From Greg Atkinson

About Sourdough
Maintaining a sourdough starter is more like keeping a pet than following a recipe. Think of the starter as a colony of microscopic yeast and bacteria residing in a habitat consisting of flour and water. Along with traces of chemicals like acetone and various strange-smelling aldehydes, the colonists produce a combination of carbon dioxide, acid, and alcohol. The baker serves more or less as a zookeeper or rancher, making sure that the little critters have everything they need, and occasionally harvesting some of them to make bread.

If you cannot procure a bit of starter from a friend, try one of the commercial sourdough starters sold online or in specialty food stores. In these mixtures, the microbes are dried but ready to be revived with the addition of water, just like active dry yeast. Follow the directions that come with the dehydrated microbes to bring them back to life. Once reanimated, the microbes can be kept alive just like the inhabitants of any other starter.

Some of the best sourdough starters are colonized by wild flora and fauna brought in on the backs of unsprayed grapes. The natural denizens of the vineyard are members of the vast family of microorganisms that we employ to make a lot of foods. If organic grapes are within your reach, follow the instructions outlined here to make your own starter from scratch. This formula is based on one that I learned from Nancy Silverton, founder of La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles.

Sourdough Starter
Since I don’t want to sound like a fanatic, I sometimes downplay the importance of selecting organic ingredients, but in this case, the argument for organic cannot be made too strongly. Since the essence of a sourdough starter is a colony of wild yeast, it would be ludicrous to use grapes or flour from a nonorganic source. Conventionally farmed flour and grapes—those grown nonorganically—are routinely exposed to antifungal compounds that kill the wild yeast you’re trying to harvest here.

Makes about 3 cups of living sourdough starter

1 cup organic unbleached white flour
1 cup filtered water
1 small cluster (about 4 ounces) organic grapes

1. Put the flour and water in a medium mixing bowl and whisk to make a smooth batter.

2. Wrap the grapes in several layers of cheesecloth and tie up the corners to make a little bundle. Press the bundle of grapes to break them slightly, but don’t smash them flat. Submerge the bundle of crushed grapes in the batter and cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or a very loosely applied layer of plastic wrap.

3. Allow the batter to stand at room temperature, lightly covered, for 2 or 3 days, or until the surface is covered with bubbles. The batter, when stirred, will release a bouquet that smells peculiar but not unpleasant—something like beer and bread, with the faintest hint of nail polish remover.

4. To maintain the starter, keep it refrigerated for up to 2 weeks at a time. For every 1/2 cup of starter you remove to make a batch of bread, add a thin batter made from 1/3 cup filtered water and 1/3 cup flour, to replenish the starter.

Sourdough Bread
The tradition of sourdough bread on the West Coast began with the forty-niners , the wave of prospectors who came west in search of gold in 1849, and it continued into Alaska when gold was discovered there a few years later. But the tradition really blossomed in the late twentieth century, when the artisanal bread-baking movement took root. Places like La Brea Breads in Los Angeles, Acme Baking Company in Berkeley, and Grand Central Bakery in Seattle introduced Americans to traditional breads based on natural levain, or wild starters.

Makes 2 loaves, 1 1/2 pounds each

1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cup lukewarm (70°F) water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 1/2 cups organic unbleached white flour

Put the starter, water, and flour in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to make a smooth batter. Using a paddle attachment for the mixer or a wooden spoon, stir in the salt and 3 cups of the unbleached flour, 1 cup at a time, to make a very soft dough. Use a dough hook or the wooden spoon to add the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and mix or knead the dough until it is very smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

2. Lightly coat a 4-quart mixing bowl with oil and transfer the dough to the oiled bowl. Turn the dough over once so that the top of the dough is lightly coated with oil. Cover the mixing bowl with a very loosely applied layer of plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature, lightly covered, until it has doubled in bulk, at least 8 hours, and preferably overnight.

3. Press the air out of the risen dough and gently knead it until it is springy again. The dough will have a smooth, flexible “skin.” Divide the dough in half and, working with one half at a time, shape the dough into 2 balls, tucking the cut edges of the dough into the center of the balls and stretching the “skin” over the surface of the dough balls without tearing it.

4. Put the balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with a silicone pan liner or baker’s parchment. Loosely cover the loaves with plastic wrap and let them rise until they are doubled in size, about 4 hours.

5. Put a baking sheet on the bottom rack of the oven and put a second rack one position above it. Pour a 1/2-inch layer of water into the baking sheet on the bottom shelf. Preheat the oven to 450°F, and if there is a convection option, use it. Just before putting the loaves in the oven, use a box cutter or a very sharp knife to cut shallow slashes in a cross over the surface of the loaves, about 1/8 inch deep. Bake the loaves until they are well browned and sound hollow when tapped; an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of a loaf will register 200°F, about 35 minutes. Transfer the baked loaves to a cooling rack and let them cool to room temperature before slicing.
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See also Dave’s Quick & Simple Whole-Grain Muffin and Hot Bread Recipes from Scratch
and No-Knead Bread (NY Times)
~~
Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
© Copyright Greg Atkinson
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