Sourdough Bread

I don't bake much. Usually once a year I make a carrot cake for my wife's birthday. Occasionally I will make corn bread when I make chili. In an effort to make space in our cabinets a few weeks ago I made biscuits with self-rising flour. But making bread? That usually would be too intimidating for me to try. I'm happy heading down to the local bakery to buy a loaf when needed. But last week I took a pizza making class, and one of the take-home items was some sourdough starter. After spending considerable time online reading about how to care for the starter, I happened upon some recipes for a San Francisco "style" sourdough loaf. I can't make authentic San Francisco sourdough, the organisms living in my sourdough starter are native to Newburyport.

It turns out that baking bread is not that difficult. There are so many baking sites out on the web it is also easy to identify what you may have done wrong and find suggestions on how to fix it. In my case, my oven was too hot, and the top of the outside of the bread cooked too quickly, preventing the inside of the bread to rise, so it lifted out from the bottom creating a mushroom like appearance. I used some deceptive photography so this is not really evident in my photo. This also did not affect the taste. My bread was amazing, and I recommend getting a starter and making it yourself. I had a sense of accomplishment after making this loaf of bread. (And topped with butter it tasted splendid too!) On to the recipe...

Newburyport Sourdough Bread Recipe

2 cups of sourdough starter
2-3 cups of bread flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

Combine the starter, sugar, salt, and oil in your Kitchen Aid Mixer. Stir together at the low speed until well mixed. Add about two cups of flour. The total amount of flour you'll end up using is dependent on the dryness of the flour and how wet your starter may be. Basically, mix until the dough is tacky and hangs on the dough hook. If you dough is sticky and falls off the hook add more flour. If you happen to add to much flour, just add some water until it has that tacky feeling. If it is slightly sticky to your finger, but pulls off and leaves no dough on it then you are good to move on.

Let the dough rise in a warm place, in a bowl covered loosely with a wet towel or covered in plastic. I use a slightly warm oven. Turn on the oven light to help during rising. My dough doubled in size in about 3-4 hours. At this point if you're going to bake immediately, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Add a pan of water to the oven as well. The humidity and steam is what gives sourdough bread its thick, brown crust. After it has doubled in size, punch it down and give it a few kneads. Wrap it over itself to form a nice ball and catch the gases on the inside. (If this sentence is confusing you'll have to watch this video to see what I mean).

Put the ball on the middle of a floured cookie sheet. Score the ball with a sharp knife. Create an "X" or "#". Throw it (safely) into your oven and cook for sixty minutes. With all the information I read about this type of bread, one warning I took care to heed was not to take it out early even if it looked done. I waited the full sixty minutes.

Let cool at least twenty minutes before slicing. Stuff is still aligning itself inside of the crust when it's out of the oven (or so I am told to believe). Slice, eat, and enjoy!


You will also be able to find me contributing to Newburyport-today.com.

Newburyport-Today is a private entity that works in cooperation with he Mayor's Office and the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce. Newburyport Today is interested in promoting local non-profits, publicizing our local businesses and their products / services, as well as showcasing our areas abundance of natural wonders.