Beginner's Sourdough Bread

Folks-

I've been using this recipe for a standard sourdough boule since I started experimenting with sourdough starter. It is really easy, even if it takes roughly 20 hours from start to finish.

Since I'm not modifying this recipe, just including some notes in it, I normally would stick to the original recipe on Farmhouse on Boone, but, darn it!, that website has so many ads and active videos and other doodads that it becomes non-responsive on my tablet and forces a reload when I'm working on the recipe, which is not at all convenient. So I'm parking it here with my notes.

Please notice that I'm only using metric measurements for this recipe. Sourdough anything really benefits from using metric. If you want the volume imperial measurements, go to the original recipe.

Here it is!

Ingredients: 

475 grams all purpose flour

100 grams active and bubbly sourdough starter 

325 grams water

10 grams salt

Process: 

Night day 1: Feed a sourdough starter right before bed and leave it in a warm place overnight. I often take 100 g of discard and feed it 50 g each of flour and water before placing it in a warm cabinet, and feeding the mother starter the same amount before returning it to the refrigerator. That gives me some extra to make Foccacia the next day for dinner.

Morning day 2: By about 9:00 am, using a wooden spoon or your hands mix together all ingredients just until moistened, and allow to sit covered with plastic wrap for 30 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate. 

Stretch and fold: Wet your fingers and grab the dough by the back, stretch it up as much as you can without breaking it, and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat 3 more times to complete one round. Recover it with the plastic wrap, let it sit in a warm space for 30 minutes, then repeat the stretch/fold/rest sequence two more times.

Bulk ferment/rise: Cover with a damp tea towel, a lid (loosely!), or plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in size. This may take 4-12 hours depending on temperatures and overall activity of your sourdough starter.

Shape: Lightly flour a surface (I like to cover a counter with parchment paper first) then fold the dough over itself and roll it like a cinnamon roll. If you're making sourdough bowls, this is the time to divide the dough into thirds. Form into a boule ball by rotating the dough on the surface between your hands, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes uncovered. This prevents it from sticking to the tea towel later. Turn it over and shape by grabbing two opposite sides and pinching them together, then turn it 90 degrees and repeat once. This gives it a better spring. Place in a bowl or benneton lined with a lightly floured tea towel, seam side up, cover with plastic wrap or place in a plastic bag, and put in the refrigerator overnight.

Bake day 3: When you're ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven and Dutch oven at 500 degrees for one hour. Remove the dough from the fridge just before you want to put it in the oven. Place on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, and using a sharp knife or lame, cut the expansion score(s). Place the hot Dutch oven on a heat resistant surface (I use a burner top) take the top off, and holding the corners of the parchment, lower the dough into the oven. Cover it and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the lid of the Dutch oven, reduce the temperature to 475, and bake another 20 minutes until golden.

Notes: 1. To make sourdough bread bowls for chowders, chili, or stews, this recipe makes about 3 smaller boules of about 290 grams each before baking. I recommend using a cookie sheet and aluminum chafing dish to cover the loaves. Make sure to drizzle a fair amount of water on the parchment paper using this method, and you'll have to reduce the baking time to about 15/20 minutes, possibly less.

2. Do not grease the bowl to skip using a tea towel when you put the dough in the refrigerator. You can just flour the bowl instead, but if you grease, butter, or spray the bowl the crust will be softer and you won't get the clear expansion score.

Baklava

 Folks-

This is really a work in progress, so I don't yet consider it complete. I created this by cobbling it together from several other recipes.

Ingredients:

Honey Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp rose water (or orange extract, or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 10 black peppercorns (or 5 whole cloves)

Nut Filling:

• 8 oz shelled raw pistachios
• 8 oz raw walnuts (or almonds, or pecans)
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 Tsp salt

Pastry and Butter:

• 2-3 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 lb frozen phyllo dough, thawed

To make the honey syrup:

Combine all ingredients except rose water in a saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before discarding peppercorns and stirring in the rosewater or other flavoring.

To make the nut filling:

Pulse the nuts together in a food processor until very finely chopped. Set aside about 1 tbsp before you add in sugar, salt, and ground cardamom and pulse together to combine.

To assemble and bake:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brush a 9x13 inch pan with butter then layer a half-sheet of Phyllo in the bottom and brush with butter, layering 6- 10 more half sheets on top, brushing each with butter. Layer 1/3 of the nut filling on top, and place a half-sheet of Phyllo on the filling, and dab with butter (brushing will slide it off.) Layer 6-10 more half sheets, another 1/3 of the filling, another 7-10 sheets of dough & butter, the rest of the filling, the rest of the dough and butter. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough and filling into squares or diamonds. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, turn it 180 degrees, and bake another 45 minutes or until golden in color. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack then immediately pour the honey syrup through the cuts, leaving the last couple of tablespoons to cover the top of the baklava. Decorate the tops with the saved nut mixture.

Allow to cool for at least three hours, than wrap in aluminum foil and allow to sit for 12 hours before serving.

Notes: Aaron strongly recommends sitting down while assembling the baklava in the baking dish. It takes quite a while with all of the layering, dabbing, and covering with nut filling, and, yeah, I wish I had done it sitting at the table that first time.

Also, this is much better the day after it's baked. Like, a lot. I strongly recommend fixing it a day ahead if you have a party or gathering planned.

And this recipe is great for sharing. One full recipe is too much for my family of six to finish in a reasonable amount of time.