Pig and farm report sourdough bread edition

 

I have always found it odd that people hide recipes or charge for them. But that’s just me. This is sharp cheddar and dill sourdough bread. I am giving you my recipe and I tried to add my method with times included and there are probably a few mistakes in there because it’s early and I am typing in bed on my iPad which is generally haphazard for me. The recipe and method are in a different font sorry about that. This bread is delicious and my personal favorite. Remember that yeast is a living thing and all times are subject to change because of temperatures and the baker’s experience and also the baker’s temperament. I tend to be impatient and learning how to bake sourdough bread has definitely helped me with that. When you start this loaf make sure you have a day to relax and get into it. You don’t want to be rushing. Read through the recipe a few times before you start. I suggest keeping a sheet of scrap paper to check where you are in the recipe. Especially beginning and end times. (Hmmm…did I start this bread at noon or at nine? You don’t think you will forget but it’s easy to get lost in the process. These days I have a  notebook dedicated to writing down each recipe and each bake). Ps. One of my lines got wonky as I was revising and. I don’t know how to fix it without going into the original document. Sorry about that. Let me know if you have any questions.

500 g flour 

300 g water

50 g dill pickle juice from the pickle jar

150 g chopped sharp cheddar

8 g chopped fresh dill

150 sourdough starter

11 kosher salt

25 grams olive oil

1. 12 PM. Roughly combine the flour water pickle juice and starter. Cover and put it in a warm place for one hour. You don’t want to knead it at this point or mix it a lot. This is called fermentolyse. It is just to let the flour absorb as much moisture as it can before forming gluten. Don’t put the salt in yet!

2. 1 PM. wet your hands and then add the salt by pinching it in, then scoop up the dough and slap it a few times on your work surface, rolling the the back of the dough over on front of the dough. This is called a French slap or a slap and fold. You can see the dough come together quickly when you use this method. What is happening is the gluten strands are breaking apart then quickly combining again and gaining strength. If you want to do the stretch and fold method here, of course you can. Cover the dough and put it in a warm place for another hour.

3. 2 PM. Sprinkle or spray your work surface with a little bit of water. Don’t add any more flour at this point. Take the dough out of the bowl with wet hands and spread it out as flat as you can get it on your work surface in a rectangle shape taking care not to tear the dough. You kind of have to gently pull and coax it. Spread the chopped dill with wet fingers all over that surface, then put the chopped cheddar on top of it (just like you would butter and sugar when making cinnamon rolls) then carefully fold it up like a thick burrito. Put it back in the bowl. Cover it for 30 minutes or until the dough sort of relaxes out of its burrito shape. This is called laminating.

4. 2:30 PM. At this point 2 1/2 hours have passed. I do coil folds 3 or 4 times with 30 minutes in between each one until there is enough gas and air in the dough to resist. Usually by four hours the dough is ready to shape.

5. 4 PM. Time to pre-shape the dough. Sparsely flour your work surface, carefully dump the dough out, making sure you don’t rip it then gently pull the dough out into a small rectangle. Pull the sides together and pull the bottoms together and roll it into a ball. Cover it for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes you’re going to make that ball tighter by pushing it to the left and pulling it down toward the right while forming a ball then pushing it up and pulling it back. What you’re doing is creating surface tension so the loaf holds its shape when you bake it. This takes a little bit of practice but it’s easy once you get used to it. Now it’s time to place that ball seam side up into a banneton or tea towel lined colander or bowl.

6. 4:30. Finish bulk proofing for 1&½ or 2 more hours, depending on how warm your house is. This is the bulk fermentation stage. Remember that this stage actually starts as soon as you mix your starter in with your flour so it starts at the beginning using this method. In my house bulk fermentation takes about 6 hours in the summer and 6 1/2 to 7 hours in the winter all together.

7. 6PM-ish. Cover the dough and put it in your refrigerator overnight.

8. 7AM. The next morning place an empty Dutch oven in your oven and preheat the oven and pot to 500°. Let the cooking vessel stay in the oven heating up for 30 minutes. This will give your loaf the desired spring up.

9. Gently tip your dough right side up on a piece of parchment paper. Using a lame, razor blade or very sharp knife and gently but quickly slash the top of the loaf. 

10. Very carefully remove the Dutch oven, remove the lid and place your dough into the pot, using the parchment paper as a sling. Please wear heat proof gloves doing this. I like to spray the dough with a little spray bottle at this point to help the spring.

11. Bake at 500° for 20 minutes with the lid on for oven spring, then lower the heat to 450° and bake for another 20 minutes for color.

12. Let the bread rest for two hours before you cut into it. If you can bear it.

Notes: I use a scale to measure everything. Weights are much more accurate than volumes. I add olive oil to make the crust softer. If you want a crispier crust don’t add it. I roughly chop the cheese up then put it in the freezer for 20 minutes before I add it to the dough. This keeps the cheese from completely disappearing into the dough. There are videos all over YouTube showing the methods I wrote about here. Use this valuable resource! 

Remember fail better and all sourdough fails taste amazing.

Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll answer them in the comments!