Baking sourdough bread is great, but it takes a lot of patience. With this schedule, I can bake lovely sourdough bread during the week.
I love to spend my Saturday or Sunday experimenting with different techniques and recipes. However, during the week I missed my homemade bread. I've become a bit of a 'bread snob' since starting to bake my own sourdough bread so I never buy bread anymore. Nothing else to do but to come up with a bread baking schedule that works with a 9 to 5 job.
Since coming across this great video on 'How to make a basic open crumb sourdough bread' by @fullproofbaking I am in love with high hydration doughs. I would really like to be able to achieve such an open crumb. Unfortunately during the week I don't have the time. So I adapted the timings and schedule a little bit to work for my restricted timeframe and this is what I would like to share with you today. The result is good enough for me and always super tasty.
A few things up front: I have a home proofing box (by Brød & Taylor, great addition to my kitchen) to be able to have consistent warm temperature environment for proofing. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to make bread with this schedule in the colder months, when the house is quite cold.
I found it works really well for smaller loaves e.g. 300-400g of flour. I made a 600g flour loaf the other day and I found that it wasn't fully proofed in the morning. It still turned out ok (see picture), but not perfect. Also, I discovered that shower caps (!) are the best for covering the bowl with the dough. Who would have thought?!
The bread in the picture is a 25% whole wheat loaf, 85% hydration, with soaked chia seeds. The seeds are folded in during lamination.
My weekday sourdough bread baking schedule
Day 1
Early morning: build levain, leave it on the countertop during the day
After work:
- 1. autolyse, wait 45 minutes
- 2. add levain and incorporate, wait 30 minutes
- 3. add salt and incorporate, wait 30 minutes
- 4. fold on the countertop, wait 30 minutes
- 5. lamination, wait 45 minutes
- 6. perform 2 or 3 coil folds, spaced out by 30-45 minutes, depending on the time
- 7. shape and transfer to proofing basket, wait 15 minutes
- 8. proof in fridge for 9 hours or as long as possible
Day 2
- 1. Preheat the oven and dutch oven, one hour before baking
- 2. Bake straight from the fridge. I usually leave the bread on a wire rack and cover it with a light kitchen towel. It cools during the day and I can have a lovely sandwich for dinner.
Here is the full description
The process is basically a shortened version of the one used by Kristen from @fullproof baking (watch the video here):
Day 1:
Prepare levain: I usually make a levain as described in Ken Forkish's book 'Flour Water Salt Yeast' and leave it on the counter during the day. Depending on when I have to leave the house and come home, I leave it between 8 and 10 hours.
When coming home from work:
around 5pm, Autolyse: Mix flour and water until no more dry pockets are left. I leave the flour to autolyse for as much time as I can. Typically somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes.
30 minutes later, add levain: Pour the levain on top of the dough. With a wet hand, spread the levain evenly over the dough and work it in by pinching and squeezing the dough until it's well incorporated. Leave covered for 30 minutes.
30 minutes later, add salt: Sprinkle the salt evenly on top of the dough. Incorporate it well by pinching the dough. Cover again (with a shower cap ;)) and leave for another 30 minutes.
30 minutes later, fold on the counter: Sprinkle or lightly spray your countertop with water. Pour the dough out of the bowl on the countertop. Pat it into a rectangle. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the middle, repeat with the left third. Then fold the top third of the new longish shape down over the middle, repeat with the lower third. You should end up with a nice parcel. Put the dough back in the bowl and leave for 30 minutes.
30 minutes later, lamination and adding of any fillings: Sprinkle or lightly spray your countertop with water. Pour the dough out of the bowl on the countertop. Stretch out the dough quite thin into a large rectangle. Always stretch from the center out to the sides. Make sure you don't rip it. It should be nice and stretchy by now. This technique is used to increase the overall dough strength. Perform the same kind of third folds like in the last step. (See this video by Brotokoll, which shows the technique well.) Move the dough to a larger rectangle dish and cover again. Leave for 45 minutes.
45 minutes later, around 8pm to 8:30pm, first coil fold: Uncover your dough. With wet hands reach under the center of the dough and slowly but steadily pull the dough upwards until one side folds itself underneath the dough. Turn the dish by 180° and perform the same fold on the other side. Turn the dish by 90° and perform another coil fold, repeat on the opposite side. Cover and leave again for 30-45 minutes, depending on how late it is. Repeat this step another one or two times
Depending on the time, I perform 2 or 3 folds spaced out by 30 minutes or 45 minutes. I usually turn up the home proofing box temperature to 27°C if I have less time. Again, be pragmatic here.
Around 10:30pm, shaping: Gently pour the dough out it onto a lightly floured countertop. With floured hands shape the dough into a medium tight ball (see here on how shape the dough). Put the shaped dough into the proofing baket, seam side up. Cover and leave on the countertop for 15 minutes.
Around 10:45pm, transfer to the fridge.
Day 2
Around 7:30am, Baking: Take proofing basket out of the fridge and bake straight from the fridge. For a 300g flour loaf I usually bake it at 250°C for 25 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes. I like my bread to have a strong deep brown colour and strong crust.
I usually leave the bread on a wire rack and cover it with a light kitchen towel. It cools during the day and I can have a lovely sandwich for dinner.
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