Simplified Sourdough Loaf (option with Basil and Parmesan) The top image is our
Simplified Sourdough Loaf (option with Basil and Parmesan)
The top image is our weekend loaf baked on a flat steel sheet as a rustic rounded loaf. A chewy crust, holes to fill with butter and raspberry jam and a slightly sour after taste which will be influenced by your starters flavour.
A great alternative to a traditional sourdough loaf is to add fresh basil and parmesan and bake in micro loaf tins, perfect for individual picnic snacks. This recipe is very similar in method to the easy bake loaf.
Ingredients
- 400g Strong White Flour
- 200ml Levain made from your sourdough starter
- 40g starter
- 80g flour
- 80ml water
- 10g salt (reduce to 6gm if adding salty parmesan)
- 20ml Olive or Rapeseed oil
- 180ml water
- Optional
- 30g Parmesan
- 30g Sun-dried tomatoes.
Compared to the easy bake loaf you’ll notice here that we’re only using 400g of flour, that’s because we have 100g in our levin (20g in the starter(it’s 50/50 flour and water) and 80g flour). That’s 100g of flour to add to our 400g making the 500g total.
The same calculation works for the water content. Instead of 300ml, we have 180ml plus the 20ml in the starter and the 80ml in the levain. Then the 20ml of oil so that’s 300ml of hydration in total. You may find you need to add 20-30ml more water as the oil may not hydrate as you expect or your flour absorbs more liquid.
Note that many sourdough recipes use higher levels of hydration than this recipe (60%), I’ve seen 70% plus which will make the prooved dough difficult to get into a shape that holds unless you practise a lot or use a tin.
Method
The Levain
If you have got to grips with a sourdough starter then you can probably knock a levain up easily. If you haven’t, then go and find a guide to creating a starter and levain, get that sorted out first then come back here.
I’ve got into the habit of creating a levain while refreshing or feeding my starter on any morning I know I am going to bake. My levain is made up of;
- 40g starter
- 80g bread flour (usually the flour I’m going to use to bake)
- 80g water
- and remember temperature and time is an ingredient
- As long as it takes to ferment at 26c
We need the levain to be bubbly and active when we use it in the bread mix.
Mixing
Put the flour, levain and salt into a bowl, mix well then drizzle the olive oil in and mix, ensure you distribute the dry and wet elements and incorporate the levain and oil evenly.
Slowly add about half of the water, incorporating it into the flour mix. The water should be at room temperature, or if your kitchen is cold, warm it up to around 26c. This’ll help the fermentation along.
If using them, now add the finely grated Parmesan and finely chopped basil to the mix using your hand or a spatula to mix them in well. Add the rest of the water, mix well and start needing.
After a few minutes by hand (or mixer) you should start to see the dough coming together nicely with a smooth texture. You may need to spend 5-10 minutes on this depending on the effort put into it. I find a mixer on slow/medium speed with a dough hook for 3-5 minutes is sufficent. I still occasionally do it all by hand because I like to maintain the skills I’ve learned.
Prooving (or proofing)
Cover and rest for at least four to five hours, you may need longer, at around 26c again, or until the dough as risen between 30-50% at least. If you can, stretch and fold the dough a couple of times during prooving that’ll help develop the doughs quality. Dust or wet you hands and do this in the bowl.
Shaping
When the dough is ready decide how you want to shape and bake it. You could clone the usual sourdough shape, rounded and rustic, or use a tin, a set of small tins or make it into a round and bake on a tray. Now leave the dough to rise again for an hour or so but keep checking as you don’t want it to over prove or overflow the tin.
At this stage, some artisan bakers will rest the dough overnight in a fridge (often bagged to prevent drying out) and then bring it out and leave at room temperature for a while to warm up or bake straight from chilled.
Whether you rest the dough overnight or use immediately you may want to water spray the final shaped loaf, dust with flour and then slash the top to prevent it splitting on the side when baked.
If you practise the recipe a few times you’ll work out if you need to adjust the quantity of ingredients and prooving timeline to suit your own setup.
Baking
If not using a tin, carefully move the bread to a preheated, lightly floured baking tray. Be gentle, you don’t want to knock the air out of it and end up with a flat pancake on the tray. If you do simply scoop it up and re-shape it.
Bake in a domestic oven at 230c for twenty minutes reducing to 160c for a further ten minutes. I’ve found this longer bake at a higher temperature gives the bread that crusty brown look we expect of a sourdough loaf.
Again, you may need to adjust the temperature and time a bit depending on how well proved your dough is and what type of loaf you want, leave it in for longer with a higher initial temperature for a darker brown crust, for example.
If you want a softer crust, put a tray in the bottom of the oven and throw a cup of water in to create steam.
Your loaf of bread should come out looking rustic and of a rounded form but if you’ve used a tin then the loaf should come out easily once properly baked, tap it to see if you get a hollow sound, if you do it’s ready to remove from the tin(s) and leave to cool on a rack. If you don’t get that hollow tap simply pop it back into the oven for another ten minutes.
Eating
Don’t forget to slice a piece off and plaster in butter after 15 minutes, while it’s still warm. As usual, you do need to make sure it’s edible.