Oh sourdough...

If you're like me - you've seen videos on the internet of these beautiful sourdough loaves that people make with ease - then tried to do it yourself and were baffled on how difficult the process is.

I've been back and forth with the process of sourdough for years - giving it a try and then being so frustrated that I give up and buy from a local vendor instead (which is great, support all those mothers who are great at sourdough, you can find them on Facebook marketplace, guaranteed) 

This most recent attempt at being good at sourdough has been the most successful yet because I went out of my way to get an in-person lesson (simply watching videos of people making perfect loaves wasn't helping! so if you struggle I recommend asking one of those mothers you find on marketplace to give you a lesson like I did)

This woman who taught me the most recent iteration of my sourdough made it thankfully soooo simple for me and so I wanted to share the simplicity. This recipe reflects the simplicity of the process and if you watch our cooking show that explains the process (link at the bottom of this blog), you'll feel a sense of relief looking at our imperfect yet delicious buns.

Sourdough doesn't always have to be beautiful - if you make your way there, incredible, but if you're like me and accept that the imperfect loaves still taste good and feed your family, that's incredible too.

Anyone who devotes time to this process will be humbled and made a better person in the process I believe. 

I hope that this recipe and flow inspires you to this ancient practice of making fermented bread.

Let's get into it...

Sourdough Mini Loaves

Makes 8 Mini Loaves

Ingredients

WET

165 g Flat Sourdough Starter

400 g cups filtered “Yeast” Water 

20 g Sugar (maple syrup, molasses, honey, cane or coconut sugar)

DRY

• 650 g unbleached Flour (whole wheat, rye, bread, einkorn)
• 15 g real or sea Salt

OPTIONAL BOILING BATH

1 tbsp Maple Syrup

1 tbsp Baking Soda

Instructions

EVENING DAY 1 

1. Find a local sourdough starter - lots of home and bakery options!
2. Feed your starter 12 hours before you intend to make bread.
1. 50 g flour & “Yeast” Water until desired consistency. 
2. **Could be more than 50 g needed, we are basically ensuring you’ll have enough starter for the recipe and plenty leftover to keep feeding for future recipes**
3. Place a jar full of filtered water uncovered on your counter - this will become your “Yeast” Water - as it will take in all the yeasty bacteria from your environment.

MORNING DAY 2

1. Your starter should rise and then fall - this is the time to start the recipe!
2. Put a big bowl on top of a scale and measure out 165 g of Flat Starter 
3. Hit 0 on the scale, add 400 g cups filtered “Yeast” Water
4. Hit 0 on the scale, add 20 g Sugar
5. Whisk together and set aside
6. Get a second big bowl and put it on top of the scale
7. Measure out 650 g unbleached Flour - we suggest using a mixture of multiple flours. Adding the most of your least expensive and smaller amounts of the more expensive flours. 
8. Hit 0 on the scale, add 15 g real or sea Salt
9. Whisk together to mix and remove clumps.
10.  Add half the Flour mixture to the Wet mixture, stir until completely combined, then add the other half. 
11. This is the tricky part where you have to click in your intuition - if it’s too dry, add splashes of water until it’s a soggy loaf - if it’s too wet, add splashes of water until it starts to be able to form into a wet ball. 
12.  Cover with a reusable cover or with a damp towel and let sit for 2 hours in a warm place **note: you may have to start your oven for a little bit to get some heat underneath your loaf** 
13.  After 2 hours you may or may not see some action. But we suggest at this point you water your spatula until the dough isn’t sticking to it and start to manipulate your loaf to encourage its strength.
1. Press it down flat, fold in half, press down flat, fold, repeat several times.
14. Then let your loaf sit for the rest in that warm place of the day until the evening.

EVENING DAY 2

1. By now hopefully your dough will have really expanded! So now it’s time to form them into your mini loaves.
2. Get a pan with parchment paper ready to put your finished mini loaves on to rest (you may need 2 pans depending on how big your pan is)
3. Wet your spatula and “deflate the loaf” by pressing it down. When you have a circle, roughly splice the circle of dough into 8th’s 
4. Flour your counter and scoop out a ⅛ of your dough (the scale may come in handy here) sprinkle flour onto the top and around the sides until the dough no longer sticks to you, then start to form into a ball.
5. When you have a ball, put it on your pan with parchment paper.
6. Repeat and place the balls at least 2 inches apart because they will expand.
7. When you have all your balls formed, make sure the tops are well floured, place a damp towel over, and put them in the fridge to rest for the night.

MORNING DAY 3 

1.  Bring a large pot of water with about 6 cups of water to boil and preheat your oven to 425°F
2. When the water is boiled add 1 tbsp Maple Syrup and 1 tbsp Baking Soda to the water and take your pans of sourdough balls out of the fridge.
3. Add 1 or 2 balls of sourdough to the water bath at a time and boil each side for 1-2 minutes.
4. After they are boiled, add them to a greased pan that is oven ready (preferably a cast iron or stoneware)
5. Once all your balls are boiled, score the top with an “x” and put them to bake for 15-20 minutes.
6. Check on them to see if they are browning and test the internal temperature - they should bake until the internal temperature is 205°F
7. Once they reach this internal temperature, put them on a cooling rack and let them set until they are room temperature and ready to eat!

SERVE & ENJOY! 🙂

 

Recipe made for Feel Better Eating with love from Feel Better Living

Find the video of this recipe and other videos about natural healing by visiting: 

www.youtube.com/@feelbetterliving

Click HERE to watch us cook this recipe!