home Auditorium 8 Homemade sourdough for yeast-free bread: recipe. Sourdough bread

Homemade sourdough for yeast-free bread: recipe. Sourdough bread

Yeast-free baked goods, according to doctors, are healthier for the body in many aspects than those mixed with yeast. However, not every recipe can eliminate the fermentation component—a fluffy loaf of bread without it certainly won’t work. As an alternative, experts suggest figuring out how to make sourdough. Is it really very difficult?

How to make sourdough bread

This method of giving baked goods a porous, airy structure was used long before the advent of yeast as a culinary product. Making sourdough for bread is something that every housewife knew how to do at home several decades ago. This natural baking base can be made either by combining flour and water (equal ratio by volume - not by weight!), or by using lactic acid bacteria.

The process has several important features:

It takes several days to prepare the starter for delicious bread, the approximate period ranges from 3-7 days.
Every day the mixture needs to be “fed” and its growth must be monitored.
An unpleasant sour smell in the first day is normal; after that it will go away, so do not rush to throw away the mixture.
Only part of the starter is used to bake bread - the rest needs to be covered, fed and grown.

Sourdough bread recipe

The classic version of this base for homemade fluffy baked goods is usually made with rye flour, but this is not the only method. Homemade sourdough bread can be prepared using beer, barley malt, and potatoes. The recipe is chosen mainly according to the type of baked goods intended, however, it is possible to knead wheat dough on an oat base, from a sweet loaf, etc. However, to figure out how to prepare sourdough, experts advise using a classic rye mixture.

Without yeast

Preparation time: 6 days.
Number of servings: 4 persons.
Calorie content of the dish: 709 kcal.
Purpose: for breakfast.
Cuisine: Russian.

This yeast-free bread starter is ideal for bread and buns, although some housewives even use it for pancakes. The rice base makes its smell softer, and the crumb of the finished product is very light. The only drawback of this method is the length of time it takes to wait for the result. The working mass is stored in the cold and infused in a warm place. If a crust appears on the surface during storage, it must be removed before feeding.

Ingredients:

rice – 100 g;
wheat flour – 8 tbsp. l.;
water – 250 ml;
sugar – 2 tbsp. l.

Cooking method:

Soak the rice (warm 150 ml of water). Add a spoonful of sugar and forget for 3 days. Storage is carried out in a cool place.
On the 3rd day, add flour (3 tablespoons).
On the 4th day, add the remaining water.
On the 5th day, strain this mass and feed with the remaining flour and sugar.
After a day, the bread base is ready, you can make the dough.

Rye

Preparation time: 1 day.
Number of servings: 5 persons.
Calorie content of the dish: 721 kcal.
Purpose: for breakfast.
Cuisine: Russian.

Due to the simplicity of the algorithm and the short list of ingredients, this recipe is popular among housewives. This leaven for rye bread is prepared with kefir, which must first be left in the warmth of the kitchen until it is separated into fractions. If you use a fresh product, there will be no proper fermentation and the bread will not rise. The resulting kefir mass can be used for any baking, including pancakes and pancakes.

Ingredients:

sour kefir - a glass;
rye flour – 200 g.

Cooking method:

Gently mix the components of the starter - it is better to combine them in small portions, this way there is less chance of heterogeneity.
Place gauze folded three times over the container and leave for a day. There is no need to stir the mass.
After the specified period, add a couple more tablespoons of flour, wait 2-3 hours. Use as directed.

Fast

The waiting time for the bread base to be ready can be reduced to a day, although some professionals consider such a starter to be weak and incapable of a good rise. For most housewives, this quick sourdough starter for bread without yeast is a lifesaver that saves them time. If you do not plan to make baked goods that involve large “pores” (for example, ciabatta), it will be ideal. If you have a bread machine, the mass will rise in just 4 hours.

Ingredients:

wholemeal flour - a glass;
water - glass;
granulated sugar - a pinch.

Cooking method:

Combine all components and knead vigorously - this can be done for 2-3 minutes to release the gluten.
Cover with a cloth and leave overnight or for 6 hours (if working during the day). When the mixture bubbles, you can work on the main bread dough.

Eternal without yeast

Experts call this recipe one of the simplest for novice housewives, especially due to the lack of need to feed the live mass daily. This everlasting starter can be stored for a very long time if you refresh it once a week and keep it in the right conditions. The resulting amount of working mass is enough for 5-6 times, since a loaf of bread takes about 5 tbsp. l.

Ingredients:

flour – 210 g;
water – 210 ml.

Cooking method:

Combine 70 g of both components. The mass should have the thickness of rich sour cream or pancake dough.
Cover with a towel moistened with water and keep warm.
Check the next day - if a lot of bubbles appear, feed, again introducing 70 g of the main components.
Stir a couple of times during the day. The container is also kept warm under a towel.
After another day, the starter should increase in volume and bubble well. It needs to be fed again, again allowed to stand for a day.

