Sourdough bread

Baking

Unfortunately, we rarely have a real bread oven at our disposal. Ovens that we have at home are not suitable for baking bread. They usually have too low temperature and dry the bread. This applies to both electric and gas ovens. However, you can help by inserting into the ordinary oven special stones, which more often you can buy in stores (such as pizza stones).

To do this, put stone on the lowest shelf of the oven and only then we set the right temperature. We achieve the best results when the stone is heated for at least half an hour, up to an hour.

Stones require a long heating time at high temperatures, but the baking effect is much better than with ordinary sheets.
Breads and rolls require a high pre-baking temperature, which then gradually decreases. This corresponds to the conditions of a natural bread oven, which is fired with wood and reaches the initial temperature of over 300 ° C. The bread slips in only after removing the heat and ash, using the heat accumulated in the stone. We do not get such an effect in the oven by switching it off, even by helping with a stone. This can only be achieved by gradually lowering the temperature during baking.

If we already have a well-heated oven (for this we can easily use the function of the hot air, for baking, always only upper and lower heating) insert a loaf with a shovel on hot stone, or if we do not have it, preheated baking sheet. The better effect and easier maneuvering of the loaf will be obtained by turning the flat baking tray, being the oven's equipment, upside down.

The baker's shovel will be replaced by a flat cutting board slightly sprinkled with flour.

We bake breads usually by putting the mold on the first level counting from the bottom of the oven. We also place a stone there.

A nice bread surface, i.e. a crunchy crust, requires moist air in the oven at the beginning of baking. We can get them using a floral sprinkler or pouring into a flat dish placed at the very top (first level of the oven) at the beginning of baking, half a glass of hot water, which at this temperature will quickly turn into water vapor. This should be done very carefully and the oven must be closed immediately! Never spray water on the heating elements and oven glass.

The baking time of a loaf weighing 1 kg takes about 40 minutes. The temperature can be reduced during baking about every 10 minutes, starting from 250⁰C, until it reaches about 180⁰C (the last value applies mainly to wholemeal bread).

The bread is ready when it is sounded from the bottom when tapped from the bottom. It should then be removed, sprayed or spread gently with water or water mixed with a bit of flour (glossy skin) and set aside on the grill to cool.

Wheat bread tastes best (although it is not very healthy), rye breads require rest or "maturing" for one day. Only on the next day you can fully appreciate their taste.

In many recipes it is recommended to put a sheet of full water on the bottom of the oven, which is to ensure better moistening of the bread crust, which does not dry out so quickly. Usually, however, this ends with a under-baked, pale underside of bread. In my opinion, a gentle spraying of the oven with the help of a floral sprayer at the beginning of baking or a method with boiling water described above gives a better effect.

My last discovery is the baking of bread in a clay pot, which perfectly imitates the atmosphere of a real oven. So-called clay pots Roman steam is recommended to soak before use, and the water evaporating during the stewing of the dish makes it juicy and delicate. These properties and advantages of the earthenware pot can be easily used just for baking bread. The pot in the oven gives up the accumulated water at high temperature in the form of steam, so an additional and nuisance splattering is not needed.

Breads baked in a clay pot look almost like loaves baked in bulk, but do not require such an expenditure of labor. After filling and pre-growing, put the bread dough into a well oiled and strewn hole (previously soaked pot), close the lid and leave to rise.

After rising, if possible, cut the bread or prick, insert the whole into the (cold!) Cold oven, set the temperature, for example 230 ° C, and when it is reached, quickly open the oven and carefully remove the pot cover (see photo at the bottom of the page). The bread surface is moist, the oven is steamy, so we have the perfect conditions for baking bread. After 10 minutes, we can lower the oven temperature by approx. 10⁰-20⁰C and bake bread depending on size for 35-40 minutes.

Bread baked in a pot has a very nice skin, does not brew like baked in metal and usually does not require additional baking without mold. When putting bread dough, do not just regret the bran, which will prevent sticking, and after baking it is easy to sweep them out of bread.

Sourdough for fun

Here is another way to grow your own leaven, this time humoristically.

I found him on the German forum "Chefkoch". The author of this text produced it for the needs of someone who could not understand the complicated information available on the subject. I changed the text, shortened it (I hope that the author would forgive me), only the main character and the form of presenting it in the form of classes remained.

