Bread

Some of you may remember I was having some difficulties with getting a good loaf, well a little while ago I went on a sourdough making course at the Thoughtful Bread Company in Bath (xmas pressie from the gf) which was really good and we were allowed to take some of their starter to feed up at home and now I'm getting consistently good sourdoughs, both rye and white loaves so thought I'd share the techniques/recipe. You can obviously vary the amounts for a differrent size loaf but I try to keep the ratios the same for consistent results. Also you can use less starter and a longer prove for a more tangy taste, just add equal parts flour and water to replace the volume of starter you're omitting.
And obviously for sourdough organic flour is a must as there will be lots of yeasts in the flour that occur naturally.

White sourdough:
2:1:1 (flour:starter:water)
This is like an "entry level" sourdough in terms of taste, it's not very sour/tangy but has great texture and crust. This technique works really well for fitting in around work/kids etc.

*400g strong white bread flour (I use Doves Farm because that's what I can get from Sainsbury's)
*200g starter
*200g water (200 ml) (cold tap water works fine for me)
*15g salt (or there abouts, I don't have a digital scale so just go with a few tsp worth)

1. Combine flour, starter, and water, cover bowl with a plastic bag and leave for 30 mins to autolyse.
   
2. Take your dough and stretch it as evenly and thinly as you can on the (unfloured) worktop, sprinkle the salt over the dough and then take the edges/corners and fold into the middle. Fold all the edges in until you have a lump of dough, place back in the bowl, cover with plastic bag, set timer for 45 mins.
   
3. Repeat stretching and folding from step 2 after 45 mins (but without the salt bit). You may find the salt has drawn some water out of the dough, this is fine and will recombine after a little while. Set timer for 45 mins.
   
4. Repeat step 3 once or twice more, leaving about 45 mins between each stretch/fold. By the time you get the the last one you may notice you have some bigger bubbles forming, but don't worry if not.
   
5. Shape your dough, be sure to rest it after the last stretch/fold for a little while, and leave to prove in the fridge overnight.
   
6. Put whatever you are baking your bread on (higher shelf) and an oven dish (lower shelf) into the oven and pre-heat to as hot as it will go (for me this is 250 celcius). If you have a choice then DON'T use a fan, just the heating elements, and I find it works best for me when I only use the lower element as the top one can cause the bread to burn on top.
   
7. Once the oven is up to temperature, take your proved dough, flour and score if you like and put it in the oven along with 500ml of water which goes into the spare (now very hot) oven dish. Close the oven door and set a timer for 35 mins.
   
8. Cool on a wire rack
   
9. Eat
   
   

I usually check the temp with a thermometer before removing from the oven (you're looking for about 93 celcius) but it's always up to temp in the middle after 35 mins so you can probably skip it if you don't have one.

Here's one I made earlier.