Until recently, I had dismissed the thought of making bread at home. Too difficult, I thought; too time consuming, too fiddly. People buy bread machines for that, I figured. But as the months passed by in sunny Sri Lanka, this little Aussie missed home more and more, and with thoughts of home came memories of smashed avocado on lightly toasted sourdough. It is the most tempting and evil of all the brunches, and the main reason that us millennials can’t afford houses. It’s a story so tragic that it even made BBC News. It wasn’t until we visited friends in Tokyo that I even remotely considered making my own bread. The smell of freshly baked bread when you wake in the morning is enough to convince the skeptics amongst us. I had a lot of questions which my friends Andrew and Kara patiently (just as the name of their blog The Patient Cook, suggests) walked me through.

Everything I know about sourdough I learnt from the web, particularly The Patient Cook and The Perfect Loaf. People who make bread will tell you unequivocally that it is worth making your own bread. Now that I’m one of them, I’m going to have to agree.

If you are suddenly consumed with the need to know all things sourdough, Maurizio at TPL has an outstanding blog. He recently won the Saveur Food Blog Award n both Editor’s Pick and Readers Choice in the Food Obsessive category. It’s a little technical, but if there’s something specific you want to know, he’s probably written about it. He also is very good at replying to comments and questions.

The recipe below is largely TPL’s with a few very minor tweaks. If you just want to bake a loaf of pretty decent sourdough at home without all the technical info, read on. If you want more details, or more pictures, check out his blog.

Where do I get starter?

You can either purchase a commercially available starter online or create one from scratch. I strongly recommend getting an established one. I’ve tried about a half dozen times to create mine from scratch but it just refused to work for me – one time it went mouldy, one time it died, one time it just didn’t do anything… My advice is to get your hands on a commercial quality starter (look for heirloom varieties) as they are more stable. They’re also stronger which means that if you neglect to feed it one week, it’s going to be a lot more forgiving (and not die on you). Ask around, if you’re lucky, one of your friends might have some to share or your local artisan bakery might even be kind enough to give you some. Mine came from Kara at The Patient Cook – it’s travelled with them from Australia to Tokyo and he’s the only starter of mine that has survived six months. I have named him Victor.

How do I store my starter?

Starters need to breathe so make sure the container you keep it in can get air. This could mean a ramekin with cling wrap and some holes poked in or a container that’s left slightly ajar.

How much and how often should I feed my starter?

Everyone has a different answer to this question. The answer depends on how often you plan to bake, how strong your starter is and how sour you like your bread. I’m going to tell you what I do and the rest depends on trial and error. From there you’ll adjust – bread too sour? Add less starter.

Start with equal parts – it’s just easier to remember. Flour: Water: Starter. 50g flour: 50g water: 50g starter. Mix the flour and water into a paste, then add the starter and mix it through.

If you plan to bake often then you’ll need to feed your starter at least once a day, twice if it’s warm. The yeast works faster at warmer temperatures. If you’re only baking once a week, keep your starter in the fridge. Just think of your starter as a pet. If you haven’t fed him in ages, he’s going to be extra hungry and need a bigger feed.

What equipment will I need?

Again, subjective. Maurizio from TPL says a dutch oven is required. I’ve done fine without. You’ll need weighing scales (preferably digital as they’re more accurate), a spray bottle, large mixing bowls and a sharp knife.

The only specialist piece of bread baking dough I have is a banneton which gives me the traditional artisan ringed loaf look. A large bowl lined with a tea towel will work fine to proof your dough in if you don’t have a banneton. (I bought mine really cheaply off AliExpress, about $10 each). I opted for the long ones, but if you’re going to use Maurizio’s Dutch oven method you’ll need a round one obviously. I favour the long ones as the round leave you with lots of odd shaped bits of bread that don’t fit into a toaster properly.

How long will it take?

From start to finish, it’s going to take at least 24 hours (closer to 30) but very little of that is hands on time. There’s no kneading involved in this recipe either.

A note on flour

I have used regular plain flour and it’s fine. It will still work and your loaf will still taste like sourdough but the crumb will be denser and the loaf will not be as airy. Lower gluten levels in plain flour mean that the rise is not as well supported. For those of you in Asia, I’ve found that roti flour makes an excellent substitute for bread flour as it’s gluten levels are comparable.

I’m not a huge fan of rye bread, but a touch of rye flour will add extra depth of flavour to your loaf. Skip it if you don’t have it to hand, but it’s worth trying to get your hands on some.

The better you get at baking bread, the more you realise that good bread comes from good flour. The better the quality of the flour you can get your hands on, the better the crumb and quality of your final loaf. Devoted home bakers go out of their way to source good quality, freshly milled flour. Being in a developing country at the moment, it’s out of the question for me but I just wanted to assure you that if I can make bread with the limited supplies here – anyone can.

A quick tip –

Bread bakers work with percentages and refer to bread by hydration levels which is the ratio of flour of water. Higher hydration levels mean bigger air pockets and lighter bread, with the trade off being that the more water you add, the harder the dough is to shape into a loaf at the end. A high hydration loaf will be lighter and have that distinctive lip where it’s been scored and will practically be bursting out of it’s seams at the score line.

