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RECIPES
San Francisco Recipe
San Francisco culture
Makes 2 loaves
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½ cup active culture
2½ cups water
2 teaspoons salt
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
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- Mix the culture with 1½ cups flour and 1 cup water, mix well and proof 12 hours at room temperature (68-72° F.) or 6 hours in a proofing box at 85°.
- Add 1 cup of flour and ½ cup water. Mix well. Proof 12 hours at room temperature or 6 hours at 85°.
- Stir down. Dissolve salt in 1 cup of water and add to the dough. Mix in and spoon knead remaining flour, one
cup at a time, reserving one cup for the floured board. When too stiff to mix by hand, transfer to the floured board and knead in the remaining flour.
- Form pan or French loaves and proof them at room temperature or 85° until double in bulk( 2-3 hours).
- Bake in preheated oven at 375° F. for 40-45 minutes, or, for a better oven spring, start with a cool oven set at
375° and bake for 50-55 minutes.
- Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.
Using a Willow Basket with Machine Mixing
Makes one loaf
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1 cup active culture
2¾ to 3 cups flour (400-440 grams)
1 cup water
1½ teaspoons salt
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This recipe is about baking bread using a willow basket, or 'banneton' in French. This style has a superior crust,
having a crackling quality when bitten into. The bread responds better during baking, being able to expand in all
directions in the oven. This gives a better proportioned open texture, or crumb. The appearance of a free-form loaf just looks more appetizing, and will really impress guests with your talents.
The recipe described needs one cup of active starter. In the morning add ½ cup water and ½ cup flour to a culture
taken from the refrigerator (about ½ cup,). Let this mixture sit at room temperature until late afternoon, when it
becomes frothy with active growth. This may not happen if the culture has been sitting dormant for too long in the
refrigerator, thus requiring the procedure to be repeated until a high level of activity is achieved. Do this by dumping
out about ⅔ of the mixture, and again adding ½ cup flour and ½ cup water and letting it sit overnight at room
temperature. Do this again the next morning. If the culture has become dormant due to long storage in the refrigerator, this procedure may need repeating for a couple more days until the desired result is attained.
To create the bread dough, in a bread machine mix 1 cup of the active starter with 1 cup of water and 400 to 440 grams
of a good quality flour (about 2¾ to 3 cups). The remaining active starter is returned to the refrigerator for storage.
This mixture is somewhat stickier than is typical for bread dough due to its high water content. This dough can be a
little too sticky to work easily by hand. For manual kneading, the dough can be more easily handled by using the
higher amount of 440 grams of flour. To give a more chewy texture, substitute 30 grams (about ¼ cup) of the flour
with high gluten flour. You can add about a tablespoon of wheat germ for flavor and appearance. Begin kneading the dough and then add 1 to 2 teaspoons of salt
The dough is mixed in the machine for about 20 minutes. After kneading is complete, the dough is removed from the
machine and allowed to rise, shaped, and then allowed its second rising in a willow basket. For the first rising, the
dough should increase about 2 to 3 fold in size. Use a willow basket for the second rising. Shape the dough by the
following method. Holding the ball of dough, crease the ball and then fold the ball around the crease. This causes
the dough to stretch, but not tear, along the opposite side of the crease. Repeat this a few times, creasing the dough
along the same side thereby continuing to stretch the dough at the opposite side. Before forming each crease, rotate
the ball about 90 degrees, so that the dough is stretched from all sides. The dough is then placed in the willow bowl
liberally coated with flour with the sealed crease facing up. After placing the dough in the basket, it is allowed to complete its second rise, increasing in size about 3 fold.
Controlling the conditions for rising, or proofing, is where much of the art in sourdough baking lies. Optimal
conditions depend mostly on the character of the starter culture, the temperature of proofing, and the type of flour
used. Cool temperatures will increase the time needed for the dough to rise, but also improves the quality of the
flavor and texture of the bread. Proof the dough at about 55 to 60°F. The first rising can occur overnight. Then
shape the loaf in the morning and let the second rising in the willow basket occur during the day. The bread is then
ready for baking that evening. For the second rising, cover the dough with a lint-free towel and place it in a large plastic bag. The bag prevents the dough from drying out over the extended time needed.
After the second rising is finished it is turned over onto a baking sheet, covered with semolina flour to prevent the
dough from sticking. The dough will spread out due to the high water content Slash with a razor blade. When it is
placed in the oven, the heat will cause the interior of the dough to expand while the surface creates a restrictive tension through dehydration. The combined effects will cause the loaf to round up, like blowing up a balloon.
Adding steam to the oven is necessary to prevent the surface from dehydrating too fast, which otherwise would hinder expansion of this balloon.
The oven should be pre-heated to 500° F and fitted with a baking stone. Before placing the loaf in the oven, use a
spray bottle to spray water directly onto the stone. To maintain high humidity, spray more water into the oven every
30 seconds, each time opening the oven door only a crack. After 5 minutes stop spraying the oven and reduce the
heat to 400° F. By this time expansion of the loaf should begin to slow due to dehydration of its surface. Baking is
complete after 30 minutes at the lower temperature. Immediately after removing the hot bread from the oven, mist it with water a last time to provide a crisp, but not overly hard crust.
Whole Wheat Bread
South African Culture
Makes 2 loaves
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½ cup active culture
2¼ cups water
6 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons salt
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- Mix the culture with 1½ cups flour and 1 cup water. Proof 6 hours in a proofing box at 85° or 12 hours at room temperature (68°-72°)
- Add one cup flour and ¼ cup water. Mix well and proof 6 hours in a proofing box at 85° or 12 hours at room temperature. (the dough is very thick and difficult to mix at this stage).
