Hot on the trail of sourdough
THERE are few things as treasured, in home kitchens or professional bakeries, as sourdough starter. Bread bakers feed it religiously, on a strict schedule, like pets or children; they carry the stuff with them when they move; they hand down jars of it through generations like heirloom jewelry.
It may look like a forgotten tub of kids’ glue or papier-mache paste -- lodged in the back of the refrigerator or slowly bubbling on a counter top -- but just a bit of it is enough to leaven a loaf of crusty, fragrant bread and flavor it with the gloriously distinctive tang of sourdough. It’s a beautiful, mysterious alchemy that produces gorgeous boules (round loaves), baguettes, even pancakes from such simple ingredients -- no commercial yeast necessary. But it’s just flour and water, wild yeast and lactobacilli; it’s not smoke and mirrors.
For the weeks I experimented with sourdough starter, my kitchen felt and looked like an alchemist’s laboratory. Starters proliferated in bowls and jars on every available surface. I grew them from cheesecloth bags of organic grapes; pots of cooked potatoes; I used bags of stone-ground rye, organic whole wheat, bread and all-purpose flours; I reactivated dried powders under homemade, jury-rigged proofing boxes outfitted with lightbulbs; I stirred and fed starters that I’d begged from a Michelin-starred restaurant, traded at farmers market stalls and received by mail in little plastic bags like a federally controlled substance.
In the end, I had a basic starter I loved (made with pineapple juice and whole wheat flour), rapidly multiplying loaves of amazing bread, an understanding of how truly simple the process is -- and an appreciation of why many bakers are as fanatic about their starters as baseball players can be about their socks.
Inside the new kitchens of Boule in Los Angeles, chef de boulangerie Hidefumi Kubota nurtures a starter that can trace its origins back a century, to a kitchen in Puglia, Italy. A few streets away, at Bastide, pastry chef Margarita Manzke’s starter is one she made (rye flour, malt powder) in Carmel four years ago. At AOC, the sourdough starter is one originally given to the restaurant by farmer Bill Spenser of Windrose Farms, who made his years ago using La Brea Bakery founder Nancy Silverton’s recipe (bread flour, organic grapes).
As for Silverton, the patron saint of sourdough-bread bakers in this town, she says you can trace the starter used in every La Brea Bakery sourdough bread back to the original white starter she made before opening her bakery. “Supposedly I’m going to be going to Ireland with a bucket of starter soon,” Silverton said. (Silverton sold La Brea Bakery to Dublin-based IAWS Group in 2001 but is still active in the company.)
Bakers have been making sourdough bread for centuries, even millenniums. The first risen loaves were made possibly when someone left a bowl of flour-and-water paste out and forgot about it, returning later to find that it had begun to ferment and grow.
The right balance
Making your own sourdough starter is just about this uncomplicated. Basically, it’s mixing flour and water and waiting for the wild yeasts and bacteria present on the grains to gain footing. Over the course of about a week, and with increasingly frequent feedings of flour and water, a sourdough culture establishes itself within the petri dish of your bowl and reaches equilibrium. The bacteria, from which the starter gets its acidity and characteristic sourness, and the yeasts, which leaven it -- and eventually the bread -- achieve a balance.
That’s the basic idea. But there are as many ways to achieve this as there are bread-baking enthusiasts. Some add a mash of organic grapes to the initial blend; others add cooked potatoes or raisin water or apple peels to help kick off the process. Others swear by only flour and water. And then there’s pineapple juice.
In his new book “Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor,” author and baking instructor Peter Reinhart outlines “the pineapple solution,” a recipe that replaces the water in the initial starter mixture with pineapple juice. (It was developed by home baker Debra Wink and fellow members of the King Arthur Baking Circle, who came up with it as a way of avoiding the development of certain growth-inhibiting bacteria.)
I made successful starters with organic grapes, potatoes, water and various flours, even the heel of an old piece of my own sourdough bread (following a tip from cookbook author Naomi Duguid). But the pineapple juice method made the quickest, strongest and most reliable starter. It grew into an active, consistently vigorous, bubbling culture that would leaven a loaf of good bread in a little more than a week, as opposed to the two weeks or more it generally took the other starters. No mold, no wacky aromas or strange discoloration, no days of disheartening inactivity.
Then there’s the question of what flour to use, what water. Although you can probably grow a sourdough culture out of almost any flour and water mixture if you wait long enough, it makes sense that the quality of your essential ingredients will contribute to the quality of your starter. Use high-quality, fresh, organic whole grain flours (which carry more abundant wild yeasts and bacteria) and non-chlorinated water.
After you mix the initial ingredients, it’s just a matter of waiting -- for the dough to ferment, for the yeasts and bacteria to develop -- and feeding it regularly and consistently as you would, say, a goldfish. Moving your bowl to a warm part of the house helps, as does stirring your starter a few times a day, as it benefits from aeration.
