What could be better than the smell of freshly baked bread in your home? We will show you that it is not difficult at all to bake your own bread and that you need very little. We do not bake ordinary bread, but a sourdough bread. The advantage of this is that the bread keeps longer and is easier to digest. And once you have tasted the special flavour, you probably won't want anything else.
No sourdough starter without sourdough bread
To bake sourdough bread, you first need a sourdough starter. You can buy this ready-made, but it is even more fun and tasty to make the starter yourself. In this article, you will find an easy step-by-step guide on how to make your own sourdough starter. Do you already have a starter? Then you can super-easy bake your own sourdough bread with this recipe.
What exactly is sourdough bread?
Sourdough bread has basically the same ingredients as regular bread, only there is one important difference: instead of yeast, in this case good bacteria in the sourdough starter ensure that the bread rises well. This not only gives sourdough a special flavour, but also makes the bread easier to digest. Moreover, sourdough bread keeps longer than bread baked with yeast. And you can easily and cheaply make it yourself with just a few ingredients. So plenty of reasons to get started and bake your own sourdough bread.
Baking your own bread
Baking sourdough bread may sound complicated, but once you have a starter, it is really quite easy to bake your own sourdough bread. You can find many recipes for sourdough bread on the internet. We have an easy recipe that almost always works and requires very little. So chances are your first loaf will be a success right from the start and you probably won't need to buy anything new. Once you get the hang of it, you can always try out other versions of sourdough bread or buy special utensils such as a rising basket or bread tin. For this recipe, you don't need any of these yet.
For the recipe below, you will need 500 grams of sourdough starter. You will have this when you have just Our step-by-step plan to make your own sourdough starter, followed.
Do you have a (smaller amount of) sourdough starter in the fridge? Then you can read how to activate and multiply it again here, so that you then have another 500g of sourdough and can get started with the recipe below.
With this recipe, you can easily make sourdough bread without needing much. Just remember to remove about 100 grams from the sourdough starter before starting this recipe!
Recipe: sourdough bread
Kitchenware
- oven
- baking sheet or baking mat,,this baking mat comes highly recommended
- come
Ingredients
- 500 gr sourdough (When you have just made the sourdough starter, the dough doesn't rise very well yet and you can add 10-20 g yeast to make the bread fluffier. When your sourdough is a few weeks old, you won't need yeast anymore).
- 1 el salt
- 2 el olive oil
- 250 gr flower (organic)
- 250 gr spelt flour (organic)
- 200 ml water (If the sourdough is older, you might need a little less water, about 175 ml. You will notice this when the dough becomes too sticky).
Instructions
- Knead all ingredients well in a bowl or food processor.
- Form a loaf and place on a baking tray with a baking mat/baking paper. Or: place in a rising basket or bowl with tea towel.
- Put a tea towel over it and leave in a warm place just until the volume increases about 2x. This takes about 4 to 6 hours.
- Bake in the oven at 200°C for about 45-50 minutes. If you have a steam oven, adding a little steam will make the bread extra tasty. You can also put a small (heat-resistant) bowl of water in the oven. The bread is ready when it sounds hollow when you tap on it.
Notes
- We like this recipe best, but you can feel free to use other flour or flours. As long as it totals 500 grams. If you use wholemeal flour, you will probably need (up to 100 ml) more water.
- You can knead the bread by hand or with a food processor. Should the dough be sticky, it helps to wet your hands before kneading.
- Before starting this recipe, remember to take off about 100 grams of the sourdough starter and put it in a glass jar so you can keep it in the fridge for the next time you bake bread. How to keep this jar of sourdough starter alive and how to reactivate and multiply it again so that you have another 500 grams of sourdough to bake sourdough bread from with this recipe, you can read in this article.
More sustainable tips from thegreenlist.nl
- Got the hang of it? Also try this easy recipe for spelt sourdough bread.
- Do you have leftover old sourdough bread? We have five recipes using stale bread.
- Cook more leftovers? These ingredients are essential in your pantry.
Sources: Velt.nu, Smarticular, Book: Die neue Traditionelle Ernährung. Photo credits: Kirsten Schoner.
