How to Make Sourdough Bread

Here are some easy directions for making a delicious and gorgeous loaf of sourdough bread. Do you want to learn how to make sourdough from somebody who isn't a professional? Then you've found the right blog.

Why I Started Making Sourdough Bread

When #COVID first hit, my local store was out of a LOT of things. There were few fruits/veggies. The fresh meat section was empty. Milk was non existent. The bread aisle was decimated, and the baking aisle was COMPLETELY out of Instant Rise Yeast.

It was at this point that I realized I'd begin working on a Sourdough Starter. It took me a couple of months to try, but after a week, I had an active starter that was ready for bread.

All Four Attempts

Then the baking learning curve would begin. And as this image shows, it took FOUR attempts and two different recipes before I got something that both looked and tasted delicious.

What You'll Need To Make Sourdough Bread

• Two bowls, large and medium for mixing
• A large (3-4 quart) oven-safe pot or dutch oven.
• 3 2/3 cups (518g) Unbleached Flour plus extra for kneading. I recommend a bread flour if possible. But, since my store is STILL out of it 3 months later, All Purpose will do. So far, my best result has been with King Arthur All Purpose Flour. It's got a LOT of protein which makes amazing gluten.
• 3/4 teaspoons salt (10g)
• 1 1/2 cups plus 4 teaspoons (356g) water, room temperature
• 1/3 cup (85g) mature sourdough starter

Ok, now that you've got all that together, let's start making some bread.

What to do With Discarded Sourdough Starter

In my previous blog post I discussed making a sourdough starter. And when you make and keep maintaining a sourdough starter, you'll have to discard a LOT of it. Literally pouring potential bread down the drain. 😭

If you're like me, you find this very wasteful.

So, what should you do with all that discarded dough? Here's my answer: fry it up!

How to Make an Easy Sourdough Starter

My Sourdough Starter.
Named Stanley. :)

Twice during quarantine I ran out of bread. Since I was trying to minimize my visits to the store, I was able to use instant yeast to make some bread and hamburger rolls. But as I tried to purchase more yeast, I realized that the stores were completely out.

So, what does a Foodie do when confronted with this dilemma? The only obvious answer was to make my own sourdough starter, of course!

Here's the deal, a sourdough starter has a LOT natural yeast in it -- that's how you get the bread to rise. Fortunately, yeast is everywhere -- it's even in the flour we cook with and the air we breathe! But to get a starter going, you need to get all that yeast concentrated into one place. And to do that you'll need about a week (or more), and a lot of flour, which is the food for your yeast.

What you'll need:
Flour: Try for unbleached bread flour. If you can't find any, just get unbleached all-purpose flour. The unbleached flour options have more naturally occurring yeast.
Water: Cold/luke-warm tap-water will be fine. But chlorine free/pure water is best.
A container: I recommend a .75 liter glass container. You can purchase one, but I'm using one from a pasta sauce that I bought at the store.

A Name: My sourdough starter is named Stanley.

Continue for directions

Toast Cafe (Huntersville)

There's not much in downtown Huntersville. There's a police station. City Hall. Mama Mia Too(already reviewed). And if it weren't for Toast, there would be even less of a reason to go there.

When walking into toast, you feel as if you've just entered somebody's home. That's just not because it's in a former house -- from the decor to the friendly service, this place doesn't feel like a restaurant. And that's a good thing.

After seating ourselves, my friend and I looked over the menu. Since I was in the mood for a sandwich and because it was cold outside, I looked at the "melts" section. Eventually I decided on the Roast Beef Melt with Cheddar on Sourdough. I substituted coleslaw for the standard potato chips.

The food was brought to our table quickly. My sandwich was nice and hot. The cheddar was melted, and the roast beef was so hot it was almost steaming. In addition, the sourdough was grilled with butter, making the outside of the bread crispy and golden brown.

This sandwich was very tasty, and just what I needed during this cold weather. Also, the coleslaw was a good substitution for the chips. The cabbage was still crunchy, and there was a good combination of vegetables and sauce. Not too much, not too little. It was just right.

Toast also has another restaurant in Davidson, NC. I had a chili dog there that underwhelmed me. However, that was before I started this blog. And it was in another physical location, so I won't allow that experience to influence the ratings below.

Score:
Atmosphere: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Total: 12/15
Price:$ (Most entrees under $10)

Restaurant Info:
Toast Cafe
100 Huntersville Concord Rd
Huntersville, NC 28078
704-875-7840
http://toastcafeonline.com/huntersville/index.html