SNEAK PEEK RECIPE š today I am sharing one of the recipes coming in my new bookā¦as requested, the book includes a selection of ādiscardā, or fast, recipes for making tasty goodies simply with your starter. I hope you like them – be warned, theyāre very tasty and very easy to eat, and also easy to make ahead and bake when youāre ready.
My new book, The Sourdough Bible, is available now to pre order HERE
āEverything but the Bagel Crackers
Sourdough crackers are so popular, I couldnāt produce a ābibleā without including some. These are made using Everything but the Bagel seasoning, which I have also used in the Everything but the Bagel Sesame-Crusted Baby Loaf in the book, to ensure that you get more uses out of the ingredients that you may have needed to buy for my recipes. These crackers are truly moreish; they also keep well in a tin if you do have leftovers.ā
Equipment: Digital scale, Medium-sized to large mixing bowl, Rolling pin, Pizza cutter, 2 large baking sheets, lined with parchment paper
Makes 40 to 45 crackers, depending on the size you cut them into
200 g (1 cup) starter in any form: fed for the purpose/unfed/discard 150 g (Ā¾ cup) all-purpose flour or strong white bread flour, plus more for dusting 25 g (ā cup) oil of your choice, I used olive oil 25 g (ā cup) Everything but the Bagel seasoning blend (shop bought or youāll find simple recipes for making it online and in my book, itās a blend of sesame seeds, salt, dried garlic, dried onion, black sesame seeds and poppy seeds, very aromatic and very tasty!)
Note: No additional salt is needed, as the seasoning is very salty.
Step 1: In a medium-sized to large bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well. The mixture will seem dry, but it will come together to make a firm ball of dough.
Step 2: Cover the bowl with a shower cap or cover of your choice and place it in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or up to 24 hours.
Step 3: When youāre ready, place the dough onto a floured surface and roll it out to ā inch (3 mm) thick or a little less. Use the pizza cutter to cut the dough into 1-inch (2.5 cm) strips, then cut them into 1Ā½-inch (4-cm)-long pieces. I cut mine at a diagonal, purely for aesthetics.
Step 4: Place the cut pieces on the prepared baking sheetsāthey can be placed close together but should not overlap.
Step 5: Prick each piece twice with a fork to prevent them from puffing when they bake.
Step 6: When you are ready to bake, decide whether you would like to bake in a preheated oven or from a cold start. If preheating, set the oven to 350Ā°F (180Ā°C) for convection or 375Ā°F (200Ā°C) for conventional. If you preheated the oven, bake, uncovered, for 7 minutes. Carefully remove the pan from the oven, turn the crackers all over and bake for a further 7 minutes. If using a cold start, bake uncovered for 12 minutes on one side. Carefully remove the pan, turn the crackers all over and bake for a further 7 minutes.
Step 7: Once baked, allow the crackers to cool briefly and serve. Or cool completely and place in a tin for later.
This recipe utilises my master recipe as a base, and the dough is made with Cotswold Flour pizza flour, link below. This flour has been created specifically for making pizza bases (but is also great for making sourdough loaves too as I can fully attest) and is made with strong white bread flour plus a flour conditioner, vitamin C powder (aka ascorbic acid), which helps to produce not only a great structure in the dough but mostly to give us a wonderfully relaxed and easy to stretch dough which is ideal for making pizzas.
If you donāt have access to this flour, try using straight strong bread flour, all purpose flour or type 00, the same guidelines will apply, all you may need to do is tweak the amount of water but Iād still suggest using my quantities as your starting point. Or you could try adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to your mix or some vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) to see how it changes the feel and behaviour of the dough.
What you need to know about my pizza dough recipeā¦
Water: I have got 2 versions of the same recipe, the only difference being how much water is used in the mix. I never talk about hydration percentages as I find it redundant information, Iām only using them here as an example to explain what Iām sharing. For information only and to compare, my standard master recipe is 70% hydration; all that means is that as a standard, the water content (350g) is 70% of the flour content (500g).