Lesson 1.

What do you need?
patience
about 300 g of flour
about 300 g of lukewarm water

a warm, secluded place where your new homeowner will feel best.

You still need a dish, preferably a glass bowl large enough (1-2 liters). You can also use porcelain, but the glass will be more useful for ... peeping.

You start off on a spectacular day the first day.

You simply mix approx. 100g of rye flour and 100g of water at about 40 ° C for a rather sparse mush. The flour should rather be wholly, in any case, the flour is not suitable for this purpose, completely purified, that is "by eye" white. And from now on you have a lot of time for yourself, because you are pledging your favorite (slowly starting to give him a feeling like a new family member) in peace and warmth for 48 hours. Cover it so that it will be warm and cozy - the food foil will perform well here. Under it he will breathe and can look good but discreetly look. Our friend feels quite uncomfortable with us, he is shy and shy. So do not be insistent and do not disturb him. However, you can discreetly observe how it gains weight and grows. For this purpose, just add a strip of film or a masking tape from the bottom of the pan to its edge. We will mark on it how it grows, or how it changes its volume. At the beginning there will be minimal changes, a few bubbles after 12 hours; but as time passes, the mush will start to rise. Do not lose hope and do not doubt!

After 2 days, you will not believe, but your favorite is hungry! And how! You must feed him. Just remember that he is still very young and easily overfed. Even if it seems that he would eat more, give him only 60g of flour and 60g of lukewarm water. Also remember that the water can not be too hot. No more than 40 degrees C, a few degrees more can kill your new friend. At this point, you can have closer contact with it - do not forget to mix it well - it likes it! Do not forget to mark your current height on the tape! Now it's growing faster and it smells a bit more intense.

That's why he will be hungry after 24 hours. You can give him something more to eat, he finally grew out of his infancy: 120 g of flour and 120g of well-mixed water. You cover it and put it back in a warm sleep. Before that, you check its dimensions on the tape. Even if it was a bit miserable and lethargic in the last phase, it should revive well.

On the fifth day, our friend is already a full-fledged householder and an almost adult sour who can (or almost alone) bake bread. You can not just forget that you have brought home a new family member who, although very useful, has his or her rights and requirements. You have to take care of him almost the same as for other creatures in your home: a cat, a dog or a hamster ...

The better you look after him, the better food he gets - the more together you will have the pleasure of getting in touch

And that would be the first lesson. On the next, if you like, we can learn together how to keep our favorite in good health and good condition.

Lesson 2.

So after 5 days we have beautiful sourdough (about 600g), which will help us bake the first bread in life. Before we use it, however, let's not forget to leave about 50g of it, which will be the start for the next baking.

If our newly bred friend will be named Mr. Zakwasem (abbreviated as PZ) then this tiny piece, which is its part, we can call affectionately Baby-Zakwas (abbreviated as BZ).

The Lord of Zakwas is already and the burning can begin. But how to keep Baba-leaven, that in the next baking do not start everything from the beginning?

The subject of today's lesson is: storage of PBB

I assume you will not be baking bread every day. Although at the beginning it is not so sure. When we already make friends with Mr. Zakwasem, when he no longer has any secrets for us, the desire to baking and experimenting is enormous. You will find plenty of reasons to give your friends and acquaintances baking, just to bake more often. However, this is a quite separate story and almost every amateur baker has gone through it. But coming out of the assumption that you do not have a huge family and you do not eat only and only bread, baking once a week seems optimal.

So Zakwas-Baby is in the bowl and he is sorry that you will not use it soon. You can not just leave him idle. BZ, even though it's a very vital creature, and he will not like it at all. The best solution will be to put him to sleep. In this way, he will save his strength and be ready whenever he needs it. The basic task is to find a suitably comfortable bed for him. First of all, it can not be too small! Sleeping with your knees under your chin or scrubbing your head on the wall is not a pleasure, even if we are just like our suckling pretty much. Let's make our BZ comfortable, big bed. Maybe you will be satisfied with a jar (but rather from the larger ones) or a plastic closed container? The closure should be tight, but when we see that it is dribbling and can not fall asleep, let it breathe a little air.

