Your Friday bread
Get the ingredients and tools today, start your sourdough tomorrow. Savour your better-than-bakery bread next weekend
38 UAE and an integral part of the legendary tex-mex restaurant Pancho Villa’s in Dubai, dishes out a memorable helping of nostalgia.
Aweek to make this bread. But look at it this way: you have one whole week to up your bread-baking game. The ancient method of making sourdough bread is suddenly all the rage, and with good reason.
Have you always wanted to bake your own sourdough loaves, but never really had the courage? Or have you tried, and failed? No need to worry. Follow this recipe to a T, and success will follow. The end result will reward your time and effort generously.
That said, there’s actually no need for a giant effort. Just a bit of accuracy and the right set of tools. And lots of waiting.
On today’s trip to the supermarket, pick up a kitchen scale and a glass jar, if you don’t have those already. Special bread rising baskets are very useful, and possessing them makes you feel like a professional baker. But if you’re not ready to invest in them just yet, you’ll do fine with any similar-size baskets or wide mixing bowls.
Use good quality organic wheat and rye flour for the best result. So all set to get started?
Day 1 (Saturday)
In a clean glass jar, combine 65g (½ cup) organic wheat flour, ½ cup lukewarm water, and 1 tsp honey. Mix vigorously with a spoon to incorporate air. Close the lid and let the jar sit on a kitchen counter top, at room temperature.
The mixture will start capturing wild yeasts, which live on the surface of grains, fruits, vegetables and even in the air. Wild yeasts will have your starter bubbling in a couple of days, and eventually, they will make your bread dough rise. Yep, store-bought yeast won’t be needed in any part of the sourdough process.
And remember! Weighing the ingredients with a kitchen scale is a much more reliable method than measuring them by volume.
Day 2 (Sunday)
Add 35g (¼ cup) flour and ¼ cup water to your starter. Mix well. Close the lid.
You might already detect a lightly sour aroma, as the mixture is in an early stage of its fermentation process. Not only does the fermentation create a pleasant tang in the bread, but it also makes grains easier to digest. Fermentation breaks wheat gluten down into amino acids. So those who feel uncomfortable after eating regular yeast wheat bread can enjoy sourdough bread without any stomach issues.
Day 3 (Monday)
It’s alive! Your starter should be bubbling. Pour it out, and measure 50g (about ¼ cup) back to the jar. Discard the rest.
Add a larger amount of the basic ingredients: 65g (½ cup) flour, and ½ cup water. Mix vigorously, and close the lid.
Now you’ve successfully created your sourdough starter. Don’t feel bad about