From hops

Most modern housewives do not know how to make sourdough from hops for bread, but previously this method of creating a starter for home baking was used more actively than others. In urban conditions it is difficult to find the main component, however, if you succeed, you will forget about yeast forever - bread on this basis turns out incredibly fluffy, tender and soft.

Ingredients:

hop cones – 225 g;
flour - half a glass;
distilled water – 450 g;
sugar – 1 tbsp. l.

Cooking method:

Pour water over the hop cones and let it boil. Then cook on medium power until the volume of liquid is reduced by half.
Cover with a lid and leave for 8-10 hours.
Strain the hop broth, mix about 200 ml with flour and sugar. Mix.
Cover with a thick natural cloth and leave in a warm place for 3 days.

For black bread

For those who are looking for a diagram of how to make sourdough for black bread, professionals advise trying to work with whole grains. The method is not the simplest, but it is very effective: on this basis, the bread rises especially well. You can work similarly with wheat. The general algorithm does not change, only the stage of grain germination has been added. If this is too difficult, you can simply grind them and boil them with the rest of the components, and then work using standard technology.

Ingredients:

rye - glass;
water – 200 ml;
honey – 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

Soak the washed grains, wrap the container in wool, and leave in a warm place for a day.
If they have not sprouted after a day, repeat the procedure, extending this process for another day.
In the morning, grind the rye grains in a food processor and add liquid honey. You can add a little water if the mixture looks dry. Cover again and leave in a warm place overnight.
If the starter has grown, you can prepare the dough.

Malt

Malt sourdough is prepared in almost the same way as for unleavened rye-based bread, only here wheat is used. It first needs to be germinated a couple of days. The mass itself needs to be cooked, constantly monitoring its condition. If you have to continue to grow and feed such a bread base, you can use ground grains, always in tandem with sugar and water.

Ingredients:

wheat grain - glass;
rye flour - 1 tbsp. l.;
water - how much grain will take;
sugar – 2 tbsp. l.

Cooking method:

Twist the sprouted grains through a meat grinder. Add the remaining ingredients, pour in the liquid until it becomes a thick porridge.
Boil this mass and cook for 50-60 minutes. The burner power is minimal.
When the future starter darkens, it is left in a warm place for 2 days. The finished product will have a leaven aroma and lots of bubbles on the surface.

Made from wheat flour

If you're wondering how to make a sweet loaf without using yeast, you should check out this recipe for raisin sourdough for fluffy and delicious bread. The crumb will lack the sourness characteristic of such dough, but it will turn out just as airy and will remain soft for a long time. Wheat sourdough for bread without yeast is fed every 2-3 days.

Ingredients:

black raisins – 5 tbsp. l.;
wheat flour – 180 g;
warm water – 180 ml;
honey – 1 tsp.

Cooking method:

Steam raisins and chop. It’s good if he keeps the bones at the same time.
Pour in honey and warm water.
Add the remaining dry ingredient in portions and knead the dough into a thick mixture in a jar.
Cover and leave in a warm place for a day.
Stir and send back. In another day, the mass will be ready to make dough into delicious bread.

Monastyrskaya

The peculiarity of this recipe is the base in which brine is used. Experts advise taking cucumber or cabbage; It is important that it does not contain vinegar. Monastic sourdough for bread without yeast is considered very slow, it is not fed daily, so it is stored for a long time. Housewives often make it to bake bread 1-2 times a week and in small loaves.

Ingredients:

brine – 220 ml;
peeled rye flour – 330 g;
sugar – 1 tbsp. l.

Cooking method:

Let the brine stand until it warms up (to room temperature), or keep it in a warm, turned off oven to speed up the process.
Mix with rye flour, be sure to get rid of any lumps that appear.
Add sugar - it will shorten the fermentation time.
Cover and keep warm. Monitor for 6-7 hours, periodically “settling”. The finished mass will greatly increase in volume and will have a bubbling surface.

Potato

The recipe for potato sourdough is very simple, but it has a characteristic feature that distinguishes it from other ways to make bread dough without yeast. This base will not have a sour smell even on the first day, which makes it very attractive in the eyes of most housewives. The amount of flour cannot be specified down to the gram, since it depends on the amount of broth obtained.

Ingredients:

potatoes – 10 pcs.;
wheat flour - how much sourdough will take.

Cooking method:

Boil the peeled potatoes without adding salt, pepper or other seasonings. When they become soft, strain the liquid into a jar.
Add flour until the mixture is similar in consistency to sour cream.
Cover the jar with gauze and leave it at rest for 3 days. If after this period foam appears on top, you can make the dough.

