Simple Sourdough Bread, Transcript

Transcript for The Easiest Actually Good Sourdough Bread (No Mixer) by Merlin

hey what's up if you're new here my nameis Brian lagerstrom and before I was inyour phone or in your TV making foodvideos I was actually a restaurant chefand a professional bread Baker

todayI'm going to use that experience to showyou guys the easiest possible loaf ofsourdough bread you can make at home

inthis video you'll learn exactly how tohandle a sourdough starter how to mixthe bread dough without a stand mixerthen how to bake that dough with andwithout bread specific tools if you'vebeen wanting to dabble in the world ofsourdough but you just didn't know whereto start then this is the vid for you

before we get started on the mix thoughI really quick want to go over the sixfundamental steps of sourdough baking sothat you guys can more closely follow along

Step One is the leevan build stage. this is where we take our sourdough starter and turn it into the leaventhat's going to ferment the dough andproduce the gas necessary for a loaf ofbread by the way leevon and sourdoughstarter are not the same thing and I'llexplain exactly how they're different injust a second

step two is the mix stagethat's where we take our ripe leevon andcombine it with flour water and salt tobuild the final dough

step three is the bulk stage also known as bulkfermentation during this step we let thesourdough cultures in the leav digest the starches in the flour to produceacidity and CO2 this is also the part ofthe process where the majority of thegluten development happens so it'simportant

step four is the shape stagethat's where we take the blob of doughthat we just fermented and fold it in avery deliberate way to actually build itinto a loaf and then

step five is theproof stage during proofing we let theshaped dough capture more gas anddevelop more acidity and then

step sixis the bake stage which seems prettystraightforward and it is but there's afew factors that we need to payattention to that wouldn't be obvious tothe beginner Baker and that's it there'sonly six steps in this entire processnow each step has its own complexitywhich I'll explain as we go but by theend of this video you should feel morethan confident in making your own loafof sourd dough at Home

Step One is tobuild the leev so 12 hours before youwant to mix your dough comb 100 G ofwater that's about 90° f with 25 G ofripe sourdough starter and when I sayripe I mean starter that was fed about10 to 12 hours previously so if I'mmixing this Le at 8:00 p.m. Friday forSaturday morning's mix that means that Ineed to feed my sourdough starter at8:00 a.m. Friday morning

finally I'lljust top the water and starter with 100G of bread flour then mix untileverything is well combined and therearen't any more lumps

