overnight sourdough

Bread Baking Day – all done!

/ Re-Farmer / 15 Comments

Sometimes, I think we really need to do bread baking more often.

Then I remember how much clean up is involved. :-D

No matter! We now have two kinds of freshly baked bread done.

Here’s how the seedy bread turned out.

This is how it looked after only 1 hour of rising time. The bowl it’s in is pretty huge – too big to fit in our kitchen sink (which makes washing it a bit of a challenge! :-D ) – with plenty of room for this 4 loaf recipe.

The timing of things works out really well. I use half the dough to make buns first, leaving them to rise while I shape a couple of loaves. Once those are done, I star to preheat the oven. By the time it’s heated up, the buns have risen enough to go straight in. Once they’re out, the loaves have had enough time for their second rising. When those are done, the overnight sourdough loaves are ready to go into the oven. No wasted time in between, making for more efficient use of a hot oven.

They came out quite beautifully, too! Such a tasty bread, with a really nice texture. I love the bit of crunch the seeds add to it.

The second rising for the sourdough loaves was probably about 4 – 4 1/2 hours. The first rising was probably about 11 or 12 hours.

This is how they looked, just before I put them in the oven. They definitely rose more than the first time I tried this recipe, so the modifications made quite a difference, but still not rising as high as variations that use added yeast.

Is it worth it?

I think so.

The actual working time to make this bread is low. It’s mixed at night, then kneaded for 10 minutes the next day. It really doesn’t need a lot of attention.

The loaves came out so smooth and gorgeous. None of the cracking you can get when using an added yeast bread, since there’s no sudden rise in height in the oven.

The bread itself has a slightly thicker, sturdier crust, while the crumb is incredibly soft, tender and fine in texture.

Reducing the amount of sugar was definitely a good move. The sourdough flavour was more dominant this time, whereas the last time I tried this recipe, the sweetness was more dominant. I think adding that little bit of baking soda helped with the rising, too.

I’d still prefer a more “sour” sourdough flavour, but that has more to do with our starter than with the recipe. We’ll be making more of this one, that’s for sure. I think I’m satisfied with it enough that, next time I bake it, I’ll post with the tweaked recipe.

Tomorrow is going to be another baking day, though this time for my daughters. I look forward to seeing what they’re planning to make. :-)

The Re-Farmer

Bread Baking Day

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Yesterday was actually intended to be my bread baking day, but we just didn’t have the energy for it. It was a pretty bad fatigue and pain day for all of us. :-(

I did start a batch of overnight sourdough before bed, though. The last time we tried this recipe, it didn’t really rise at all by morning, so I tweaked the ingredients this time. I reduced the sugar to something adequate to feed the sourdough yeast, and not make the bread itself a sweeter bread. I also added just a touch of baking soda along with the flour. Last time, I left the dough to rise in a bowl on our dining room table, but the house it just too cold, so this time it went into a warm oven with the light left on to keep it warmer throughout the night.

I checked the dough before I headed out to do my rounds, and was quite pleased by what I saw.

It rose quite nicely! I’m very pleased.

After finishing my rounds, I kneaded the dough for 10 minutes, then set it up in loaf pans for a second rising.

With no yeast other than the sourdough in the recipe, it will still take a long time to rise. So I waited an hour before starting some non-sourdough bread.

My favourite additives to my basic bread recipe is thick cut oats, chia seeds, ground flax, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. The sunflower and pumpkin seeds are roasted and salted, and this time I took more time to grind them in a mortar and pestle to break them up. The whole seeds and bigger pieces tend to fall out while the dough it being kneaded. I let it all soften in boiling water first, which makes a much nicer texture in the bread. I doubled the basic 2 loaf recipe again, too.

By the time I got this batch set aside to rise, it was about an hour and a half since setting the sourdough loaves to rise. A quick check showed very little change, so I expect to have the second batch baked before the sourdough is ready to put in the oven! :-D

Oh, and my timer has just gone off. Time to get back to it! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Overnight Sourdough Rye Bread

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overnight.sourdough.rye.fresh.baked

Fresh out of the oven!

This is a bread that needs a LOT of time!  The finished result, with its tangy sourdough flavour, is well worth it.

Begin by preparing the starter the evening before.  We used our rye starter, The Rye of SourOn, but a regular starter can be used as well.

Overnight Sourdough Rye Bread

Overnight starter:
1 cup sourdough starter
2 cups warm water
2 1/2 cups rye flour

  1. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl.  Cover and let stand overnight in a warm place, such as the oven with the light on.overnight.sourdough.rye.sliced

Ingredients:

Overnight starter
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
3 cups rye flour, or 2 1/2 cups rye flour, 1/2 cup flax meal
3 – 5 cups all purpose flour
1/8 cup crushed sunflower seeds, to coat top of loaves (optional)
(place roasted, salted sunflower seeds into a slide lock freezer bag and crush with a rolling pin)

The night before: prepare overnight starter

The next morning:

  1. Pour the milk into a saucepan and scald.  Add the butter to melt, then stir in salt and sugar. Set aside to cool for about 10 minutes.
  2. Sprinkle yeast over warm water and let stand for about 5 minutes.
  3. Stir yeast and cooled milk mixture into the overnight starter.  Stir well.
  4. Mix in optional flax meal and rye flour.  Beat thoroughly until batter is smooth.
  5. Cover lightly and set in a warm, draft free place to rise until almost doubled in size; about 30-40 minutes.

    overnight.sourdough.rye.risen.loaves

    Shaped loaves after rising.

  6. Stir down dough.  Add all purpose flour, a little at a time, until a medium stiff dough begins to form.  Turn onto a floured surface and knead in more flour, as needed.  Continue kneading for another 8-10 minutes, or until soft and elastic.
  7. Divide dough in half, cover lightly and let rest for 10 minutes.
  8. Prepare baking sheet or loaf pans.
  9. Shape the dough into loaves.  Place crushed sunflower seeds onto kneading surface and press tops of the loaves into the seeds before placing on the baking sheet/into loaf pans.
  10. Cover lightly and let rise for about 1 hour in a warm, draft free place.
  11. Preheat oven to 375F.  Bake for about 45 minutes.  Note: if the bread is a golden brown at 30 minutes, tend with foil to prevent further browning.
  12. Place baked loaves on cooling racks.

overnight.sourdough.rye.sliced.title