A Sourdough bread is one of the most satisfying preparations in which you can use your mother dough. If you already have a sourdough at full capacity, prepared with our wise recipe, we are going to prepare a sliced bread from which you will not leave even the crumbs.
Within breads in general, sliced breads have the enormous advantage precisely that they are made in a mold, so even doughs without kneading or perfectly structured will give good results; The worst that could happen to you would be that it doesn’t fluff up as much as possible, but it will always be edible. The mold itself helps that the bread grows upwards and does not spread; It is a very easy to use insurance, so a sliced bread is always perfect for bread beginners.
As I told you in previous articles, the advantages of sourdough bread They are, in my personal opinion, fundamentally two:
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- An extraordinary flavor and
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- longer duration and better preservation.
How is this sliced bread different from a sourdough loaf? It has a lower percentage of hydration than the loaf so that it is somewhat firmer, but in the case of sliced bread:
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- In addition to the obvious, give it the shape of a mold,
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- we degas the dough after the first fermentation or block fermentation, because, contrary to what happens in the loaf, where we want to have irregular alveoli in the crumb, in sliced bread we want the alveolate to be uniform, with a homogeneous crumb without large holes that holds our fillings well.
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- It is also common to add some additional ingredient that makes the crumb more tender, such as some fat, sugar or milk.
recipe information
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- Preparation time: 18 hours
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- Cooking time: 1 hour
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- total time: 19 hours
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- rations: 6 (1kg)
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- Category: loaves
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- type of cuisine: international
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- calories: 210 per 100 g
Ingredients for sourdough sliced bread for 6 people
Sourdough:
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- 100 g of wholemeal bread flour
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- 100 g of lukewarm water
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- 1 tablespoon of your active sourdough
Final bread dough:
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- 200 g of the previous sourdough
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- 300 g of lukewarm water (or the same amount of milk)
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- 450 g white bread flour
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- 50 g of wholemeal bread flour
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- 12g of salt
Optional ingredients that make the bread more tender:
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- 30 g softened butter
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- Replace half of the water in the final dough with whole milk
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- 1 spoon of sugar
How to make sourdough sliced bread
The indicated times are indicative and always taking into account an ambient temperature of about 20-21 ºC.
The previous night: Mix the sourdough ingredients in a jar. Cover without adjusting and let ferment at room temperature (if it is cold). If the starting sourdough is very active or if it’s hot in the kitchen, let the fermentation start at room temperature, until a clear growth can be seen, and then put it in the fridge until the next morning.
The next morning: In a large bowl or in the bowl of a mixer, mix the sourdough with all the ingredients of the final dough, except the salt and optional ingredients such as butter, if any of them are to be added (if you choose to use milk, would be put at the beginning). Cover and let stand 30 minutes.
From here, knead by hand or with a mixer; it can be kneaded continuously (always paying attention that the dough does not tear, a sign that it must be left to rest) or in intervals of one minute of kneading, separated from each other by resting the dough for 10-15 minutes, covered. During the rest, the gluten in the dough continues to hydrate and it is as if it were slightly kneaded, even if we do not touch it.
After two or three kneading cycles, add the butter, if we add it. Continue the kneading.
Knead until the dough is thin and elastic. In theory it should be able to pass the membrane test, a sign that the kneading has been correct and the gluten is sufficiently developed to provide an adequate crumb. This test consists of taking a piece of dough and fine-tuning and stretching it with your fingers; If the dough is well kneaded, we should be able to stretch it until it looks like a drumhead without breaking, as seen in the photo.
Make a ball with the dough, collecting it on itself as if it were a bundle. Put the ball of dough with the seam facing down in a greased container (it is good that it is transparent to see the growth well), with oil or butter. Cover the container and leave to ferment for the first time, until it doubles the volume, more or less; Depending on the ambient temperature, it may take 3-4 hours.
Once the dough has risen and is very fluffy, flour the table and turn the dough over. Lightly flour the top and flatten the dough with your hands to eliminate the gas inside; this serves to obtain a uniform crumb, instead of irregular alveoli as in a loaf.
Flatten the dough in the shape of a rectangle, roughlyand roll it into a cylinderdepending on the length of the mold that we are going to use, a rectangular mold for ordinary cake is perfect.
Grease the mold with oil or butter. Take the formed cylinder introducing them under the ends, and put it in the mold with the union of the roll downwards. Cover and let rise a second time, again almost until doubled in volume; Depending on the ambient temperature, it may take 2-3 hours.
Put the oven to heat up to 200 ºC with enough time to let it be at full power when the dough is ready.
When the oven is hot and the dough is well fluffy, with a razor blade or a sharp knife, make a cut lengthwise, as seen in the photo.
Put the dough in the oven immediately, the first 10 minutes of cooking should be that the environment inside the oven is humid; place a tray with water in the bottom before putting the dough. After these 10 minutes the bread should have risen completely; lower the temperature to 180 ºC and continue cooking for another 35-40 minutes. If at the end of this time the bread is not browned enough, turn on the air in the oven (if available) and cook for another 5-10 minutes with the air at 170-180 ºC so that the bread browns.
At the end of cooking, the ideal is that the interior of the bread has reached 92-95 ºC; if you have a probe thermometer you can measure it, but it is not essential. Take the sliced bread out of the oven, unmold it carefully so as not to burn yourself and transfer the bread to a wire rack. Let cool completely before cutting.
Easy preparation summary
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- The day before, mix 100 g of bread flour, 100 g of water and 1 tbsp. of your active sourdough
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- The next day, mix 200 g of the previous sourdough with 300 g of warm water (or 150 of water and 150 of whole milk), 450 g of white bread flour, 50 g of whole wheat bread flour and 12 g of salt. Homogenize and rest for 30 minutes
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- Carry out a couple of kneading cycles and add sugar or butter, if you want to put
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- Knead until the dough is thin and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and leave to rise until doubled in volume.
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- Turn onto a floured table, flatten to eliminate the gas, stretch into a square or rectangle and roll into a cylinder, the length of a rectangular mold
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- Cover and let ferment a second time, until doubled
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- Once the dough is fermented, make a longitudinal cut on the surface so that the bread opens. Cook at 200 ºC for 10 minutes and then 35 to 50 minutes at 180 ºC, depending on how it browns.
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- Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely.
