As an avid bread maker, Easter is one of my yearly highlights as I love to make hot cross buns. This year will be no exception to my rule!
But first, the basics.
Having found purchasing some of the ingredients difficult due to the demand on basics (mainly yeast and flour), I have concentrated my efforts on my trusty sour dough starter to get me by. For a long time I have found sour dough to be the best bread for myself and my husband. It’s easy to make and good on my stomach.
Bread making is part of my baking routine that gives me great joy. I believe bread is a food that nourishes the soul and body.
Over the years I have re-jigged my bread recipes to suit my lifestyle. Early on, I would make it by hand, kneading and spending time worrying over rising. Then I bought a bread maker. But I missed the hands on making so I modified my recipes to ‘dough in bread maker only’. So I would set the bread maker going and then work the dough into the shapes and types of breads I wanted. This fitted with in my busy glass making routine well. Less time in the kitchen.
Then along came sour dough. I found a great New Zealand website Home Grown Happiness that gave me all the basics on making and looking after your sour dough starter. Now, I rarely use bought yeast, opting for my sourdough starter instead.
What I found is that you can change your bread recipes to fit sour dough easily. Instead of 4 teaspoons of sure bake yeast, I use 190grams of my sour dough starter. Set your bread maker to the normal white bread dough setting and away you go.
My basic bread maker recipe for Sour Dough Bread.
190grams sour dough starter, 3 cups high grade or bakers strong flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 3/4 cups water. After the bread maker has finished leave for an hour or so (in the bread maker because its still warm) before turning onto a well floured board. The dough will be very sticky. This is normal. With well floured hands pull the dough up and into centre until you have a round shape. I place this into a floured calico lined bread basket. Cover with a tea towel and place in fridge overnight.
Timing is up to you. I start mine about 6pm. It’s finished in the machine at 8.20pm. It sits and rises until i’m just about to go to bed about 10.30pm. I place the dough in the bread basket (you could line your bowl with a tea towel) and into the fridge it goes. In the morning I turn the oven on as high as it will go. Place a cast iron covered casserole dish in the oven to heat. Once hot, take the dish out of oven, dust with flour, carefully lift dough out of basket (it should be firmish on the outside), turn upside down into hot dish (so the bottom will be the top), score the dough with a sharp knife to let air out while cooking. Cook for 40 minutes with lid on. Check on the bread before it finishes to make sure it’s not burning or if it needs longer. Once cooked, turn out onto a cooling wrack, cover with a tea towel and let cool. The crust should be a bit crunchy. This is perfect!
It’s important to note that bread making is a pleasure, not a burden, so arrange your bread making time to suit your lifestyle. If this means using a breadmaker as I do, that’s great. But making bread by hand is wonderful (and can be fun with the kids). I fully recommend doing it this way if you can or if you don’t have a machine. Just enjoy the process!