Sustainable Living Choices: My Sourdough Bread Recipe

There are many recipes for the sourdough bread. The recipe below is how I do it and it should be seen as a guide only. You will have to find your own way of doing it as there are so many factors like the sourdough starter itself, the flour you use, the amount of water required for the type of flour you have and so on, which might be different and the recipe won't work for you exactly the same way. Don't give up if you bread won't be perfect for the first few times. It is an evolution process which is worth trying. You don't get such a healthy and delicious bread anywhere else. It is not much work to do it either. It is like a routine after few times of making the bread.

My Sourdough Bread

1 cups plain flour not bleached
1 cup rye four
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 teaspoon salt
seeds to your liking, I mostly use 1 table spoon of each: sunflower, pumpkin, black sesame seeds
500ml warm water (filtered or cooked and cooled down would be the best)
4 good tablespoons of sourdough starter

1. Combine flour, salt and seeds.

2. Mix the sourdough starter and water with a plastic or wooden fork or spoon in a large cup. Add the starter-water mix into the flour mix and knead in a food processor for about 5 minutes. Move into a glass or ceramic bowl (dust the bottom with flour) and cover with a lid or cling wrap. I also cover it with a kitchen towel to keep it warm. Keep in a warm place til the dough doubles. This will very much depend on how warm it is. In the summertime (we live in a sub-tropical area) when we got around 30-35°C, I have it sitting for about 4-5 hours. During winter, when the temperature at home is around 20°C, I do the mix evening and keep it over night.

3. Dust a clean surface with some flour and flip or scoop the dough out of the bowl. Stretch it gently and fold in the edges from the outside in forming nice round shape at the same time.

4. Dust the bread basket with some flour and place the dough in it, the seam down. Cover with a light cotton cloth and leave in a warm place for about 1-2 hours until the dough rise again and you see a nice belly at the top :D

5. Place a pizza stone into a cold oven and heat the oven up to 240°C with the upper and lower heater on. The fan forces setting is not recommended here.

6. Dust a pizza paddle with flour, gently invert the dough onto the paddle with the seam looking up now and slide the dough onto the pizza stone. Close the oven, turn the temperature down to 230°C and bake for about 45-50 minutes until ready. Take the bread out of the oven immediately and place on a rack to cool down.

7. Wait for about one hour before cutting in!
ENJOY!!

Here the first step after combining all ingredients.