The process of creating such a basis for home baking raises many questions even for experienced housewives, so professionals give several recommendations:

Cook in glass - do not use metal cups. Mix only with wooden spatulas.
If you decide to bake sourdough bread, let the dough rise for 4-5 hours, otherwise the rise will not be sufficient. Some professionals advise increasing this time to 8 hours, or adding heating to the baking sheets from below (you can place them on a pan of boiling water).
For wheat baked goods, it is advisable to start a sourdough starter on a whole grain basis, and then feed it with classic white flour of the highest grade.
The strength that this mass acquires depends on its age, so housewives use mainly half of the starter for baking, and continue to grow the rest.
If you are afraid that the bread will not rise as well as with yeast, gradually reduce the amount to a minimum.
It is better to store it in the refrigerator (door) - this way the mass will be “frozen”. Before starting work, she is allowed to warm up for several hours to start activity again.
Need to grow your bread base faster? Add a spoonful of sugar/honey - it will speed up fermentation.
It is advisable to combine the components by eye, and not blindly following the recipe - you need to get a thick but moving mass that does not require a spoon.
To raise the starter, the room must be at least 22-23 degrees, otherwise you will have to wait 1.5-2 days before the first bubbles appear, and the overall ripening period will increase.

Video

Bread prepared without yeast fermentation is the familiar Armenian thin lavash, Jewish unleavened matzo or slices of crispbread. Sourdough for yeast-free bread, prepared at home, involves a fermentation reaction, so you can’t do without acidic bacteria even when baking the healthiest bread. How, then, is the difference between bread bought in a store and a traditional loaf made with homemade sourdough?

Sourdough options

There are as many classic, age-old varieties of sourdough as there are varieties of breads, everyday and holiday. And in any of the recipes you will still have to come to terms with the presence of sour, natural yeast, since this is the only prerequisite for the rise and fluffiness of the dough.

The benefits of homemade sourdough bread

A great consolation for those who believe that yeast is harmful is the fact that you can control the process of activation of grown bacteria at home yourself. Technologies for industrial production of dry and compressed yeast cannot ensure attention to each unit of output. It would be strange to require employees of bakery shops to disinfect their work areas to destroy pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, the opportunity to protect yourself from random human and industrial factors is a sufficient reason to try yourself in the role of a village housewife from the recent past.

Harmful effects of homemade sourdough bread

The benefits of homemade sourdough for yeast-free bread and such bread itself are clear, but is there any potential harm in them? As it turned out, yes, but this negative point applies only to people with serious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. The same ferment formed during intensive fermentation, which does not allow pathogenic microorganisms to take root in the product, has a detrimental effect on a weakened digestive system, causing bloating and heartburn.

You can partially neutralize increased acidity without compromising the development of a beneficial bacterial environment by adding 1-2 teaspoons of baking soda when kneading the dough.

Preparation of wheat-rye sourdough

Otherwise, rye sourdough for yeast-free bread is called “eternal”, since with timely feeding, a jar with fragrant contents covered with a napkin can last for more than one year. With the option of mixing rye and wheat flour, the “life” of the sourdough is reduced, but if long-term preparation is not planned, this option will result in a rich and complex taste.

Pour 1 tbsp into a half-liter jar. a spoonful of peeled rye and wheat flour of the first or second grade. Pour water in a thin stream and mix a slurry similar in consistency to liquid sour cream. Now all that remains is to cover the jar with a cotton napkin in one layer and you can wait.

There is no need to confuse sourdough with dough - when diluting the components, ready-made yeast is placed in the dough, and enhanced fermentation is provoked with sugar or honey, and then with flour. In sourdough for unleavened bread, rye or any other, only a suitable nutrient medium is formed, and live bacteria, found in the flour or coming from the air, complete the process on their own.

The next day, a characteristic sour smell will appear from the jar, and its contents will be saturated with oxygen bubbles and rise almost one and a half times. As soon as this happens, you again need to mix in two types of flour, this time 3 tbsp. spoons of each. The new stage of fermentation will reach peak activity within 2-3 hours, and this will mean that the starter for yeast-free bread is ready.

Preparing rye sourdough

The recipe for rye sourdough for yeast-free bread is the option that is used to prepare monastery breads, famous for their long shelf life and softness. Real bread, according to local bakers, should be prepared with a five-day leaven, but even after the finished loaf is taken out of the oven, it is not cut for the table, but wrapped in a towel and put away for another day. When you tap the crust of such bread, the sound is loud, and when you cut a slice, the table is not strewn with crumbs - only then, if these conditions are met, can the bread be considered real.

How to prepare a sourdough starter for yeast-free bread that meets all these requirements? Firstly, using not purified or boiled water, but settled water, in which you need to dilute 100 g of medium-fat sour cream until thick. A napkin to cover the jar with the starter is pre-moistened, and then the container is covered and put in a warm place.

On the second day, the appearance of bubbles is normal - there may not be very many of them, but in any case the starter is replenished with another 100 g of rye flour and a small amount of water to maintain the same consistency.

On the third day, the leaven for yeast-free bread is formed by adding flour (100 g) for the last time and removed for the last day. On the morning of the fifth day, the base can already be used. To do this, the entire amount of foamy liquid must be divided in two, and the part that remains in the jar should be covered with gauze folded in three and put in the refrigerator, and the set aside part should be used for dough.

