2tbs starter, 100gram water, 100 gram breadflour. Wait 4 hours 30 min. or until it doubles in size. In warm room 1 part starter, 2 parts water, 3 parts breadflour 200 gram starter, 400 gram water 600 gram breadflour, mix Let it rest 30 min - 1 hour 12 gram salt, and a bit of water to dissolve the salt. Stretch and fold for 10 min. (grap, turn, slap, rol. 3:40 ) Rest for 4 hours in a warm room(~30C) Fold outside to center Cover with plastic rest for 30 min. Fold like an envelope, top to bottom, bottom to top and rol over, push dough in all directions. Put a kitchen towel in a bowl and flour it. put the dough in seam on top Let it rest in fridge (8 - 24 hours) Get the dough out 2 hours before baking Preheat dutch oven 250C (~30min) Place the dough on a big circle baking paper, seam down. make a shallow cut on top. Put the dough in the dutch oven, and spray in some water. Set oven to 220C bake the for 25 min. with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for another 20-25 min. Let the bread cool down. Enjoy your fresh bread!
I'm struggling to figure out the weight of the "2tbl spoons" of starter I should as reference. What is the right proportion of starter, in grams, to be activated by 100g of water + 100g of flour? The thing is my starter looks much thicker (not as light) than the one Alex is using there, so I'm unsure about the right amount of starter I should be using... Can anyone help me with that?
@@dfkl I use around 10 to 15 grams. the thickness of the starter depends on a lot of thinks but mostly water to flower proportion. if it's always very stiff then add a little bit more water before the last feeding, (the day before the start of the recipe) this way it is more runny and you can pour it. like Alex does. Good luck
hey sorry for posting a non food related comment but i want you to know your vids have helped with my depression. Sometimes you just need to see someone with a passion for life to get you out of a bad mood.!
Hi David...It's now January 2018, & I'm really hoping your depression is fading & that you're feeling much better now...Do you have any interest in cooking as it's a truly wonderful way to relax & be creative...On top of then having something deliciously tangible for your efforts... : ) I hope this finds you in good spirits...
To all those who have followed this recipe exactly to find that their dough is sticky/runny: I had the same issue. I wonder if Alex is using a higher protein flour than I am (my flour is something like 12% and I see that his is labeled 13% in the vid). Anyway, yesterday I experimented with very good results. I CUT the initial water by 50g. Then, I carefully measured 10g of water and dissolved the salt in it before adding to the flour/water/starter mix. The recipe turned out wonderfully. [I'll add that this seems like a really flexible recipe: just prior to the overnight fermentation in the fridge, as I did the final shape, I added in chopped Kalamata olive and finely minced, fresh rosemary from the garden. The final results are EXCELLENT.]
Alex, I made this sourdough yesterday and after 25 minutes I opened the cast iron pot. Oh my god, it turned out so perfect I was amazed! After it cooled i cut into it and discovered a light soft bread with oh so many beautiful holes in it! The crust was crispy and chewy. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe and technique!
How did I not find Alex French Guy Cooking until just this week?! What a joy your videos are to watch...I binge watched for about 6 hours yesterday and already I want to do nothing but make bread and butter and French onion soup! Bravo, Alex!
This and the “sourdough master class” from Patrick are the two best processes I’ve found on CZcams. You did an excellent job of simplifying the system, Alex. I had already learned from Patrick’s, but I’m using your proportions and some of your techniques now with great results. Thank you!
Dear Alex, thankyou so much for helping me impress my german mother in law with your sourdough bread. you know the recipe is solid when you can get an authentic DDR resident nodding about the quality and practicality. Your explanations about the types of flour and their hydration properties were invaluable..i went with t he 450 type and the 650 type flour available in gerrman supermarkets for my starter...from a gal who only knew how to make rotis and naan....:) love from all lost indian students worldwide. hugggggggggg.
hey Toffsen 100..i usally go to kaufland or edeka. They have a nice variety of regular and bio variety of flour. And recently to my pleasant surprise i also discovered that dm (the drogerie) has many kinds of flour as well..from roggen to dinkle etc. and happily all bio. so if you have a well stocked big dm filiale in the neighbourhood it might be worth your while to check it out! all the very best for your starter! cheers! :)
Ein großen Kaufland und nen niegelnagelneuen großen edeka direkt um die ecke =) werde ich montag nach der arbeit mal vorbeischauen wie dort das sortiment ausssieht. Sosnt eventuell das ganze korn von dm und dann mit der kaffeemühle mahlen =) Thanks for the detailed answer.