The first version of the recipe therefore uses what equates to 60% hydration and the second version equates to 65%. The one with less water is a perfect starting point for your pizza making as it produces dough that is easy to work with and not too soft and scary. This version is also ideal if you are doing the first mixes in an electric mixer.
If you feel comfortable with that level of water then try to slightly higher one and see how it feels.
Both options produce perfectly light and airy pizza crusts and tasty bases.
Starter: I have used less starter than usual in these recipes as it is summer at the moment, and summer is often a pizza making time. Feel free to increase it to my standard 50g if you feel itās needed taking into account all of the information about making sourdough and how it is affected by the weather and heat.
Yield: as there are 3 of us in my family, these recipes produce 3 balls of dough, and each ball is perfect for a 12ā pizza base.
You can easily scale this up or down based on your requirement.
Flour: As mentioned above, click HERE for the pizza flour I have used in these recipes.
Timing: these doughs REALLY benefit from a long rest in the fridge, 2-3 days works well, Iāve even left them for 5 days before using the dough balls and theyāve been fine. This can really help with planning ahead.
Equipment: a covered pan like the one I use is perfect for proving the dough balls in the fridge, if you can I highly recommend getting one or some, plus these will work well for making focaccia and other things. Mine is a āNordic Ware Naturals Baker’s Quarter Sheet with Lid, Aluminium Baking Trayā.
You can find the ones I use here in the US. Or here in the UK.
Also needed:
Mixing bowl
Digital scales
Bowl scraper
Shower cap
Version one (60%):
20g starter
270g water
450g pizza flour (see intro)
Salt to taste
Version two (65%):
20g starter
290g water
450g pizza flour (see intro)
Salt to taste
Fine semolina flour or rice flour
Method
Step 1: late afternoon/early evening, roughly mix together all the ingredients in your mixing bowl, cover with your shower cap and leave the bowl on the counter.
Step 2: after 2 hours, perform one set of pulls and folds on the dough, lifting and pulling the dough up and over and across the bowl, repeatedly, all the way round and round the bowl, until it becomes smooth. The dough will be stretchy. Cover the bowl again and leave it on the counter.
Step 3: After 1 hour, perform two more sets of pulls and folds, each time the dough should come into an easy bouncy smooth ball. Each time it comes into a ball, cover the bowl again and leave it on the counter. These actions do not need to be a set time apart.
Step 4: Leave to prove overnight/until doubled in size.
Step 5: Split the dough equally into 3 pieces. Sprinkle semolina or rice flour in your pan/tub and over the counter. Shape the dough pieces into tight balls, place them smooth side up in your prepared pan, cover it, and place it into the fridge. It will prove again and the dough will develop into the beautiful orbs of dough you can see in my photos.
Step 6: to then use the dough, my pizza advisor, Scottās (see below) best advice, and what Iāve been doing as a result, is to take the covered pan holding the balls of proved dough from the fridge a few hours before needing to use them, this helps the dough to relax which makes them easier to stretch and handle.
To use: shape your base, top with your favourite toppings and cook/bake it as you always do.
Or for lots of tips and to see and hear more about this, watch our new podcast episode with Scott and see him give me a lesson in shaping pizza bases – and in that episode I am using sourdough pizza doughs made exactly as above so youāll be able to see it in action. Have your dough made and ready!
These are some reminders and tips from the conversations Iāve had, and things Iāve been asked recently, but these are also the things I am asked about the most often, they are all things Iāve said many times before, but they may be a useful reminder for you, or they may be new to you if youāre new to me āŗļø
š These tips are all based on using my standard master recipe and are based on my own practices and methods.