Eventually your starter will grow and flourish, fermenting and bubbling, rising and falling as you feed it. No incantations necessary. If you don’t want to make your own starter, there are alternatives. Because sourdough starter grows exponentially, and bakers often have far more than they need, you can ask for some from a friend -- or even from a bakery. You can also order established starter from a number of sources online and by mail, including King Arthur Flour (kingarthurflour.com), breadtopia.com, and Friends of Carl, a group of people who maintain a starter originally begun in Oregon in 1847 (send an SASE to Oregon Trail Sourdough, P. O. Box 32, Jefferson, MD 21755).
Or order a dried culture from Sourdough International’s Ed Wood, a retired pathologist and baker who has spent decades collecting wild yeast starters from around the world. Wood has cultures from San Francisco, Egypt, Italy, Bahrain and elsewhere, each, he says, with their own distinct flavor; they’re available at sourdo.com. (Note: Wood calls for that jury-rigged proofing box.)
Playing with starters
But making your own is a lot of fun. Consider it a science project. You’re creating a household pet, in effect: a water-and-flour creature with its own personality. My kids loved watching the cultures bubble and grow; they even named their three favorites of the 18 different starters in my refrigerator.
Keep your starter in a glass or clear plastic container so you can see the structure as it grows. It will take you about a week to get an active culture, with not much attention required in the first few days, followed by a few days of up to two feedings per day. After you have a strong and healthy starter, its care is a lot less demanding. Stored in the refrigerator and fed only weekly (or even less frequently), a starter can last indefinitely, hibernating and dormant in the cold.
(My mother had a Mason jar of starter in the back of the refrigerator, its color and consistency like thick yogurt. I remember her pulling it out, stirring in some water, some flour, and then back it would go. Sometimes she’d go months between baking binges.)
If you forget, or if your starter begins to look or smell odd (a layer of liquid, called hooch, usually forms on top of a stored starter; just stir it back in when you feed it), regular and frequent feedings should bring it back into balance. Keep it at room temperature while you recalibrate it.
These recipes call for feedings of equal parts by weight of flour and water, producing a starter that has 100% hydration, according to baker’s percentages. If you don’t bake regularly with your starter (and even if you do), you’ll need to discard some of it each time you feed it.
Maybe this is why there are so many creative ways to use excess sourdough starter. Silverton devotes an entire chapter in “Breads From the La Brea Bakery” to non-bread recipes that call for starter, including bagels, onion rings, blini, even dog biscuits and chocolate cake. I’ve used it as a batter to fry fish.
And sourdough starter is just as malleable in the jar as out of it: After you’ve created a strong starter with whole wheat or rye flour, you can easily convert it to a white starter simply by feeding it all-purpose instead of whole grain flour.
With all the variables at play in your kitchen and in your life, a trusty jar of sourdough starter may be that one thing that you can rely on: passed among kitchens and between generations, leavening bread after bread. That alone makes it magical.
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Whole wheat starter
Total time: Several days
Servings: Makes 1 starter
Note: Adapted from a recipe in Peter Reinhart’s “Whole Grain Breads”
Phase 1 (Day 1) sponge
3 1/2 tablespoons (1 ounce) whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsweetened pineapple juice
In a small nonreactive bowl, stir together the flour and juice with a spoon or whisk to make a paste (the liquid can be cold or at room temperature -- it doesn’t matter). It should be like pancake batter. Be sure to stir until all of the flour is hydrated. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for about 48 hours. Two or three times a day, aerate by stirring for 1 minute with a wet spoon or whisk (the dough won’t stick as easily to a wet tool). There will be little or no sign of fermentation activity during the first 24 hours; bubbles may begin to appear within 48 hours.
Phase 2 (Day 3) sponge
2 scant tablespoons (0.5 ounce) whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsweetened pineapple juice or filtered or spring water, at room temperature
Phase 1 sponge (use all; you should have about 3 ounces)
Add the flour and pineapple juice to the Phase 1 sponge and mix with a spoon or whisk to distribute and fully hydrate the new flour. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours. Stir with a wet spoon or whisk to aerate at least two or three times each day, as before. There should be signs of fermentation (bubbling and growth) during this period. When the dough becomes very bubbly or foamy, or at the end of 48 hours, whichever comes first, move on to Phase 3.
Phase 3 (Day 4 or 5)
5 1/4 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) filtered or spring water, at room temperature
Phase 2 sponge (use all, you should have about 4.5 ounces)
Add the flour and water to the Phase 2 sponge and stir with a spoon or whisk as before. The sponge will be thicker as you reduce the percentage of water, but it will still be very wet, spongy and sticky. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours, stirring with a wet spoon or whisk to aerate at least two to three times each day, as on the previous days. Within 48 hours it should be very bubbly and expanded. If not, wait another day or two, aerating as before, until it becomes active. (If the sponge was active and bubbly before this phase, it could become active and bubbly in less than 24 hours. If so, proceed to the next phase.)
