This is my very first attempt at EVER making sourdough bread! Honestly, this is only my second time making NK bread! I used 5 ounces of fresh home milled organic hard white spring wheat and 11 ounces of Breadtopia’s organic select bread flour. This bread has a beautiful crust, a chewy open crumb and a nice mild sour tang to the flavor that is definitely not overpowering; just the way I enjoy sourdough. I can’t wait for my husband to try it. I think he’ll love it.
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Hey Leah, will you share your recipe with us? If so, thank you.
Good morning, @david1264! I got the recipe for my bread right here on Breadtopia.com. It’s Eric’s video recipe for NK Sourdough recipe, complete with written instructions. Here’s the link for it: https://breadtopia.com/sourdough-no-knead-bread/
The flour I used to make my first sourdough loaf was a combination of the select bolted bread flour and the hard wheat berries. Here are the links: https://breadtopia.com/store/white-wheat-berries/ that I milled myself and the https://breadtopia.com/store/breadtopia-select-organic-bread-flour/
Before I started my bread baking journey I began watching Eric’s videos. I’m a “visual” learner so being able to watch someone do something helps me a lot. I also determined that in order to give myself the best shot at success I needed to have the right tools. So I decided to make the investment in my quest for “real” bread and for my health by purchasing what I needed for my bread baking goals and kitchen. I purchased a grain mill, the Mockmill 100 so that I could home mill organic grain. Here’s the link: https://breadtopia.com/store/mockmill-100-grain-mill/ and bought smaller quantities (3-5 pounds each) of Heirloom Turkey Red wheat berries, Hard White Wheat berries and Rye berries (we love rye bread) which I store in my freezer, removing the amount I need for each recipe to come to room temperature before milling. I also made sure I got an excellent “bread flour” so I’ve purchased both the Organic Whole Grain Bread Flour and the Breadtopia Select Bolted Organic Bread Flour so I could determine which one I preferred. Ironically, I love them both, LOL! I also decided to splurge a little bit and bought the entire artisan bread baking kit. Here’s the llnk: https://breadtopia.com/store/artisan-bread-starter-kit-oval/ along with the bread scoring lame and the plastic bowl covers. Though I had never baked by weighing out ingredients instead of measuring them I decided to try it for accuracy. I already owned a food scale that showed gram measurements. I loved my results so now that’s how I bake my bread.
I know, I may have gone a little nuts right out of the starting gate, LOL. Add to that the fact that I had NEVER worked with sourdough! I didn’t even have any sourdough in the house! What I did have was a sweet friend who had been cultivating her sourdough and using it for years. She invited me to dinner and shared some of hers with me so I actually have a personal link to my sourdough starter, affectionately named “DJ Cyril.” I decided to let Cyril acclimate to my environment for about a month before I actually baked that first loaf. I feed him weekly, keeping him in the refrigerator and letting him sit on the counter for a couple hours before feeding and for about 6-10 hours after feeding before putting him back in the fridge. Instead of just throwing away excess starter as it accumulates, I make batches of sourdough pancakes that I share with a friend and her family who loves them and considers them a real special treat.
Believe it or not, I really am brand new to not only baking NK bread, but to sourdough as well. Decades ago when my children were small I tried yeast baking bread. All the kneading was exhausting and all I ended up with were “bread bricks.” I didn’t know what I was doing wrong so I just gave up. Fast forward and my next bread baking journey involved a bread machine. Now I had success baking bread with it for years. That machine is 20+ years old and still works just fine but I was wanting a different bread experience. That’s how I found Breadtopia.com and let’s just say, “the rest is history.”
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Thank you. I don’t go to this regularly, but appreciate your comments.
Looks great Leah! Nicely done…
Thank you, @gwage. I’m totally hooked on sourdough and have added a few more of the NK recipes here on Breadtopia to my “permanent, must bake regularly” list: cranberry-pecan (my current Autumn TOTAL favorite), cinnamon raisin and rye. I’ve also adapted a couple of the recipes so they’re medically suitable for my husband’s diet restrictions. I actually make separate loaves just for him. God bless sourdough!
#Bake!
Leah