Preparing raisin sourdough

Half a glass of soft white raisins should be mashed in a mortar or rolled out with a rolling pin in a bag to break its integrity. Place the raisins in a deep plate, pour in half a glass of water, add the same amount of rye flour and mix everything well with 1 teaspoon of natural honey. The mixture will be thick; there is no need to specially thin it.

Transfer the mixture into a glass jar, cover with double-layer gauze and leave in a warm place for a day. On the second day, the fermented starter is filtered, squeezing out all the liquid from the raisin pulp, and 4 tbsp is poured into sweet water. spoons of rye flour and add lukewarm water to the consistency of drinking yogurt.

On the third day, the starter can be used. Add another 4 tbsp to the half of the base that will be stored in the refrigerator. spoons of flour, then cover with gauze and remove, and the other half is used for dough.

Preparing raw sourdough on grain

Sourdough made from grain is prepared in two versions - raw and brewed. Raw sourdough is rich in living bacteria, and the value is retained in full, but sourdough made using the second method is stored longer.

How to make sourdough for unleavened grain bread using the raw method? First you need to decide what kind of bread you plan to bake - dark or white. For dark bread you need to take rye grains, for white bread - wheat. You can prepare both options in different dishes, and subsequently use them alternately or even mixing them together.

Pour 1 cup of sorted and well-washed grain into a glass jar and shake several times so that the wet grains do not stick together. For better germination, you need to arrange condensation in the jar, for which you place the container in a bag, tie it and put it in a warm place for a day.

The next day, remove the bag and wash the grain again under running water. If all the grains have swollen and sprouted, you can start preparing the starter; if not, repeat the steps with the bag and leave the jar warm for another 6-8 hours. After this, the swollen grain is placed in a blender container and crushed at medium speed to a pulp - it is not necessary to achieve homogeneity.

In a deep plate, combine the resulting mush with 2 tbsp. spoons of peeled rye flour and 1 teaspoon of natural honey, transfer the mixture to a jar, cover with a napkin and put away for another day. In the future, the mixture is handled similarly to the previous recipes - some are put in the cold, some are used immediately.

Preparing choux starter on grain

The custard recipe for yeast-free sourdough for grain bread partially repeats the one described above - the grain is sprouted, crushed, mixed with flour and honey, but then diluted with a small amount of water until the consistency of sour cream and put on low heat for 25 minutes. Cool the mixture by wrapping the saucepan in a towel, and then divide it in half.

Preparing rice sourdough

Rice can be used either whole (not steamed) or chopped. Rinse 100 g of grain under running water and place in a jar. Pour in 150 ml of slightly warmed water, add 1 teaspoon (heaped) of sugar and put the jar, covered with a napkin, in a dark, cool place for three days.

In the evening of the third day, add 1.5 tbsp to the starter. spoons of white wheat flour and 0.5 tbsp. spoons of sugar. On the fourth day, mix the foaming mass and dilute it with 100 ml of heated water, at the end add 1 tbsp. l. flour.

On the fifth day, strain the starter, carefully squeezing it through cheesecloth, add 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar and half a glass of flour. After 4 hours, the starter can be used. It is with this rice starter that virtually unstale buns, the fluffiest pancakes and sweet pies are obtained.

Preparing sourdough with hop cones

Contrary to the popular belief that sourdough with hop cones turns out “drunk,” such a base is no different from the already described recipes for yeast-free sourdough for bread. Some part of the ethyl alcohol is actually released during fermentation, but during heat treatment the substance evaporates, leaving no traces.

In the evening, pour 1 tbsp into a thermos. spoon of hop cones, brew them with a glass of boiling water and leave the infusion in a closed thermos until the morning. The next day, strain the liquid into a 2-liter glass jar, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of natural honey, stir everything vigorously and, gradually adding rye flour, bring the mixture to the thickness of medium-fat sour cream. Cover the jar with gauze and keep warm.

The next morning you will notice foam released on the sourdough and an unpleasant smell from the jar - this is normal. You need to add another 2-3 tbsp into the mixture. spoons of flour and leave again for a day. On the fourth day, the procedure is complicated by adding warmed water - it must be poured in at least half the volume of the entire mixture, and then thickened with flour, returning the mass to its previous consistency. The fifth day is a repetition of all the actions of the 4th day.

Finally, on the sixth day, the longest starter is considered ready and can be used.

Preparing sourdough using homemade sourdough

Dough helps sour bacteria come into full force and become active, so making real homemade bread without dough is impossible. If you are accustomed to focusing on the weight of raw pressed yeast, then a piece of 40 g replaces 1 cup of ready-made yeast. The same amount of starter is the same as 3 teaspoons of instant dry yeast.

To prepare the dough, pour a full glass of starter into a wide bowl, dilute the mixture with 400 ml of heated water and begin to add flour in small portions, trying not to miss the moment when the dough begins to resemble rustic sour cream. Then cover the bowl and put it in a warm place for 8-10 hours.