Phase 4 (Day 5 or later)
7 tablespoons (2 ounces) whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) filtered or spring water, at room temperature
1/2 of Phase 3 sponge (about 3.75 ounces)
Discard or give away half of the Phase 3 sponge. In a nonreactive bowl large enough for the mixture to double in size, add the flour and water to the other half and mix as before. Cover the bowl loosely and leave at room temperature until the sponge becomes bubbly and foamy. It should swell and nearly double in size, but it will fall when jostled because of its hydration. This can take anywhere from 4 to 24 hours. If there is little sign of fermentation after 24 hours, continue to aerate as before and leave at room temperature until it becomes very active. This is your seed culture; you can now proceed to the next step, making the mother starter, or you can cover and refrigerate the seed culture for up to 2 days before making the mother starter.
Mother starter
2 1/3 cups (10.5 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 cup (8 ounces) filtered or spring water, at room temperature
2/3 cup (3.5 ounces) seed culture (about half of what you have)
1. Combine the flour, water and seed culture in a bowl and mix with a spoon or your hands until the ingredients form a ball of slightly sticky dough, about 1 minute. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then knead it by hand for 1 minute (in the bowl), until the dough is fairly smooth.
2. Transfer the starter to a clean nonreactive bowl or container large enough to hold it once it has doubled in size. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours, until doubled in size.
3. De-gas the mother starter by kneading it for a few seconds, then re-form into a ball, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. After a few hours, vent any carbon dioxide buildup by uncovering it briefly, then reseal it. At this point you have a firm starter, at 75% hydration; this recipe next builds and maintains it at 100% hydration. Many sourdough recipes call for a starter that has this percentage, but many don’t; check your recipe.
4. For the next 2 to 3 days, you need to “feed” (add equal parts by weight of flour and water) your starter. This builds its strength and develops its flavor. To feed your starter, weigh out 7 ounces of starter in a clean bowl, add 7 ounces of cool water and 7 ounces of whole wheat flour. Discard the remaining starter, or give it away. Mix until just combined, cover loosely with plastic and allow to sit at room temperature for 12 hours. Repeat this process at 12-hour intervals over 2 to 3 days (or longer). This will give you 21 ounces of “ripe” starter after each 12-hour period. You will discard a lot of starter during this building process, which will seem like a lot of flour and water.
5. After 2 to 3 days of feeding, your starter is ready to use. Your starter is “ripe” about 12 hours after its last feeding. The starter will about double in size.
6. If you plan on using your starter regularly, maintain it at room temperature and feed it on a consistent schedule. (You can keep a much smaller amount, and feed it once a day instead of twice; just keep the percentages of flour and water the same and the feedings regular.) If you don’t use your starter regularly, refrigerate it; it will keep indefinitely. You’ll still want to feed it regularly, probably once a week. To feed it weekly, remove the starter from the refrigerator, discard all but a few ounces and add a few ounces each of water and flour. Stir and let sit at room temperature for a few hours, then return it to the refrigerator. When you want to activate your starter for use, pull it out and feed it regularly at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, using the same technique as you did when you were building it initially.
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Whole wheat sourdough boules
Total time: 1 hour, plus at least 4 1/2 hours rising time for the dough
Servings: Makes 2 small round loaves, or boules
Note: Adapted from a recipe in “King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking.” This recipe calls for “ripe” starter: The starter should have been “fed” 12 hours before you make the dough (see Whole wheat starter recipe). For a slightly more pronounced sour flavor, feed the starter up to 16 hours before making the dough. This recipe also calls for a baking stone and parchment paper. If possible, use a scale to measure out the ingredients for the most accurate measurements. See the blog at latimes.com/food for a no-knead method.
9 ounces (about 1 cup) “ripe” whole wheat starter
6 5/8 ounces (about 1 2/3 cup) whole wheat flour
11 1/4 ounces (about 2 2/3 cups) unbleached bread flour
12 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) cool bottled or filtered water
2 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1. In a large bowl, mix the starter, flours and water (use a spatula, a plastic dough scraper or your hands) until they’re well combined and the flour is thoroughly moistened. Cover the bowl lightly with plastic wrap and let it rest 20 minutes.
2. Stir in the salt, using a spatula or a dough scraper or your hands and knead the dough for 2 to 3 minutes to thoroughly incorporate the salt. The dough will be very sticky, but do not add flour. The easiest method is to cut and turn the dough inside the metal bowl with a dough scraper, which avoids getting either your counter or your hands overly messy. Cover the bowl again lightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.