In your dough:
š if itās hot where you are, or in your kitchen, use less starter in your dough to prevent over proving š if itās humid where you are, or in your kitchen, use less water in your dough to prevent it from being bubbly and sticky and impossible to handle and shape š if itās hot AND humid use less starter AND less water š in all 3 of the above, nothing else in the recipe needs to change only those aspects
š if your water is soft, use 25g less water in the recipe š if your water is hard, nothing needs to change š if youāre using organic or supermarket bread flour use 25g less water to prevent soft unmanageable dough
šš the loaf in this photo above was made with 10g of starter šš less starter does NOT equate to less flavour or texture (as this photo shows), less starter always mean MORE flavour as the dough works harder which creates more flavour šš more starter does NOT mean more flavour, all it means is more risk of over proving at any time of the year
In your starter:
š if itās hot where you are, or in your kitchen, donāt leave your starter on the counter for too long, watch it carefully and once itās started to grow and is responding put it into the fridge, it will keep growing just more slowly š if itās hot where you are, or in your kitchen, use less water in your starter than flour to prevent it from becoming thin in the heat, as above š if itās humid where you are, or in your kitchen, using less water in your starter if itās getting too thin from the added moisture in the air š donāt be afraid to give your starter what it needs, ratios are not necessary, equal weights are not necessary if your starter needs different input š thick is always better than thin in a starter, a thin starter wonāt rise and wonāt lift your dough š if youāre making a new starter these things also apply, learn to watch your starter and see what it needs
I hope these help!
For more tips and help read more of the posts here on my website.
These are also some of the posts I send people the most often to assist their sourdough making:
š PLEASE READ š Exciting news for all sourdough bakers:
š Season 2 of my podcast, The Foodbod Pod, is about to begin and this year weāre focusing heavily on our glorious SOURDOUGH! Yes! If you love sourdough, have questions, love my tips, fancy expanding your sourdough knowledge and listening to me chat all about it, youāre going to love it! Itās going to be FABULOUS!
Youāll find various links below where you can listen to all of last season episodes and subscribe ready for the upcoming season.
š And and andā¦we return this year with our partner and sponsor Matthews Cotswold Flour and a brand new partner, Shana’s Sourdough. We are very excited about the new season, weāve got everything covered for you, I hope youāll love it!
š So find us and subscribe ready for the first episode at the end of March and hear my next exciting news! šš
Find us on these links or your preferred podcast platform:
The Foodbod Pod is brought to you in partnership with Matthews Cotswold Flour and Shanaās Sourdough. Bringing you everything you need to make fabulous sourdough with my recipes and methods.
This is a copy of a post I added to my Facebook page that I am copying here because I want it logged on my website tooā¦
This autumn and into winter, I have seen a real trend for overheating starters, and consequently many poor starters are over fermenting, and getting thin and hungry as a result from being too warm for too long.
The fact is: A thin starter is a weak starter and will not lift a dough. And by putting starters in so much warmth for so long thatās what will happen.
So please pass this onto anyone you think it might help:
First and fore mostly, please tell anyone that you see doing do so, to stop putting their starters in warm places, places like ovens with pilot lights on/the top of the fridge/the airing cupboard/near the stove/by your Aga/or by wood burners, for hours on end, and days and nights at a time. Itās much too warm for much too long. The starter will ferment like mad and get thin and weak as a result.
I understand that people worry when it gets cold, but Iāve just made 14 brand new starters in my kitchen over the last week, including the one above, and they all just sat on my kitchen counter, at whatever the temperatures happened to be, which happened to be between 13C – 19C that week, and did their thing very happily. I didnāt put them anywhere special, or anywhere warm, just on my kitchen counter.
The fact is: They really do not need to be coddled so much.
A little bit of warmth is fine, but mostly your kitchen counter, or some part of your kitchen, is ideal. You donāt need special gadgets or anything else just your kitchen counter.
I understand that people worry about starters, especially new ones, but they really are far more resilient than people think, just give them a chance to do their thingā¦yes, some need tweaks along the way, but they donāt need to be cooked.
These are the facts:
If your starter is growing quickly, getting almost frothy, itās too warm. If itās got a layer of dark liquid on the top, itās too warm. If itās got a flat surface with teeny tiny bubbles itās become thin from being too warm. If it smells very strongly of acetone, or just very strongly at all, itās too warm.
