[0:00] hey what's up unfortunately i think most
[0:01] people's first attempts at sourdough
[0:03] bread
[0:04] end in failure so in this video my goal
[0:06] is to show you how to make the simplest
[0:08] possible loaf of sourdough bread and to
[0:11] speak to the fundamentals of this
[0:12] process so that you
[0:13] can make a crusty rustic loaf of
[0:16] sourdough bread at home if you don't
[0:17] have a sourdough starter and you want
[0:19] one
[0:19] i made a video a couple weeks ago called
[0:20] how to make a sourdough starter i will
[0:22] definitely throw the link down in the
[0:23] description for that
[0:24] and if you don't want to sit around for
[0:25] two to three minutes of sourdough bread
[0:27] theory up front here
[0:28] that's the timestamp click ahead if you
[0:30] want to get right to business okay so
[0:32] you've captured and cultivated your
[0:33] sourdough starter and now you've moved
[0:35] on to the maintenance phase we are
[0:36] giving that starter fresh water and
[0:38] fresh flour on a daily basis to keep it
[0:40] in good shape
[0:41] for eventually baking bread so to go
[0:43] from starter to finished loaf we need to
[0:45] follow six stages
[0:46] of the sourdough process the first stage
[0:48] is where we take our starter from this
[0:50] daily maintenance stage and build it
[0:51] into 11 for our bread
[0:53] 11 is basically just a custom blend of
[0:55] sourdough starter
[0:56] flour and water that you make for an
[0:58] individual dough
[0:59] to leaven it think of your leaven as the
[1:01] engine for your bread
[1:02] this stage can take anywhere from 6 to
[1:04] 24 hours depending on the ratios or the
[1:07] temperatures
[1:08] and we'll call this the build stage in
[1:09] the second stage we combine the flour
[1:11] the water and all the lemon that we just
[1:13] mixed with some additional salt because
[1:15] bread without salt is gross and we call
[1:18] this the mix stage that's simple enough
[1:20] in the third stage we ferment that dough
[1:21] that we just mixed with wild yeast and
[1:23] bacteria
[1:24] from our 11. this produces gas in
[1:26] acidity we call this step the
[1:28] bulk fermentation we're also going to be
[1:30] doing some strength building folds that
[1:31] are really important to this process
[1:33] think of adding strength as like a
[1:35] secret ingredient that doesn't weigh
[1:36] anything but
[1:37] it's essential to creating a good loaf
[1:39] of bread adding strength to a dough is
[1:41] just as essential as adding salt
[1:43] without it it doesn't work okay stage
[1:45] four is the shape stage the bulk
[1:47] fermentation has given us a nice
[1:49] gassy blob of dough and now it's our job
[1:51] to organize that blob into a nice
[1:53] strong taut loaf of bread that will
[1:55] properly rise in the oven
[1:57] and hold itself up during the bake stage
[1:59] five is the proof stage this is where we
[2:00] continue that gas
[2:02] and acid production to grow the size of
[2:04] the loaf this is a really essential part
[2:05] of the process and a lot of recipes
[2:07] either misunderstand this part or leave
[2:09] it out all together and then finally
[2:11] stage six the bake stage that's where we
[2:13] bake the loaf of bread
[2:14] and that's pretty self-explanatory of
[2:16] course there's tons of ways that you can
[2:17] manipulate this process to make better
[2:20] and better versions of sourdough but
[2:21] think of this as like the training
[2:23] wheels version of sourdough bread we've
[2:25] taken a lot of the water out to make it
[2:27] so that anybody can handle it we've
[2:28] really
[2:29] upped the amount of sourdough starter as
[2:31] well and we're not gonna be making any
[2:32] fancy shapes or shooting for like
[2:34] pornographic
[2:35] instagram crun crum before we start
[2:38] mixing though let's talk about the tools
[2:40] you need to get this thing done
[2:41] first up you need an active sourdough
[2:43] starter again check the link in the
[2:44] description for my video on how to make
[2:46] one of these things next up is a digital
[2:48] scale
[2:49] weight measurements are much more
[2:51] accurate when it comes to making bread
[2:52] and as a professional baker 100
