Baking sourdough bread in SoCal

Sourdough bread has been around for a long time. Both beer and sourdough bread appeared around the same time in ancient Egypt. Two great use...

Sourdough bread has been around for a long time. Both beer and sourdough bread appeared around the same time in ancient Egypt. Two great uses for grains! Sourdough fermentation also changes how people digest grains. See

I started making sourdough loaves using the instructions from Breadtopia.com. They sell the starter through Amazon. It takes a few days to grow the starter from the small package to make enough to continue growing and give you the 1/4 cup you need to make the bread. There is a great "no knead" recipe and video on Breadtopia. Breadtopia's recipe is simple:

• 1/4 cup of starter
• 1 and half cups of water
• Two and half cups of bread flour
• 1 cup of whole wheat
• 1 and half teaspoons of salt

For my SoCal recipe:

• 3 and a third cups of unbleached bread flour with a third cup of cracked wheat and no whole wheat (it was not in my cupboard!)
• Mix the water and starter together. 
• Then mix the dry ingredients
• Then mix the wet and dry ingredients together. The mixture should be damp. Add water or flour as needed.

Covered the bowl with a plastic bag and let it sit from 8 to 12 hours. The longer you wait, the wetter the mixture gets. The mix will increase in size.

The mixture is dumped on to a floured surface and flattened and rolled (see video on Breadtopia.

The roll is allowed to rest for 15 minutes.

covered in plastic bag

While it is resting for 15 minutes, prep the next surface. I use a colander. Oil it and add sesame seeds or wheat germ.

 Then take the roll of flour, ball it up and put it into the colander.

Leave it covered and turn on the timer to 60 minutes:

After 60 minutes, turn the oven up to 425F. My oven in SoCal burns very hot, so 425 is more like 500F. I set the timer for another 15 minutes. After lining the interior of the Dutch oven with parchment paper, it is put into the oven,  After another 15 minutes, the dough is ready to be dumped into the Dutch oven. The cover of the Dutch oven is removed after 30 minutes. 15 minutes later the bread is ready:

Now we have a loaf of bread to carry in our luggage to use in Kathmandu!

The last act for my sourdough starter is to preserve it for the next visit. The starter is spread-out on parchment paper and dried:

The flakes are stored in a baggie in the freezer, ready to be re-hydrated for our next visit.

5000 years after the first loaf, sourdough bread is still great to eat. Just don't eat one that is that old!