Homemade sourdough bread

During the night the dough rises and falls several times - it gains strength. When kneading the dough, you should take into account that bread made from rye flour is, of course, healthier, but it is much “heavier” and sometimes may not be completely baked. Therefore, before adding it to the dough, it is advisable to replace 20-30% of rye flour with the same amount of wheat, first or second grade.

Separately, in a cup you need to combine 100 ml of warm water with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar or honey. When the granulated sugar has dissolved, the mixture is poured into the dough and kneaded well with a wooden spoon. Now it’s time for fantasies - you can add any spices to your taste, nuts, sesame seeds, bran, oatmeal, seeds, sprouted grains to the future dough. The benefit of yeast-free sourdough bread is that it retains its properties during almost any culinary experiment. Be sure to pour 3-5 tbsp into the future dough. spoons of vegetable oil. The main thing is to then stir everything well and sift the prepared flour directly into the bowl.

Rolling out the dough

They don’t talk about dough made with live yeast - they knead it, it is “rolled out”. They generously sprinkle the table with flour, lay out the entire sticky heterogeneous mass on it and begin to roll it in a clockwise direction with both hands, then kneading it, then again forming it into a ball. You should not oversaturate the dough with flour - it should stop sticking to your hands, but nothing more.

The formation of simple bread happens like this: we take the ball in our hands and press the dough inside the ball along the entire circumference - you will get a hemisphere that needs to be placed in a greased frying pan. Now the future bread should stand warm for about two hours.

After the oven has warmed up a little, place a bowl of water on the lower rack, closer to the back wall. Then close the door and wait until the oven warms up to 230 0 C.

When the bread is in the oven, it takes 40 minutes, after which you can try to assess readiness with a wooden skewer.

Preparing yeast-free sourdough bread in a bread machine will save you from the long procedure of rolling out dough and the need to wash a lot of unnecessary dishes, and thanks to a smart device, you can try a great many recipes for your favorite bread.

This is what brings dough and sourdough together (and that’s why we confuse these concepts): in both, provided that the yeast dough contained some yeast and matured for about 6-18 hours, acids accumulate and this has the best effect on the quality of bread. Based on this commonality, I immediately drew a parallel with sourdough; sourdough has a similar effect on bread dough, only revealing its best sides even more strongly and brightly.

Dough and sourdough

Before I tell you what I read from Hamelman, I’ll tell you about dough and sourdough. I already wrote somewhere, but here I repeat: what we call sourdough in leavened bread is actually not sourdough, but sourdough, and calling it sourdough is not entirely correct. Dough is for yeast bread, when part of the flour and water are mixed with yeast and this mixture is brought to a mature state, and then used for kneading. In fact, it’s almost the same as what we do with sourdough, only then we simply accumulate the sourdough to the required amount, make it the required humidity, using a starter culture - our sourdough, which we feed continuously, as a rule, leaving the humidity and proportions unchanged . In yeast bread, dough is used in most cases to enrich the bread dough with organic acids; in sourdough bread, it is used to accumulate not so much acids (they will accumulate in sufficient quantities during the fermentation process), but rather yeast, in order to adjust the fermentation time of the dough.

Strengthening the dough structure

Increasing the acidity level of the dough has a good effect on gluten, increasing its strength and stability. This is an undoubted advantage of sourdough, which is why, by the way, it is often used simply as an improver. If you pay attention, among the products that are added to the dough during kneading in order to improve or influence its properties, there are so-called acidulants. By the way, this is one of the reasons why bread made from freshly ground flour should be baked with sourdough: its acids strengthen the unoxidized protein of fresh flour and help the dough retain its structure.

Development of bread aroma and taste

Have you ever baked regular yeast bread in a bread machine? As for me, this bread doesn’t really look like bread, more like a bun, and its structure is cottony, inelastic, and smells more like yeast than the bread itself. The reason, in general, lies in the fact that the dough from which the bread was baked did not accumulate a sufficient amount of acids, which form the very rich taste and aroma of good bread. Hamelman writes: “Semi-finished products (spreads) naturally contain organic acids and esters (flavor compounds produced by yeast), which contribute to the formation of the characteristic bread taste and smell.” That is, even yeast bread using yeast or sourdough dough is significantly improved, but in the case of bread simply made with live sourdough, this manifests itself and reveals itself really brightly and powerfully!

Long-term preservation of bread quality

“There is a certain relationship between the acidity of bakery products and the preservation of quality during storage. As the pH value of bread decreases (i.e., acidity increases), its shelf life increases.” Previously, Europeans, especially in rural areas, baked bread once every two, three, or even four weeks. Only bread with high acidity, that is, made with sourdough or sourdough, can withstand such long-term storage,” writes Jeffrey Hamelman. My grandmother, having lived all her life in a village in the Kursk region, baked sourdough bread, and it happened approximately as Hamelman describes: once or twice a month she baked several large loaves of bread in the oven, placed them on the oven ledge, covered them with a towel, sometimes I transferred the bread to a large saucepan with a lid.