[2:54] of the breads that we made were measured
[2:56] in grams however i will put the
[2:58] volumetric measurements for this recipe
[3:00] in the description for those of you guys
[3:01] without scales
[3:02] next you're going to need a sturdy spoon
[3:04] like this one then
[3:05] a medium bowl which i highly recommend a
[3:07] 12 inch stainless steel one like this
[3:09] it's restaurant grade it will last
[3:11] forever and it's pretty cheap i'm going
[3:12] to be mixing
[3:13] and fermenting the dough in this bowl
[3:15] behind that you need something to proof
[3:17] the loaves in these are linen lined
[3:18] bread baskets and they're great but if
[3:20] you don't have a proofing basket that's
[3:21] no sweat i'm going to be showing you
[3:22] another option
[3:23] and it'll be cheap and something you
[3:25] probably already have on hand next
[3:26] you're going to need a way to trap steam
[3:28] and heat around the loaf during the bake
[3:30] for me i use a dutch oven most of the
[3:32] time this one is really worn from
[3:34] hundreds of loaves being baked in it but
[3:36] if you don't have a dutch oven or you
[3:37] don't want to put the wear and tear on
[3:38] your nice one i will be showing you a
[3:40] cheaper
[3:41] lower tech option later in this video
[3:42] that also works just as well finally
[3:44] you're gonna need a way to measure
[3:46] temperature i have a few digital instant
[3:47] meat thermometers here and one of them
[3:49] is a laser that's dope okay now to
[3:52] actually make a loaf of sourdough bread
[3:54] we're starting with stage one of this
[3:56] process at 9 pm the night before we want
[3:58] to make our bread this stage is where we
[4:00] build our leaven so grab your sourdough
[4:02] starter in a high sided vessel and into
[4:04] that measure 100 grams of room
[4:05] temperature water or in this case
[4:07] 78 degrees fahrenheit or 25 degrees
[4:09] celsius on top of that 25 grams of our
[4:11] ripe sourdough starter and then 100
[4:13] grams of all-purpose flour from there
[4:15] i'm going to stir everything up to
[4:16] combine
[4:17] it should look like thick gloppy pancake
[4:19] batter
[4:20] excellent now a lid goes on and we're
[4:22] going to ferment this on our countertop
[4:24] overnight 12 hours later this 11 is
[4:26] fully ripened and it's very full of life
[4:29] it smells sweet it's slightly acidic and
[4:31] to make absolutely sure that you have a
[4:32] ripe leaven
[4:33] a good trick is to grab some warm water
[4:35] and scoop a little bit of starter into
[4:37] it this is called the float test and if
[4:38] your starter is sitting on top of that
[4:40] water
[4:40] you're good to go now i'm going to grab
[4:42] my mixing bowl and i'm also going to
[4:44] check the temperature of the water for
[4:45] this dough 92 degrees fahrenheit or 33
[4:47] degrees celsius is what i'm looking for
[4:49] so for stage 2 or the mix stage into
[4:51] this bowl we're going to measure 310
[4:53] grams of water 200 grams of that
[4:55] overnight
[4:56] leaven that we mixed yesterday and there
[4:58] should be about 25 grams of that left in
[4:59] the container by the way we're gonna use
[5:01] that to perpetuate our starter from here
[5:03] on out so
[5:03] set that aside and then behind that 400
[5:05] grams of all-purpose flour 50 grams of
[5:07] whole grain
[5:08] wheat flour and finally 12 grams of salt
[5:10] i'm gonna grab my sturdy spoon now and
[5:12] start stirring everything up to combine
[5:14] real quick i've been asked a lot in the
[5:16] comments from these bread videos why i
[5:18] use all-purpose flour instead of bread
[5:20] flour
[5:20] the shorter answer is that bread flour
[5:22] is too strong for me in the us where i
[5:23] live all-purpose flour is a very hefty
[5:26] 11.7
[5:27] protein that is plenty to properly
[5:30] strengthen a european style hearth bread
[5:32] okay
[5:32] back to mixing once this dough has come
[5:34] together to form a shaggy mess
[5:36] like this we're going to lose the spoon
[5:37] and switch over to a wet hand now i'm
[5:39] just gonna jump in with my wet hand and
[5:40] give this a simple squeeze
[5:42] to combine i'm pinching and turning and
