I recently read a great book called
'52 Loaves--One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust' by William Alexander. The premise of the book is that the author becomes so obsessed with creating the perfect loaf of peasant bread, that he devotes a year (52 weeks) in the pursuit of his goal.
His journey began long ago in a restaurant, where he had the best bread he had ever tasted. "the bread wasn't white, wasn't whole wheat; it was something in between, and it had a rustic quality--a coarse texture that managed to be light and airy, with plenty of holes, yet also had real substance and a satisfying resistance to the bite". He had tried to replicate it at home but had never been successful. He decides to try again. Not once, but 52 times--once for each week of the year. There was only one rule: it had to be made from scratch and could only include 4 ingredients--flour, water, salt, and yeast.
And by scratch...he meant by scratch! He even went as far as planting his own wheat in his backyard, so growing, harvesting, winnowing, threshing, and milling his own wheat. His quest also leads him to Morocco, where he bakes his loaf in an ancient communal oven; to Paris, where he studies baking at the Ecole Ritz Escoffier; to a monastery in Normandy, where he becomes a bread baker to the monks; and finally to his own backyard, where he builds a brick oven. In other words, he becomes obsessed with baking the perfect loaf of bread--he even visits a yeast factory, a flour mill, seeks advice from master bread bakers, captures wild yeast to make his own levain, and enters the baking contest at the New York State Fair. By the end of the book he has collected a bookshelf of bread-related books weighing in at 64 pounds.
Overall, this was a great book! I had picked it up at the library as reading material for my trip to San Francisco last month. I did this not knowing that the book would have a lot of significance on my trip. While on the plane I read 'Week 20' where the author is told that he should consider using a levain (sourdough starter) to improve his bread.. At that point there's a mention of San Francisco. That got my attention.
Then, when we arrived at our hotel I was perusing travel brochures from the front desk to see what we would see the next day and kept seeing references to Boudin. Boudin is the home of the San Francisco Sourdough and has been since 1849. Apparently, the 'mother dough' has been in continuous use since the bakery was founded, maintained and replenished by generations of bakers. I had to check this place out.
Wow! This place was definitely a tourist attraction. Located in Fisherman's Wharf, it has a demonstration bakery (you can see the bakers at work through an outside window), a large selection of breads in different shapes and sizes, and even a bistro. The bistro has items such as clam chowder in a bread bowl, salads with sourdough croutons, sourdough tortilla tacos, sourdough baguette burger, sourdough pizza, soudough gnocchi, sourdough crust apple pie, sourdough upside-down bread pudding, etc.. Their bread is so popular that you can even buy a loaf at the airport on your way out of the city. It's not just their bread either, it's sourdough in general. Every restaurant we visited on our trip had the option of sourdough on the menu (oh, and Monterey Jack cheese...another Bay favorite).
So, after reading the book and visiting San Francisco, I couldn't wait to get home and make an attempt at my own loaf. I was having anxiety about it though. As many of you know, I'm terrible at making anything that involves pastry or dough. Yikes! I was determined to make this work, however. And it had to work; I was going to be very disappointed if it didn't, especially since starting the sourdough takes a few days.
I'm happy to announce, however, that my soudough bread turned out beautifully. Here is how I did it:
Sourdough Starter and Recipe
Day 1: Create the starter - Put one cup of flour and one cup of warm water in a glass or ceramic bowl (not stainless steel). Stir and let it sit on the counter uncovered.
Day 2 - 5: Feed the starter - Dispose of 1/2 the starter. Add 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of warm water. Stir. Repeat each day. If a 'hooch' starts to form on top (brownish liquid) just stir it in or drain it out (I drained it out because the starter seemed too watery).
Once it begins to look frothy and bubbly and rises between feedings, then it's ready to go. Set it into the fridge loosely covered until you are ready to bake your loaf.
Two options:
1) remove the starter from the fridge 2 days before you plan on baking bread. Feed it for 2 days and leave it on the counter
2) if you are ready to bake bread then it won't need to be refrigerated and it can be used right away
The next step is to create the sponge - add 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water to the starter. Let it sit 6-8 hours or overnight. Separate the sponge - 2 cups for the recipe and the remainder is left for the next batch. Feed it 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water and set it into the fridge until you want to make another loaf of bread (it'll need to be fed once a week).
Add 2 tbsp olive oil, 4 tsp sugar, and 2 tsp salt to the 2 cups of sponge and stir until combined. Slowly start adding/kneading in the flour one 1/2 cup at a time until you feel that it's enough. I ended up using 2 cups or so. Every loaf will be different based on the consistency of your sponge, the humidity, and the flour. Knead, knead, knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Cover with a towel and let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size (my home was a bit chilly today since I had my windows open so I put it into the oven with the light on).
Once risen, punch down the dough and knead again. Form the dough into a loaf and place it on a baking sheet with cornmeal. Cover with a towel and let it rise once more.
Finally, bake the bread in a 350F oven for 30-45 minutes. The oven doesn't need to be preheated--turn on the oven and put the loaf in.
I was so happy to get this recipe done. For one, I was happy that it turned out; and secondly, that the next loaf will be so much easier to do. Since I have a starter now, I won't need to go through all of the steps to get there. It'll just be a one-day process, rather than the week-long process that this one took.
I'm going to be having some yummy toast for breakfast!