3. Use the dough scraper to scrape the dough from the bowl onto a well-floured surface. With well-floured hands, gently pat the dough out into a rough rectangle large enough to fold in thirds (be careful not to flatten the dough while shaping as you want the dough to be light and airy in texture). Using either your hands or the dough scraper, gently fold the dough in thirds, as you would a business letter, brushing off excess flour with a pastry brush or your hands.
4. Fold the dough into thirds again (starting from the short end). If the dough is resistant to stretching, you may gently pull it so that it is large enough to fold into thirds; just be careful not to tear or flatten the dough. Return the folded dough to the bowl, cover loosely and let rise for another 45 minutes.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl and repeat the double folds (folding it in thirds twice), then put it back in the bowl, cover and let rise for another 45 minutes. Meanwhile, heavily flour two bannetons or cloth-lined proofing baskets. (If you don’t have any, you can make your own by lining medium baskets or colanders with linen tea towels and flouring them.)
6. Scrape the dough out onto a heavily-floured surface and divide it in half. For the “pre-shape,” pinch the edges of each piece of dough together into the center to form a rough round. Let the dough rest on the board, pinched side up, for 20 minutes loosely covered.
7. Shape each dough into a round by turning it over and gently tightening the surface: Pull the loaf toward you and roll it around, tucking the edges under very gently as you go, cupping your floured hands around the dough as you turn it. (Do not overwork this; it’s OK if the shape isn’t perfectly round.) Turn the boule upside down (pinched side up) and place it in one of the prepared bannetons or cloth-lined bowls, pinching the rough edges at the center together to seal the dough. Cover lightly with plastic and let rise until doubled, generally 2 1/2 to 4 hours. (Alternatively, after 1 hour you can place them in the refrigerator, tightly covered with plastic wrap, overnight or up to 24 hours. Remove from the refrigerator about 3 hours before baking to let them come to room temperature.)
8. At least 45 minutes before you’re ready to bake, place a baking stone in the lower third of your oven and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Place an old cake pan or, even better, a cast-iron pan, in the bottom of your oven. Place a small pan of water on the stove and bring to a boil (you will need 1 cup of boiling water when the boules first go in the oven).
9. When the dough is ready to bake and the oven is hot, turn the boules out of the bannetons or proofing baskets onto a piece of parchment paper. Slash the boules with a straight razor or serrated knife: Holding the blade at a 45-degree angle, make one deep cut -- about 4 inches long -- in an arc along the top of the boules.
10. Using a peel or an upside-down cookie tray, slide the parchment paper with the boules onto the baking stone. Using oven mitts and being very careful, quickly pour about a cup of hot water into the pan at the bottom of the oven. (There should be a lot of steam, so you may need to stand back.) Close the door and let the bread bake for 15 minutes. Resist the urge to open the door.
11. After 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 425 degrees. After 10 minutes at 425 degrees, rotate the loaves for even browning, which you should be able to do by pulling the parchment paper around. (The paper will get very dark, but it will not burn; if you prefer, you can remove it.)
12. Bake the boules until they are a dark golden brown in color and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the bread reads 210 degrees, 10 to 20 additional minutes. Using a peel or your oven-mitted hands, remove the boules from the oven. Let the bread cool on a rack to room temperature. Although it will be very difficult, resist the urge to slice the bread while it’s hot. Store the bread in a loosely closed plastic or paper bag at room temperature for up to 4 days; alternatively, the bread can be frozen, tightly wrapped, for up to 3 months. Do not refrigerate the bread to store (this will cause it to go stale).
Each serving: 107 calories; 4 grams protein; 23 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 0 fat; 0 cholesterol; 289 mg. sodium.
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Whole wheat sourdough pancakes
Total time: 50 minutes
Servings: About 15 pancakes
Note: This recipe calls for “ripe” starter -- starter that has been fed the night before (see recipe for whole wheat starter).
9 ounces (about 1 cup) “ripe” whole wheat starter
5 ounces (1 cup) flour
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus a little for the pan
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1. In a large bowl, mix together the starter, flour and milk along with one-half cup water until smooth. Let stand 30 minutes while you melt the butter and prepare the other ingredients.
2. Whisk the melted butter, eggs, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and baking soda together until smooth, then stir the mixture into the bowl with the starter. Blend only until combined.
3. Heat a skillet or cast-iron pan over medium heat and add a nub of butter. Pour in about one-fourth cup of batter, and cook until bubbles form on the surface of the pancake, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Flip and cook until the bottom of the pancake is slightly browned, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Repeat, adding more butter to the pan if necessary. Serve immediately.
Each pancake: 103 calories; 3 grams protein; 17 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 3 grams fat; 1 gram saturated fat; 33 mg. cholesterol; 251 mg. sodium.