Don’t do what I did – I had no idea that the dough was meant to be all sloppy-like and kept flouring the bench in order to let the dough absorb as much flour as it could to be manageable. The result was a very dense, not at all airy loaf. Only flour your bench lightly and try your best to work with the dough as is – it takes a bit of practice.

The in a nutshell version.

Vectors from Freepik

Step by step

Levain – Make levain by mixing flour, water and starter

• Levain
  • 40g bread flour
  • 40g wholemeal flour
  • 80g water
  • 40g starter
• Starter (feed) – 50g bread flour, 50g water, 50g starter

Make the levain by mixing the flours and water to form a paste, then adding the starter. I usually put a mixing bowl on my digital weighing scales and add everything in there. Cover the levain with cling wrap that has a few holes poked in and leave on the kitchen bench. You can do this at night just before bed, or first thing when you wake up in the morning.

It’s a good idea to feed your starter at this point too. Do the same as above, but store it in the fridge – covered in cling wrap with holes poked into it.

The levain is the bit of the starter that is used to leaven your bread; it is eventually baked into the final loaf. The first few times you do this, pay attention to the levain. It will grow in size, look bubbly and smell pleasantly sour – like an intense sourdough.

Time: Needs a minimum of 4 hours and maximum of 12 hours. You can either do this just before heading to bed or early the next morning when you wake up.

Autolyse – Mix flours and water together and leave for an hour

• 350g bread flour
• 125g wholemeal flour
• 25g rye flour
• 345g water

In a large mixing bowl, combine the bread, wholemeal and rye flours and the water. Mix with your hands, cover with a damp tea towel and allow to rest for an hour.

Autolyse (‘auto-lease) is a step in the baking process where only flour and water are mixed together, always at the beginning of the whole process. Not only does it initiate enzymatic activity in the dough which helps draw out sugars from the flour, but it also increases its extensibility (the ability for the dough to stretch out without tearing). Increased extensibility (up to a point) is a good thing: it allows the dough to expand and fill with gasses, resulting in a light & airy loaf. – Maurizio, The Perfect Loaf

Time: One hour, though I’ve forgotten about mine before and left it up to 5 hours and it seemed fine.

Mix – Add levain and salt and combine

• 90g levain
• 10g salt

Add the levain and salt to the dough and mix thoroughly.

Fermentation – Let the dough do it’s thing. Help it along by performing three sets of stretch and folds.

Imagine a + shape over the ball of dough – the aim is to stretch each ‘arm’ of the dough up and fold it back over from all four directions. Do this three times, once every half hour. Then rest for three hours, covered with a damp tea towel.

This will stretch and elongate each emerging bubble in the dough and result in larger bubbles in the final loaf. You’ll notice the biggest change in dough made with all white flour, and only a slight change in dough made with wholemeal flour. -Dan Lepard for The Guardian

Time: 3 sets, once every 30 mins, then rest for four hours. I’ve done only one stretch and fold, and while there was a slight difference, I think the average bread consumer wouldn’t notice. If you are around and don’t forget like I did, it’s still worth doing the set of three.

Shape

The dough should have grown by about 30%, and look smoother and slightly domed. Dust your banneton with a 50-50 mix of rice-plain flour. Lightly flour the bench and scrape out the dough onto it.

To make the batard shape, lightly pat the dough down, then fold in two sides to form a point. Fold the remaining sides to form another point. Fold the two points together, then pinch the seams closed. Then, this is the tricky bit, use both hands to tuck the seam under the loaf forming the elongated batard shape.

Place into a floured banneton, seam side up – the neat part that was facing up needs to face the bottom of the basket. If you don’t have a banneton, use a kitchen basket lined with a flour dusted tea towel.

Proof

Place the banneton into a plastic bag, tie it up and refrigerate overnight. This long fermentation allows the dough to develop a more complex flavour.

Preheat oven and bake

Place a shallow cookie sheet (for the bread) on the middle rack of your oven and a deeper baking pan on the rack below. Preheat the oven to 250C for a minimum of 30 minutes, preferably an hour. The oven needs to be really hot as there’s a lot of door opening and closing.

Turn the oven down to 220C. Pour approximately 200-300mls of boiling water into the baking tray and shut the oven immediately.

You’ll need to work quickly for this bit as your loaf will start to deflate so make sure you have everything ready, especially a sharp knife and a spray bottle filled with water. Remove the baking tray from the oven and dust with flour. Take the banneton out of the fridge, loosed the edges of the loaf slightly then invert the banneton over the baking tray to remove the loaf. If you want, you can spray the loaf with water and sprinkle with seeds before scoring. Score the loaf – it needs to be a quick, decisive motion (which is hard as the dough is sticky).

Place the loaf in the middle rack of the oven, push the door so it’s mostly shut and spray into the oven a few times. Quickly shut the door and allow the bread to bake for 55 minutes or until the crust is a medium brown or the internal temperature reads 98C/210F.

This recipe tends to have a darker crust, so if in doubt bake it for longer. The more golden loaves have turned out to be slightly doughy and undercooked inside.

Sorry this is such a long post. I had so many questions when I started that I thought I’d try and get in as much detail as possible. I’m still very much a novice bread baker so I’m happy to take suggestions, and if you need I’m more than happy to answer your questions.