Sourdough Bread, Whey Sourdough and Sourdough Pancakes

In this snowy morning of -4F, I am happy to bake and almost hug the sourdough loaves coming out of my oven! I have a lot to learn, but I am exciting about the crust and the crumble, the taste and be able to make this beauties at home.
I am reading Michael Pollan’s book “Cooked” and got super motivated to try the sourdough bread recipe he adapted from Chad Robertson. But I was waiting for some mental space to incorporate the steps into my life. My friend Phyllis has been making sourdough bread and even gave me a starter! But I already have milk and water kefir going. I sprout, make yogurt, bread and everything our family eats, so adding sourdough sounded like an impossible task. But this week I needed the distraction and this was the perfect project. I followed MP’s recipe (steps also blog in this Examiner post and Pollan’s notes from the book, but in the end I had to re-write to work with my routine. I also made Whey Sourdough and Sourdough Pancakes with the leftover Leaven. Maybe next I could try using my kefir to make the bread as on this example! It has taken a lot of reading and I am thankful to bloggers who take the time to share, so here my turn if this is helpful.

I did run out to photograph a woodpecker! 🙂

My friend Phyllis Capparelli, gave me the starter–please meet “mother!” and Phyllis notes on how she made the starter bellow.

“I used a simple recipe for the starter. Just 4 oz (about 1 cup) of all purpose flour and 4 oz (about 1/2) water. The first two days,  I
only fed it once. On the third day, I switched to bread flour and started feeding it twice a day (about 12 hours apart).
It would have been ready for the fridge then but I continued feeding it twice a day for a week. By then, it was bubbling good and
had a nice aroma. After a week, it began it’s storage in the fridge and unless I’m baking, I feed it 4 oz of flour and 4 oz of water once
a week. Love my kitchen scale!” Phyllis Capparelli.

Whole Grain Country Loaf

Evening Day 1: Make Leaven and Mix flours

I use 2-3 TBSP of the Mother (35g) plus 100g white whole wheat flour, 100g unbleached all purpose flour and 200 g of warm tap water. Mix vigorously, by hand and let stand overnight on a glass bowl covered with a tea towel.

Before going to bed, I mix flours by hand until there are no lumps and let soak overnight on a covered bowl: 600g white whole wheat flour, 250g unbleached all purpose flour, 150g rye flour, 900g warm water

To keep mother going, I saved 1/2 cup of the mother. I add to it 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of warm tap water and keep in the fridge.  I save the rest of the starter for another use. (see bellow)

Morning Day 2: Ferment, Divide, Shape

In the morning my Leaven looked like this:

beautiful “gassy foam” and lots of air bubbles, sweet yeast smell.

Then I did a test, using my hands, I pinched 1 tablespoon of the leaven and added to a cup of warm tap water and it floated! Ya! Pollan said if it does not you can add 3 1/2g of yeast mixed with 50g of warm tap water. The second time I made bread, it did not float and I waited another hour and it floated.

I use half of the leaven to make 2 country loaves and the rest I used to make the Whey Sourdough, recipe bellow.

1. Add half of the leaven to soaked flour mixture. the dough should be very wet, almost soupy, let it rest 20 minutes.
2. Mix the salt (25 grams) and warm water (50 grams) to the dough
3. Let ferment 4-6 hours. Every 45-60 minutes turn the dough in the bowl from bottom to top, turning and going around still in the bowl. Do this 4 times or so until the dough wants to stick together, not to your hand as much.
4. Split the dough in half, shape by folding the dough like an envelope then cup with my hands and made a ball. Turn seams up on a oiled plate and let is rest for a couples of hours covered with a towel.
(or cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight to bake next day)

Day 3 Morning: Bake
Bring dough to room temperature for about 1 hour
Preheat oven 500F and the dutch oven pot.
Carefully take pot out and turn the plate over sliding the dough. It will probably look flat  (but it will round up while it bakes). Using sharp knife cut a decorative slash
Reduce the oven temperature to 450F and bake the loaf covered for 25 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake another 25 minutes.
Cool the loaf for a few hours on a rack–enjoy! Ah and Pollan said store on paper bag, not plastic!
I froze 2 loaves and we are enjoying the whey one.

a crumble photo

Whey Sourdough Bread

For the Whey Sourdough, I adapted from thefreshloaf.com

325g unbleached all purpose flour
100g white whole wheat flour
150g leaven
296g whey
10g salt

1. Mix everything together by hand and let it rest for 20 minutes
2. I let it bulk rise at room temp for 12 hours (overnight) or in the fridge overnight.
3. In the morning, stir and fold, by hand (Pollan’s tip on how to incorporate more bacteria). You will see the dough wants to stick together, not your hands.
4. Shape dough into boules and let it rest, proof for about 1 hours. I did that on a plate lightly oiled, covered with a loose tea towel.  Score.
5. To bake I follow the same steps as the other loaf as it worked for me,

Bring dough to room temperature for about 1 hour
Preheat oven 500F and the dutch oven pot.
Carefully take pot out and turn the plate over sliding the dough. It will probably look flat  (but it will round up while it bakes). Using sharp knife cut a decorative slash
Reduce the oven temperature to 450F and bake the loaf covered for 25 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake another 25 minutes.
Cool the loaf for a few hours on a rack–enjoy! Ah and Pollan said store on paper bag, not plastic!

For the Pancakes I followed nourishedkitchen.com recipe

After I took half of the Leaven to make bread, I had a cup left, so I made pancakes!

Mix  1 cup of sourdough starter, 1/2 cup of white whole wheat flour and let it rest for 12 hours.
Then add (I used a hand mixer for this part) 1 egg, 2-3 tablespoons of milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
Pour 1/3 cup of batter into lightly buttered cast iron pan. It made 9 pancakes.