These scenarios can all be fixed by feeding your starter less water than flour, making it nice and thick again, then continuing on with the process, on the counter.
Follow the process, follow my tips, and it will be fab!
What makes a gummy loaf? I get asked this a lot so I thought Iād share some answers and possibilities here, there can be a few reasons:
Slicing into a loaf before itās cooled enough will give you a lovely warm slice of fresh bread, but it wonāt be at its best, it will end up gummy from the steam; I leave my loaves for hours and hours before slicing into them. That way theyāre light and dry and the texture I want them to be. If you canāt wait, go for it, but just do keep this in mind.
Over proving can produce a moist crumb, if your loaf is wide and flat and pale on the outside with small holes and a slightly damp interior, it may well be over.
Under baking can produce a gummy interior. Try baking for longer.
Is your pan big enough for your loaf? If the pan is too small and your loaf doesnāt have the space it needs to grow as it bakes it will hinder the bake and prevent it from being fully baked inside.
Too much water can also produce a damp loaf. Try less water with your flour.
Uneven heat in your oven can be the culprit – if you loaf is nicely golden on the outside but gummy or moist in the inside, itās baking too quickly on the outside. Trying reducing the temperature youāre baking at and bake for a bit longer. Experiment until you find the sweet spot, and take notes along the way.
Consider if youāve added any inclusions? Have they added liquid to the dough you didnāt account for?
If you live somewhere humid and youāve baked your lovely loaf and left it out for several hours to cool, the humidity can soften the crust and damped the loaf, try to catch it whilst itās still crisp on the outside and store it in something that will repel moisture.
A gummy loaf could be as a result of one, or more, of these. As always, the best way to find your solution is to go through an elimination process and change one thing at a time and make notes, always make notes.
If all else fails, make toast. Dry your slices of bread out in the toaster and enjoy!
I hope this helps!
For more tips and help check out my FAQ page and my Tips Index.
Let me tell you the story of this huge and beautiful loafā¦
For this dough I used my āsame dayā process as I planned to make and bake the dough within the same day. That meant I used 100g starter instead of my usual 50g, (see ingredients details below) and I mixed the dough up mid morning. I left it in my kitchen to do itās thing, when really I should have put it in a warm space as per my same day process in my books, but I didnāt, I left it on the counter.
As it was cold, as the day went on the dough didnāt really do much, so I took a risk and left it out all night in addition to the time it had on the counter all day. It was so cold I decided it was worth a goā¦and luckily, it worked! This is what I woke up toā¦
A HUGE beautiful dough! And a beautifully structured dough too.
Due to the cold weather this dough had proved for around 18 hours in total and remained perfectly intact and ready to bake into a great loaf. The chilli give it a nice hit of heat and the chocolate adds a richness and brings out the chilli flavour nicely.
NOTE: Below are the ingredients I used, the mixture of the sugars in the chocolate and the oat milk, the added starter and the chilli all added to produce this beautiful dough which baked into such a big loaf it hit the top of my pan, as you can see by the slight dip in the top of the loaf in the first photo.
I wouldnāt necessarily recommend using this much starter typically unless you can watch the dough or manage the time and temperature. If I make this again I will use my usual 50g starter and my usual timings.
Ingredients
100g starter/50g starter
350g oat milk/400g oat milk (or milk of your choice)
500g strong white bread flour
50g grated/flakes 80% dark chocolate (use your own choice of chocolate)
30g pul biber/Aleppo chilli flakes (these are quite mild, and gives the loaf a nice heat, if you want more of a kick, use a stronger ground chilli powder/chilli flakes)
Salt to taste
Method
Follow my master recipe or use the same day process in either of my books.
Enjoy!
To answer the questions that came up when I shared this dough: this dough is not over proved. If it was over it would have collapsed and been bubbly and hard to handle; this was a perfectly proved well structured dough.
