Serene chats: “If you love an adventure in the kitchen, take a sourdough trip in the time travel machine of your own kitchen. Meander back to early European peasant farms and smell the fragrant hearth and home of food so honest, it was almost poetic and fed more than the body, but also the soul.” This recipe is found in the “Breads and Pizza Crust” section of our Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook, page 206.
Artisan Sourdough Bread
Description
Serene chats: "If you love an adventure in the kitchen, take a sourdough trip in the time travel machine of your own kitchen. Meander back to early European peasant farms and smell the fragrant hearth and home of food so honest, it was almost poetic and fed more than the body.., but also the soul." This recipe is found in the "Breads and Pizza Crust" section of our Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook, page 206.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Place the 5 cups of starter in a large soup pot (if mixing by hand, like I do) or in your dough mixing machine. If mixing by hand, add the water first, followed by the rye flour and stir everything well. Now add the spelt or kamut and the salt, and stir until well combined. If you have a mixing machine, you can throw all the ingredients in at once. If mixing by hand, get a fat, clean stick (my children found and sanded me one from outside, but you can use whatever kitchen thingy is strong enough to do the job). Plonk the stick in the back section of your pot. Hold it with two hands and lean the pot against your upper body to support it. Move the stick toward you in a forceful motion. Lift it up and place it in the back of the pot again, and keep repeating this movement on all quadrants of the pot (like moving through the different numbers on a clock face) for about 10 minutes—makes a nice little workout. Or, be a sane person and turn your machine on the bread kneading cycle for 10 minutes. You may need to add a little more water if the mixture seems too dry. The texture should be smooth and thick, like porridge or oatmeal. It should not be dry like a bread dough that you can knead on a countertop.
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Lightly coat four bread pans with coconut oil cooking spray. Using a water-moistened small breakfast bowl as a scoop, scoop out the dough from your pot and distribute it evenly among the bread pans.
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Moisten a knife with water and slash an X on the top of each loaf. Put your bread pans in a place where they can't be disturbed for at least 7 hours, but preferably 12 hours, so the bread can ferment and rise. If it is winder and your home is cold, put them in the warmest spot in the house or in a kitchen cabinet with closed doors and a little pot of steaming water in the cupboard (refill with hot water a few times during the fermentation and rising). On the other hand, if it is summer and your home is excessively warm, this can make your bread rise up and overflow your pans before the full fermentation has been completed. Try and find a cooler place to let it sit.
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Preheat the oven to 400°F and place a pan of water on the bottom shelf. Put the loaves in the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 10 minutes, then turn down the temperature to 350°F to complete 2 full hours of baking (another 1 hour and 50 minutes).
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Remove the loaves from the oven and place a clean dish towel that has been moistened with hot water (and wrung out so it is not dripping) over the top of the loaves still in the pans. After 20 minutes or so (don’t time it and get all OCD about it), remove the towel and remove the bread from the pans.
Note
Recipe Notes
From page 206, Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook...
Serene Chats: "These loaves have a chewy, steamed crust with a moist crumb that carry that characteristic sour tang that is so beloved by Foodies and bread connoisseurs. The long fermentation of true Sourdough Bread predigests much of the starch, lowering the glycemic level drastically and breaks down many of the problematic issues with grains (including drastically lowering gluten) for those with sensitive digestive systems.
I’ve worked on this recipe for several years now, streamlining the process along the way. I know it looks involved but it is a whole lot easier to make than it looks on paper. It really is a 1, 2, 3, easy as pie recipe that even a Drive Thru Sue would find shockingly simple. You don’t need a fancy dough mixer, I do it all by hand (by choice) but if you want to use a mixer that’s fine too. The recipe below makes 4 medium sized loaves. I double the recipe below and bake eight loaves every second day. But if your family is smaller or you are single, you can even halve or quarter the recipe. This bread freezes and thaws out beautifully so don't worry if you need to slice it and store it in the freezer.
First, you’re going to catch the wild yeasts of the air to make your starter… it’s going to take about a week but it’s fun and easy! If this first steps sounds too involved for you, just google “rye starter” online. You can order it and not worry about creating it yourself in which case you’ll jump straight to the bread recipe. But for all my other crazy, adventurous peeps…". Please see page 207 to learn how to do it.
NOTE: Sorry, but this bread will not be ready to cut for a good half-day. It is still firming up inside. The peak of ease for slicing will be in a couple of days, but you can start slicing pieces after a few hours. This bread keeps so well unrefrigerated because it has a lovely protective crust that preserves the moist interior, whose long fermentation time has given it the perfect pH level to resist harmful bacteria. Store the unsliced loaves in an uncovered basket (or with a light mesh over them), and any cut loaves open-side down.