Toffsen100 Es gibt ja auch eigene Alnatura (die Bio Marke von dm) Läden. Ansonsten hat jeder Biosupermarkt verschiedene Getreide in Voll- und "Halb"korn. :) aber pass bloß auf keine Dinkelbrot-Backmischung zu kaufen! Das war eine Katastrophe!
My favorite flour to use is definitely freshly ground white wheat flour. I grind it myself, and use it while it's still warm from the grinding. It is amazing to work with, it rises very quickly and the flavor is something you cannot duplicate, it is so full of nutrition . It makes the best bread, bar none. I loved your show, I learned a lot , you have inspired me to make bread again, thank you, french man who likes to make bread.
Thank you for making these videos, they have helped me so much. I have always had a love for baking, but lost the ability to find joy in anything during my battle with PTSD. My therapist advised me to find a creative hobby and I chose to start baking again. I wanted to challenge myself further and decided to start bread making. That's when I found your sour dough videos and managed to get perfect bake with your instruction. Seeing your true joy in baking reminded me of the person I used to be and realized how much I missed having that passion for baking. It's been the most soothing thing putting energy into kneeding, having to have patience for each step and ending up with a tangible piece of my hard work. I have gained so much pride in my new found skills and mastering bread making has changed my life. I'm in a much better place now, my good days and bad days are 50/50 compared to 25/75 I was having.
Wanted to come back and say that I've been following this video for the last five years and it produces a perfect sourdough loaf every time. Have yet another going into the fridge tonight. Thanks again, Alex!
Made this dough yesterday and baked today. Dough was a bit sticky but managed to keep it moving..wet hands can help with sticky dough. Still cooling but looks and smells terrific.
Thanks so much for the recipe, Alex! Love this video and how you explained all the steps so succinctly. I think I just about watched it 12 times before I dare to attempt it myself. For those of you living in hot, humid climates like I am (currently 34 °C and 80% humidity where I'm at, Singapore!), you may want to consider reducing the amount of water which goes into the first step, or try adding it bit by bit to the flour + starter mixture just in case it gets too wet. I had to use a 200g starter, 350g water for 600g of flour compared to Alex's 200 x 400 x 600g ratio. The dough still appeared slightly wetter than the video's, but luckily it got much better when it come to the 2nd proofing!
After watching the MANY CZcamss about sourdough bread, I found this video has the simplest, easiest recipe ever. No more strech and fold and all the complications. Thanks Alex!
I made the perfect loaf of sour dough bread. It failed the firs time but the second time it was perfect... beautiful crust and crumb. Based on your video. wish I could share but the picture is on Face book. Beautiful bread. Unfortunately I had to slice it up and share at work tomorrow. It was a piece of art.
little tip : if you dont have a dutch oven or a pot like this. use a pizza or bread baking stone ( tiles will do too) so that it gets lots of heat at the bottom very quickly to make it rise. for the steam you take one shotglass of water drop it onto the bottom of the oven and after a few minutes you reopen the oven to let the excess steam out. it will have the same effect for good crust.
I have never baked anything, ever . I got some sourdough starter that hadn’t been used in ages and looked dead , and it had little sourdough smell to it . i followed your excellent instructions ( except the screen said 2 gms of salt instead of 12 so I mistakenly used 2 gms ) The starter doubled in size after several feedings but still would not pass the float test, I used it anyway . I struggled with really sticky dough, and my slapping of the dough was pathetic. The final dough didn’t look great BUT I got the most amazing beautiful loaf ever -I was amazed !!! It tasted great , and I was encouraged to make more.. thanks so much for your videos , I have watched a bunch now and I think you are just great.
I know you can not replace your beloved pet starter, but there is an organization that gives away samples of a starter from the Oregon Trail. You can find the contact info at carlsfriends.net/
Oh my - what a beautiful bread! I can almost taste it! Bravo - I am plucking up the courage to try my first sour dough bread, and your series is just what I need to inspire me and show me how to do it. THANK YOU!
