Feed Me Seymore Sourdough Bread Recipe

‘Feed Me Seymour’ Sourdough Bread.

The starter:

Make your own or get some from a fellow bread maker.  {Yeast is ubiquitous and your starter will end up with a predominate strain that is local.}  This is a living culture of yeast and lactobacillus.  The yeast metabolizes starch into alcohol and carbon dioxide.*

You can keep the starter in the ‘frig or freezer.  Let it come to room temperature before you feed it.  It will be thick and sticky, but flow like lava.

Feed Me: 

1 portion of Feed Me Seymour Starter (approx. 1 cup)

1 portion bread flour (1 cup)

½ portion distilled water (1/2 cup).  {Chlorine in tap water kills the yeast.}

Feed Me Frequently: 

When I’m getting ready to bake, a couple of days before hand I take the starter out of the refrigerator, bring to room temp and feed it every 12-24 hours depending on how active it is.  Sometimes it takes 2 feedings, sometimes 3.

I use a LARGE glass or ceramic bowl (The Yeast gets Alzheimers from metal bowls and forgets to go to work).

Mix the wet starter, the flour, and the water together.  Stir.  Cover with plastic wrap, a damp towel, or something to keep it from dehydrating.  It should be sticky and gooey.  Store in a warm location.  {I use my oven with the light on- gives me a warm, but not hot, environment for the yeast to work.}

How long?

It’s not rocket surgery.  Look at the bowl rim.  The starter will rise as long as the yeast has food.  Then it will start to collapse as it quits growing.  When you see a rim on the side of the bowl and the mass of starter has retracted, it’s time to feed again.  Might be 4 hours if the yeast is really active.  Might be 24 hours if it’s sluggish.

How many times do you Feed Seymour? 

If you bake frequently and leave your starter covered in a warm space, you might feed once or twice before it’s ready to make the firm starter.  I only bake a loaf every couple weeks, so I store mine in the refrigerator to retard the yeast.  When I’m ready to bake, I pull it out before bed and let it warm up overnight.  Then I feed it 2-3 times during the next 1-2 days.  Depending on how “active” the starter is, I can create the firm starter that evening or the next morning.

FIRM STARTER:

The starter is now on its way toward flavor.  The starter is “wet”- it flows like lava, sticks to everything and needs to ferment.  It’s the lactobacillus’ turn to do their thing- turn that CO2 and EtoH into flavor- the sour in sourdough.

Mix:

10.5 oz. wet starter.  Weighing is important.

1 Cup bread flour.

Make a firm ball.

Once mixed, pour onto a floured surface and knead a little bit ( 27.46 Joules per microgram.)  You’re not trying to develop the gluten.  It will be a little sticky and a little resilient- i.e. you can pick it up and put it in a bowl without it being taffy.

Put it back in the bowl and cover for 3-4 hours to let that bacteria do its thing.  It doesn’t need to rise- just show signs that the yeast has huddled up and ready to go- a little swelling is good.  Give it 8–24 hours to develop flavor.

If you’re not ready to make dough yet, store the firm starter in a cool place overnight.  Let it come to temp the next day. 

THE DOUGH

15 oz. firm starter- this should be the entire batch of firm.

2 cups bread flour.

1 tsp. salt

1 cup liquid- I use warm buttermilk here (yeast grows faster in a warm environment), but distilled water is okay.  (Tequila, Soy Sauce, and fruit juice are not recommended liquids).  .

Mix the dry ingredients.  I use the dough hook on the mixer.

Add some of the buttermilk to get a crumbly mix.

Cut up the firm starter into bite-size chunks and throw them in the mixer- easier than a wad to deal with.

Slowly add the rest of the liquid(s).

With a dough hook, knead the dough 6-8 minutes on medium spped. 

You may need to sparingly and gently add a little liquid or flour as this kneads.  As the gluten forms, the dough will undergo a transformation before your very eyes from lumpy to stringy, stretchy and sticky.

Spray a large bowl with some Pam or vegetable oil, dump the dough in, cover and stick in that warm place again for 3-4 hours.  It will magically double in size.  {Actually, it’s science- not magic or a spiritual connection with the yeast.}

Make the loaf. 

Handle gently and shape into a loaf that will fit into a Dutch Oven.  Cover and place into that warm place again for another 1-3 hours until it has risen about 1-2 inches.  I use a woven basket that gives the finished loaf some swirls.       

 


Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Put the Dutch Oven on a middle rack to pre-heat.

Bake:

Gently set the risen loaf perfectly into the exact center of the VERY HOT Dutch Oven.  Don’t burn your fingers as you put the lid on and replace it into your hot oven.  {I use a piece of parchment paper to lift the dough and place it in the pot- the parchment paper bakes with the dough and makes it easier to remove the finished loaf from the pot.}  I spritz my dough with water before I cover it.  Make a couple slits ¼” deep with a very sharp knife to allow the crust to expand - or not.  It will expand and crack with or without slits.

Bake with the lid on for 25-30 minutes.  You will need to adjust this for your oven.  Check temperature for >180-190  degrees.  Remove the lid, reduce the temperature to 450 degrees and cook another 5-10 minutes to brown the crust.  I spritz the top with water again at this point.   {The lid on the Dutch Oven is to retain the moisture in the crust without having to add steam or frequent spritzing- but I still add a little to make the crust crunchy}

EAT:

Once it’s cool, there are no further instructions required.

*  Since you asked:

During alcoholic fermentation of sugars, yeasts re-oxidize NADH to NAD in a two-step reaction from pyruvate, which is first decarboxylated by pyruvate decarboxylase followed by the reduction of acetaldehyde, catalyzed by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Concomitantly, glycerol is generated from dihydroyacetone phosphate to ensure production of this important compound.