Why does sourdough bread taste better?
Pernille Berg Larsen has a passion for baking bread. Here she explains why sourdough bread is best & provides a sourdough starter recipe.
Using a sourdough starter when making bread will reduce the amount of yeast to a minimum. You’ll also notice the taste of the grains and the flour much better, as their flavours will be emphasised by the sourdough technique. And you won’t just get tastier bread. A sourdough will leave you feeling more satisfied, and you won’t have that after effect of bloating that many feel when eating bread.
However, it is not enough to simply reduce the amount of yeast.
You also need to let the dough rest longer in order to gain a good fermentation.
The sourdough starter is the real secret to getting a good fermentation going. Essentially your sourdough starter is old dough, which has already pre-fermented and contains Lactobacillus culture. Lactobacillus culture has a sour taste and is an active culture that lives off natural yeast spores from the air. Sometimes it can be difficult for you to get good sourdough starter going if your kitchen is too clean!
Adding a sourdough starter when baking bread is rather like feeding the sourdough, and it will contribute to a quicker fermentation of the dough. A natural fermentation will always take longer and normally dough with a sourdough starter needs to rest for a minimum of 8 hours. But again, it depends on how good the starter is, the room temperature and how clean the environment is.
How to make sourdough starter
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup rye flour
2 cups water
Method:
1. Mix it all together and leave it on the kitchen bench for a minimum of 48 hours.
2. It is ready when it smells sour.
3. Store it in the fridge in a plastic container with a lid.
4. “Feed” it every time you use some or, at a minimum, once a week.
You “feed” it with the following:
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup rye flour
2/3 cup water
For recipes to make all kinds of breads, grab a copy of the book One Dough, Fifty Breads.
Simply use your sourdough as the basic dough instead of the yeasted dough.
About the author:
Pernille Berg Larsen lives by the mantra of keeping things simple. Author and teacher, she is passionate about spreading her message of how wholesome family food can be simple and fun to prepare.
This is the second in a series of posts Pernille is writing for us on baking bread. Her first post tells you why it’s a great idea to bake your own bread and provides a basic bread recipe where you can substitute the yeast for this sourdough starter.
The best flour for sourdough is our Organic Bread and Pizza Flour – which is a white flour that retains a little of the bran to give structure to your bread and pizza bases.
4 Responses
Hi, I am Samuel from Singapore. Glad to see your sourdough blog.
I am a home bread-maker, just started to make sourdough bread.Like to ask you about sourdough itself. Each time I prepare my dough, during the fermentation period, the dough just blobbed.
I can’t pre-shape and final shape the dough into a boule ( round-shape dough)
Could you advise me why this is so ?
Could you share your experience in making your dough? Does it flat out easily even before you can do the shaping ?I use Kialla’s Organic bread and pizza flour for making the sourdough itself. I used this flour type for several years for my commercial yeast bread at home.
I follow this video link and his recipe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDzMft3jRdE&list=PLb4aTVIVeCZsagRz7BX7t6vIh8eprMlbJ&index=44Reply
Hi Samuel, I asked our in-house baking expert and he came back to me with these insights into why this might be happening:
1. Dough is not mixed enough, the gluten proteins in flour need to be “developed to allow the gas from fermentation to be trapped inside the loaf. If this doesn’t happen gas escapes and loaf volume is poor.
2. Too much water/moisture is added to the dough causing it to flatten out, and being hard to handle.
3. If you are using a levain, it should be added at approx. 40 -50% of flour weight …. 500g flour = 200g levain.
4. If the levain is over-fermented before using in the final dough, it will also cause the dough to flatten out. You will be able to tell because the levain will have a strong vinegar odour and be very liquidy.Hope these tips help you to work out the issue.
SheridanReply
Good afternoon, Sheridan.
I noticed your email today. Thank you so much for the invaluable input above !Initially, I suspected the problem could be Kialla’s flour but I Don’t think so now.
I was using the bread maker’s recipe, item 3 above was 28 % ( not 40-50 %)
( Item 3 concerning levain, do you recommend me to use 40-50 % of Kialla’s flour weight each time I make my dough ? Could you confirm again, please ? I have no problem to accede to your advice for my future dough making.)Item 4 above, my starter ( aka levain ) is young and has peaked each time I feed it, no problem.
Thus I suspect Most Likely caused by item 1 and a bitsy of item 2.Next week, I will make 2 doughs, use Kialla’s flour. This time I will autolyse for 1 hour instead and “see and feel” the dough thereafter.
Would you recommend I use 40-50 % of levain each time I make my dough ? any ‘harm’ to the doughs ?Thanks a lot,
Samuel
Reply
Hi Samuel, yes it is 40% to 50% of weight. It will depend on climate factors as well – you will have tropical weather and your bread may require less levain. However this would be something I suggest you experiment with.
Check out our artisan bread recipes for more on levain ratios for the dough:
https://kiallafoods.com.au/recipe-tag/artisan-breads/
This is slightly different approach to the one advocated by Pernille in the blog post. Flours and weather etc affect the dough. And as you experiment more you will build experience and recognise signs in the dough. It’s certainly an art!
SheridanReply
