The Growler's Bread

Rustic White Bread

This is the recipe for the bread that I make the most at home. It's a rustic white bread that is slightly sour and naturally leavened from my sourdough starter. It's great as toast, with beef stew, sandwiches or just on its own with some Irish Butter.  A little bit of whole wheat flour adds flavor and texture without having a heavy whole wheat taste.

The recipe for this bread comes from when I started making the house bread at The Growlers Arms In Oakland. Every morning I would go in first thing in the morning and bake the bread in their wood fired pizza oven. The smell of the wood smoke and the bread baking was a great way to wake up while I drank my morning coffee. I learned how to bake this style of bread from Miranda, the previous pastry chef there. The bread was originally all white flour and used commercial yeast. Many trial and errors later has resulted in this recipe.

My sourdough starter came from my friend Stephanie Galinson, who has been feeding it since we were in school together at The Culinary Institute of America. This is how I feed my starter per her instructions.

Sourdough Starter
150g white AP flour
150g water
60g starter

My bread recipe is also set up for the size of my starter. My starter lives in my fridge in a quart container. I often don't use my starter for weeks at a time so it gets overly sour. If this happens I pull my starter out of the fridge and feed it every night for about 4 or 5 days until it comes back and starts to rise and fall again naturally and looses that over fermented smell. I work during the day so when I make bread I will usually make it at night, for this reason I feed my starter at night so it's ready when I need it to be. From experience if I use my starter when it is too sour my bread fall flat and is super sour. This bread should just have a light sourdough taste to it.

If you do like really sour bread or think your starter might be too sour add 2 grams of yeast about 1 yeast packet when you make the dough.

During Quarantine my starter has been staying active in the fridge from being used so often.

Levain
200g water room temp
100g white AP Flour
100g whole wheat flour
300g starter

To make the Levain take water, flour, whole wheat flour and 300g of your active starter and mix together in a bowl and let set covered overnight on the counter (300g of starter is also exactly how much is needed to be discarded during a feeding of my starter so there is no waste). The next morning your Levain should be bubbly and have risen like the picture above.

Bread
50g whole wheat flour
300g white AP flour
176g room temp water
16 g salt

The next morning when your Levain has risen mix your bread. Dump all ingredients into a large bowl and mix really well with your hands. The dough will be soft and sticky. Don't worry about kneading the bread or putting it in a mixer, just make sure all ingredients are well mixed and there are no dry bits of flour.

It should look like this. Now your ready to give it it's first set of folds. 

Take a plastic dough scraper and lift the dough from about halfway underneath the bottom and fold over the top. Then turn the bowl 1/4 turn and fold again. Repeat this two more times so all four sides are folded. 

Now cover the bowl with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes. That is considered one set of folds. You are going to do 3 more sets of folds waiting 30 mins in between each set. Remember 4 folds, 4 sets, 30 minutes apart. 

After each set up folds you will notice the dough will start to hold its shape better and will become bigger as the yeast grows. 

After your 4 sets of 4 folds 30 minutes apart gently dump the dough onto a heavily floured surface.

 Gently take the dough and fold it up and over trying not to deflate the dough.

 Then turn the dough 1/4 turn and fold again. Using lots of flour so the dough doesn't stick to the counter. 

Give the dough another 1/4 turn and fold again. 

One last fold making sure the outside of the dough has plenty of flour on it.

Now take the ugly ends and pinch them together so it won't come undone. The bottom should be smooth.

 Most people will let the dough at this point bench rest for 30 mins but I have never found that to be beneficial so I just put it directly into a banneton dusted with cornmeal. Make sure to fill all of the crevices with the cornmeal so the bread does not stick to the banneton. You can also use rice flour but I find that I always have cornmeal around the house. If you do not have a banneton you can use a kitchen towel just make sure to heavily coat it in rice flour or cornmeal, then place the towel in the bowl and then the bread in the bowl.

Allow the bread to rise for a few hours at room temp if you plan on baking the bread today or better yet let it rise about half way then put it in the fridge covered with a towel. Putting it in the fridge slows the yeast growth. Also I find bread dough bakes better when cold. 

When the dough is ready it should be light and pillowy. Mine is usually slightly taller than the banneton.

 

Put a pizza stone in your oven and pre-heat the oven and the stone to 550F. You want the stone to be super hot to get a good rise from the bread. Get a cup of room temp water and serrated knife or razor blade handy. Then carefully pull the rack with the stone towards you.  Gently Invert the bread onto the hot stone so the seem is side down. 

Using a razor blade or a sharp serrated knife slash the bread in box design or be creative. Sometimes I put in A for Andrew. This allows the bread to expand upwards towards the top instead of busting out of the side.  Gently push the rack with the stone back in the oven. Then take your cup of water and throw it on the floor of the oven then quickly shut the oven door so the steam does not escape. If you have an electric oven or don't want to throw water on the oven floor put an old cookie sheet under the pizza stone just make sure it preheated with the stone and easy to throw the water on. 

Reduce the oven temp to 500F and bake for 20 mins. Then reduce the oven to 450 and bake for another 20 mins. After this using a kitchen towel pick up the bread and knock on the bottom of it with your hand. If it sounds hollow it's done inside. If not let it bake longer or if you want a darker crust.