[5:44] folding to get all that starter and salt
[5:46] evenly distributed throughout the dough
[5:48] after about two to three minutes of this
[5:49] mixing it's looking pretty good but
[5:51] as you can see it's still sticky and
[5:53] shaggy and it's a total mess but it's at
[5:55] least a well mixed and
[5:56] properly combined one don't worry about
[5:58] this it is normal it should look kind of
[6:00] sticky at this point you're going to see
[6:02] how we get it from here
[6:03] to a more bread dough looking thing in a
[6:06] few minutes from here i'm gonna pop a
[6:07] lid on this and then throw it into a
[6:09] warm place to begin stage three or the
[6:11] bulk fermentation stage in this case the
[6:13] warm place is my oven with the light
[6:15] turned on and i'm gonna come back in 30
[6:17] minutes
[6:17] after that 30 minutes you can see that
[6:19] there's not much action going on in this
[6:20] dough and that's totally fine
[6:22] we're going to give this dough the first
[6:23] of two strength building folds to do
[6:25] that i'm going to grab a big
[6:27] old grip of dough from the side i'm
[6:28] going to stretch it out as far as it
[6:30] will let me go and i'm going to fold it
[6:31] over to the opposite side i'm gonna
[6:33] repeat this move three more times one
[6:35] fold for each side
[6:36] as a reminder we're doing these folds to
[6:37] layer the gluten network and replicate
[6:39] the mechanical work that happens in a
[6:41] stand mixer once we got four folds done
[6:43] now we're gonna fold up the corners
[6:45] maybe do that three or four times and
[6:47] from there we're gonna finish this up by
[6:48] gripping
[6:49] folding and rounding this dough into a
[6:51] nice taut
[6:52] little ball i'm grabbing the bottom
[6:54] folding the dough in half and then
[6:56] tucking it up
[6:56] under itself to stretch the top out and
[6:59] that looks good now the lid goes back on
[7:01] we throw it back in the oven or a warm
[7:03] place and we check
[7:03] back in 30 minutes okay here we go 30
[7:06] minutes later or
[7:07] 60 minutes total into this bulk
[7:09] fermentation now it's time for set
[7:10] two of folds this is going to be an
[7:12] exact repeat of what we just did
[7:14] that's four folds on top followed by
[7:16] some corner folding
[7:17] then a slap and fold rounding thing to
[7:19] get things into a nice
[7:21] taut ball i'm also going to check the
[7:22] dough temperature here as you can see
[7:24] mine's rolling at 77 degrees and i just
[7:26] want to mention dough temperature is one
[7:28] of the main ingredients in good
[7:29] sourdough bread if yours is running
[7:31] significantly colder than this you might
[7:32] want to pop your oven on for a second to
[7:34] get a little heat in the box
[7:35] that's what i'm doing here pop it off
[7:37] after maybe two minutes and then
[7:39] now you've got something that's gonna
[7:40] raise the dough temperature a few
[7:41] degrees all right
[7:42] after two hours or three hours total
[7:44] since we've mixed our dough bulk
[7:46] fermentation is complete
[7:48] as you can see this dough ball is now
[7:49] buoyant and alive
[7:51] and it's grown by about 50 to 60 percent
[7:53] now we're gonna move into stage four
[7:55] the shaping stage for that we need our
[7:56] loaf proofing basket that i mentioned
[7:58] earlier i'm gonna lightly flour that and
[8:00] be liberal if this is the first time
[8:02] you're using these baskets the dough can
[8:03] stick
[8:04] and stand by if you don't have a
[8:05] proofing basket i'll get to the other
[8:07] proofing option in a second
[8:08] now i'm gonna flour the dough then the
[8:10] work surface and then i'm going to flip
[8:11] the
[8:12] dough out we're going to cut right to
[8:13] the pov cam so you can see exactly
[8:16] what the b boy sees okay we've got our
[8:17] dough ball on the table ready to go i'm
[8:19] going to grab the bottom with some well
[8:20] floured fingers and then i'm going to
[8:22] pull that
[8:22] and stretch it all the way out i'm going
[8:24] to fold that up to close to the top of
[8:26] this dough blob
[8:27] press it down lightly and i'm going to
[8:29] brush off excessive flour from here
[8:31] now i'm going to grab the sides and
