Stand Mixer Sourdough Bread
After a million tries, I found the recipe. All credit goes to Grant Yoder for this wonderful recipe that works every single time. I bake this boule every two weeks. 🍞🥖
Ingredients
- 100g sourdough
- 450g flour
- 275g water
- 10g salt
Instructions
Part I: Ryan
I prefer to have a zero-discard, no-waste situation with my sourdough and I only keep about a tbsp of starter in the jar. I call him Ryan (because he likes to eat rye).
During winter I start Ryan before going to bed at night, and during summer right after I wake up. Either way, I take him out of the fridge, feed him with 50g of water and 50g of flour (about 2 tbsp of rye and the rest T65). I then leave him on the counter until he has doubled in size – between 2h and 8h depending on the time of the year.
Part II: Brian
Once Ryan has doubled (or tripled, if I forgot to check on him), I add 275g of water to my stand mixer bowl then add 100g of the sourdough starter, leaving about 1 tbsp or so left in the jar, which is then promptly returned to the fridge where he’ll hibernate for the following 2 weeks. I add 10g of salt and 450g of flour (sometimes 100% T65 flour, other times I do half T65 and half a mix of spelt, rye etc).
When everything is in the bowl, I set my Kenwood stand mixer to the lowest speed just until everything is mixed and it looks like a shaggy dough. At this point I start calling my dough Brian, because it is a Ryan that will become a Br(e)ad, so Brian.
Once Brian is looking shaggy in the bowl, I increase the speed to 2.5 or 3 and mix for 5-8 minutes (at most). Once done, I hide the bowl inside my cold oven, because once I left it on the countertop for the 2nd rise, and my greyhound Luna stole and ate the raw dough. And then cost me a fortune in vet bills as the dough kept rising inside of her, she looked absolutely enormous and round. On that day she got the nickname Baluna (balloon + Luna).
Anyway, I hide the bowl with Brian inside, cover with a kitchen towel so he doesn’t dehydrate and let him rise until doubled in size. This takes anywhere between 3h and 8h, depending on time of year. Sometimes, if I have used too much rye or whole-wheat flour, then Brian needs some slap-and-fold massage. 3 or 4 sets, 15 min apart, usually do the trick.
Once Brian looks big and round and happy, we are good to go. I turn him out onto a lightly floured countertop, gently fold the four corners of the dough up and over the center, flip him over onto a clean part of the counter and try to shape him into a ball. The recipe creator, Grant, has a youtube video demonstrating the entire process. I try to not deflate the dough too much at this point.
I then put Brian onto his final rest location: a sheet of parchment paper inside a medium-sized Le Creuset cocotte (Dutch oven). Cover with the lid and let him rest for 2 or 3 hours, until he’s a big happy bubbly boy again. Sometimes, I actually put him in the fridge for a day or two, until ready to bake. He keeps proofing, just more slowly. A warning: if you forget about him and only realize 3 days later, he will be super sour!
Anyhoo, once I’m ready to bake, I lift the parchment paper out of the cocotte, and slash Brian’s face with a serrated bread knife. Put him back into the cocotte, cover with the lid, and move it into the center rack of the (still cold) oven. At this point, Brian is done.
Part III: Brad
Now we are ready to bake and eat Brad. I turn the oven on to 230ºC (the original recipe says 260, which is way too hot and unnecessary) and bake for 50 minutes, with the lid on. Then I remove the lid and bake for another 5 minutes, until Brad gets a bit more tanned (golden).
If you want to check if he’s fully cooked with a food termometer, the internal temperature should be between 93º and 96º for a loaf of Brad with a softer crust, and between 96º and 99º for a crispier crust. I always check the temperature, but have never needed to send him back into the oven.
The final step is to transfer Brad onto a wire rack and let him cool down for at least one hour before slicing and devouring!