Itās magic, itās joy, itās a bowl of happiness, excitement and possibility, itās our love child, it makes us smile every time we use itā¦itās all those things, and I truly love mine, but in realityā¦
šš In basic terms: its our raising agent, and itās what gives sourdough its texture and flavour. šš
The key difference between a starter and other bread raising agents is that starter is in liquid form and lives and lasts forever, as opposed to other raising agents, such as commercially sold yeast or baking powder, which are in dried form and can be added straight from a package.
And thatās it, it truly is as simple as that, as scary as it can sometimes seem. I know that the idea of a ālivingā thing that we keep forever can worry people, thereās that fear about keeping it alive, but I promise, theyāre really hard to actually kill! Itās far easier to keep a starter alive than wiping it out ā unless you mistakenly cook it of course, which has been done, or it gets mouldy.
š Flour and water, thatās all it is, flour, water and time. My top tips to make and to keep your starter in good condition are:
š Use good flour. You can use any wheat flour to make a starter, as a learner I would highly recommend using strong white bread flour or wholewheat/wholemeal flour. And choose the best quality that you can, it does make a difference and is worth the investment in your starter.
š Water. In most places tap water is fine, but if youāre not sure, try filtered water, or boiling and cooling some to use.
š Use scales. Weighing your flour and water makes a huge difference to its strength.
š Keep it small. I only ever use small quantities for making and maintaining my starter. This saves on waste, and keeps it lean and healthy.
š Give it time. Starters donāt work to a clock, they will be ready when theyāre ready. There are some ways that you can encourage it along, but patience is key.
š Be consistent. When you find what works for you, stick with it.
ššš And if youāre new, please please donāt read too much. You can easily get overwhelmed with a flood of information. Choose a single source and stick with it whilst you learn how sourdough works.
For more details and all of the steps for making and maintaining a starter, you can find everything you need right here.
Loaf made using my master recipe and just 20g starter
One of the key things to know about making sourdough successfully, and something that I write about in everything I produce (and talk about endlessly) is how the weather, especially heat and cold, affects making sourdough.
As soon as I understood this connection, it exponentially improved my sourdough making and this is what I try and pass on to all of my foodbod Sourdough bakers: the weather is a key ingredient in the success of making sourdough bread, and as soon as you understand that, your bread making will fly!
Making sourdough can seem challenging in any environment, but when you throw in heat and humidity it can seem even more so, and as a consequence there will be tweaks and allowances that you need to make, so this is my guide to help you.
My first and strongest advice is to get a thermometer for your kitchen that reads temperature and humidity (see below). This will be your best friend in understanding how to make sourdough successfully and consistently in a hot and humid environment. Alongside that, I highly recommend starting a journal, or keeping a notebook, to log the activity of your starter and your dough making to assist you with making sourdough throughout the year where you live. This can become an invaluable reference book for you.
The key factors are that heat will make your starter and your doughs work faster, it can therefore make your starter become thin and hungry and therefore weak, and the heat can risk over proving doughs. Humidity will only increase that but will also add moisture into your starter or your dough, and can also affect your baked loaf. So here are my tipsā¦
š Starter š
Every time you feed your starter (or make dough) always note the times, temperature, and humidity percentage. Once your starter has responded and grown in size to where you want it to be, make a note of how long it took to get to that point and note again the temperature and humidity in case they have changed. Repeat this across an entire year and you will be able to produce a pattern of behaviour that you can refer back to whenever you want to make sourdough in the future. To achieve this, I highly recommend feeding your starter when you will be able to watch it.
In high temperatures starter could very easily only need 2-3 hours after feeding before it is ready to use.
Beware not to leave your starter out for too long in the heat otherwise it will work through its feed quickly, it will rise and fall then become thin and therefore weak and will need feeding again before you can use it.
If needed, feed it more flour than water to keep it strong, especially if it starts to become thin with tiny tiny bubbles. You can do this as often as you need to; the key is to give your starter what it needs to stay strong and healthy. In this instance, do not worry about feeding it equal weights of flour and water, watch your starter and get to know its behaviour and what it needs. This is far more important than equals weights of flour and water in hot and/or humid environments.
