German Sour Dough Bread

Delicious German Soour dough Bread (Sauerteigbrot)

Supplies

You basically need

Flour (which one is up to your preference)

Salt

Water

Old Dried Bread

Kitchen Scale (you may want to use it for all ingredients including water)

Bowl

Spoon

Jar

Clean Towel

Oven

Mixer dough hook (or your hands)

Basket ("Gärkorb", optional)

Pizza Stone (optional)

Step 1: Set Up Sour Dough Starter

Setting up the sour dough starter is obviously important for a sour dough bread. There are three ways to get to it:

First buy it in a shop.

Second start your own sour dough starter.

You need in this step: 50 g (1.7 oz) flour (e.g. white flour aka wheat type 405) and 50 g (1.7 oz) water.

Mix the floor and water in a clean jar (rinsed with hot water to kill any germs) with a clean spoon. Do not touch the flour, dough or inside of the jar. Put a small release hole in the lid of the jar.

Leave the jar for about one week at 20-24°C (69-75°f). Mix it daily with a fresh clean spoon. Add every second day 50 g (1.7 oz) flour (e.g. white flour aka wheat type 405) and 50 g (1.7 oz) water. If the amount gets to larger for your jar just trough away half of the dough (or split it and resume with two starters), you will not need the whole stater for your bread. During this time lactic acid bacteria and yeasts will build up in your starter. These are germs you want.

You don´t want mold. You also don´t want your starter to turn green or black or any other strange color, then you need to start over. The mixture may smell bad in the meantime. This smell will get better. If it does not, start over. If you don´t feel good using this starter, you should start over.

The finished sour dough starter will smell little sour and fruity and maybe a note of vinegar. If the vinegar note is strong keep feeding your starter like in the last days. The vinegar smell will become less.

Third refresh a sour dough starter.

You just followed all the next steps and baked a bread. Do not wash your jar or through it away, just start a new starter or let´s better say resume your starter by adding flour and water like you did before. Now you don´t need to wait for a whole week to bake your next bread, as all desired cultures have established in your dough. Just keep the dough at room temperature until the volume double (mostly about 1 night to 1 day) and keep it in the fridge (for up to 1 week). Then you need to bake or feed your starter again.

Step 2: Making the Sour Dough

Next step is making the sour dough. This is one of two pre-doughs.

You will need:

300 g (10.6 oz) flour (e.g. spelt ("Dinkel") flour type 630 or wheat flour type 550)

120 g (4.2 oz) sour dough starter (step 1)

10 g (0.35 oz) salt

300 g (10.6 oz) warm water (ca. 30-40°C, 86-104°F)

bowl

spoon

Mix all ingredients in a bowl (with a spoon). This will give quite a fluid dough (more a liquid than a dough), which is fine.

This is also a good time to refresh your starting dough (step 1 last paragraph).

Step 3: Making the Swelling Piece "Quellstück"

This is the second pre-dough.

You will need:

100 g (3.5 oz) old dried bread

200 g (7.1 oz) water (cold)

10 g (0.35 oz) salt

bowl

blender or mixer with dough hook or something to crush the dried bread

You can crush the bread in a blender and put them in a second bowl or my preferred method just put all ingredients in a bowl, let the bread soak in the water and give it a quick stir with the mixer. The bread shall just be small enough to soak in all the water.

Step 4: First Rest

Cover both pre-doughs (step 2 and 3) under a clean towel and let them rest for 12-14 h.

Step 5: Making the Main Dough and Second Rest

For the main dough you need:

Sour Dough (Step 2 and 4)

Swelling Piece (step 3 and 4, before adding give it a good mix with the mixer with kneading hook or your hands to ensure all bread pieces crumbled and are fine)

200 g (7.1 oz) warm water (ca. 30-40°C, 86-104°F)

200 g (7.1 oz) flour (e.g. spelt ("Dinkel") flour type 630 or wheat flour type 550)

400 g (14.1 oz) whole flour (e.g. Spelt, Rye or Wheat)

Knead all ingredients to one dough make sure everything is mixed and gives a recent dough. The Put the dough in the bowl to a rest for 2 h at room temperature. Make sure to cover the bowl with a towel and give it enough space to expand (about 50-75 %).

