Handmade Sourdough Bread

I've been making my sourdough bread by hand lately. My bread machine died, still under extended warranty, and I was given a new one. But this is the third bread machine I've gone through and I'm starting to think that bread machines create an awful lot of long term rubbish, and use a lot of resources in their making, for a very short active life. My new bread machine sits unopened in the shed - and I'm hoping to give it to my brother, if handmade bread continues to go smoothly for me. It was convenient to just whack the ingredients in the tin, press some buttons, and eat the bread the next day. But the handmade bread is a gazillion times better than the machine bread - the crust is lovely, instead of a thick armour that is utterly inedible. I don't really want to go back to eating machine bread.

Instead I now have two bread tins, and a straightforward recipe for making loaves by hand. I sewed myself these little "shower caps" out of an old shower curtain (and some elastic salvaged from fitted sheets that had worn through), so that my bread doesn't dry out as it rises. Traditional wisdom (not the plastic bag/gladwrap wisdom) says that you put a damp teatowel over the top. But I find that makes my bread a bit cold and it's slower to rise, doesn't rise as much etc. My shower caps work great.

Here's my recipe for one loaf (it's more economical to do two at once though, so double it if you have two tins):

3 cups flour,
2 cups leaven,
1 cup water
2 tsp salt.

To make the leven, the morning before, I feed the leven: 2 tbsp leven, half a cup of flour, half a cup of water, mix, leave on the bench.

The night before, I feed the leven again by adding 2 cups flour, two cups water. Mix and leave on the bench. (Put a few tablespoons of leven in a small container in the fridge ready for next week.)

On the morning, put 1 cup water in a bowl with the leven, add 2 tsp salt, mix, and then mix in 3 cups flour. Mix well for about 3-5 mins.

Now for the kneading process. It's possible to make no-knead bread, but when I did one loaf without kneading, and the other loaf kneaded I was amazed at the difference: the kneaded loaf rose beautifully and had much better texture. The unkneaded loaf was quite dense by comparison. Once you've done the above mixing of ingredients, rest the mixture for 20 minutes.

Knead for 5 mins. It'll probably be an impossible sloppy mess. Just scoop it up with your hands repeatedly and throw it down on the bench. Fold it over if you can and just let it be sloppy. The more moist it is, the nicer your bread will be.

Rest 30 mins.

Knead 5 mins. It'll be holding together better now - much smoother. If it's too dry, work in more water by wetting your hands as you knead. If it's still impossibly wet, add more flour.

Rest 20 mins.

Shape it by stretching into a rectangle, rolling up like a Swiss roll, then, optionally, roll it in some seeds. Place in your tin, cover with a shower cap or damp towel, and leave in a warm place to rise.

It takes mine 4-6 hours to rise, depending on temperature. If it's really cold, rise it in an esky with a hot water bottle for company.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees celsius, put in the loaves and bake for 10 mins, turn it down to 180, and bake for another 30 mins.

Turn the bread out onto a rack to cool.

Enjoy!