[8:33] stretch those out about 8 to 10 inches
[8:35] on each side then i'm going to fold the
[8:36] left over to the right side and then the
[8:38] right goes over to the left side
[8:40] tap that down brush off excessive flower
[8:42] oh i both bumped the camera oops
[8:44] now grab the top and stretch it out and
[8:46] fold that back towards the bottom
[8:48] make sure it's stuck really well from
[8:49] here to make sure that there's maximum
[8:51] internal strength we're going to fold in
[8:52] the corner so in goes the top left
[8:55] and then cross over from the bottom left
[8:57] and then the top right
[8:58] i'm going to tuck in a few more times
[8:59] wherever the corners are left sticking
[9:01] out and
[9:01] there we go we've got a nice tight bull
[9:03] shaped loaf that's definitely going to
[9:05] be ready to party in the oven later on
[9:07] now we're going to scoop this loaf seam
[9:09] side down into my palm
[9:10] then i'm going to grab the basket and
[9:12] plop that thing in there
[9:14] seam side facing up you guys from there
[9:16] if you want some additional peace of
[9:17] mind you can fold back the corners of
[9:19] the loaf a little bit to get
[9:20] that last little bit of strength and
[9:22] tension sealed in now to move into stage
[9:23] five the proofing stage we're gonna
[9:25] cover this with a tea towel and let it
[9:26] rise on the counter for about 90 minutes
[9:29] and if you're thinking
[9:30] hey brah what if i don't have a proofing
[9:31] basket that's no sweat you can
[9:33] definitely use the stainless steel bowl
[9:34] we just fermented our bread dough in
[9:36] just make sure you have some coarse
[9:38] non-absorbent not very sticky cloth
[9:40] in there i'm using some flax linen
[9:42] that's usually an insect barrier in my
[9:44] garden
[9:45] any improvised proofing situation will
[9:46] definitely need to be floured very well
[9:48] to prevent stickage and once you got
[9:50] that shaped up we're gonna pop that in
[9:52] there
[9:52] loaf seam side up and let it proof just
[9:55] like we did in the basket okay it's been
[9:57] about 90 minutes but before we look at
[9:58] our proof loaves let's look at the two
[10:00] ways we can actually bake this bread at
[10:02] home
[10:02] first is a dutch oven like i mentioned
[10:04] before and the combination of the lid
[10:06] and the cast iron give us that perfect
[10:08] hot steamy air around the loaf and it
[10:10] allows it to rise and spring the way it
[10:12] should i'm gonna load this thing into my
[10:13] oven at 500 degrees or 260 degrees
[10:15] celsius and preheat it for 30 to 40
[10:18] minutes
[10:18] option two is a cheaper more rugged diy
[10:21] way to party i've got my ratty 20
[10:23] pizza stone here i've got a cast iron
[10:25] pan that i filled with about three
[10:26] dollars worth of landscaping lava rocks
[10:29] and then i've got a little baking dish
[10:30] with some wet towels
[10:32] rolled up in it the rocks and the towels
[10:33] go under the stone and when we bake i
[10:35] fill both of those things with boiling
[10:36] water and we get tons of quick steam
[10:38] from the rocks and some long slow steam
[10:40] from the wet towels thanks to the fresh
[10:42] loaf bread form by the way for the
[10:43] inspiration for this method
[10:44] you guys rock okay let's take a look at
[10:47] this loaf it's been 90 minutes since we
[10:49] shaped it or roughly four and a half
[10:50] hours since we started this process
[10:52] and now we've got a nice puffy boy
[10:54] that's properly proofed
[10:55] up a good way to know whether your loaf
[10:57] is proofed is to actually poke it the
[10:59] loaf should receive the poke and barely
[11:01] hold on to it and then
[11:02] pop right back out and if your loaf
[11:04] isn't there quite yet don't sweat it
[11:05] just
[11:06] give it some more time we really want to
[11:07] make sure that this thing is fully
[11:08] proofed
[11:09] before we bake it now to bake this thing
[11:11] we're going to grab a little round of
[11:12] parchment paper that we cut i'm gonna
[11:13] throw down some semolina flour or
[11:15] cornmeal to prevent the dough from
[11:16] sticking to it and i'm gonna flip this
