This one I haven’t tried yet, but am going to soon! The quick sourdough turned out wonderfully yesterday! I added the potato-rosemary flavour at my aunt’s. They had a great dinner and the desserts were even more flavourful:

If you plan to add additional ingredients, see the note below to ensure they are evenly distributed. Here’s how you get started:

• 1 cup wild yeast starter (see my previous note)
• 7 cups white bread flour, divided
• 4½ tsp dry yeast (or two packages: ¼ ounce or 8g)
• 2 tsp sugar, divided
• 2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Mix sourdough starter, 2 cups warm (not hot) water and 5 cups flour in a large bowl. Mix well; cover with a dish towel and let rise overnight.
2. Combine dry yeast, ¼ cup warm water, and ½ teaspoons sugar. Let stand until mixture bubbles, about 5 min.
3. Add yeast mixture, salt and remaining 1 ½ teaspoons sugar to the flour mixture. Mix well. With your hands or a dough hook, knead while gradually adding up to 2 additional cups of flour, ½ cup at a time. Knead until a smooth, soft dough forms. Dough should be shiny and supple, not sticky and wet. Place dough in oiled bowl; cover with a clean dish towel and let rise about 2 hours.
4. Punch down and divide in half for 2 large loaves or four smaller loaves. Knead each portion by hand on a lightly floured surface until smooth; shape into rounds. Place on a parchment- lined baking sheet and lightly cover with a dish towel. Let rise 1 hour, until double in size.
5. Preheat oven to 375F. Slash tops of loaves with a sharp knife in an X shape. For a rustic look, sprinkle with flour. Optional: to help the bread form a crisp crust, place an ovenproof bowl filled with 2 cups of water in the bottom of oven to create steam OR during the first half of the baking time, spray the oven every ten minutes with water.
6. Bake until loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 45 minutes.

Flavours:

Olive Bread: saute 1 cup chopped kalamata olives, 1 chopped small yellow onion and 4 minced garlic cloves in 2 Tbs olive oil. Cook until onions are tender. Cool. Add to dough during first kneading and proceed with recipe.

Potato Rosemary: combine 1 cup mashed potatoes, plain and warm, with the original overnight mixture. Later, add 2-3 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary to dough during first kneading and proceed with recipe.

Tags: wild yeast

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 8:30 am and is filed under Baked goods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.