He says that BZ can even be active in the dream, sometimes he has a tendency to walk after the night. Apparently, sometimes leaves the resting place and looks after the refrigerator. Maybe Mrs. Salata wants to meet young BZ in the comfort of the fridge, but will we like this date? Therefore, it is safest to put it in a suitably large container and screw it tightly or close it. In this way, we can harness BZ for some 1-2 weeks. He listens, that when you put him on the coldest place in the fridge, he can survive even longer holidays of his landlords.

Summarizing:

- BZ can be stored in the fridge for 1 to 2 weeks.

- The colder the longer

- the bigger the container the safer it is

I hope you have not forgotten that both Pan Zakwas and Zakwas-Bab are living creatures. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to predict their behavior and reactions. It happens that BZ develops quite unprecedented abilities and not very welcome properties. One of them, which is often mentioned, is a strange smell sometimes smelling a chemical laboratory - something between vinegar and nail polish remover. It happens that our baby changes its consistency during sleep, delaminates itself and on the surface appears metna water, and other times the shell like dried paint. All these extravagances can and must be forgiven. As long as it does not change its color to at least strange ... For BZ the strange color will be for example red, green, blue or (horror of horror) black. Another reason for our anxiety could be when BZ categorically visits a hairdresser. No, the hairdresser does not come in the bill !!!! Our little one is born from birth and will always be bald like a knee! If he starts to grow hair - this is the real reason to worry and even .... I have to tell you this openly ... to parting.

That's it.

At the next lesson you can find out how in a simple and fast way Baby-leaven becomes an adult Lord of Zakasha.

Lesson 3.

I wonder how best to start these lessons. Because what he wants to tell you is not easy. But without panic! A lot depends on you. You have at least two ways to choose from. Simple and more complicated. I will describe them to you and you will make your own decisions. Some will depend on the Lord of Leaven itself.

Some bakers think that a simple (one-step) path is not good, that it can even cause a mold of bread dough. Others argue that the one-stage method is made for too few wild yeast, and therefore the addition of bakery yeast is necessary. But there are those who are not convinced at all, and for years successfully bake using the sourdough bred the simplest method. At the beginning and with you, I advise you to follow this path before you gain practice and feeling. You can always change. The experience will show how Pan Zakwas handles himself best. Each of these paths has a slightly different effect on yeasts, bacteria, acids and all the rest, which is found in our beloved Lord Z.

This is what we start with:

How does Zakwas-Baby become Lord of Zakvwa again?

No matter what direction you have taken, the first step is always the same. On the day before baking, we release BZ from the fridge and give him an hour to look around the kitchen.

If you have chosen the simplest path, then:
You check in the bread recipe as much as you need leaven (acidified dough),
You divide this amount by 2 and you already have the amount of flour and water. Example: 700 g of leaven (acidified dough) is given in the recipe of bread, you take 350g of flour and 350g of lukewarm water.
Put 50g BZ into a large bowl, add 350g of flour and 350g of water. You mix thoroughly, put in a warmth and forget about it for 12 to 24 hours. As longer as better.

In this method, it happens that our small BZ is still too weak to convert such a large amount of dough. Especially with wholemeal flour, sometimes it can happen to him that he will get mold (note the hairstyle !!). Maybe, but not MUST.

My advice:

Take it a little more, e.g. up to 100g, and keep it full 24 hours, so that it can reliably do your work.

Now, the more complicated (3-stage) method, which is not so difficult for me.

We start by dividing the amount of sourdough needed (acidified dough) into 6 parts, because we will work in 3-phase method. If you want to bake bread for which you need 700g leaven, then for each of the three phases you need about 120g of water and 120g of flour. To make it easier for you to write the approximate hours you have to hold to bake the bread and not just fall out of your home bakery overnight. Of course, some deviations of 1-2 hours will not make any difference here and will not affect the final result, assuming you pay much attention and heart to Mr. Sourdough.

So we are again on the eve of baking bread and we need 700g of ripe PZ for it.

Around 11. o'clock, we take out a small BZ (about 50g) from the fridge. When it's gone, it's going to be hungry. At the latest, at 13 o'clock, we feed him 120g of flour and 120g of water and mix. We leave in a warm place. He must be really warm. If there is no hot weather, and the heating in the house does not work, it can help closed oven with a switched on bulb (but only a bulb!).

