San Francisco Sour Dough Bread

Before I begin this section, I can’t recommend the book enough. “Bread Alone” Daniel Leader and Judith Blahnik ISBN – 0-688-09261-6

If you really like this section of posts and videos, then you should purchase the book.

I met Dan at the French Culinary Institute when he was giving a demonstration in the grand theater.

You can visit one of Dan’s bakeries on the Catskills

https://www.breadalone.com/

Always wanted to uncover the secret to Sourdough as I had attempted it many times with different recipes. Dan’s book explains step by step how to produce great bread at home.

I lived in the bay area for six months in the early 90’s which meant, every weekend was in San Francisco and once a month, Napa. Oh, my, there was a sandwich shop called China Beach, I still crave it.

Oddly, in my youth, I stuck to Boudin bakery for my benchmark on sour dough, which, I still think is a good benchmark, but I was young and stuck in my ways. That said, this particular recipe does not have the specific tang that Boudin has. Still, it is a wonderful bread.

Thinking I might increase some fermentation time to see if I can bring out the “sour”.

The very first time I tried to make sour dough was from a recipe in the book “Cooking with Master Chefs” by Julia Child. ISBN 0-679-74829-6

Page 82 – Nancy Silverton of the La Brea Bakery. I was not able to do it, it involved natural yeast from red grapes, but looking back, I think the timings and temperatures were too much of a challenge. I might revisit this.

Back to Dan Leader’s recipe, The entire process is not so difficult, but it takes time. 3 days time. So be prepared.

You need to make the starter before you begin this – https://www.romeosjulienne.com/post/bread-starter

Total Time – Start To Finish 38 hours

Equipment:

Pizza Stone in the oven
Razor blade
Bench scrapers
Peel
Spray bottle with water

Recipe:

Poolish:

Allow 24 hours to ferment
8 oz Levan Starter
8 oz Spring Water
8 oz Organic White Bread Flour

Final Dough:

16 oz Spring Water
27 – 32 oz Organic White Bread Flour
1 TBS Fine Sea Salt

Day 1:

Make the Levan Starter from the Chef 8 – 10 hours before you make the polish. Add 6 oz of the flour blend (20% Bran Wheat Flour) to the chef. Blend it well and let it ferment for 8 – 10 hours. I typically do this at 10:00 PM so I can make my next move at 8:00 AM

Day 2:

Make the poolish. Mix the 8 oz Levan Starter with the spring water. After it is dissolved, add the 8 oz flour. Let this ferment for a full 24 hours, but at room temperature fro only 3 or 4 hours, then put it in the fridge or it could just exhaust itself.

Convert the balance of the levan back to a chef and store it in the fridge. Recall this is adding 7 oz spring water and 2 ½ oz of the 20% bran mixture.

Day 3:

Mix the Final Dough. Add the 16 oz of spring water to the poolish.

After it is dissolved, start adding the flour a little at a time. Add the salt while the mixture is still very liquid.

Knead the dough and then place it in a lightly oiled bowl for the first fermentation. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and a damp towel. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 2 ½ hours at 74 ºF – 80 ºF

I’ve been using a new slap and fold technique since this original post.

Punch the dough down. Cover it and let it rest for 30 minutes at the same temperature.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured board and knead it briefly. Shape it into a tight ball and let it rest on the board covered with a damp towel for another 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into loaves. I did 4 loaves, but you can do 2 if you like. My dough was roughly four lbs four oz so I made four 17 oz loaves

Shape the loaves. You can use bread baskets if you have them, or do what I did in the video. I make a makeshift couch with a couple of dish towels. Place the loaves seam side up.

Proof the loaves for 1 hour. At this time, set the oven for 450 ºF

Gently roll the loaf(s) from the couch onto a peel. Score them with your blade and slide them into the oven.

Spray the side of the oven with a little water to generate some steam.

After 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 425 ºF and bake until they are a rich caramel color. 15 – 20 more minutes. You can leave them in a bit longer to increase color.

Let cool completely on a wire rack