from here I'mgoing to pop on a lid and ferment thisleaven at room temperature for 12 to 24hours right about now you're probablywondering hey Bri what is even thedifference between a sourdough starterand a 11 well a sourdough starter isjust captured wild yeast and bacteriayou don't bake bread directly with asourdough starter on the other hand 11is a very specific amount of flour waterand sourdough starter that you use toproduce the gas and acidity necessary toturn a dough into a loaf of bread asourdough starter is something that youfeed and keep alive forever whereas a 11is made with sourdough starter and youfeed it once and use all of it in theloaf by the way when you're baking oftenand you want to keep your sourdoughstarter alive and vigorous I would sayfeed it two times a day once in themorning and once at night to feed yourstarter discard all but one spoonful orabout 50 g worth then add in 50 g ofwater and 50 g of flour and just stir tocombine when you're not baking thatoften and you just want to keep thisstarter alive I would say feed it onceevery 7 days and then just keep it inthe fridge when you want to make someSour just pull the starter out of thefridge 2 days before baking and bring itback to life with two feedings then jumpinto the leev step that we did just asecond ago 12 hours after mixing you cansee this leevon is very ripe it's 3 or4X in size and it's frothy bubbly andAlive plus it smells sweet sour and wildalmost like a sour beer a quick way totest that the leevon is ready to bakewith is to drop a little bit into somewater if it floats it's ready to rip ifit sinks that means you probably need tocheck the Vigor of your sourd starternow to make this dough I'll grab amedium mixing bowl and drop in 275 G of92F water this will ensure a warm doughtemperature between 78 and 82f next I'llscoop in all of my ripe leavon then I'lljust stir that into the water real quickuntil it's kind of dissolved mixingalready hydrated flour with fresh dryflour is kind of a pain in the butt andthis helps next in goes 400 G of breadflour then 50 g of whole wheat flour and12 G of salt to mix it I'll grab asturdy spoon then jump into the bowl andstir until the flour water and startercome together into a dry Clump I want togive this about 2 minutes of spoonmixing so that the flour can hydrate alittle bit more and once I can't mixthis anymore I'm going to switch over tothe trusty soaking wet hand then I'lljump back in and finish mixing the doughby squeezing and folding it with my handuntil everything is more or lesshomogeneous the goal here is mainly towork out any clumps or dry spots ofcourse if you've got a stand mixer andyou don't want to use your preciouselbow grease hand mixing this go aheadand use that instead just combineeverything in the bowl and mix on mediumspeed for about 5 to 7 minutes untilyou've got a well combined blob fromthis point you'll follow the processexactly the same as for the hand mixback at the hand mix version you can seethat I've got it squeezed into ahomogeneous mass and that's all I needfrom here I'm going to cover the doughand check back in 30 minutes while Itake a quick lunch break and thank cookUnity for sponsoring this video cookUnity is a great way to get freshlyprepared restaurant quality food fromaward-winning chefs delivered directlyto your door since I know I'm going tobe eating almost a whole loaf ofsourdough later I want something lightfor lunch so today I'm going to go forthe pesto chicken breast from Chef RubenGarcia the best way to heat this thingup is in the oven for about 12 minutesbut you can also microwave it too ifyou're in a hurry I've tried a ton ofcooked Unity meals at this point andthey do a surprisingly excellent job atdelivering a meal that tastes like itwas prepared by a chef my favorite sofar has been this papad Del pork Ragu byChef John delucci of New York's WaverlyInn it's rich and comforting and I wantto eat all of it basically if you'reshort on time and you like good tastingfood this is a great option check it outso to stock your fridge with cookunityhead to cook unity.com Brian l50 orclick the link in my description and usecode Brian l50 to get 50% off your firstorder of cook Unity meals thank you cookUnity 30 minutes later this dough isstill a wet Shaggy mess so we'll need todevelop some of the gluten to do thatI'll grab a grip of the dough pull itout until I meet resistance that I'llfold it back over itself I'll repeatthat five to six more times until Ican't pull and fold anymore then I'llflip this dough over and give it a 10:00to 3:00 rounding maneuver to tuck thedough under itself and create even morestrength and tension this is actuallysuper close to how we would develop thegluten in a professional Bread Bakeryinstead of relying on a stand mixer todo 100% of the gluten development we'reactually layering the gluten or foldingit to develop it this is just a muchgentler way to develop gluten and in myopinion it's more effective so you don'treally a stand mixer and once this doughhas been folded and rounded into a tidytight little ball I'm going to cover itagain and check back in 30 more minutes30 minutes later or 60 minutes after wemix this dough I'm going to repeat thisfolding one more time exactly the sameas before now I'm going to cover it onemore time and move it to a warm place tofinish its bulk fermentation for 2 morehours making the bulk 3 hours in totalby the way my warm place is just my ovenwhich I turned on for about 5 minutesthen turned off so now it's sittingaround 95 f now while this doughfinishes bulk fermenting in a warm placeI want to call out one of the mostcommon mistakes that most sourdoughbread Bakers make which is doughtemperature if your dough is below about76 F it's just not going to fermentproperly it's going to take all day andyou're going to be constantly checkingit and being like what's going on yourdough is too cold so there's two mainways to mitigate this one is use warmwater up front like we did I wouldrecommend at least 92F if you want toend up with a dough temperature