About this recipe
Are you a real bread fan and do you have sourdough starter bubbling away in your fridge? Then use our Original or Mini as a bread oven and bake the lightest and crispiest loaves on our deliciously warm stone floor. Vonken wood-fired ovens can be sealed hermetically, allowing you to create steam that ensures light and crispy bread. This recipe is a basic recipe for white sourdough bread. Want some variety? Add raisins for raisin bread or some cocoa with chocolate for a delicious chocolate roll!
Ingredients
- 360 g wheat flour (preferably a strong flour such as pizza dough flour, French flour, or American patent flour)
- 200 g lukewarm water
- 150 g active sourdough starter
- 7 g salt
- Optional: make a variation and add 80 grams of raisins for a raisin roll or 30 grams of cocoa powder and 80 grams of chopped chocolate for a chocolate roll.
Preparation
- Take a bowl and mix the dry ingredients together: the flour and salt.
- Take another bowl and dissolve the sourdough starter in the lukewarm water. Stir briefly and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Make sure the sourdough starter you use is fresh: that is, it should have been refreshed at least 1 day ago and be bubbling well. If it is not bubbling, your dough will not rise.
- Pour the flour mixture onto a work surface and make a large well in the center, as if you were creating a wide volcanic crater.
- Gradually pour the sourdough mixture into the crater. Gradually add flour from the edge of the crater and continue until all the water has been absorbed by the flour. You will now have a mushy mixture.
- Then knead the mixture by hand for 10 minutes, or for 5 minutes with a food processor.
- Now let the dough rest for an hour, covered with a dome (e.g., an upside-down plastic pot) or a wet towel. In any case, prevent the dough from drying out.
- After one hour, you can start shaping the dough. Gently press the dough flat, and reshape it by stretching the dough from the outer edges to the outside at random places, then bring the tip back to the center of the dough and stick it firmly in place. Turn the dough a quarter turn and do it again. Repeat this until you have gone all the way around the dough (in total, you should stretch four flaps and bring them back to the center and stick them down).
- Let it rest for 10 minutes and repeat the previous step. Repeat this scenario two more times.
- After the last 'turn', you can shape the dough. Shape it into a nice ball, sprinkle some flour over the smooth side, and place it upside down in a proofing basket. Don't have a proofing basket? Use a plastic pot or another container with a nice rounded inside and line it with a towel, then place the dough in the towel inside the container.
- Now let the dough rest for 6 hours at room temperature + 1 hour in the refrigerator, or simply 24 hours in the refrigerator if you have more time. In both cases, make sure the bread basket or mold is in a sealed plastic bag so that the dough cannot dry out.
- Preheat the oven for at least an hour. Remove the coals from the oven with the pizza peel, wipe the floor clean, and place a metal tray or oven dish in the oven so that it can heat up. Do you have an infrared thermometer? Check that the stone floor is between 250°C and 300°C: that is the ideal temperature for bread. The thermometer on the outside of the oven may indicate a temperature of 150°C-200°C: this is not a problem. In any case, keep the oven vents closed and the door shut so that all the heat stays inside.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Turn the mold upside down and drop it onto a floured work surface. Make a cut with a sharp knife along the entire length of the bread so that it can continue to rise in the warm oven.
- Place the loaves on the peel and slide them into the oven. Pour 60 ml of water into the warm metal tray and close the oven immediately. After 20 minutes, open and close the door briefly to allow the moisture to escape.
- Bake for another 20-25 minutes: now the bread is ready. Tap the bottom of the loaf: does it sound hollow? Perfect!