From Starter to Finish

An exploration of sourdough bread baking during times of uncertainty

Sourdough starts with a healthy starter—a naturally fermented flour and water slurry that grabs yeasts from the environment.
Crusts and crumb-shots. Atop is a horizontal progression of my loaves, starting with a slightly misshapen loaf and finishing with a beautifully scored loaf. Below, in the crumb shots, one can see a nice smuttering of bubbles from the yeast.
A turmeric, leek, and poppyseed loaf, from Sarah Owen's book Sourdough.
Some finished products, loaves in action. Below is a tuna sandwichand an avocado and anchovy toast. The savory notes of fish pair excellently with the turmeric loaf.
A study in proofing. Sometimes loaves don't go as anticipated, and here we can see the results of over proving—large bubbles in the first image, and loaf collapse in the second.
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START

 

Flour, water, and time. It’s a wonder that with just two simple ingredients and a bit of patience, anyone can begin crafting sourdough. It all begins with starter, a slurry made with equal parts flour and water left at room temperature for a week or so. After a few days of feeding, a process of dumping half the starter and adding an equivalent weight of flour and water again, you’ll begin to see signs of life, small bubbles forming in the goop. This is good.

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BAKE

A good loaf has a caramelized, well-defined crust. Many recipes call for baking in a heavy-bottomed dutch oven that preheats with the oven, ensuring a crispy browned exterior. To prevent side-blowout, a baker scores the top, allowing steam to escape the loaf as it bakes. The middle stage of sourdough baking, the make and proof, are difficult to perfect. As you can observe, my first loaves were a bit misshapen, but with practice comes growth.

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FIN

Bread is one of life’s great wonders. From such simple ingredients, nearly inedible at the start come rich flavors and satisfying textures that are delicious on their own, but heightened when introduced to other items. Butter is bread’s best friend, and I recommend a high-quality cultured butter, to double down on the tangy wonder. For the seeded turmeric and leek loaf, as shown below, I paired it with some tinned fish: a tuna sandwich with cheddar, mustard frill, and pickled radishes and a simple anchovy toast with avocado.

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PROOF

Not all loaves will be perfect. I cannot stress this enough. Baking bread, especially sourdough, is influenced by a seemingly infinite amount of variables that can vary by the hour such as oven temperature, prooving temperature, gluten development, flour type, humidity, and yes, even the weather. Overprooved loaves, especially ones with not enough gluten development will become droopy and fail to expand in the oven, resulting in a flattened dense mess. Look for signs of overprooving in the crumb—large gas bubbles or even a gap between the top crust and crumb, indicating a large upper gas bubble. Even if overproved, these loaves can still be delicious and flavorful! Cut them into crostini and bake in the oven or halve the loaf horizontally for a great panini base.

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