First of all I would like to say that I love your video Alex, this is how I got into bread baking, I love your energy and the step-by-step instructions. There is one thing I do not understand, as apparently everyone in the comment section made their best bread ever (even when they baked for the first time) - for me it is still not perfect. 4 hours of fermentation in the oven with only the light on produces a massively overfermented dough, it’s basically liquid afterwards and without adding a ton of extra flour would be unsalvageable. I use the same protein content flour, and the same measurements as in the video, to the gram. I tried 3 hours room temperature + overnight proof, still somewhat overfermented but much better than the oven option. I live in Central Europe so I can’t say my kitchen would be particularly warm, so I’m not sure what am I doing wrong. If anyone has an idea, please do let me know, I tried to bake with this recipe more than 10 times and it was never perfect (did make tasty bread though every time, just the texture is not as it should be). Thanks in advance
Today I followed each step and the results were incredible! I must have watched this video about 20 times in total. Now I can't get the background music out of my head. Thanks.
Haha I feel the same way. This is the second time I'm making a loaf following this and I even wrote down all the steps for further confirmation. I feel like I've been with Alex all day.
I cook well but have steered clear of baking, for decades. I've been wanting to make sourdough for a few years now but didn't have the confidence. I dabbled on net from time to time looking at various 'methods', then finally came across your vid! I watched it several times, rewound parts of it lots of times, then took the plunge. Can't believe it, my sourdough turned out fabulously! I had psyched myself up for a fair bit of trial and error, so with this loaf that I baked this morning, that both hubby and I prefer to what I can purchase, I'm really stoked. Thank you Alex. I'll share this vid and check out the terms of 'patreon' in short order. Cheers to ya! :)
Hey Alex, I asked this question somewhere else but didn't word it very well, sorry - I'm wanting to know if the patreon fees are in USA dollars so I can correctly calculate the conversion before committing. I'm presuming you're not referring to Euros but am wanting confirmation, thanks.
As perfect as the loaf is, i would really love to see the fails that you've mentioned. Maybe some can learn from that mistakes. I think i may try to setup a sourdough starter, that loaf just looked beautiful :)
It's totally worth it. The bread tastes so much better with a natural starter and taking your time rising, proofing, and fermenting the dough overnight. No comparison
Eric Kelly I tried making a loaf a while back; it literally turned out as a solid block of gluten, even shaving it was too dense to eat! XD edit: I have now made my first try with this recipe, and it turned out beautifully!! almost a replica of the video.
These instructions are spot on. I make sourdough twice weekly his way as a hobby. There are two things I have observed though 1) I don't think the dough really cares when the salt is added - it can be added at the very beginning with the flour etc. Purists will rebuke this. 2) In addition to Alex kneading technique which I use, an even stronger gluten can be developed by adding 3 intermediate stretch and folds of the dough during the 4-5 hour bulk rise. IMO the stretching is where the gluten and well structured crumb are developed more so than initial kneading. The resulting crumb is more open and the oven loft even higher-a less dense loaf. Awesome video Alex.
Ed Thank you for your tip. Can you elaborate your #2? Would you do the stretching before the final shaping ie after the 4 hour rest? What king of stretching? Merci.
@@popcorn7657 My 4 hour bulk rise takes closer to 4-1/2 hours. After the first 1-1/2 hours, then 3 hours, then 4-1/2 hours I remove the dough to the bench. I pull the dough in all directions like a thick pizza pie probably no larger than 20 cm diameter, then fold it in thirds like a letter, then roll that up into ball and put it back to rise. Just do it onc time each 1-1/2 hours, leaving it on the bench after the last one. Timing is not critical. A little flour is used on the bench to prevent sticking. For the first stretch the dough is still very slack, sticky, and has not grown. At stretch 2 and 3 you will notice a very noticeable gluten structure and a resistance to stretching. Let the ball sit for 10 minutes after the last stretch, then form into one or two boules. Honestly, the boule forming process that Alex does achieves the same as a stretch and fold so the third stretch is optional.
This turned out so good! Thank you :) My starter needed a lot longer to pass the float test, so keep that in mind when you're planning to bake a bread ;)
You are such a brilliant presenter. After searching out how to make the bread in soooo many websites, with no clear idea of how to proceed, you have at last shed clear light on the process which I will follow. Merci beu coup Alex, you are the best.!!!!!!
I wholeheartedly adore your way of making a totally comprehensive tutorial, where you yourself are learning to avoid pitfalls. Unlike other tutorials that show you a sorta basic overview of a method, you get down and dirty and show us your mistakes and every single step, which is really cool if you don't have a grandma who showed you this stuff (or something). Much love for your channel man, congratulations on a truly inspiring and transformative approach!
I think you should mention that "warm water" means water up to about body temperature, not more. Above 40 degrees Celsius the yeast will die and you'll end up killing the sourdough instead.