When you feed it, allow your starter to be a good thick mixture, giving it sustenance and body.
And forget ratios or percentages. I never use them, neither are necessary.
Water: Also consider using cold water in your starter and your dough to help protect them and slow down their activity in the heat.
š Dough š
In doughs, to successfully prove overnight on the counter:
Use less starter to offset the heat, literally go right down, even as far as 5-10g if you need to. This will slow down the proving process and prevent over proving. Nothing else in the recipe needs to be changed unless you need to amend the water for the following reasons. To read about making sourdough in the heat, click here. For details about making sourdough in hot AND/OR humid places, keep reading.
In high humidity: dough will absorb extra moisture so use less water to offset the humidity, again, go down in 25g drops. And take notes.
If your dough starts off quite stiff as youāre working with it, donāt worry, it will loosen up.
Itās okay to use 275-300g water if thatās what works. In a humid environment the dough will take on moisture from the air as it proves.
If you also live somewhere where you do not have access to very strong flour: use less water to offset weak flour if needed, reduce it by 25g if you cannot get hold of good flour this will help your dough to be firmer.
If in doubt: if you are worried about leaving the dough out overnight, put the dough in its bowl into the fridge when you go to bed and take it out again the next morning to finish proving on the counter whilst you can watch it.
To prove during the day, use the standard amount of starter but still less water if it is humid. And watch the dough like a hawk. Move it into the banneton and into the fridge as soon as it doubles in size.
If your dough becomes very bubbly in the surface and soft and sticky and hard to manage, it is too wet either from added moisture, or over proving, or both. In this instance, if it still has some body, try moving the dough into a loaf tin to give it support, prove again and bake. Or follow my process to make focaccia. If itās really liquified, stir in milk and make pancakes, or yoghurt and make flatbreads.
Never ever waste dough, it can always be used. Plus, over proved dough has a lot of great flavour!
š Baked loaves š
Once baked, leave it an hour before slicing into it, but donāt leave it for several hours on the counter otherwise the humid can make the crust soften and the inside become damp.
A top tip: if you are trying a sourdough recipe that does not refer to room temperature or anything along those lines, you are missing information; I highly recommend you ask the recipe writer for more details, especially if you have had any issues with the outcome.
A rough guide: This is the result of some information Iāve been gathering, all of the doughs have been made using my standard master recipe with strong white bread flour. These amounts allow the dough to prove fully in 9 hours in your counter. The temperatures cover the time that I start making the doughs and overnight. Please note that these are the temperatures IN YOUR KITCHEN, across the making and proving time, not the outside temps.
Between 18-20C:use the standard 50g starter.
Between 21-24C: use 15- 20g starter.
Between 23-25C: use 10g starter.
Over 25C overnight, use 5g starter. For temps well over 25C consider proving during the day.
These smaller amounts of starter can seem tiny, and you may not believe it will work, but I promise it does.
š These are notes sent directly from the lovely, Nargess, a foodbod sourdough baker from the UK who I currently residing in Thailand and therefore having to allow for the change of climate in her baking:
āThe thermometer and taking notes is so vital.
I found that the weather temp.(heat) dictates the amount of time needed for dough to proof and starter to rise and humidity dictates the amount of water that needs to be added to your dough and starter. I know this sounds like common sense but not having experience with baking in such conditions I didnāt realise this until now. I say this because sometimes its very HOT but not humid.
For MY kitchen and weather I have found that when humidity is between 80-96% my dough needs approx. 2-21/2 hours to prove and then I fold and into banetton and when humidity is between 60-79% then approx. 3-4 hours to prove and as you said, I watch it like a hawk and check on it regularly and as you already know these times can still be variable.
Another thing I do for the starter feeding (the water part) is that I start with less, about 8grams (approx. 1 tablespoon) and if it looks stiff and feels dry after stirring then I add a little bit more, about another 8grams. I check it again after one hour to see how its doing to make sure it has enough water.ā
If youāve had similar experiences please do add them in the comments belowā¦