between76 and 80° F and the number number twois make sure you're fermenting the doughin the proper environment in a warmplace like we just did in the oven is agreat way to ensure that it keeps movingor if you're not going to be throwing itinto an oven at the very least make surethat it's in a warm room and not on astone countertop stone countertops actas kind of a heat sink and they suck allof the heat energy out of the doughthrough the bottom of the bowl so I liketo ferment my dough on a wood cuttingboard so that all the heat energy staysin the dough and it ferments nice andFast 2 hours later when I pull my doughout of the oven you can see that it'sjust about doubled in size and it'slooking nice and gassy from here I'mgoing to move into the shape phase forthat I'll flip my dough out onto alightly flowered cutting board then I'mgoing to give it the simplest possibleshape for that I'll grab opposite sidesof the dough pull out and fold them overeach other then I'll rotate a bit pullout two more sides and fold those overnext I'll flip it over onto the foldsand then round it while stretching thetop down and under the bottom to createjust a little bit more tension thisshape of bread is called a buou b o u le and it's by far the easiest shape thatyou can make at home next I'll grab alinen lined bread proofing basket andsprinkle the inside with a moderateamount of flour to keep the Loaf fromsticking by the way if you're even alittle bit bread curious and you plan tobake more than a couple of times peryear definitely get some proofingbaskets you can get a set of two onAmazon for like 25 bucks and if you'reinterested I'll link to these ones inthe description next I'll drop my shapedBo into the flowered basket seam side upthen I'll come back and give thebackside a few more crisscross folds topull the glutens in the loaf into just alittle bit more tension if you don'thave or aren't going to buy a breadproofing basket use a 9 to 10 in widebowl and drop in a less absorbent fabriclike canvas linen or a tea towel thenDust with flour and drop in your loafnext I'll cover up the back side of myloaf then scoot it back over to a warmplace to proof up for 60 to 90 minutesafter about 60 to 70 minutes of proofingwhen I pull this loaf out of the ovenyou can see it's about 60 to 70% largerand it's fill out the basket nicely totest if it's ready to bake I'll poke itgently if the loaf bounces back slowlylike the pillsberry Doughboy it'sperfectly proofed if the indent staysindented that means that your loaf isprobably over proofed and that's fine itjust means that it won't rise as high inthe oven just give it less time nexttime now the most low Tech and simpleprocess for baking this is to flip theloaf out onto a parch Meed sheet traythen grab scissors and score the topwith 5 to six deliberate overlappingSnips these Cuts create a a weak spotthat allows the bread to Spring muchmuch higher in the oven next I'll grab asquirter of water and Spritz this loafabout 10 times to create some extrasteam during the bake then I'll coverwith a turkey foil pan lid and load intoa preheated 450f oven and bake coveredfor 15 minutes by the way this lid isessential for this process because ittraps steam around the outside of theloaf steam is important for good breadfor two main reasons number one is thatit delays crust formation so it allowsthe loaf to rise a lot higher and thenumber two it changes the way theoutside of the crust gelatinizes so weget a more Dynamic crunchier and moregolden brown crust 15 minutes later whenI come back and remove the lid you cansee that we got an epic oven spring andwe've got a really beautiful craggyopening up top from here I'm going tobake this loaf uncovered for 20 moreminutes but I'm going to scoot it onto awire rack to keep the bottom fromburning and after 30ish minutes of baketime when I pull this out you can seethat this loaf looks craggy crusty andnicely golden brown but there is asecond method for baking that's just aseasy as this one and provides a muchbetter crust experience to do it I'llpull a dutch oven that I preheated at475 f for 30 minutes out of the oventhen hit a 9in round of parchment paperwith some semolina flour then I'llcarefully flip my proof loaf onto thatparchment then I'll grab my scissors onemore time and snip this loaf five to sixtimes on an angle then I'm going to liftthis parchment carefully and drop itinto the heated Dutch oven then I'll popon the preheated lid then drop the wholething into the oven and bake covered for15 minutes by the way I greatly preferthe Dutch oven method here over thesheet tray foil pan because dutch ovenshave a lot more thermal Mass what doesthat mean well the cast iron holds on toa lot more heat and it transfers thatinto the dough a lot more efficientlyaesthetically that means that we get athicker more set crispier crust and amore Dynamic golden brown exterior andafter 15 minutes I'm going to snatchthis duy out of the oven pop off the lidand release the steam wow as you can seethis loaf ripped itself open in the ovenokay the Dutch goes back into my 475 Foven and I'll bake it for another 25more minutes and after about a 35 minutebake it's time to pull this Loaf andtake a look as you can see it'sbeautifully risen and it exhibits almostevery single shade of golden brown knownto men you've got fields of wheat wetsand mahogany oat milk latte ooh and myfavorite leather wallet honestly this isa pretty wonderful result for such asimple process and I think any sourdoughbeginner would be Mega stoked to open upthis Loaf and take a bite it's crustyit's sour it's toasty and it's full ofboozy wheat flavor I really hope thisvideo inspires you guys to finally givesourdough baking a try or maybe It'llpoint some of you guys on the sourdoughStruggle Bus in the right direction andyou can finally have your firstsuccessful loaf if you want to learn howto make your own sourdough starter fromscratch I'm going to link to a videoright here where I show you how how todo exactly that thanks for watching nowlet's eat this thing