- Dissolve salt in 1 cup water. Add to the dough and mix well. Reserve one cup flour for the floured board and
spoon knead in the remaining flour, one cup at a time. When too stiff to handle, transfer to the board and knead in the remaining flour.
- Form loaves and bake in preheated oven at 375° for 45 minutes.
- Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.
Pizza
The Italian Culture
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Mix:
1 cup semolina flour
¼ cup corn flour
(not corn meal)
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon rye flour
40 grams gluten flour (⅓ cup)
Add white bread flour to a total weight of 580 grams (4⅔ cups)for the mixture
Add:
1½ cups water
1 cup active culture
(Note that my culture may be a little different from yours.
I use equal volumes of water and all purpose flour.)
Knead in bread machine.
Add: 1 tsp salt halfway through the mixing cycle.
The completed dough should be a little sticky. If not, a little more water may be needed.
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Set overnight in a cool place, 55-60° F.
The quality of the flavor for most breads improves with longer rise times. So when possible, let the first rise occur
overnight in a cool place. (55° to 65° F.) But longer rise times strongly depend on the nominal acidity of the culture.
If the culture produces a lot of acid, the gluten of the dough will not stand up well to the extended exposure. Also, the quality of the flour can be important. Some flours succumb to acidity more readily than others.
Form into two pies, each about the diameter of a cooking sheet. Although you can use a rolling pin to create the thin
dough, it is probably better to coax the dough by hand into the proper shape. You want to avoid losing the entrapped air bubbles. The dough should be very elastic; occasionally you'll need to dust the dough with flour to
avoid it becoming too sticky. After the pies are formed, dust with flour again, cover with a towel and let rise at room temperature.
Let the pies rise on wooden baking boards to minimize sticking. A good coating of flour on the bottom before the
last rise helps greatly. To release the pies from the board, flip the board over and let the pies fall by gravity. Add
some fresh dry flour to the bottom and flip it right side up again. For toppings just brush on garlic in olive oil and
rosemary. A little tomato paste with cheese and deli meat is also good.… Use the toppings sparingly to not overpower the flavor of the crust and to avoid applying too much moisture.
It is best to bake the pies directly on a baking stone. Heat the oven to 550° F. (or as high as your oven will go). Slide
pizza onto the stone, then spray oven with a misting bottle (not necessary but helps with the crust). Cook until lightly brown — about five minutes. Cool a couple of minutes on a cooling rack and serve.
Use an Active Culture
As you know, when you add flour and water to the culture, it will go through a typical cycle where the culture froths
up then recedes. For good results, it is not necessary to catch the culture at the peak of frothing, so long as it is used within a few hours afterwards.
The high level of activity in a culture can be maintained with storage in a refrigerator for 1-2 weeks. As the time in
refrigerated storage increases, the effort to regenerate also increases. After a couple of months in storage, it can take
a couple of days to regenerate. With several months of storage, it can take much longer.. If it has been sitting dormant in the refrigerator for many weeks, a continuous process of re-generation may be needed.
Using all purpose flour, add equal volumes of flour and water to the culture repeated for several days. To begin,
add the flour and water to increase total volume about 3 fold, and let it set at room temperature until there is some
sign of activity. It may be a couple days if the culture is really dormant. Typically at this stage, the activity may only
be evident by the formation of a few relatively large bubbles (about 2-3 mm). The culture will likely taste strongly
acidic. Dump out about ⅔ of this, and again add flour and water to bring it up to the same volume. As the activity of
the culture begins to pick up, this process will be repeated daily, and then finally twice daily. In a strongly active
culture, there will be significant frothing within a few hours of adding new flour and water. However, it may take 2-3
weeks to achieve this from a strongly dormant culture (probably because the balance of yeast to bacteria is way off).
NO-KNEAD SOURDOUGH
After Mark Bittman's feature in the New York Times (November 8, 2006) on Jim Lahey's no-knead bread, I received many inquires asking if it is possible to make no-knead sourdough. It took just one look at Lahey's recipe to focus
on the 12 hour "rest". It seemed pretty obvious. Lactobacilli in a sourdough culture "fermenting" for 12 hours
should produce a far better flavor than ¼ teaspoon of instant yeast and no lactobacilli. It is only necessary to modify the recipe for the extra flour and water added by the sourdough culture. Here's what it looks like.
- In a large bowl briefly combine sourdough culture, flour, water and salt. The consistency should be very firm
and shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and proof 12-18 hours at about 70° F. At 70-75 degrees the bread
leavens well and has the distinct sourness and flavor of sourdough. At more than 75 degrees the dough becomes too acidic which inhibits the wild yeast and leavens poorly. At much less than 70 degrees the
dough leavens well but has a mild flavor.
- After the 12-18 hour fermentation this is very sticky dough. Use a plastic spatula to ease it away from the
edges of the bowl onto a lightly floured board. Sprinkle the surface with additional flour and let the dough rest 15 minutes or so.
- With minimal handling and additional flour (not more than ¼ cup) form a ball which is placed directly in the
baking container to rise (or placed between cotton cloths as described by Lahey) and proofed until ready to bake, double in bulk (about 4 hours). The baking container can be almost any small covered pot (avoid willow
baskets since the sticky dough is difficult to remove).
- Lahey bakes the dough in an oven and container both preheated to 450° for approximately 1 hour. To obtain
better oven spring place the risen dough in its container in a cool oven, set the oven at 450°, turn it on and
bake for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. You will never knead a better sourdough!
Note: In developing the above recipe, I used our Original San Francisco culture. There are several additional recipes
for no-knead sourdoughs in the section on batter breads in Classic Sourdoughs.
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