Sourdough bread
Faire son pain au levain peut paraître compliqué au premier abord mais vous allez voir il n’y a rien de bien sorcier, juste un tour de main et de la patience ! Avec le confinement c’est devenu une habitude à la maison, j’ai donc sorti du sommeil (profond) mon levain Martin qui à 6 ans (oui je ne l’ai jamais fait mourir !). Si vous n’avez pas de levain de compagnie, pas de soucis, je vais vous donner la recette pour en adopter un et faire du pain au levain du feu de Dieu !
Le pain au levain ça demande de la patience,
ne comptez pas vous en sortir en quelques heures, You won't find that kind of recipe here.. Here we are talking about bread, real with a nice crust and a honeycomb crumb to die for. Don't worry if you don't think you have the knack, This comes with time and is normal., what I can tell you is that you will be proud to eat what you made with your own hands. Bread will soon have no more secrets for you, you can even start other recipes with your sourdough, such as chocolate bread or even focaccia. So let's go for the sourdough bread recipe, You follow me ?
Sourdough bread
POUR 2 MEDIUM BREADS OR 1 GROS
For the sourdough
- 100 g of chef's sourdough
- 50 g whole wheat flour
- 50 ml of water
For the dough bread
- 1 kg of whole wheat flour ( T110)
- 20 g of the end
- 650 ml of water +50 ml
- The night before (J-2) : prepare the leaven, for this take 100 g of your sourdough starter (refreshes the day before) and mix it thoroughly with 50 g of flour and 50 ml of water. Cover and leave at room temperature overnight.
- The next morning (J-1) : in a mess, put the flour, 650 ml of water and your sourdough from the day before.
- To know if your sourdough is ready you can do the flotation test, for this, take a tablespoon and pour your sourdough into water. If it floats, it’s ready. !
- Knead briefly so that no more flour is visible. Leave to rise covered 30 minutes.
- At the end of 30 minutes, add the salt and 50 ml of water then knead again to obtain a smooth dough.
- Pour into a tray or large oiled salad bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 1 hour.
- After an hour, wet your hands and fold the dough several times, bringing the corners towards the center, then leave to rest for 1 hour again, covered.
- Repeat this operation 3 once again.
- Pour the dough onto a floured work surface, divide into two balls if necessary, Bend, turn the loaves over and leave to rest 20 minutes as such on the work surface.
- Place the pasta(es) in floured banneton(s), fold up, cover and leave to cool 24 h.
- D-day, preheat the oven to 250° with a baking tray or refractory stone and a bowl of water for humidity.
- Unmold the bread onto a board covered with baking paper, flour the surface of the bread and nibble the bread (incise with a blade) the pattern of your choice.
- Slide the bread with the paper into the oven.
- Cook 15 minutes at 250° then 20-25 minutes at 220° for the dough divided in two or 30 minutes at 250° and 35-40 min at 220° for a large loaf.
- Take the bread out and let it cool on a wire rack for at least 3 hours before tasting it !
Leaven
For the start
- 50 g of whole grain flour
- 50 ml of water
- In a big jar, mix the flour and water together to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
- Put the lid on the jar without closing it and let it ferment 3 days at room temperature.
- At the end of days, empty half of the jar (throw away this leaven or integrate it into a pancake batter for example) and add 50 g of rye flour and 50 ml of water. Stir vigorously then place the lid on top.
- let stand 24 h, the sourdough will double in size.
- Here is the leaven is ready, you have to feed him every day 5-7 days if kept cool, with the same weight in flour (whole wheat or rye) than in water (example 50 g of flour for 50 grams of water).
*Note : the amount of water to use may vary depending on the type of flour used, stone ground or not, grain… The wetter the dough, the more complicated it will be to handle.
LadyMilonguera
28.3.20Your bread is really beautiful !
Emilie
29.3.20Oh a thousand thanks 😉
Felicie
28.3.20Hello, Thank you for this recipe, so making REAL bread like my great uncle did seems accessible (feasible will only be the case with practice ;-). Some “bakers” would also deserve to read this kind of recipe…
Little question about sourdough, after the 3 days, you have to take out half of the jar, add the total weight of water and flour then RETURN the half taken out, That's right ?
Et 7 days later you will need to add 200g of flour and 200ml of water if I understood correctly ?
Thank you for your superb encouraging posts and good luck following confinement !
Emilie
29.3.20Thank you very much Félicie, I am happy that this recipe speaks to others and is accessible to as many people as possible. To answer your question about sourdough, you must throw away half or integrate it into a dough preparation such as pancakes or crepes (I fixed that in the article. !). And at the end of 5-7 cool days it must be hydrated 100% that is to say that it is necessary to put as much water as flour is for example 50g of water and 50 g of flour (I misspoke, I will fix that too !).
Thank you very much for your note, good luck to you too 😉
Emilie
28.3.20Great bread recipe.
I too am used to making my sourdough bread. My recipes are taken from the book Larousse des pains. But I will try yours on my next production.
At my house, Wilson (my leaven) will celebrate its first birthday in June.
See you soon
Emilie
29.3.20Oh awesome, I am delighted that you are testing my recipe with Wilson 😉 Good bread !
Emilie
19.4.20Good evening.
Bread tested this weekend with T150 flour, there were no more T110s at my bulk grocery store. The result is really great.
I love the slightly acidic taste that sourdough gives and the slow rise of the dough..
The crust of my bread is not as dark as yours. I think my oven is not hot enough… Next time I will set the temperature a little higher..
Thanks for your recipe
Emilie
21.4.20Thank you very much Emilie for your feedback, I’m glad you liked my recipe 🙂 Yes, oven temperatures vary so much !
Sarah
10.4.20Hello Hello,
Is it possible to use standard flour 55 ?
Thank you so much
Emilie
10.4.20Yes No problem, you can make bread with any flour that contains gluten. On the other hand, it will be necessary to adjust the quantity of water (I think a little less) 😉
Naima
2.11.20Great recipe and advice thank you very much Emilie.
Emilie
11.11.20Oh thank you Naima, I’m delighted 🙂
Isabelle
7.1.21Hello Emily,
I made my sourdough and I did step D-2 to make the bread but when it came time to move on to D-1, my sourdough does not float in water, it has not changed in volume ….. so it makes 2 time I start the operation again and it still doesn't seem satisfactory to me.
I only used organic rye flour and then 110, water ok too
Thank you in advance for your feedback
Cordially
Isabelle
Emilie
7.1.21Hello Isabelle, the sourdough may not float but no worries if it is alive and active. room temperature can play right now, the leaven activates less quickly below 24 degrees (think at this point about putting it close to a heat source).
Isabelle
10.1.21Hello Emily,
I made my bread yesterday, he is great. the top crust is less dark than yours but that will come with practice. Super happy with the result
Emilie
12.1.21Awesome, Thank you very much Isabelle 🙂
For the coloring of the crust it can come from the oven or from the flour, to have !
Beautiful day and great adventure with bread 😉