About 9.00am to 20.Our Sourdough is again hungry. It will get the same: ie 120 g of water and 120 g of flour. After mixing, it can be removed from the closed oven, switch off the bulb, because the temperature may be slightly lower. You're telling him a good night, because you will not see until tomorrow.

Next morning about 10 o'clock is the last feeding: 120g of flour and 120g of water. Now you can leave it just on the kitchen counter, where it's a bit cooler. This temperature is the most suitable for him.

At. 13. you can bake bread.

The temperature differences are quite important. By gradually reducing it, both the taste of the bread and the baking ability improve. That's what experts say. I have already fed Mr. Z at a little other temperatures and we have done well.

Well, now the summary

1-step method.
We take BZ out of the fridge and give it to him,
We check the amount of recipe needed in the recipe and divide by 2
We add make and water, mix leave for 12 and better for 24 hours.

3-step method:
We take BZ out of the refrigerator and start cooking at room temperature.
The amount of leaven needed is divided by 6: e.g. 700g: 6 = 120g
13. o'clock - 1 feeding 120 g of flour and 120 water - a warm place possible
19. hours - 2 feeding 120 g flour and 120 g water - a little cooler place
10. o'clock - the next day - the last feeding of 120 g flour and 120 g of water - room temperature
13, oo hours

Well, that's enough for today. If you want more, you can read Lesson 4.

Lesson 4

Seat belts or a safe? or how to best protect sourdough

Imagine such a scenario (sensitive people should skip this).
You look into the container and there the Lord Sourdough is covered with delicate, but nevertheless, hair; or changed completely colored, for example to red !! With a heavy heart, you must prepare him for his last journey. Maybe it will not be the most delicate, but still choose a toilet. In this state it will be the best option for him.

How could this happen? Most likely it was a combination of unfortunate cases.

it could happen that you had something ailing in the kitchen. It often happens, for example, with oranges packaged in a grid. At least one in the package is slightly over-colored. And that's enough. Even if you immediately dumped your sourdough you could already have an infection. All you need to do is look at the refrigerators on the way out of the dustbin to see what's going on.

it can also happen when we add too much flour to the amount of water. Such a sour dough is not able to make sourdough.

the beginning of the misfortune could have already occurred while storing grain in silos. If it was stored in a too humid state, then it might already be mild at this stage. Such a poppy does not have to be harmful, but our Lord Leaven can not survive (and usually this happens).

We sit, so we despair after losing the leaven, and the worst is the thought that again we have to start everything from the beginning. Are we sure we must?
If we have properly secured it, no.

And what will happen if you want to go on a longer vacation? Either give someone of your friends and he lives far away. Is Pan Zakwas in a form like he is going through a long journey? How to send it by mail? You can answer these questions here.

Let's start with this, you plan a beautiful trip for 2-3 weeks and would like to be sure that your friend will be doing well without you.

The best way is to lightly dry the part of the leaven that we left in the fridge - our Baby-leaven. Not really for pepper (about it later), but enough to survive for more than 2 weeks. To get it, you add so much flour to BZ, not only to absorb all the moisture, but to make it farfoclowate stofki dough between the mashed potatoes and crumble, which sprinkle the yeast cake. And in this form of Baby-Zakwas crumbs placed in the jar may be your longest vacation.
When you return home from home, all you need to do is take it out of the fridge for an hour, two to get used to the new situation, you add a lot of warm water, a maximum of 40 degrees C and a little fresh poppy. Probably you will not be able to get a liquid consistency immediately, as before storage, but this will happen automatically as time passes. Already after 6 hours you can feed it, that is, add in equal amounts of water and flour, which will correspond to the second stage in the 3-phase method. It's good to consider the content of the bowl before feeding, to get the quantity of Mr. Z. you need now, proceed with it as in lesson 3, i.e. you can bake after about 14 hours.

However, if you want to protect Baby-sourdough permanently, if only to send it by mail, the method described above is not enough. First of all, his duration will be only about 3 weeks, besides in this form he will still be working. Someone who receives your parcel with Baby-Zakwase can be quite pleasant surprise in the form of a wandering or even an explosive package. to prevent it, you must tame it completely. You will do it in a very simple way. You spread the sourdough on a baking sheet with a very thin layer and wait until it dries completely. This should be done preferably at room temperature. When it dries completely, you scrape the poor man from the paper and crush it almost into powder. Such a powder enclosed in a jar can last even a year.

