Easy Sourdough Loaf (for Beginners)

hello again my name's john i'm a retired cook from the north east of england in the uk and welcome to my latest bread recipe and as promised in my last crusty loaf video i'll show you how to make this stunning but very simple sourdough crusty loaf which has a much lower hydration than most sourdough breads making it much easier to handle for the beginner and once again i'll be using this baker's bread clutch the results are very similar to baking in a dutch oven and i'll leave a link to my more advanced dutch oven sourdough recipe in the description box below you can view the ingredients list and full written method for this recipe on the recipe page on the channel's website i'll leave a link in the description under the video or you can click on the i icon top right of the screen to take it directly to the recipe page and i'd like to thank the patreon and paypal supporters for their very kind help i'll be doing the shout out and name splash a little later in the video okay let's get on with today's recipe okay to make delicious sourdough bread you'll need to have a sourdough starter i do have other videos on how to make a sourdough starter from scratch on the channel or why not consider purchasing my sourdough starter kit for only four pounds plus postage and packaging and that's to most places in the world i even have an accompanying video on the channel to help you make up your sourdough starter kit once your starter is established you'll have sourdough yeast for the rest of your life all you have to do is feed it once a week and keep it in your fridge and with a little practice you can produce stunning tasty sourdough bread just like this loaf here to make up the starter for this recipe take 200 ml of your sourdough starter from the fridge and add 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water and i'll give that a good mix using my trusty wooden spoon handle now clean down the spoon and the jug cover the top with a loose fitting lid and allow it to sit in a warm spot for at least two hours or so obviously this time will depend on the temperature of where you keep it i like to keep mine in the oven with just the light bulb on which is around 25 celsius that's 77 fahrenheit after two hours my starter has doubled in size and is very active perfect to move on to the next stage of making this beautiful sourdough bread [Music] and for this next stage you need to knead the dough for 15 minutes and as this is a very low hydration sourdough bread 65 percent if you're interested you can easily knead this dough by hand but due to my wonky hand i'll have to use my stand mixer okay i've already added the water to the bowl next carefully weigh off your active sourdough starter in fact you should be weighing all of the ingredients for this recipe in grams including the water now whisk those two together [Music] now add the flour to the bowl make sure the flour you use as a high protein count 12.5 to 15 percent is ideal now add the salt attach the dough hook bring the mix together this should take around a minute once everything is combined set your timer and knead for 15 minutes once the time's up whether you've needed by hand or stand mixer your dough should now be as smooth as silk and ready to move on to the next stage turn out the dough onto a flour-free surface and form it into a smooth ball at this stage you can try a window test by stretching a portion of the dough it should stretch fairly thin without tearing and that's a good indication that the dough is now ready to move on to the next stage to tighten up the outer skin of the dough drag it towards you a few times as shown in the video now place the dough ball into a lightly oiled bowl cover it and as all my regulars will know i like to use a shower cap for this now a sourdough always takes longer than commercial yeast to proof get the bowl into a warm spot and set your timer for three hours remember we're preparing this loaf to bake the next day the hands-on time for making sourdough bread is very little indeed it's all about long proofing and shaping and that's where you get the fantastic taste and texture of sourdough bread and at this point i hope you don't mind if i give my three recipe books a bit of a plug the books have lots of our favorite recipes from our work kitchens in them all three books are available in the website shop along with lots of other equipment i use in the videos and by popular demand the skeleton style oven gloves are now available too just click on the eye icon top right of your screen and that will take you to the website shop where all of these items are available now to overnight proof the dough in you'll need a vessel of some sort now i like to use these proofing baskets or banatons to give them their proper title for this loaf i'm using an oval one make sure you flour it well now i like to use rice flour for this but ordinary flour also works [Music] once the three hours are up your dough should have at least doubled in size depending on how warm or cold your house is but remember the longer it takes to proof the tastier the bread will be okay now on to the very important part of shaping the loaf turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface right without turning it over into the flour manipulate the top side of the dough into a rough square as shown keeping the top side sticky and flour free now fold the top side towards you as shown and lightly press it down and now the bottom side over that and lightly press that down too now for the most