How to Make Sourdough Bread

Posted on September 28th, 2009 by Marck

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If there’s anything that could rival the satisfaction of eating homemade bread, it’s definitely baking it. There’s nothing like the smell of freshly-baking bread in your kitchen. Here are the steps you need to make your own fresh sourdough bread.

What is Sourdough Bread?

Sourdough is an ingredient made from lactobacillus bacteria. Sourdough is prepared by mixing wild yeast together with flour and water. Sourdough acts as a leavening agent, and has been prepared and used for thousands of years by cooks and bakers.

Instead of raw, natural yeast, sourdough bread uses a small amount of dough called a starter. The starter contains the leavening agents and yeasts needed to allow the bread to rise. A batch of starter is used to make a batch of bread, and some of the starter dough is set aside for use in other batches of sourdough bread. Since the invention of prepared yeasts, sourdough bread is found less and less in commercial bakeries and supermarkets. The breads, however, can still be found in specialty shops and health food stores, and has found a unique place in home bread-making.

Ingredients

To prepare sourdough bread, you need the following ingredients:

Warm water
Yeast (you can consult the supermarket attendants on where to find yeasts made for sourdough bread)
Flour (avoid all-purpose flour; instead, use unleavened high-gluten flour)
Salt

Steps

Sourdough bread is made in three phases:

Starter

sourdough bread
The starter is a batch of dough that is used to allow the bread to rise. To make a batch of starter, follow these steps:

Combine a cup of warm water with a quarter teaspoon of yeast and a cup of flour in a steel bowl.
Mix the ingredients well, and cover the bowl with a square of cling-wrap.
Allow the starter mixture to sit for four to six hours in room temperature.

Sponge

The sponge is the component of sourdough bread that makes up the body of the ingredient. To make the sponge, follow these steps:

Prepare cup of the sourdough starter, three-fourths of a cup of warm water, and two cups of flour.
Mix the ingredients together in a steel bowl.
Cover the sponge mixture with a square of cling-wrap, and allow it to stand in room temperature for six hours. You may even allow the dough to rise overnight if needed.
The bread sponge is ready when the volume of the dough has expanded to thrice its original volume.

Bread

To make the sourdough bread, follow these steps:

Combine one and a half cups of flour together with two level teaspoonfuls of salt. Make sure to mix the dry ingredients thoroughly to prevent salty bits of bread from forming during the baking process.
Knead the flour together with the sponge. Make sure the consistency is even. (Learn how to knead dough)
Place the dough in loaf pans or pans. You may need to dust the pans with flour to keep the bread from sticking.
Bake the bread at an oven preheated to 350 degrees until the bread is completely done.

Sourdough bread always tastes great with a cup of hot coffee and sweet treats like bite-sized scones. With these steps, you can enjoy the homey taste of fresh sourdough bread right in your own home. If you’re interested in this article, might as well read how to make edible bread fundough.