A Week of Sourdough Baking
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On this week’s new YouTube video, we’re diving deep into how a week of sourdough baking actually looks in my kitchen. My hope was to show you that sourdough baking is actually versatile and contrary to popular belief, there’s a lot of wiggle room.
Because sourdough works slowly, did you know that you can often stretch proofing times by large amounts of time? More on this in the video…
I love sourdough baking as much as the next, but the reality is I’m a homeschooling, homesteading, business-owner who has to answer to a lot of schedule demands. My sourdough starter is not my baby (I’ve got four real ones of those), and frankly, I need it to pull its weight without requiring too much of me. (That’s why I opt for keeping a stiff-starter that only requires me to feed it once a week… more on this in the video as well.)
All that being said, sourdough bread is non-negotiable for our family. Because we’ve spent years cultivating not only our starter but also our gut biome, we’re able to digest and enjoy lots of bread products each week. There’s no wheat belly, no constipation, no bloating. But this doesn’t just happen — high-quality bread products demand time and attention.
If you’re on the fence about actually learning how to bake with sourdough in real life, let me remind you of a few important points:
Stop trying to figure it out and just try it
Nothing will teach you faster than first-hand experience
Alright, so that maybe wasn’t the most scientific answer re: sourdough’s benefit and digestibility, but there’s plenty of scientific research out there for those of you inclined to look up just how wonderful the health benefits of sourdough bread are. Stop beating this skill to death and instead, start baking!
A few notes on what you’ll see in the video:
I use a bulk olive oil for my focaccia bread. I get a gallon from Azure Standard monthly for having olive oil on hand to bake and roast with.
I also use a bulk maple syrup to naturally sweeten my bakes, again, available from Azure Standard.
Bulk einkorn flour is purchased from, you guessed it, Azure Standard.
If you’d like more information on keeping a stiff starter, I wrote a blog and made a video about that a few years back, available right here.
As much as I’d like to share my starter with the entire world, that’s not feasible, so instead, I share pieces of it with my Cooking Community members exclusively. If you’d like a piece, join us!
Homemade Overnight Bagels
Ingredients:
1 cup active sourdough starter or 1 cup flour mixed with 1/2 cup of water plus a large pinch of active dry yeast
175 grams (about 3/4 cup) warm water
2 teaspoons maple syrup
540 grams (about 4 1/2 cups) all-purpose einkorn flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda, for boiling
Instructions:
Mix together the sourdough starter, warm water, and maple syrup. Stir well to combine.
Add in the flour and salt. Again, stir well until no dry pockets remain. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead by hand until the dough is smooth and homogeneous. Transfer to a lightly floured bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave out at room temperature overnight (or at least 4-5 hours).
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
Bring a pot of water to a boil on the stove. Add in the baking soda.
Scrape the dough out onto a work surface. Divide it evenly into as many pieces as you’d like (I usually do about 12 from this recipe). Roll and shape each bagel — the technique is demonstrated in the video.
Allow the bagels to rest for 30 minutes.
Working in batches of three, boil the bagels for 1 minute. Transfer the bagels to a baking tray. When all the bagels have been boiled and placed on the baking tray, transfer to a preheated oven and bake for about 15 minutes until golden.
Eincorn Focaccia
The focaccia recipe featured in the video is piggybacked off a recipe that I created for Jovial Foods this past October. I follow the recipe as-is, but add in a cup or so of sourdough starter for additional flavor and digestibility. When I do so, I also decrease the amount of yeast used to just a pinch (or completely omit it altogether). You can find that recipe right here.
That sumptuous Sourdough Honey Cake with Italian Meringue is a Cooking Community recipe from this past February and is available below the paywall for paid newsletter supporters. Every once in a while, I love to share recipes from CC with you so that you can peek behind the curtain to the recipes that we create and share over there. I hope you enjoy the video and the recipes… and most importantly, I hope you can see how sourdough baking can fit into the margins of your everyday life.