The consumption of such leaven is almost identical to that of crushed sourdough. It is best spread in water when the powder is dried, i.e. ground or mixed. A leaven powder dissolved in water with a bit of fresh flour. After that, all you have to do is to carry out the second and the third stage feeding.

Because the older the sourdough the better, it is good to make a habit of leaving about 50g of protected or liquid, crushed or powdered form. This will protect us from the worst, that is, starting everything from the beginning.

And now, by the way, completely different. He is still hearing discussions about whether it is advisable to store the leftover VPs from different generations and to mix them later. Sometimes we have a little acidic cake, because we were going to make bread X, but at the last moment we decided on the bread Y, which needs PZ 100 g less. Should it be thrown away? I never do it. Actually, why would it interfere with the remnants of PZ to our Baby-Sourdough?

And that would be everything you could learn about sourdough and its production. We could still talk about baking bread if you want. But this is another time.

Lesson 5.

This lesson was born of the need of the moment. So many questions arise about the condition of leaven: is my sourdough still good, or maybe it should leave the earth's field? How to check it and why not take a hurry to throw away the leaven?

You must know that Lord Zakwas has his own reason, so do not lose faith in him, do not rush and give him a chance before you throw him away. Unfortunately, many quite good, good-bodied sores took their final path prematurely, only by poorly thoughtful or bad readings. What are the signals?

First of all - the smell.

When Mr. Leaky is standing in the fridge for a long time, he begins to smell less nicely. It may even be the smell of acetone. Sure, no one wants to cook with the help of a nail polish remover, but it is not a sign that the Lord Leaven is bad! Such a smell can be normal.

Second - stratification.

A part of it drops to the bottom of the jar and the surface becomes dirty water. This water is much darker than the flour, which separated. Especially sourdough from wheat flour has such a tendency. This is not a cause for concern!

Thirdly - the top layer.

Sometimes it dries like paint with lighter or darker patches - these are not symptoms that disqualify sourdough.

Only colors such as red, green blue or black can wake up in us. They can mean the beginning of miserable. The white mold that is usually found on fruit is rarely found in sourdough. White streaks that form on its surface are probably yeast.

But, poison is poison! If there is a suspicion of sourdough on the sourdough you need to keep far-reaching caution. Most mildew fungi produce toxins that do not bend when baking.

So what? The most obvious symptom of mildew are hair. Where your hair grows, and you can not see any head near you, you do not have to think about it. But if only there is a suspicion of mildew, hair does not see, then only one exit remains. One should treat dents so as to cause its development. It sounds a bit strange, but you want to be sure if Pan Zakwas is good or not?

Put a little leaven that you suspect is in a small bowl. It can not be less than 1 to 2 cm, so it does not dry before attempting it. You need a hot place. Plesn loves heat even more than Pan leaven. If after 24 hours of the test, the surface of the sourdough will be covered with hairs, say goodbye to him! If not, you can breathe.

An example of excessive hidiness and haste in making a diagnosis of "dead" can still be mentioned a small activity of leaven. "My sourdough hardly ever babelches and grows up after feeding." It does not mean that he is dead. There may be many reasons for this behavior. The sourdough is too young and there is not enough yeast in it. Maybe it was too cold in the cold? The warmer, the more active the yeast is. This babel is just yeast.

Maybe the sourdough is too gestures? Use more water and less flour at the next feeding. Or maybe just too rare? Each poppy is different and absorbs more or less liquids. The fact that sourdough does not babel as a jaccuzzi is not a reason to despair.

My advice:

Use a glass dish to grow leaven. Even if there are no visible bubbles on the surface, it is easy to see through the walls of the vessels how gases form, which then turn into bubbles on the surface. If the mixture is too dense and the sourdough is too weak, bubbles of air do not reach the surface, but they can be seen. The longer you feed him, the more yeast will be formed and the more he will have the bubbles he wants.

At the end of the answer to the most frequently asked question: How to recognize that our sourdough develops properly?

