Sourdough Bread

At Benz, we give bread the attention it deserves. Bread is often seen as an afterthought and that’s a pity.That’s why Mark Groenendaal shares his recipe for sourdough bread.

Making sourdough bread requires a lot of patience. For sourdough bread, a starter is required. Because of that the recipe below consists of two parts. Beneath the recipe a video can be found about how to shape the bread.

RECEPT STARTER

Day 1 Mix 50 grams of lukewarm water and 50 grams of flour. Then put the mixture in a clean preserving jar. It is best to clean the preserving jar with hot water. Do not use soap, as this can prevent the dough from fermenting properly.

Day 2 Put 50 grams of the mixture from the day before in a bowl. The remaining part can be thrown away. Add 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour and stir well. Return the mixture to the preserving jar.

Day 3 Repeat the steps from day 2.

Day 4 Repeat the steps from day 2.

Day 5 Repeat the steps from day 2.

Day 6 When the mixture bubbles and rises well, the sourdough is ready. You can continue to feed it, but from now on you can also use it to bake bread.

Mark: “You can do this with flour from the local miller, with spelt or like me, partly with rye flour. This contains a lot of micro-organisms and minerals and that is good for your starter! In the process on days 2,4 and 6 I fed it with rye flour.”

RECEPT BROOD

Mix the flour, water and active sourdough starter together with a spoon.

Add the salt.

Knead the dough into a nice ball in 3 minutes.

Place the dough in a bowl and cover well with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise for 60 minutes. This can be done in a cold, closed oven with a cup of boiling water. It’s important that the dough is really well covered, otherwise the dough will get wet.

After an hour, it’s time to fold the dough. We fold at 5 imaginary points of the dough.

Take a piece of dough on the outside and fold it to the center.

Go round in 5 folds, so you build tension on the dough.

Turn the dough over carefully, cover it and return it to the cold oven for 45 minutes with new boiling water.

You fold and let it rise again 4 times.

The dough has now become nicely elastic and has grown twice in volume. This is when we can start to form the dough.

Carefully remove the dough from the bowl and place it in a clean workplace.

Gently pull the dough apart into a square about 30 by 30 centimetres.

Fold the left and right sides together. Roll the dough carefully towards you and build tension with your thumbs by pushing the rolling dough inwards.

Pinch the ends tightly with your thumb and index finger.

Place your mixing bowl upside down over the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Mix 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of rice flour and coat your banneton with a thin layer.

Also provide your dough with a good layer of the powder.

Carefully place your dough upside down in the banneton.

Place your banneton in a thin plastic bag and tie it with air in the bag to prevent it from drying out.

Let it rest in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

After 12 hours it is time to start baking.

Preheat the oven to 240 degrees. While preheating, place a cast iron pan with lid in the oven and heat it with it.

The pan should get really hot. Therefore, let it heat up in the oven for at least 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, take the dough out of the refrigerator and out of the bag.

Pour the dough onto a piece of baking paper.

Re-coat the dough with flour and rice flour. Spread it out with your hands and make sure that the whole dough is covered with a thin layer.

Use a sharp knife to cut the dough lengthwise, slightly off the center. At Benz a sharp razor is used. With this you can also provide the bread with all kinds of patterns.

When the pan is hot, you can take it out of the oven.

Lower the dough gently into the pan and put the lid back on the pan.

Return the pan to the oven.

Bake the bread at 240 degrees for 20 minutes.

Now remove the lid.

Then let the bread bake for another 25 minutes at 180 degrees.

Now take the bread out of the pan and let it rest on a cold oven rack for at least half an hour.

Enjoy!