Step 6: Working the Dough and Third Rest

The next step is to get your dough out of the bowl and to work it. For this cover working space lightly in flour. Put your dough in your working area and start to prolong it lightly and then fold it back into the middle. Then you want to turn it slightly and repeat prolonging and folding. You want to do this until you have a nice round and strong dough.

Now is the time to put your bread to the third (and last) rest. I put the dough in a flour covered "Gärkorb" (basket). If you don´t have one just leave it on the working area. just make your last fold is on the bottom. This rest takes 45 mins.

During this rest you can start preheating your oven.

Step 7: Baking

You must bake your bread in a preheated oven (ideally with a pizza stone) to 280°C (536°F), if your oven cannot reach this high temperature or you don´t have a pizza stone, just set it to the highest possible temperature.

You want to flip your dough from your working area or your basket so it is upside down on on the baking sheet or pizza stone. You may cut a slit with a knife along the bread (about 1 cm (1/2 inch) deep). This is just for optical purposes to control the rupture of your dough due to expansion. (In this baking process I actually forgot to slit and my bread ruptured not on top as preferred but on the bottom side.)

After 3 min of baking you want to add steam to your oven. You may do it via your oven function or just spill about 1/2 cup of water into the oven (not onto the bread) and be careful not to burn yourself. You want to keep the oven closed now for 5 mins (8 mins after start). You may skip this step if you don´t feel safe, but it adds an extra crunch to your crust. Now you want to release the steam by opening the oven door carefully for about 30 sec. Now you tune down your baking temperature to 220°C (428°F) and bake until finished for about another 50 mins. This gives a total baking time of about 1 hour. Your bread is finished when you knock on the bottom of the bread an it sounds hollow. If it sounds dumb give it a few more minutes in the heat.

In the after heat of your oven you may want to dry your basket, but keep in mind to let the oven first cool a little to reduce fire hazard (actual max. drying temperatures is given when you purchase a basket).

Step 8: Enjoy Your Bread

Getting your bread from the oven and putting it onto a grill to cool it down. After cooling down you can cut your bread an enjoy it. Your bread will weigh around 1850 g (4 Pound).

A few words towards timing:

You will need a lot of time for this bread, mainly your dough will do things alone, but from making the pre doughs to having a bread is 20 -24 h and starting from scratch adds another week, so plan ahead.

Making starter (from scratch, step 1) at least 1 week

Making pre-doughs (step 2 and 3) 10 min

First rest (step 4) 12 h

Making main dough (step 5) 10 min

Second rest (step 5) 2 h

Working the main dough (step 6) 10 min

Third rest (step 6) 45 min

Baking (step 7) 1 h

Cooling (step 8) ca. 3-5 h

A few words towards flours:

You can use this recipe as given here or change the flour as you like. But keep in mind that all affects the final product and baking time. If you use more whole flour the baking time will prolong significantly. If you don´t use whole flour at all your baking time will decrease (e.g. total time of 50 mins).

A recipe for 6 pound bread:

Keep it like above but use instead:

Sour dough (step 2)

500 g (1.1 Pound) flour

120 g (4.2 oz) sour dough starter (step 1)

16 g (0.56 oz) salt

500 g (1.1 Pound) warm water (ca. 30-40°C, 86-104°F)

Swelling Piece (step 3)

100 g (3.5 oz) old dried bread

200 g (7.1 oz) water (cold)

16 g (0.56 oz) salt

Main Dough (step 5)

400 g (14.1 oz) warm water (ca. 30-40°C, 86-104°F)

400 g (14.1 oz) flour (e.g. spelt ("Dinkel") flour type 630 or wheat flour type 550)

500 g (1.1 Pound) whole flour (e.g. Spelt, Rye or Wheat)

Keep the resting times, but increase the total baking time to at least 90 mins (keep the first 8 mins identical to form the crust).