Comparing yeast sponge and sourdough bread, I still feel a big difference in taste and aroma, no matter how you look at it, but yeast bread in most cases does not have such a deep, rich and powerful aroma, and a flatter taste. And it doesn't last that long. Sourdough bread will lie for three weeks, dry out, nothing will happen to it, but yeast bread can easily become moldy during this time.

Protection against mold and bread diseases

photo from the net

The acidity of dough and finished bread plays a very important role in protecting bread from mold and other bread diseases, including potato diseases. By analogy, the sourdough itself, having achieved the required acidity during the breeding process, displaces all pathogenic flora and, provided that you carefully manage it and do not allow strong peroxidation, remains healthy and active. In fact, the acidity of sourdough is its immunity, and that of the bread you bake with this sourdough.

Gluten fermentation

Among other things, some changes occur with gluten during the fermentation process. Enzymes promote gluten hydrolysis - the decomposition of complex protein bonds of “problematic” gluten into simpler ones, which are absorbed by our body much easier and better.

A little later we will figure out what actually happens to gluten during the fermentation process, what this gives to the bread and to us, as lovers of good bread.

The best way to make yeast dough for rolls and bread (sponge method) is 3.

Yeast dough - 3

The third part of the Marlezon ballet. And the last one.

Although in the original version, if my memory serves me correctly, the ballet was danced in two parts. But I could be wrong, because Dumas only read as a child. I tried to re-read it about five years ago, but I couldn’t. Why would this... But I’m distracted as always, sorry.
And today we will not talk about dancing kings and queens and galloping dartagnans, but about sponge dough.

Sponge dough takes a long time. I warn you right away.
Much less yeast is put into sponge dough than usual. Previously, in the villages, when they made bread, they always left a piece of old dough in the bowl, and they made the dough on it, adding only a drop of fresh yeast for feeding. And this tub, in which the dough, in the village style - a kneading bowl, was placed, was never washed. Every drop of yeast medium was stored - even in the form of pieces of dough that had dried on the walls.
Sponge dough, I repeat, is long. But on the other hand, a natural fermentation process occurs, and this means that the finished bread does not go stale longer. There were no bread makers. They kneaded with their hands. And they baked bread not just for once, but for a week. And even for longer - in winter, ready-made bread was taken out into the senki and frozen. How else. You won’t get enough if you have a hot stove every day.
Now this is basically useless. It’s unlikely that anyone is going to bake bread for a week in advance. But suddenly it will come in handy. And then experimenting with flavors is never harmful. And the taste of sponge dough is many times better than that of quick, straight dough.

So, we bake bread and baguettes.
Pour half a liter of water into a bowl. The water should be warm, but not hot. 30-40 degrees. Add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar and half a pack of dry yeast. I mean a standard 12 gram pack. You can replace dry yeast with live yeast; 30 grams of live yeast will be enough.

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Stir the yeast in the water and sugar. Add half the flour.

In general, half a liter of water requires a kilogram of flour. But the dough starts up and sits on half the flour. Dough is a liquid dough.
Mix flour with water.

I always immediately dilute salt with a small amount of water in a glass or bowl and place it next to the dough. I baked unsalted bread a couple of times and taught myself to put salt nearby so as not to forget when the dough was ripe.

I cover the dough with film and calmly forget about it for three to four hours.

Sometimes the dough needs more time. You can start it in the evening.
The dough rises slowly.

But it becomes ready only when it rises to its maximum height and begins to sag in the center. Do you see a crack appearing in the center and the dough began to settle inward? This is the very moment when the dough is ready. Now is the time to start the dough.

If you let the dough sit longer, it may turn sour.
First, pour diluted salt into the dough.

Then add the remaining half a kilogram of flour. And stir it with the dough.

Mixing flour with dough is much more difficult than kneading the dough with all the flour at once. But don't be afraid. At the moment when it seems to you that the dough is too steep, add vegetable oil. Approximately 50 grams of butter.

The dough should absorb all the flour along the sides of the bowl.

Transfer it to the table, cover with film and leave for 20 minutes.

And then knead well again until smooth, without lumps.

Place the dough back into the bowl, cover with cling film and leave for 30-40 minutes.

Then knead the dough again

and leave it back for an hour so that it finally comes up.

After this, the dough can be considered ready. It is porous and squeaks when kneaded.

It turns out approximately 1.6 kilograms of dough from these products.
Cut a kilogram of dough, roll it up so that you get a flat surface on top.

Press down lightly and place in a greased, heavy-bottomed frying pan (or simply place on a baking sheet).

Divide the remaining 600 grams of dough into three equal parts.

Make baguettes.
To keep the baguettes in shape, they are shaped like rolls. That is, a piece of dough is first rolled into a flat cake, then rolled into a tight roll. And then they roll out thinner, from the middle to the edges into a thin sausage.

