Cut the dough in half or leave it whole for a single loaf. The quantity of bread will depend if you have increased the ingredients from the list above. Leave these for a second time to rise and this can be for a shorter period.
Preheat your oven to 450º F/ 232º C towards the tail end of the second rise.
SCORE THE DOUGH - Before putting your bread into the oven, make a shallow slash about 2-3 inches long (or more) in the centre of the dough. Use a bread lame or a small serrated steak knife. The cut should be about 1/4-inch deep.
BAKE THE DOUGH - Place the bread into the oven on the centre rack and reduce the temperature to 400 F. Bake for 20 minutes covered for home baking. Remove cover and continue to bake for an additional 40 minutes or until deep, golden brown. Keep in mind that all ovens are different; you might have to make minimal adjustments to these temperatures. You can also take the internal temperature of your bread to double-check that it is done. For sourdough, it should read about 205-210º F/ 96-98º C.
Remove the bread from the oven, and cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing. Don’t cut too soon or else the inside will have a gummy texture!
Thank you for reading this blog and I hope this helps with your bread-making journey. To form this blog, I worked with Magee Street bakery, on the bread process and pictures of this bakeries sourdough making process and a wee cameo of Carl as he scores the dough and removes the baked bread from the oven.
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