1. The leaven gives off an acidic smell.

2. Sourdough is sour in taste.

3. The sourdough is from creamy to different varieties of beige and gray to brown (rye sourdough is always darker than wheat)

4. The sourdough volume increases, although it has been a long time since the last feeding. This is action

Lesson 6. BAKING

Baking sourdough bread is subject to rigid rules:

Principle 1) bread cake with poppy seeds MUST be acidified. Bread dough made of wheat flour can be acidified.

Sourdough you need 30 to 50% of the poppy used to be baked.

Example: if the recipe of rye bread contains 1000g of flour, then 300 to 500g of flour should be acidified.

Principle 2) always follow the given amounts of liquids in the bread recipe, but also follow a healthy sense. Poppies have different moisture, besides one must not forget that the less poppy (more otrab), the more the water is.

Principle 3) The amount of salt added to bread is calculated in relation to the amount of flour used and it is 2%.

I see surprise in your eyes. What am I saying here about the irony rules when it was supposed to be fun ?! Humor I will promise you, these points only the purpose of the introduction, that no one would say that you did not learn anything in this lesson.

These are the rules that guide me. Baking bread is a very individual matter, and unfortunately not always what comes out to one, it works for others. You can only hope that you know the rules will be able to work out your own method, which you also wish for.

So, we are going back to the regulations that should be followed and take them to heart.

Now the second very important point: water!

If the bread dough is too tight, Pan Zakwas has too much to do, and sometimes he is losing his spirits and willingness in the middle of the road. If the cake is too loose, the bread will spill to the sides and we get a cake rather than a loaf. Our goal is to find a golden mean. Bakers say the most important thing is to find the right proportions of water and flour. Bah! Others say that mace poppy is uneven, so that setting any rigid rules on this issue is pointless. The condition and age "panazakwasowy" is also important. The more liquid sourdough will, of course, need less water than the more sour. How then, correctly calculate the amount of water, if you do not use a rigid recipe, and bake according to your own? The rules given by professional bakers are so intricately constructed that it is incomprehensible to the layman.

My experience suggests, however, that bread can be baked without these regulations. We know the amount of leaven, maki and salt and possible additives. Mix everything and add water in small portions. When the ingredients are combined into a cake, we stop adding water and making it. It is probably too tight.

My way of carefully adding water is as follows:

I put a bowl of water next to it, I tear off a piece of bread dough completely and immerse it for a while in the water. It adds back to the whole and I'm making it. This can be repeated several times until we feel that the dough moisture is satisfactory. You can also moisten only the hand in the water that kneads the dough. I am a proponent of a rather looser dough, which, although well-made and smooth, is soft like well-made plasticine. The acquired experience will eventually tell you when the dough has the right consistency. The looser the cake, the better bread texture later. A good example here is the ciabatta, which has its huge holes thanks to the exceptionally loose consistency of the dough.

The next point on the way to baking good bread is kneading.

The wheat mash contains gluten, thanks to which you eat the bread is porous and light. Gluten needs good making and time to start working. Wheat bread will not be good without exact making. Maka zytnia and no gluten just serves. The worst thing you can do poppy cake is to make it !!!!

Mixed poppy flour needs from the moment when we have the right consistency of about 10-minute kneading. Then give him about 30 minutes to rest. Some recipes mention the double rest of the cake. In my opinion, it is better to give him a rest immediately after making up, then briefly knead once again, transfer to a mold or form a loaf and leave for final growth. After forming, the loaf should be sprayed gently or spread with water to prevent the surface from drying. Therefore, it is recommended to always cover the bread thoroughly. If the bread dough was very rare, there is nothing else to do but use a baking tray. Even if we decided on a loose loaf and during growing, we find out that the cake is too loose to the sides, we can still save it, if you wisely put a loaf on baking paper. It is enough to lift it with the paper and carefully slide it into the mold, lightly smoothing the surfaces. It will not be our best bread, but it will not lose anything.

The time of rising bread is dependent on panazacetic humor and ambient temperature. Heat activates wild yeast and accelerates the growth of bread, and in cold weather needs a little more time. Also, the leavenous age has a large impact on the growth of bread. The young Lord Zakwas can not cope as well as this older age. It's completely logical.