Transfer to a baking sheet.

And with a sharp knife they make cuts diagonally. When making cuts, do not be afraid, do not be delicate, do not pull the dough behind the knife. Strong and fast - one or two and you're done.

Cover both loaves and bread with film. Someone recently complained that the buns were drying out during proofing. Under the film they will not become covered with a dried crust. Even in our kitchen, with the stove always on, they do not dry out under the film.
Proofing time for baguettes made from sponge dough is 1 hour.

After that, bake them for 15 minutes in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for exactly 15 minutes.
Do not shorten the proofing time - otherwise your baguettes will tear in the oven.

But the bread needs a little more time to rise. I advise you to cut the bread dough with a knife, and leave it to proof for another half hour after the baguettes go into the oven.

Then place the bread in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 200 degrees. Then, without removing the bread from the oven, reduce the temperature to 150 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes.

In the bakery we checked the readiness of the bread on the scales. If we put 750 grams of dough into a bread pan, then the finished hot loaf of bread should have weighed 110 grams less. If the scale showed a little more, the loaf was sent back to the pan and into the oven.
I also checked this loaf of bread on the scales, and the result did not deceive me - it’s done!

I brushed the hot crust with plain water. I think this makes the crust taste better.

This is how I test good bread: I take it and press it hard with my hand. She flattened it and let go.

And if the bread takes its original shape - it levels out and rises back - then the crumb is perfectly baked.

Well, I won’t tell you how delicious it is. Try it yourself. Moreover, it is so simple - it couldn’t be simpler.

Baking bread in any folk cuisine is always a sacred, mysterious act, almost witchcraft. The secret of making bread was carefully kept in every family and passed on from generation to generation. The sourdough bread baked in a Russian oven was tasty and aromatic, one can say that there is no such bread and cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The ancient science of baking is not forgotten today.

Russian bread starters were prepared from rye flour, straw, barley, wheat, hops... In remote villages, far from “enlightened” civilization, you can still find recipes for making bread without purchased yeast. Yeast-free starters and bread prepared with them enrich the body with organic acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fiber, pectins, biostimulants - in general, all those beneficial substances that are present in whole grains. One experiment that was conducted by journalists from one of our television channels speaks in favor of sourdough bread. They bought a regular loaf of bread and compared it with bread baked at home. The camera recorded changes occurring in the bread throughout the week. Store-bought bread became moldy on the second day. Three days later he was covered in black and green fluff. And the homemade bread has just gone stale. It’s just that sourdough bread, in principle, cannot become moldy - the acidic environment kills all harmful bacteria and does not affect the beneficial ones.

So, if you are ready to bake homemade bread, the first thing you need to do is prepare a sourdough starter. There is nothing scary or difficult about this. You don’t need to tremble over it like you would over a crystal vase, just mix the right products and wait, and the result will definitely come. First, let's decide what kind of sourdough we will prepare. There are different sourdoughs: rye, wheat, malt, hop, potato, raisin, even rice - they are all good (each in its own way) for baking bread. It must be said that rye flour is best suited for making sourdough, since it retains all the beneficial substances that are not found in refined wheat flour. This is why sourdough made from wheat flour often deviates towards pathogenic flora, sours and becomes unsuitable for use. It is better to prepare wheat sourdough for one or two uses, but rye sourdough can be successfully used for more than one year, the main thing is to store and “feed” it correctly.

1 day: Mix 100 g of rye flour with clean water to the consistency of thick sour cream, cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm place without drafts.
Day 2: bubbles should appear on the sourdough. If there are few of them, it's okay. Now the starter needs to be fed. Add 100 g of flour and add water to get the consistency of thick sour cream again. Leave again in a warm place.
Day 3: the starter has grown in size and has a foamy structure. Add 100 g of flour and water again and leave in a warm place.
After a day, the starter is ready for use. We divide it in half, put one part in a jar and cover it with a cloth or a lid with holes so that it can breathe, and put it in the refrigerator. We use the other part for baking bread.

1 day: mash a handful of raisins with a masher, mix with ½ cup of water and ½ cup of rye flour, add 1 tsp. sugar or honey, put everything in a jar, cover with a cloth or a leaky lid and put in a warm place.
Day 2: strain the starter, add 4 tbsp. flour and warm water until sour cream thickens and put back in a warm place.
Day 3: the starter is ready. Divide it in half, as in the previous recipe, add 4 tbsp to one part. flour, water (until sour cream thickens) and put in the refrigerator. Use the other part for baking bread.