Ermude10 how much do you think you would speed up the rise by using tepid water? by the time you have handled the dough for 10 mins kneeding it I'm not sure the temperature makes much difference (between cold tap - my cold tap today is circa 16c and tepid temperatures)
I tried your process, Alex. For the minimal amount of steps, I give it an 9/10. I am a chemist and chef, and appreciate maximum reward for minimal effort. I do say that the amount of flour needed to prevent sticking to the cloth is critical. If not, you can easily deflate the loaf when removing the cloth. Perhaps that is why you suggested rice flour. I use generous amounts of wheat bran, that I sift out of my whole wheat flour. EXCELLENT RECIPE that I have reproduced at least 5 times now. The water spray is a great trick! Keep on trucking!
Yo Alex! My brother and I have used your videos to make our first bread ever. Starting from scratch, making a starter, baking the first loaves. Thanks to your tutorial we nailed the first ever try. It was a very encouraging and bonding experience. I've got another dough proofing in the oven and we'll give it to our mom tomorrow. Thank you so much!
Made this recipe today (baked it today) and it came out great even though the dough was very hydrated and still sticky even after about 20 minutes of slapping and folding. I even put it in my stand-up mixer for a while which helped but still sticky. I made mine without salt because I'm on a salt restriction and I'm wondering if that affected the hydration level. Will definitely make this again, probably without the added splash of water since I'm not needing to dissolve salt. Thanks for your videos Alex! ( Also, don't swear. Your mother wouldn't like it.)
I made this recipe several times without adding a splash of water with the salt and always the dough was very hydrated/sticky. I'm wondering if i need to try with less water, it's so frustrating! However, the result is always fine!
Ekaterina Olortegui The second time I made this I used Alex's exact measurements including the splash of water used to dissolve the salt. I did not use his slap and turn method to work the dough after mixing. Instead I immediately put it in my stand up mixer set on low and fitted with a dough hook and kneaded the dough for 15 minutes. After that time, the dough was still sticking to the sides of the bowl so I dusted it with a little flour and continued to keep kneading with the mixer until the dough pulled away from the sides of the bowl. (It was still consistently sticking to the bottom of the bowl.) Then I dusted the counter with flour and turned the dough out onto it and dusted the top of the dough as well before I did the fold and turn. This is all to say that I still found the dough to be pretty wet so I did use a bit more flour dustings than Alex to be able to work the dough. I can't emphasize enough the need to work with quick and confident moves as he suggested while shaping the dough. In the end the dough was much more manageable the second time around with and little more flour dusting and using the power of the mixer instead of slap and fold.
Double check your flour, is it 13-15g protein, and keep your flour in sealed jars because moisture content in your flour changes how much water it absorbs when mixing later. Or just use less water.
Micaelangel07 Thanks for the tips. I am not sure of the protein content of my flour, but I am using high gluten flour that I store in 5 gallon buckets with fitted lids because I buy 50lbs at a time. I have gotten great results with Alex's recipe even if it has been challenging. I will definitely look at the protein content next time I buy four.
After reading various blogs and books confusing myself in the process. I followed this video and got the most beautiful loaf. The starter I used cane from a friend but the technique for needing and the water test were really helpful. I didn’t have a Dutch oven so used a very old self baster which did the same job. I added a bit more of a splash of water when I added the salt so it was a bit sticky but I persevered and glad I did. Can’t wait to give it another go!
Brilliant video! Just binged all three episodes in this series to not lose continuity. I do have a question, if you have suggestions. I live in Chile, and we have mediocre flour. Chile consumes a lot of bread, so wheat production is insufficient, and we import some from other countries. It's not great wheat, and we produce not-so-great flour. I do know of some "organic" sources, but they are unreliable. We do have bread and pastry flours, but they are very expensive. We can, however, get some 00 italian flour, which is what I have generally been using to make bread (and pizza, and pasta, of course), but it's white, I might have to check if it's bleached, and we don't get that kind of quality in whole wheat. Do you have any suggestions on what to do to get great results in making sourdough starter? Thanks, and keep up the good job!
carlos garcia: as far as I know, bleaching is not allowed in the European Union, so if the 00 type flour is coming from Italy, there's a good chance is unbleached. I'd say you can make a good sourdough bread this way too. If you want some more body to the bread, you can try a German trick: replace part of the flour by breakfast cereals (not granola or so, but simple rolled flakes): pour the water of the recipe boiling over the flakes, let it cool down and then add the rest. You might need a little more water, as it seems the breakfast flakes will hold more water. Anyway, you would need to do some experimenting... but that's a big part of the fun, no?
