Three Perfect Ingredients®—REAL Sourdough BreadTM

Back in August, I had the blessing of attending a gardening boot camp of sorts with my youngest daughter.  Now Lydia’s never been much interested in gardening; she’s much more of an animal person and indeed is pursuing a degree in animal science and ranching—something along those lines.  She is also pursuing, and being pursued by, a certain young rancher who was also attending the class which was being held on his family’s ranch.  So that was her motivation.  Mine, however, was pure.  I was floored with what I learned and over the winter I will be blogging about much of that.

One of the other participants was actually a full-time student there at the ranch, one of four taking an intensive gardening course as part of their college degrees.  I’d actually met Abby the previous month at a weekend campout for the young single adults in our church as my husband and I served as the cooks for the event.  Based on our conversations at the time, I’d gotten the idea that she was rather experienced in making bread.  Boy, was that an understatement.

As the oldest of ten children, Abby got started young in making bread for the family.  At the age of eight she wanted to start her own business making bread for people in the neighborhood, but her mother wouldn’t permit it, sure that she’d end up doing much of the work.  By the time Abby was ten, her mother finally relented, and Abby set up shop.  As I understood it, she’d arrive at a point of having nearly 300 customers, and then the family would move again, and she’d start over. 

Over the course of the next decade, things evolved with her parents buying her out and focusing entirely on producing sourdough bread.  They now own and operate Abigail’s Oven, a sourdough bakery providing loaves to customers throughout northern Utah (and shipping loaves all over the US).  And this summer as Abby was participating in the gardening course, she also commuted back to Utah each Friday to help with the family business, and then returned Saturday with some unsold loaves, a few of which I got to sample at the boot camp.  To die for.

My daughter Becky heard our rave reviews of the bread, and genius that she is, asked if Abby would teach a class on making sourdough bread to the young women in their congregation.  (The young men objected vehemently, noting that the young women had crashed their target shooting activity and thus the men shouldn’t be excluded from the sourdough bread class.  They won the point and represented themselves well in the class.)  And wonder of wonders, even though we’re quite a ways out from town, we got to host the class in our kitchen.  I was going to get a personal lesson from a sourdough master.  Maybe I would finally learn to make good sourdough bread consistently, and not only bread that rose properly but also bread that was actually really sour. 

Passionate as she is about healthy food and good bread, Abby presented a fabulous lesson and demonstrated how to make the best sourdough bread in about 90 minutes.  The “Three Perfect Ingredients^®—REAL Sourdough Bread^TM” are not only legally registered to Abigail’s Oven, but they also perfectly describe this bread.

Real sourdough bread begins with a start.  Abby brought all of the class participants a wet start; Abigailsoven.com sells a dehydrated start for $19.95.  If you know me—and are local—I’ll gladly give you a start.  Otherwise, I can’t recommend getting a dehydrated start from them highly enough.  This is real sour flavor that you just won’t get anywhere else.

The following directions come from the handout Abby provided to our class.

What to Do with Your Start

Wet Start:  Immediately put it into a glass jar.  Mix it with ¼ cup [60 g] water and a scant 1/3 cup [60 g] flour and put on a lid loosely.  Let it sit for 8-12 hours at room temperature and then store it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Dehydrated Start:  Pour the flakes into a shallow bowl and barely cover them with water.  Let it sit until they rehydrate (24 hours or so), occasionally breaking it up with your fingers to help hydrate the larger flakes.  Once it is reconstituted, your start is ready to activate.  (See below.)

Activate Your Start

4-8 hours before you want to mix the dough you need to activate the start.  Mix ¼ cup [60 g] starter with ½ cup [120 g] of water and ¾ heaping cup [120 g] of flour.  Let it sit covered until it is bubbly, thick, and smells sweet (approximately 6 hours).  Your start is ready when it floats in water.  [I have found that when I drop just a little bit—like ¼ teaspoon or less—it always sinks.  I usually aim to drop 1-2 teaspoons, actually doing it gently as if I am trying to lay it on top of the water.  Also, it doesn’t float for very long; by the time I turn around it has usually sunk to the bottom.]

Be sure to always save a small bit of the start for your next batch.  Store the starter in the refrigerator between uses or leave it on your counter and feed it flour and water daily.  It can stay in the fridge indefinitely, but the longer it has been in the fridge, the longer it will take to activate.  Do not store the start in a metal container.

Mix the Dough

In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine

3 cups [720 g] room temperature water

¾ cup [180 g] starter

5 ½ cups [700 g] white flour

2 ½ cups [300 g] whole wheat flour

Mix and let sit for 30 minutes to autolyse the dough.

Add 2 tablespoons [34 g] salt

¼ cup [60 g] water

Mix the water and salt into the dough, cover, and turn every 30 minutes a total of three times.  (To turn, dip your hand in water, then reach in, grab the bottom edge of the dough, pull up, stretch it, and fold it on top of itself.  Do this all around the bowl.  This all counts as one full turn.)  [After the three turns], next, let the dough sit for its bulk rise (8-12 hours). 

Bench and Proof

Dump your dough onto a floured surface.  Cut the dough in half to form two loaves.  Let sit for 30 minutes (this is the bench rest).  Fold the dough to create tension and place it in a bowl with a floured towel or lined with oiled parchment.  Let rise until doubled (45-90 minutes, depending on temperature). 

Bake

Twenty minutes before baking time, place your Dutch oven in the oven to preheat at 475°F [I do 450°F].  When the oven is ready, score the top of each loaf.  Place the dough in a Dutch oven and splash water in it with your fingers before covering it with the lid.  Bake for 30 minutes in the Dutch oven, until the bread is golden brown.  Remove and cool completely before cutting (1-2 hours).  Enjoy!  [I kept getting a burnt bottom, so I start baking at 450°F for 20 minutes and then drop the temperature to 400°F and bake 30 minutes longer.]

Family reviews:  Every single loaf has been fabulous.  I've made this bread about five times per week for the past two weeks, perfecting my technique a little more each time, learning exactly how wet the dough needs to be and forming the loaves with just the right tension and then getting the baking temperature just right.  Using a cast iron Dutch oven really makes a difference.  So does having the right starter.  No more starting with yeast for me!  I have also tried this using more whole wheat flour.  We didn't like it nearly as much.  Maybe if I g r a d u a l l y increase the proportion over time.  

 

I realize this is a lot to take in.  A video may be much more helpful.  And you know I don’t do videos.  I hardly do any pictures.  Fortunately, Abigail’s Oven offers free classes at the bakery!  Of course, most readers here don’t live within driving distance of Spanish Fork, UT.  Fortunately again, they offer a Zoom class at the same time, also free!  (The next one is November 8, 2023.) They also offer a video course for $47; I haven’t taken that so I can’t comment on it, but based on what I’ve seen from Abby I’m sure it’s fabulous and I may take it someday.

References:

Abigailsoven.com  (Lots of great stuff here—recipes, etc.)

https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/sourdough-classes-1324809  (Link for free Zoom class—enrollment is limited, so sign up early.)