About a year and a half ago I shared here my “I no longer care” recipe for sourdough bread. I was fed up with the precise mathematical measures and instructions I found online, so I just winged it, and it worked. But it did not work as well as it could have, because at the time I was unaware of three magic tricks to making sourdough bread as best as I could ever hope for. Here they are now.
#1 Water
The water for the starter must not come directly from the tap. There are chemicals in the tap water that interfere with the microorganisms that make the sourdough, so I use filtered water that’s sat for a while. The principle is pretty much the same as the one applied by flower-growers: never water them with fresh tap water, let the chlorine and whatever other disinfectant is in it evaporate first.
#2 Folding
Once the kneading is done — for a soft but relatively dense dough unlike in my original recipe — I let it rest for about half an hour or an hour if I forget, and then start folding. I simply pick up the dough and pull one end, fold over the other end, switch ends, fold again, turn it at 90 degrees and fold again.
I repeat once every hour until the rising advances enough to make folding difficult (you can see the occasional air bubble). In the video it’s not quite there yet but it’s starting to fluff up. By the time it’s ready, the dough will be visibly fluffier than it was at the start and, based on my experience, it will be impossible to fold more than once or twice at most without tearing the dough, which you shouldn’t do. It’s ready for shaping and proofing.
#3 Boiling water
That must be the most magical of the three tricks although, of course, it’s not magic, it’s just chemistry. Once the dough is shaped, proofed, and ready to go into the oven, I boil a small pot of water and place it at the bottom of the pre-heated oven. Apparently, the water vapour encourages stronger rising as the bread bakes and, my, does it rise!
Bonus trick: The Scoring
I haven’t mastered the perfect scores but I keep trying. The cutting implement must be very sharp and the cutter must be confident. Scoring is a must, not just an aesthetic whimsy, because it helps make the bread bigger, better, and fluffier.
Thank you!
I'd be interested to know if one gets the same result in step 1 by using an aquarium dechlorinator product. It would speed things along and be a more certain method of neutralizing chlorine in the water.
But one would need to choose carefully, as some aquarium water conditions add things like slime enhancers for the fish skin (fish maintain a mucus coating that protects them from infections). Other's are just pure dechlorinator.
I wouldn't worry about "eating chemicals". If the fish can safely swim around in it, it's not going to harm a human eating it.