1 day: Soak 1 cup of grain (wheat for wheat bread or rye for “black” bread) for germination, wrap the dishes in a towel, and place in a warm place.
Day 2: If not all of the grain has sprouted, then wash it, wrap it and leave it in a warm place until the evening. In the evening, grind the grain in a blender or food processor (be careful not to burn the motor!), mix with 2 tbsp. rye flour, 1 tsp. sugar or honey, place in a warm place under a lid or towel.
Day 3: the starter can be divided (as in previous recipes), part left in the refrigerator, and the other part used to prepare the dough.
As an option, the grain sourdough can be cooked boiled. Mix the ground grain with flour, sugar and water (if it is a little dry) and place in a saucepan over low heat. Cook for 20 minutes, remove from heat, wrap and place in a warm place. Then proceed as usual - feed, divide, etc.

1 day: Pour 100 g of rice into 150 ml of warm water, add 1 tsp. sugar and leave in a cool place for three days.
Day 3: add 3 tbsp. with a heap of wheat flour and 1 tsp. Sahara.
Day 4: stir the starter and add 100 ml of warm water and 1 heaped tablespoon of flour.
Day 5: strain the starter, add 1 tsp. sugar and 4 tbsp. with a heap of flour.
After a few hours you can prepare the dough. Set aside part of the starter for preparing the dough, put the rest of the starter in the refrigerator. This starter is ideal for pies, buns and pancakes.

1 day: In the evening, pour 1 tbsp into a thermos. dry hop cones with 1 cup of boiling water, close the thermos and leave until morning.
Day 2: strain the resulting infusion into a two-liter jar, add 1 tbsp. sugar or honey, stir well, add rye flour to the consistency of thick sour cream. Place in a warm place, covering the jar with a cloth.
Day 3: the starter will become liquid and foamy, the smell is still unpleasant. Add flour until sour cream thickens, cover and place in a warm place.
Day 4: mix the starter, add warm water (1/2 or 1/3 of the volume of the starter), stir and add flour until sour cream thickens.
Day 5: add water and flour again.
Day 6: Use part of the starter to prepare the dough, put the remaining starter in the refrigerator, adding water and flour until sour cream thickens.

As you can see, nothing incredible; the starter grows with minimal intervention from us. But preparing dough and baking bread requires some skill. But the most important thing is that sourdough bread needs to be prepared in a good mood, otherwise nothing will work. Verified.

Opara

Homemade bread is prepared on sourdough - this allows the live yeast in the starter to gain strength. One glass of starter is approximately equal to 40 g of pressed yeast (or 1.5 tbsp dry). Pour a glass of starter into a wide bowl, add 350-500 ml of warm water, stir and add enough sifted flour to make a batter with the consistency of thick sour cream. Cover with a towel and place in a warm place overnight.

Dough

In the morning we knead the dough. The dough should have a good “walk” during the night, rise 2 times and have time to fall. Stir 1 tbsp in ½ cup of warm water. honey and 1 tsp. salt (proportions are approximate, they can be changed), add to the dough, stir well. Then add all kinds of fillers and spices to taste: bran (about half a glass or more), ½ tsp. ground cloves, ground coriander on the tip of a knife, 1 tsp each. ground ginger and nutmeg, 2-3 tbsp unrefined sunflower oil. You can add raisins, seeds, nuts, flax seeds, oatmeal, boiled potatoes, quinoa seeds, pumpkin seeds - in general, for every taste. Mix everything thoroughly and add sifted rye flour - enough so that there is a spoon in the dough, that is, the dough should be quite thick. Then pour wheat flour onto the table, dump out the dough, sprinkle flour on top and begin to knead and fold it. Do not knead, but knead, sprinkling with flour so that your hands do not stick, and fold into an envelope. Then knead again and fold again. Sprinkle with flour so that the dough does not stick to your hands, but do not add too much flour, otherwise the bread will turn out dense and unbaked.

Ideally, the dough should be dry on top and sticky on the inside. Rye dough will always be sticky, so you need to focus on its outer side. As soon as the dough can be held in your hands, knead it, fold the corners, forming a ball. Then take the dough in your hands and smooth the dough ball, shaking off excess flour and tucking the dough inside the ball. Place the prepared dough in a frying pan or cast iron pan, greased with oil, seam side down, and leave in a warm place. The surface of the loaf can be sprinkled with water and sprinkled with sesame or flax seeds. Or you can make cuts or decorate with thin strips of dough. The dough rises for 1-3 hours.

Baking bread

We bake bread in the oven at a temperature of 220-230ºС, “with steam” - that is, you need to place a bowl of water on the bottom of the oven. Do not open the door for the first 20 minutes! The bread is baked for 40-60 minutes, depending on the size. Wrap the finished bread in a towel and leave for a day - this is a must. Properly baked bread makes a ringing sound when tapped on the crust, and the crumb expands completely when squeezed.

There are many options for homemade bread recipes: you can bake pure rye bread, similar to Borodinsky, you can add pea flour or boiled potatoes, grind pre-soaked grain or add sprouts, increase the amount of wheat flour or even bake white bread - it all depends on your imagination. In any case, sourdough bread, prepared with your own hands and with love, will only bring benefits to your household. Bon appetit!

Larisa Shuftaykina