[11:18] loaf onto that paper
[11:19] seam side down next we need to create a
[11:21] weak spot on top of this loaf so it
[11:22] reaches its full potential in the oven
[11:24] usually a lamb or a razor blade is used
[11:27] but i'm assuming most beginner bakers
[11:28] out there don't have one of those so to
[11:30] keep this diy i'm gonna use scissors i'm
[11:32] gonna give the top of this loaf five to
[11:33] six
[11:34] rustic chops nothing too organized or
[11:36] special then i'm gonna scoot it to the
[11:37] side
[11:38] and grab my hot dutch oven i'm gonna
[11:39] lift this parchment and lower the whole
[11:41] loaf
[11:42] in put the lid on the dutch oven and i'm
[11:44] going to throw it back in the oven and
[11:45] turn the oven down to 485 degrees
[11:48] and bake the whole thing for 18 minutes
[11:50] to do this the frugal diy way i'm gonna
[11:52] flip my loaf out into a pizza peel or
[11:54] onto the back of a sheet tray with some
[11:55] semolina flour i'm going to give that
[11:57] loaf a scissoring then i'm going to
[11:58] slide it into the oven on the pizza
[11:59] stone i'm going to cover the glass of my
[12:01] oven door with a towel so that i don't
[12:02] break it and then i'm going to pour
[12:04] boiling water into the preheated lava
[12:06] rocks and then onto the wet towels
[12:08] and from there it's just like the dutch
[12:10] oven we're going to be baking this at
[12:11] 485 degrees fahrenheit
[12:12] 251 celsius for 18 minutes during that
[12:15] 18 minutes the loaves in the oven are
[12:17] going to spring upwards the cuts we made
[12:19] are going to provide a weak spot for all
[12:20] that upward energy to go
[12:22] without a proper score on top they're
[12:23] going to explode out the side and we
[12:25] would have a really ugly under risen
[12:27] loaf
[12:27] after 18 minutes of baking i'm gonna
[12:29] pull out my dutch oven take the lid off
[12:31] and let's take a look the loaf is fully
[12:34] risen it's totally ripped through the
[12:35] cuts that we made
[12:36] and it looks organic and it's kind of
[12:38] tough we're gonna load it back into the
[12:40] oven and finish baking and i'm gonna
[12:41] turn the oven down to 465 fahrenheit
[12:44] 250 celsius and i'm going to keep baking
[12:46] for 25 more minutes and
[12:47] same deal by the way for the pizza stone
[12:49] slash lava rocks loaf after 18 minutes
[12:51] we're gonna take
[12:52] out the steaming agents we're gonna turn
[12:53] the oven down to 465 and bake for about
[12:55] 25 more minutes
[12:57] now finally after that 25 minutes we've
[12:59] got a fully
[13:00] risen simple easy beautiful loaf of
[13:03] sourdough bread we're gonna pop it out
[13:05] of the dutch oven
[13:06] or off the pizza stone and let that
[13:07] thing cool for 30 to 40 minutes
[13:09] let's take a closer look at the crust
[13:11] it's dark it's blistered
[13:13] and it's very well set the inside of
[13:15] this thing is creamy and chewy
[13:16] and it has just a hint of acidity we did
[13:18] the whole thing with wild
[13:20] yeast that we captured and that's pretty
[13:22] amazing but look this loaf is not going
[13:24] to win any awards for the most open
[13:26] chrome or the deepest most nuanced
[13:28] sourdough flavor
[13:29] but it is delicious and it's a great
[13:31] place to start once you have success at
[13:32] this level there are just
[13:34] so many ways that you can refine and
[13:35] build on this process to make a bread
[13:37] that
[13:37] is so good and special that you
[13:39] literally can't go buy anything close to
[13:42] it
[13:42] in most parts of the world if you have
[13:44] any questions about this process please
[13:45] hit me up in the comments i try to
[13:47] answer as many
[13:48] questions as possible that are asked
[13:50] politely and hey before i get out of
[13:52] here anybody who's bought me a coffee
[13:53] over on kofi recently
[13:55] thank you very much and if you guys like
[13:57] this video please consider giving it a
[13:59] like
[13:59] maybe watch a couple more of my videos
[14:01] over there as always guys thank you so
[14:02] much for your time and attention
[14:04] thank you for sticking around and we'll
[14:05] see you next time