Feeding the Five Thousand

<how to make one small jar of sour dough go on producing lovely loaves again and again and again...>

MEET ERNIE AND BERT

I've had two jars of sour dough starter for a couple of years now, finally fed up with the sad excuses for bread that are sold under that name in the UK and fair desperate for something approaching the variety of sour dough loaves sold in practically any German bakery. I made the sour dough starter myself from scratch - easy peasy, mix rye flour and water, and ten days later, hey presto, sour dough starter. I've since divided it into two separate sour dough cultures, Ernie (the rye starter) and Bert (his all-wheat friend). They live happily in my fridge, and have never complained about neglect, even after weeks of no baking - forget all that nonsense about having to feed your sour dough starter every week or whatever; it may get a little less lively over time, but sour dough really doesn't go off - as the immensely helpful advice on the massive German sour dough forum Das Sauerteigforum puts it, unless the starter stinks to high heaven and has grown red or black mould, it's FINE. Seriously. Just in case, though, I did do something to make sure I still have this sour dough in the unlikely event the jar in the fridge should ever go bad - I took some of it and spread it thinly onto a piece of baking parchment, waited until it had dried in the warm room, and then broke it into pieces and put it into a jar for safekeeping. Sour dough safe.

FEED

To use the sour dough, start "feeding" it 24 hours before you want to start on your bread. Take it out of the fridge, put it into a bowl, and add a handful of flour and a cup or so of warm water. Whisk well to get some air in, cover with a cloth, and leave to stand in a warm place for 6 hours. Repeat. Then repeat again, only this time leave it for 12 hours. So if you want to bake on a Sunday, you could do
Saturday 10am - 1st feeding
Saturday 4pm  - 2nd feeding
Saturday 10pm - 3rd feeding
Sunday 10am - make your dough.

The timing is not really all that crucial, so if you want to make it on a working day, you could do 
Monday 6pm  - 1st feeding
Monday midnight - 2nd feeding
Tuesday 7am - 3rd feeding
Tuesday 6pm - make your dough.

Meet Ernie.

The next "sour dough is complicated" myth that needs debunking is that about the temperature needed while the sour dough starter is resting between feedings - the people on that German forum tend to be rather finicky about this and in their recipes specify that the starter should be kept at 26°C, or at a temperature which starts at 33°C and slowly falls to 23°C....bullshit, seriously. I mean, who has the facilities to regulate the temperature this precisely? And in any case it does not seem to matter at all - never has for my bread, in any case. Just keep it somewhere warmish but not hot (airing cupboard, kitchen table, next to the bedroom radiator in winter, but not in direct sunlight).

I made these from a starter I had fed over the course of a Saturday and then took over to a friends' house. But I had promised another friend a jar of starter and fresh bread for lunch this week, and had of course forgotten to take off an extra jar of sourdough before I took it away to be used, so Monday found me once again feeding the starter - it was rather more active now after only a single night in the fridge, so the dough rose really quick and the breads had a lovely fluffy texture. If your starter is very active and you are in any way in a hurry, two rather than three feedings can be plenty.

KNEAD

Now, before you do anything else: TAKE OFF HALF A JAR OF STARTER TO KEEP FOR YOUR NEXT LOAF. And then use all the rest for your bread. Again, the peeps on the sour dough forum tend to be rather fussy about the hydration of the dough, as in the ratio of flour to water. Some people go so far as to weigh the sour dough and discard what's more than they need, which I think is totally insane. I don't weigh how much water and flour I add in the different feedings, and I don't weigh the amount of sour dough starter I have left after taking off the half jar to keep either. I just add as much flour as I want (1kg tends to make me two nice large loaves, 750g a large one and a small one or a large one and a batch of rolls), start mixing it into the sour dough starter with my electric mixer and dough hooks, and add as much water as I need to get a nice elastic dough. I like at least 25% of rye in my normal bread loaves, or add some spelt or buckwheat flour for texture adn taste, but make my baguettes generally with pure wheat. IMPORTANT BIT: don't add salt just yet! Let the ready-mixed dough rest for 20 minutes, THEN add the salt and knead for a few minutes until it is smooth. The resting phase is called autolysis, and helps develop the gluten, so that you get more gluten (and thus a much better crumb) with far less kneading. Don't forget to add the salt after the 20 minutes, though! (Not that that has ever happened to me....)

Now that's what I call a decent crumb!

RISE

The best place to let the dough rise (initially for at least 2 hours) I have found, is the oven (unless you have a nice warm airing cupboard, or God beware, a proofing drawer....). I switch mine on on full heat for 2 minutes, then off again, and that is a perfect environment for your sour dough. Just leave it in the bowl you did the mixing in, cover with a disposable shower cap from your last hotel stay (or cling film, if you don't have any or any friends who travel for business a lot), and then wait.

SHAPE and PROOF

Once the dough has risen nicely I only lightly knead and shape it before it goes into the proofing baskets, or (for baguettes), is put on a tray between folds of cloth - there are a million of videos on YouTube which show you how to shape baguettes or how to shape bread loaves. You can also make very easy nicely-shaped loaves in a square loaf tin; just shape an oval loaf and put it seam side down into the lightly oiled tin.
At this stage you can add all sorts of ingredients to make specialty bread - dried fruit and nuts, or fresh herbs, sundreid tomatoes, roast onions, bacon bits, or bits of cheese - the list is endless, it really only depends what you want to eat the bread WITH afterwards!
Leave your shaped loaves to proof, again in the slightly warmed oven, for at least an hour, maybe two.

Wheat with 25% rye; pecans and raisins in the loaf near the back.

BAKE

The hotter the better. Seriously, the oven in my new flat goes up to 250°C rather than 220°C, and it makes a world of difference to the crust. Pre-heat until really really hot. If you have a baking stone, pre-heat that. Baking trays also work well when pre-heated.
Topple your loaf out of the proofing basket onto the stone or baking tray (of just slip your tin into the oven). Have a spray bottle filled with fresh water prepared, and use that to spray generously onto the loaves and onto the bottom of the oven until there is a nice bit of steam, then close the oven door quickly.
Bake at high temperature in the steam for 12-15 minutes, then open the oven door to let the steam escape, and reduce the temperature to 200-180°C, and finish baking for 45min to an hour - to test whether your loaf is done, pick it up and knock on the bottom; if it sounds hollow, it is done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool - or just cut into the fresh loaf as soon as it is cool enough to handle and scarf down the first slice with the butter melting on it, I dare you to resist!