A Simplified Semi-Sourdough Bread

I love reading the precise descriptions of how Bourke Street Bakery makes their sourdough breads. Knowing the entire bakery bread baking process has made me realise that a good and efficient wild yeast starter is an absolute essential to create an authentic and well-balanced sour taste and texture in a good loaf of sourdough bread.

Sometimes, I wish that I can bake an authentic sourdough bread just like how Bourke Street Bakery does, but it seems so crazy and impossible for a busy working mum like me to go through all these tedious procedures just to put a loaf of sourdough bread on our dining table. According to this book, the sourdough starter itself need at least four weeks to initial and require lots of feeding and maintenance schedule in order to keep it alive. Furthermore, the wild yeast in the sourdough starter are not known to be not as active as the commercial ones and this means a typical sourdough bread will need a longer fermentation time.

I've re-created a simplified version of semi-sourdough recipe. It contains one-third of the recipe which is largely adapted from the book, Bourke Street Bakery by Paul Allam and David Mcguinness. Using this recipe, I've made my own starter culture using regular commercial yeast and leave it to ferment for more than 18 hr at room temperature. I was hoping that this overnight fermentation will encourage some wild yeast and bacteria to grow in this starter and will eventually create a sourdough like-taste even within this shorter period of fermentation.

My further reading from this book, The Bread Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, has also made me realise that a typical sourdough starter usually contains a combination of wild yeast and Lactobacillus which is a bacteria specie that can metabolize the bread dough to give it a tangy sour taste. Unlike wild yeast, the regular commercial one cannot tolerate too acidic environment created by Lactobacillus and only the wild yeast can grow in symbiotic combination with Lactobacillus. To counter this, I've added an extra minimal amount of yeast in my bread dough to compensate the "dead" yeast after the extensive overnight fermentation.

Ta-da! This is my semi-sourdough bread! I think that it tastes quite similar to a typical sourdough bread. It is lightly crusted on its outside; moist, chewy and slightly-tangy in its inside. I'm very happy that this simplified recipe has worked well for me.

 

my white starter

Making my bread...

We are enjoying every lovely slice of this bread...Yum!

Here's my simplified Semi-Sourdough Bread recipe, mostly adapted from the book, Bourke Street Bakery by Paul Allam and David Mcguinness

Make 1 loaf, 0.5 kg dough

white starter*

100g water

100g bread flour

1/4 tsp sugar - I've added this to encourage initial feeding of starter cultures

1/4 tsp instant dried yeast

*This starter contains 10% extra to compensate any loss due to evaporation or sticking on side of bowl and hands.

Make this starter 18-24 hr prior to bread making. Mix all starter ingredients by hand and let the starter to ferment in room temperature until it is ready on the next day for bread making.

225g bread flour

3g fresh yeast or 1/3 tsp instant dried yeast

90ml water

4g sea salt

Method:

To make the bread using an electric mixer, put the starter in the bowl of the mixer with a dough hook attachment. Add the flour, yeast, water and salt. Mix on slow speed for 4 min, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to high for 5 min, or until dough comes away from the edges of the bowl and is smooth and elastic. The dough should be able to be stretched to transparent and create a window. Cover the bowl and set aside to rest for 20 min.

Lightly grease a container and sit the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside at ambient room temperature (approximately 20°C) for 1 hr to bulk prove.

To knock back the dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and press out into a rectangle about 2.5 cm thick. Use your hands to fold one-third back onto itself, then repeat with the remaining third. Turn the dough 90 degrees and fold it over again into thirds. Place the dough back into the oiled container and continue to bulk prove for a further 1 hr.

Lightly grease a loaf tin (ideal size 15 cm x 9 cm but mine is 10 cm x 20 cm).

To shape the dough, surround dough with your cupped hands, always keeping your hands in contact with the dough. In an anti-clockwise motion, start rolling the dough to create a tight ball with a smooth surface. Set aside on a lightly floured surface for 20 min, covered with plastic wrap.

Stretch dough to double its width. Fold a third into itself towards the middle, then fold in the other third to overlap in the middle. Lightly press down to prevent any large air pockets forming.

Bring the dough into the shape that will be placed into the tin with its seam side facing down. Allow the loaf to grow an extra two-third of its size for approximately 60 to 90 min.

Preheat the oven to 220°C and 200°C fan forced. Spray the oven with water and bake for 20 min, turn the loaf around and bake for another 10 min. Check the base of the loaf with a tap of finger - if it sounds hollow, it is ready. The loaf should take no longer than 40 min in total to bake.

Happy Baking

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