It’s funny to hear people talk about buying sourdough starter. Buying starter is a lot like buying air. Because that’s where the sourdough “yeast” comes from. Forget fancy starter recipes—especially the ones telling you to add baker’s yeast! Just put a little whole wheat flour in a small dish and mix in some water till it’s like pancake batter. Then set it out uncovered, in a warm place, but out of direct sunlight. (Exact amounts really don’t matter, but if you need a guideline, try half a cup of flour with an equal amount of water. After evaporation, that should yield about half a cup of starter.)The starter mixture will pick up wild “yeast” from the air and feed them. Within a few days, the mixture should bubble and smell sour. (If it picks up the wrong microorganisms and smells bad—as it might especially in places with air pollution—just throw it out and try again.)
Once it bubbles, put your starter in a loosely covered jar or crock (no metal), and refrigerate it. Don’t worry about “feeding the starter” to keep it fresh. Left alone, it will stay good for at least two months. When you’re ready to use it, just pour off any black liquid that has formed on top.
The Ingredients
This recipe makes four 2-lb. loaves. You need 6 lbs.—about 16 cups—of whole wheat flour. Please use flour only from hard winter wheat. Soft winter wheat is for pastry, not bread. Hard spring wheat is the favorite of commercial bakers, because it rises higher and faster—but it has much less flavor. Besides, slow rising allows you more leeway in timing. The only other ingredients are water and salt!
The Sponge
The basic method of breadmaking I use is called “the sponge method.” In this method, you first use half the flour to make a liquidy “sponge.” Later, you add more flour to make the dough. This helps develop the sourness. To make the sponge, put 8 cups of flour in a large bowl and add all your starter. Then mix in warm water and beat the mixture till it’s like pancake batter. You want it to end up lukewarm. Too cold will keep the “yeast” from multiplying. Too hot will kill them.
Now cover the bowl with a towel and leave it for a few hours, or overnight. If you don’t want to use warm water, you can instead put the covered bowl where it will get warm—in an oven with a pilot light, or in direct sunlight, or in front of a heating vent.
You can tell your sponge is ready when it’s slightly domed, smells sour, and is stringy when you stir it. If you leave the sponge too long, the “yeast” will eat the gluten strands, and the sponge will be runny. Your bread will wind up more sour, but it will also be heavier.
Before you make your sponge into dough, ALWAYS remember these two things, in this order:
Take out a small amount of starter for your next batch. (about half a cup, more or less.) Add salt to the sponge—2 tablespoons for this recipe.
The Dough
To make the dough, stir most of the remaining flour into the sponge, a cup or so at a time. Stop when you can stick your fingers a little ways into the dough and pull them back clean. This is just enough flour so the dough won’t stick to the breadboard. The less flour you add, the lighter your bread. The sponge should be entirely wheat, because that’s where the gluten comes from—but for the dough, you can add anything you want. For instance, make rye bread by adding rye flour instead of wheat, plus caraway seeds. Anything other than wheat, though, will make your bread heavier—and a bit less simple.
Empty the dough onto a floured breadboard and knead it until it’s springy. Then form it into four loaves, and place them in oiled or greased bread pans to rise. One rising is really enough. Cover the pans with a towel and place them in a warm place—an oven with a pilot light, or in direct sunlight, or in front of a heating vent. The rising takes three to four hours, and there’s lots of leeway.
Here’s a quicker, more certain method: Turn your oven on low when you start making the dough. When your loaves are in the pans, turn the oven off, put the pans inside, and cover them. With this method, rising takes under two hours. REMEMBER TO TURN OFF THE OVEN! You could let the loaves rise for a day or more, and they’d still turn out well enough.
Start your baking from a cold oven, to give a final spurt to the rising. Set the oven at 375 degrees and bake the bread about 55 minutes. If you take it out and find it’s not done, just stick it back in for more baking. Try to resist cutting into the bread until half an hour after it leaves the oven. It’s still cooking!
You may not need to wrap this bread at all, but at least wait until it’s room temperature. Trapping too much moisture will soften the crust. Also, don’t refrigerate this bread, because that dries it out quickly.