Most of this video will be about sourdough baking in imperfect conditions. The conditions were even less perfect than I had planned, so you'll get to see how forgiving this dough is. As baking isn't exactly visually stunning, I'll also show you some footage from a recent hike.
My starter is from a local farm store, but with patience, you can also make your own. The starter culture is made by adding flour to water and letting that ferment. Every day, you feed.
Don't overthink this part. In an ideal world, you'd have equal parts starter, flour, and water, but it's fine. I usually have more starter. I often add too much water. It's all good.
I feed mine with whole-grain rye flour but I know some people keep wheat starters. Rye works well for me.
I'd neglected mine a bit, and it was quite hot, so I fed it thrice before baking: at night, the next morning, at night. I spent the day in between harvesting the garlic but I'll show you that next time.
I often do a million things at once when I'm in the kitchen. A bit of chopping here, some cleaning up there. Often, when I chop things, I don't yet know what they'll be used for. But when I have the energy, I use it.
With the starter refreshed, it was finally time to start baking. First, I add wheat flour to the bowl. I'll make sure to include the recipe in the blog post. You don't need a stand mixer. It just makes things less hands-on. I'm baking a double portion here, so don't worry if it looks like a lot.
Again, perfection isn't necessary. You'll figure out the perfect ratio of water to flour. Salt is the only ingredient where you need to be careful. Salt changes the fermentation, so don't add too much.
I usually feed the starter again right away, so I won't forget.
I use a stand mixer but you can also use a dough whisk, your hands, anything. Just mix things together for now. In the mixer, I start on the lowest speed until the dough comes together. I switch to the second-lowest speed when the dough has formed and kneed about ten minutes. You can also do this manually. Place the dough on the counter and kneed, and kneed, and kneed. I often start in the mixer, then transfer to the counter to finish it up manually.
This dough was a bit too wet. But it's forgiving. I've had every step of baking go wrong--often multiple at once. You'll still get decent bread. When the dough is too wet, I use a scraper to not get sticky hands. I don't like to add dough after mixing, but sometimes, you'll have to. I will later.
It would have been better to fix the dough now. But I didn't feel like staying in the kitchen. The earlier you can fix something, the better. But sometimes, it just doesn't work out that way. I had other things planned with my energy, so I decided to trust that it would work out.
Our current apartment is too small for us without a basement. There are stacks of stored items in most rooms. We have to stick it out a few more months. But by now, there is an end in sight. I dug out a shelf, and put it in front of the window to get the plants more light.
I can't touch my guitar without playing it, so I sat down for a bit of practice. I am learning very, oh so very, slowly but I'm enjoying the process. The shelf behind me now holds my bedding during the day. Some plants moved closer to the light.
I also had that giant stack of garlic to sort through. But that's for another episode. Before long, I was back in the kitchen with my too-wet dough.
So wet, I put flour onto the counter. I usually don't. I had to add a lot of flour, flour that now hasn't been fermented alongside the rest of the bread. It's no big deal. The bread is still delicious. In an ideal world, you wouldn't want to add flour, though.
Just keep adding flour until your dough feels like a pizza dough. If you've never made fresh pizza, you'll learn. The dough should not stick to your hands when you touch the surface. If you form it, it should bounce back a bit. If it doesn't, bake the bread anyway. Try again. And again. I promise it gets easier.
You get used to your dough. Your starter gets used to your kitchen.
And even after years of baking, you'll still sometimes fail. This is me failing right in front of you here, after all. If only all failure was this delicious.
More things went wrong. I forgot the dough in the kitchen. See the cracks on the surface: dried dough. Pizza, bread, bread rolls. I use the same dough for all. Just shape them the shape you want. Ideally, you'll have some oven spring, so cut a line in the top to prevent weird side cracks. This bread won't spring. I left it to long. It'll still taste good. Still better than frozen pizza by a long shot, even with this many mistakes.
This creation is called "Fridge Leftovers." It's my favorite. And because I like to be real on here, let's not just look at the pretty toppings. Let's also have a look at the dough. It's far from perfect. It tasted a bit sourer than we prefer. It was a bit less fluffy. So what.
Perfectionism is too exhausting. Enjoy the imperfect pizza instead.
I'd taken mint home from the garden, and the plant seemed to enjoy the setting sun. I know I did.
The breadrolls, too, were flatter than they should be. Still good, though. Failing is delicious with sourdough. Especially if you've got home-made jam. So delicious!
I made more Sauerkraut. Another way to use fermentation in your favor. I recently showed you how to in an episode. I love how fermentation turns time into an actual ingredient in your food. I could have fermented these cucumbers, too, but decided to go for a quicker pickle with vinegar. They'll go into the fridge while the Sauerkraut stays out at room temperature.
But I hadn't given up on showing you a good example for a bread. I tried again but a heat wave messed things up. On the hottest day of the year so far, and uncharacteristically hot for the region, I failed again. So, I tried again. I've baked many good breads. But now that I was trying to film it for you, I found more ways to fail. This was a new one. The oven spring had pushed it into the top of the air fryer.
This bread would have been edible but the slices were no fun, and we decided to cube it for Semmelknödel. So, intent on showing you a success, I tried again. And failed again. The hiking trip was too much for the starter with the heat wave added in.
So, there will be a second part to this: fixing the starter, baking proper bread again, and hopefully, a success story.
So long, and thanks for being here.
Sourdough bread recipe:
450 g bread flour (not self-rising) 240 g water 10 g salt 100 g sourdough starter (exact ratio depends on the wetness of your sourdough and the exact type of flour)
Mix until the dough comes together. Kneed it by hand or in a stand mixer until a ball forms and the dough springs back a bit when formed. Add more flour if necessary.
Let that rise until it has about doubled. You'll learn to feel the dough to judge the perfect time. This depends a lot on the temperature.
Form your bread, pizza, or bread rolls, wheels or whatever you have planned.
Bake bread at a minimum of 200 degrees for about 25 minutes. This will depend on your oven. I'm using an air fryer but without convection is better.
Bake pizza after topping with your choice of toppings for about 15 minutes. Bake bread rolls for about 15 minutes depending on size.