Live Well, Issue 03

88

BONUS RECIPES

Sourdough: Day One

Ingredients

Prepare Starter

Mature starter, which you should keep refrigerated until you’re ready to use it (you can get a bit from a friend or buy it online from Etsy or King Arthur Flour)

Feed your starter (refreshing). In the morning, three days before you plan to serve your bread (Friday morning, for example, for loaves on Sunday), pull your starter from the refrigerator and decant 20 grams of it into a clean, clear container. Return any remaining starter to the refrigerator for future use. Stir in 100 grams of room-temperature tap water until the starter is evenly dispersed, then stir in 100 grams of white flour until you have a smooth paste. Why? The yeast and bacteria in your starter become sluggish in the cool environment of your refrigerator. They must be energized through successive feedings, a process called refreshing, to be active enough to raise the dough. Cover the container, and let sit at room temperature until it has at least doubled in volume and its surface teems with sudsy bubbles, 10 to 12 hours, depending on your kitchen’s temperature. The bulk of your work occurs on this day, so you’ll want to set aside some time to tend to your dough. Depending on environmental conditions, your dough may take anywhere from five to nine hours to finish its rises. It’s not active time, but you’ll want to stay close to keep an eye on it. Feed your starter a second time. Once the starter has doubled in size (the evening of the first day), discard all but 20 grams of starter. To the 20 grams of starter, add 100 grams of water, then mix and incorporate another 100 grams of white flour. Cover and set aside at room temperature to be used in your dough the next day.

700 grams high-quality white bread flour, plus more for feeding starter and dusting work surfaces

300 grams high-quality whole-wheat flour, whole- grain rye flour, or spelt flour, or a combination

20 grams kosher salt or fine sea salt Rice flour, for dusting

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