important part of this shaping turn the dough 90 degrees and starting from the top fold it towards you a little at a time as shown [Music] pushing it up and under the objective is to keep the outer skin of the dough as tight as possible keep dipping your fingers in the flour to prevent them from sticking but as i've made this low hydration recipe it should be quite easy to do once you get to the end turn it over and fold under the ends the tighter you can get the outer skin of this dough the more it'll rise or spring in the oven [Music] clean away any flour from the bench and very gently get it into the floured basket topside down if needed nip any loose ends together as shown sprinkle a little flour over the dough [Music] now get it covered with a dry lightweight cloth and let it sit at room temperature for one hour this hour at room temperature i'll give the proofing process time to start for the sake of tidiness clear all the flour away and instead of wasting the flour make sure it goes back into your dusting bowl or your sourdough starter once the time's up check that the proofing has started and as you can see it has risen quite a bit already so now we need to slow that down now cover it again with the proofing cloth and get it into the fridge to finish slowly proofing overnight it'll happily sit there for the next 12 to 24 hours and this is my buck up loaf going in as well and in the morning it'll be ready to bake straight from the fridge okay it's 7 a.m sunday morning and it's time to bake some beautiful bread the first thing to do is to get your oven up to temperature so you need to preheat your oven to 240 degrees celsius that's 465 fahrenheit or gas mark soon as your oven is turned on place your clutch in the oven as it needs at least 30 minutes to get up to the proper temperature for this bread and if you're using a dutch oven do exactly the same to transfer the dough to the crush you'll need what's known as a peel just like this one or you can make your own out of plywood i'll literally knock this one up in 30 minutes okay once your oven's been on for half an hour take your loaf out of the fridge and have your peel ready to turn out the dough onto and as you can see it's well risen and ready to go but before you turn out the dough take the lid off the clush and keep it as close to the oven as possible and also remember this is seriously hot so keep kids and animals well out of the way back to the dough sprinkle a little flour on the dough and carefully turn out your dough onto the peel and now's the time to brush off any excess flour with your pastry brush [Music] next score the door using your lemay or razor blade as shown and as the door is quite cold and stiff this should be very easy to do [Music] not forgetting to put your glove back on carefully and quickly slide the dough onto the crush base and quickly get the lid back on now this needs to be baked in two stages first 25 minutes with the clash lid on and then 7 to 10 minutes at a reduced temperature with the clush lid off so set your timer for 25 minutes okay once that first 25 minutes are up remove the lid and reduce the temperature to 220 celsius that's 430 fahrenheit or gas mark 7 and reset your timer for 7 minutes right that's seven minutes up so i've taken mine out now this is perfect for us but if you prefer yours a little darker just bake it for a few minutes longer and just listen to how crispy that is and once yours is done get it onto a wire rack and allow it to cool for 20 minutes or so okay that 20 minutes is up and it's time to give it a try and it sounds absolutely fantastic when you're cutting it as this is only a 65 hydration you won't get the large open crumb or bubbles that you normally see in sourdough bread but this is wonderfully soft and light and ideal for sandwiches and as i've already mentioned i designed this recipe so the beginner can handle this low hydration sourdough bread right i'll try some with my homemade butter and just listen to that crunch if you've never tasted sourdough bread before you're in for a real treat don't let the sour part of the name put you off i promise this will be the best bread you've ever tasted and i know you'll give it a big thumbs up and as promised at the beginning here is the latest list of my patreon and paypal supporters and they are simone conder kenneth hunter ross carmichael karen sean murphy david marushka andrew taylor johnny sup singh robert shepard stephen b warhay greg steffensen larry hazel taurus scott kate bartolomy perry duquette mona shimamura and benny lawson and there's also two who wish to remain anonymous thanks very much guys i really do appreciate all that you do in supporting the channel well thank you again for watching please like share comment and subscribe by hitting the circle above if you do subscribe activate the bell icon next to the subscribe button on my channel page and by doing that you'll be automatically notified every time i upload a new video and in the meantime here's a few of my other videos and playlists that you may want to watch so until the next time be safe in your kitchen and bye for now [Music]

Channel: John Kirkwood

Views: 33,937

Keywords: ASMR, Sourdough bread, Sourdough for beginners, Cloche, Dutch oven, Whole wheat flour, Bread, Soft, Sourdough, dough, loaf, wild yeast, banneton, rise, Baguettes, Baguette, Bread flour, French, Dough, Bread Flour, Bake, Salt, Yeast, Water, Scraper, Peel, Oven, Baking

Id: 8957Ltj8rNk

Length: 15min 57sec (957 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 02 2022