Easy Sourdough Bread for the Smaller Family – Part 2

As stated previously, most Sourdough Starter and Bread recipes I’ve seen are far too big for my family and/or my dough kneading equipment.  So I revised and tweaked the Nourishing Traditions Sourdough Starter and Bread recipes for manageability and success.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups Sourdough Starter

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

3 Tbsp warm spring or other clean water (not distilled or ozonated or anything weird)

1 Tbsp raw sugar (I use palm sugar, do not use honey)

1/4 tsp sea salt

3 – 4 more cups of flour.  For a denser loaf use whole wheat, rye or spelt etc.  for a lighter fluffier loaf use unbleached white flour

 

Throw everything except the flour into the mixer, blend for 1 min.

add 1 c. flour and blend for 3 min

now switch out to your dough hook  or start stirring with a wooden spoon and start adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until you reach a solid dough.  This dough will be more sticky than other bread doughs.  just as long as it’s not runny.  Most of the time I don’t use all of the 4 cups of flour as it just makes the dough way too stiff.   You want it to be workable.   If using a dough hook, let knead for 7 min. adding flour a Tbsp at a time if necessary.  If stirring by hand turn the dough out onto a floured surface and start kneading adding bits of flour everytime the dough gets too sticky.  Knead for about 10 min by hand.

 

Then form into a loaf and place in a well greased loaf pan.    here’s where it gets hard to say what’s going to happen.

It takes my dough 2-3 hours to rise to a nice poof above the loaf pan.  Next time I do it I’ll have to take a picture.

 

Bake at about 350 for 40 – 50 min depending on density and crunchiness desire 😉

 

How it looks when you put it in the bread pan.  As you can see it’s stiff like dough, but a bit looser than regular bread dough.

In this picture you can see I proof (rising) the dough in my oven with the light on for warmth, and a pan of hot tap water under it for moisture.  This is after it’s been rising for about an hour or so.

 

This is a picture of after it’s been rising for 2-3 hours.  It has more than doubled in size and I think it’s time to turn the oven on!  I just leave it in the oven while it preheats, and i leave the pan of water in there too as it creates steam and a lovely crusty top.

Here is the final product!  Yum.  As you can see, the family has already been at it 😉  The crumb (texture) is a lot larger than a regular two rise, added yeast, bread.  It’s got a lovely chewy-ish texture and that nice sour tang you expect from sourdough.  The older your starter (don’t forget to keep feeding your starter! ) the more you will detect more and better sourdough flavour.

 

well, I hope that helps, please post any questions in the comment section.