Breadsong
One of my favourite books of 2022 has been "Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives" by Kitty and Al Tait, which is an unusual story of the power of baking to change lives for the better. The word “Breadsong” is used to describe the crackling sound that the bread makes as it comes out of the oven. As a recipe book it is unusual in that the first 194 pages cover the story of The Orange Bakery, and how baking bread helped bring Kitty through a mental health crisis in her life at age 14. It is very much a life-affirming story and starting the bakery has transformed not just their lives, but the lives of those around them in the village of Watlington at the same time.
Such is their passion that unusually we have been working steadily through the recipes, including this one, an original sourdough loaf (second go, perfect both times) but their overnight loaf and marmite-flavoured Comfort Loaf (think twiglets, delicious!) have both also worked without difficulty. I have little doubt that we will end up trying everything in the end. A summary of their story can be found in this article in The Guardian which also includes a few recipes from their book, including “The Comfort Loaf.”
Ultimate Sourdough Bread
First feed your sourdough starter. Discard most of what you have, add 90g of strong white bread flour and 60ml of lukewarm water). Stir and leave at room temperature overnight. This assumes you have a starter! We used the method in the book to make ours, which takes about a week and worked without difficulty. There’s lots of advice online if needed - Breadclub 2.0 is not a bad place to start. and their method for Artisan Sourdough is similar to the method given here but different quantities.
The following day add 120g of the starter (which should be bubbling and slightly risen) to 450g of strong white bread flour, 50g of strong wholemeal bread flour and 350ml of lukewarm warm. Mix roughly and leave to stand for 30-60 minutes.
Dissolve 10g of salt in 2 tablespoons of warm water (this instruction is tricky as this is close to the maximum solubility of salt in water, so I used slightly more water in practice). Pour over the dough and squish to incorporate. Cover with a damp tea towel in a bowl. Leave for 1 hour.
With wet hands, grab the top of the dough and fold it back onto itself. Rotate the bowl through 90 degrees and repeat. I did this for three full circles of the bowl. Rest for 1 hour.
Repeat step 4 twice more over the next couple of hours.
Transfer the covered bowl to the fridge overnight.
The following morning, briefly fold the dough again like yesterday then transfer to a banneton to rest for 30 minutes to an hour.
Heat a large cast iron casserole dish with a lid in the oven to 240 degrees C for 30 minutes. Transfer the proved loaf from the banneton to a piece of baking parchment as carefully as possible then lower into the casserole dish. Add a tablespoon of water and put the lid back on. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove the bread from the dish and place it to cool on a wire rack - listen to it sing while it does! You need to wait at least 30 minutes and preferably a couple of hours before eating. Cooking in the casserole dish works well as it constrains the dough from spreading sideways as this is quite a wet mix. This was always frustrating when we made sourdough before as quite frequently you would end up with very flat examples.