Clever Carrot Sourdough Bread (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good sourdough bread? ›

Real sourdough bread is made without the use of commercial yeast or any other commercially available leavening agent. Leavening agents make bread rise when it is baked.

Whole Wheat Flour: Some bakers swear by using whole wheat flour in their starters. This flour includes the whole grain of wheat, including the bran, endosperm, and germ.

Sourdough bread can be really light if you know how to play with your ratios. When I want a really fluffy, light loaf with a thin crust I work 300g starter to each kilogram of flour and 500g water (less or more depending on the kind of bread I'm making). A teaspoon of sugar helps.

Longer Bulk Fermentation: I typically don't let my bulk fermentation go over 4-5 hours (at 78ºF), but for a more sour loaf you can decrease the temperature and push that fermentation another hour or two to get more flavor from the acetic acid bacteria which prefers a 76-78ºF temperature.

Too little folding can result in weak dough. But too much folding can produce excessive tension and compressive forces. An over-folded dough might have a tighter crumb as the layers of alveoli push against each other and coalesce. In the worst case, excessive folding might cause a dough to tear under too much tension.

Because under-kneaded dough doesn't spring up as much in the oven, it often results in a flatter loaf with a dense texture. While it may not be the perfect loaf you hoped for, it's still entirely edible.

Although you need an active, well-maintained starter for certain artisan breads, you can still make tasty bread with a sluggish, slow starter so you don't have to discard sourdough starter daily. In fact, many of my favorite sourdough bread recipes use discard for flavoring to give bread that classic tang.

Panera's sourdough loaf is a far cry from classic

The Panera website lists the full ingredients of its "Classic Sourdough Loaf," and they're a far cry from true sourdough's minimal lineup of flour, water, salt, and live culture. In addition to wheat and malted barley flour, the sourdough starter contains folic acid.

Regular sourdough isn't safe for people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Wheat sourdough isn't gluten-free, but may contain less gluten than regular yeast bread.

What is the disadvantage of sourdough bread? ›

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

Whole grain and whole wheat sourdoughs offer more healthy nutrients. If possible, opt for whole wheat or whole grain sourdough, as these will have much higher levels of fiber and micronutrients than their white counterparts.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour. Why do you need to use these two types of flour?

There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

One way you can help your sourdough to rise more is by turning on the light in your oven. Preheat the oven just slightly, then turn off the heat and place the dough inside with the light on. The warmth generated by the light helps activate the yeast, which will cause it to rise faster.

And it can dissolve some metals. However, what happens when sourdough and metals contact each other depend on the metal and the length of exposure. If the metal is a stainless steel, there will be no problems.