Paul Hollywood's Spitfire Sourdough

You can tell what sort of family mine is when my mum says stuff like ‘Ooh you’re coming home, I’ll get the sourdough starter out.’ Sourdough is a bit of a faff and takes some preparation, but it is completely justified by the taste of the bread. We really wanted to try an ale bread and this recipe from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake book looked lovely so I gave it a go. With only one sourdough proving basket, one of my loafs sort of looks like it should and the other looks like a very sad squished version. Queue us madly searching Amazon for a second proving basket for next time…

Ingredients

750g strong white bread flour

500g sourdough starter

15g salt

250ml Spitfire Ale

100-200ml tepid water

Olive oil for kneading

For beer paste

125ml Spitfire Ale

100g rye flour

Start off by measuring the flour into a large mixing bowl with the salt and the starter. (I used my mum’s KitchenAid just because I could).

Add the Spitfire Ale and half the tepid water and mix it all around using your hands. Add more of the water if you need to in order to pick up all of the flour.

Coat a work surface with a little olive oil and knead the dough for 5-10 minutes. I did 5 minutes in the KitchenAid and 5 minutes by hand, because I always like to get a little feel for the dough. Keeping kneading until the dough is soft and smooth.

Pop the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to prove at a warm temperature (I put it in the airing cupboard) for 5 hours.

Cover 2 baking trays with muslin cloths and dust them with flour, or prepare your proving baskets in the same way if you have them.

Tip the risen dough out onto a floured surface and knock the air out. Divide the dough into two round cob shapes and pop onto the trays or in the proving baskets. Cover with a large plastic bag and leave to prove for about 24 hours or until at least doubled in size.

Around an hour before you intend to bake the loaves make the beer paste by mixing the Spitfire and rye dough together. Leave it to stand on the side.

Heat the oven to 190⁰C. Line two baking trays with parchment.

Transfer the loaves to the baking trays. As you can see the one in my proving basket came out quite nicely, and the other one looks like a very sad, squished version of a pile of gunge. (I baked it anyway and it still tasted nice, it was just a bit flatter than the other one…)

Smear the beer paste all over the loaves. This is a litter harder than I imagined, and I think I managed to deflate my poor loaf quite a lot by being a cack-handed paster. Practise makes perfect as they say.

Slash a crosshatch pattern deeply over the top of the loaves. As usual I was a bit timid with my slashing so the pattern wasn’t especially deep but who really cares?

Bake for 40 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when you tap them underneath. Cool them on a wire rack.

This bread is amazing with soup, curry and stews, or just as a special sandwich.

Sourdough Bread

Sourdough is something that you need silly amounts of free time to do, so obviously now is the perfect window of opportunity. For one thing to even make sourdough bread you have to make a sourdough starter, which takes about three ruddy weeks. I’ve never made it at uni because I’ve never had the time, but luckily my mum has too much of it to devote to these things. Generally a sourdough loaf takes between 15-20 hours all in all, so give yourself at least two days.

This first basic recipe makes enough dough for two loaves, and then I’ve chosen to do two different variations just to be awkward. Don’t be put off by my moaning about how long it takes, because sourdough is exceptionally banging bread. It’s because it’s proved for so long that gives it its distinctive taste. Eat it while it’s fresh! Oooh also, if you’re looking for good sourdough recipes, look to Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake- it’s the sort of book you want to use as a pillow, it’s that good.

Ingredients

750g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

500g sourdough starter

15g salt

350-450ml tepid water

Olive oil for kneading

This is a picture of the sourdough starter, which is made out of flour and apple and other bits and bobs which you have to ‘feed’ after every time you use it.

Firstly, put the flour, starter and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Add 350ml of water and start to mix using your hands, picking up all the flour from the sides of the bowl. If you need to add a little more water, but be careful not to add too much.

When you’ve formed a rough dough, drizzle a work surface with a little olive oil and tip the dough out onto it.

Knead for a good 10 minutes until the dough feels soft and smooth.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave to rise for 5 hours or until doubled in size.

This is where the method splits into two for each type of bread.

The first one I chose is an Apple and Cheddar Sourdough

Extra ingredients

150g cheddar, grated

2 small dessert apples, cored and roughly chopped

After the dough has been left to rise for 5 hours, split it into two equal halves and use on half for this bread.

Lightly flour a work surface and tip the bread out, squishing it a bit to knock some of the air out. Flatten one of the halves into a large rectangle, around 2cm deep.

Sprinkle 100g of the grated cheese onto one side of the rectangle of dough, leaving a clear margin around the edges. Top with the chopped apples then fold over the dough to make a sort of parcel. Press down the edges to make sure the loaf is firmly sealed.

Cover a tray with a muslin cloth and dust heavily with flour. Place the loaf onto it, then put the whole tray inside a clean plastic bag.

Leave it to prove for about 13 hours or until doubled in size. I left it overnight.

When the dough’s ready to be baked, transfer it onto a tray lined with baking parchment. Heat the oven to 200⁰C.

Sprinkle the top of the loaf with the remaining 50g of cheese, and use your finger to make a deep indentation all the way along the centre of the loaf. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the base.

This sourdough would definitely taste amazing with a nice, cold pint of cider.

For the other loaf I made a Smoked Bacon and Garlic Sourdough

Extra Ingredients

2 small garlic bulbs

Olive oil

100g smoked bacon

While the dough is going through its first rise, prepare the filling for this loaf. Heat the oven to 190⁰C, cover the garlic bulbs in olive oil and place inside a parcel of foil. Roast for about 45 minutes or until tender. When it’s cooled, crush it into a puree. (Note: For whatever reason, I failed miserably at this and managed to burn my garlic into ash. I definitely could not be bothered to wait around for another 45 minutes though, so I just fried some lazy garlic for a few minutes. Personally I think it worked just as well…)

Heat a small frying pan and cook the smoked bacon until just cooked. Roughly chop into small bits with a pair of scissors.

After the first rise, and division of dough, knock the air out as before. Flatten out the dough. Spread the garlic all over one side, and top with the bacon.

Roll up the dough (definitely misread this and folded it instead, woops). Shape it into an oval. Cover a baking tray with a muslin cloth, sprinkled heavily with flour. Pop the tray inside a plastic bag and leave for 9 hours or until doubled in size. I left both loaves to prove overnight and it didn’t seem to do any harm to leave them for a bit longer.

When the dough is ready to be baked, heat the oven to 200⁰C. Place the loaf onto a tray covered with baking parchment. Sprinkle a little bit of water all over its surface and lightly coat it in flour. Bake for 35 minutes or until hollow when you tap its underside. Cool on a wire rack.

And just to show that we have been going a bit baking mad in the Ryan kitchen- here’s some cupcakes we made for the hell of it.