White Sourdough in the Bread Machine

UPDATE: This post is out of date. Please view this post instead.

This series of posts is meant as a record of my experimentation with sourdough and bread machines, plus various ways of hand finishing and baking. I am not an expert but I’ve found a way that is really very simple, although you do need to know how to judge when a dough is risen, how to form the loaf, and how to judge when it’s ready to come out of the oven. These things do require a bit of hands-on experience.

This recipe uses the same process as this recipe but with differences in flour, quantities, and the baking method. This recipe is for a small loaf.

I used Wessex Mill Strong White bread flour for this loaf.

For the starter, I divided my old starter in 2, fed the old version as normal (adding 50/50 wholewheat flour/water to make it up to 50g). I fed the new version version similarly with white flour.

In the morning I returned the old version of the starter to the fridge, and made a leaven using all of the new starter, 50 g white flour and 50g water. I left it about 5 hours.

For the main dough I used:

275g white flour
50g Gilchester wholewheat flour for a bit of flavour
150ml water

For adding salt I used 7g salt, 15ml water.

For baking, I oiled a baking tray with sunflower oil, floured a board, extracted the dough from the bread maker and formed the dough on the board. Left it to rise covered with a damp cloth.

Just before I put it in the oven I cut a cross on the top using a sharp knife. I baked the bread in the oven at 220C. I put the bread in the middle of the oven and poured some boiling water into a tray at the bottom of the oven, for steam. Baked in about 20 minutes.

***UPDATE***

• slightly soggy, should maybe have turned the oven down and baked another 5 or ten minutes
• had rather large bubbles in it. Turns out this is a desirable thing!