Sourdough Bread Made Easy
Sourdough does not need to rule your schedule or take over your counter! I fell in love with sourdough when I realized I could keep our starter in the fridge and only mess with it one day a week in order to have fresh bread and pizza for the next 10 days. I’m sharing lots about this on instagram @kellywelk with a full playlist of tutorial videos on our YouTube Channel. Come join me in the kitchen. I’m going to show you how to take care of sourdough starter, how to mix your bread dough and lastly how to use the dough straight out of the fridge. Below is my Forget about it Sourdough schedule …. it’s a love story really, here’s how I fell in love with sourdough.
Before we dive in, let’s make sure you have some of the essential sourdough tools.
I put everything we consider ‘essential’ in this Baking Tolls List on Amazon - most of the elements you can get by without, except the scale. You will definitely need a digital food scale that shows you weight in grams. We love ours because it’s battery operated and rechargeable. It lives in the cupboard and about once every three months I plug it in to recharge it. The Danish dough whisk is nice for mixing and the banneton baskets make it easier to shape. BUT you can get by without those until you’re certain you want to dive in head first to your sourdough adventure.
Whether we are filling our table for a Freedom Dinner, Cooking Class, Family Dinner or Friday Night Pizza with friends, sourdough bread and baking fills a special spot on the table. We’re here to help you find joy in baking too. It’s about so much more than messes and even fresh bread, it’s about memories made together. And that is the sweet ingredient we’re all hoping for.
Sourdough Starter - let’s ditch the mystery and confusion around it!
Click Here for the Video Class on this - I’ll explain all the ins and outs of how we take care of our sourdough starter. Here are the highlights:
Our Sourdough Starter and any extra discard from when we feed our starter lives in the fridge full time
When I’m ready to bake someone, I take out just the amount I need. Add it to a clean jar and feed it. The rest of the starter goes right back into the fridge.
The Sourdough Starter in the fridge does not get fed.
It is normal for the Sourdough Starter in the fridge to develop a layer of liquid on the top. This is good! It’s a sign that your starter is alive and resting.
The liquid on the top is called Hooch. Don’t pour it off! Just mix it back into your sourdough starter and proceed.
Feeding Your Sourdough Starter:
Click Here for the Video Class on How to Feed Your Starter. We only do this step when we have time to make dough! My schedule is:
Sunday Evening while we’re cleaning up dinner - Feed Sourdough Starter. On weeks that I know I’ll have time to bake bread and make pizza I feed 2 separate jars. I take 50 grams of starter for each jar out of the cold sourdough starter from my fridge jar.
Add these ratios to each jar : 50 grams starter, 200 grams room temp water, 200 grams all purpose unbleached flour. Set your lid on loosely and let these jars rest in a warm spot over night.
Monday Morning I make 2 batches of dough
1 batch of Pizza Dough
1 batch of Bread Dough - Click Here for the Video Class on How to Make the Dough
Any leftover starter from my jars goes back into the fridge sourdough jar. Or! I use this extra starter to make a batch of Sourdough Discard Molasses Krinkle Cookies
Once the dough is made, it goes into the fridge until we’re ready to bake!
How To Bake a Loaf of Bread from your Fridge!
Once the dough is made and resting in the fridge we’re ready to bake a loaf of bread, rolls or focaccia bread any day of the week. Shaping a loaf of bread for sure takes the longest amount of resting/rising time. So if I’m pressed for time I make pans of focaccia, top them with fresh zested garlic, coarse salt and olive oil and everyone gobbles them up.
Here’s the cool thing, the dough is very versatile. Play with it! Have fun, make little rolls or long french style loaves. It’s fun to try different shaping techniques when all you have to do is pull dough out of the fridge, shape and bake!
We’re here to help make your sourdough baking fun, leave a comment below or on any of the video classes. Your questions help us create even more video classes!
Cheers to filling your table with delicious food and best of all time together.