carlos garcia ive been running a sour dough starter here on plain white flour with reasonable success. however when i add a tablespoon of wholemeal organic flour the activity increase is very clear. if in doubt, try. It's worth 5 mins a day for a couple of weeks to see what you get 😉
I'd maybe use the commonest wheat flour you can get, and maybe use a rye flour recipe. Rye has much less gluten than wheat flour, so if your wheat flour is poor, rye recipes may be closer to what you need. I wouldn't go ordering special flour from overseas, this might limit how often you bake, and make your bread more expensive to make, too. I'm sure with some practice, you'll get the perfect loaf.
You could use 20-50% rye flour in your starter, it activates it really well. Maybe start with 50% then go down to 20%. So first one would be 50 ml water, 25g rye 25g wheat, all the next ones: 50g starter, 50g water, 40g wheat, 10g rye. Gives it a good boost and you can easily use it in any wheat recipe.
Hey Alex, I just finished my first sourdough bread according to your recipe and you were right: the crust is absolutely outrageous, fantastic, sensational! Thx a lot. Keep on the great work.
Perfect recipe for beginners! My first sourdough ever and it's better than what I expect from a nice restaurant. I halved the weights and cut the bake times to 20 min. covered and 17 uncovered (removed at 200ºF internal). Made a nice 8" round. Educational *and* entertaining video. Thanks, Alex!
Today was my 5th attempt at making sourdough. However it was my 1st time using this video as a guide. It’s my BEST bread yet! So good! Inside is very soft and spongy. Proofing in the oven with the light on was a good idea!
Hi Alex Made this loaf and found the hydration to be too much at 400mls of water plus the 200g sourdough. Do we not have to take into account the water ie. 100mls, present in the sourdough? This works out to be 86.6% hydration. Difficult to handle if nothing else. The crumb was fairly good but the loaf remained flatish. Very little oven spring. Please can you help, as I feel I am nearly there with my bread. Been baking sourdough now for 8 months, just found your site.
I think it has a lot to do with the flour you use ie. how it can absorb water. Alex uses bread flour, and this is flour made entirely from hard wheat. This flour has a larger amount of gluten and will help your bread rise higher, the gluten protein itself also aids in the hydration process. If you have all-purpose flour you can add a few tablespoons of wheat gluten to the flour before adding water. If you only have all-purpose flour and nothing else you would have to cut back on the water.
I also start with slightly less water, about 190ml rather than 250 (according to Alex's 3:2:1 ratio) as that makes the dough easier to handle. However, throughout the kneeding I keep moistening my hands to counteract the increasing stickyness of the dough. At the end I get a dough that looks and feels good and I am guessing it has probably absorbed another 50ml of water from my hands in the process. The advantage here is that the kneeding helps me feel when the hydration is right.
Alex, mille mercis 🙏🙏🙏🙏 je suis passée par bien des vidéos et c'est grâce à ta série que j'ai enfin réussi à faire le parfait pain au levain 😊 avant il était presque plat. Le levain date du début du confinement et j'utilise 2/3 de farine semi-complete et 1/3 de farine complète d'une ferme du coin. Tout le monde l'adore !!! Mon passage préféré est la routine de pétrissage, quel bonheur de sentir la pâte devenir élastique !! 😍 Encore merci 🙏🙏🙏
Hi Alex, the bread came out amazing in the end but I had a few problems along the way: - after two minutes of the pull and fold technique, my dough became stickier and stickier so I couldn’t do it for 10 minutes. The texture never became easy to handle like yours. - my dough raised like a balloon and by the end it was bigger than the cast iron and almost didn’t fit. I had to push it underneath and reshape it. Any thought? Thank you!
I am thoroughly impressed with your expertise in the art. Having now seen how much effort is involved in making sourdough bread, I shall to continue enjoy that which others have prepared for me!
I have tried 10 times to make sourdough with a starter and have failed every attempt. I happened upon your video a couple of days ago and finally succeeded!!! Thank you so much for this video Alex. You have a new life long sub. I hope all the good things in life happen to you good sir.
Great video, thank you so much! I finally had a successful result! Wish I could send you a picture of how beautiful it is :) I'm curious; why is there no oil in this recipe?
After my first failed attempt, I decided to watch this video. It was a rough start: my dough was not well together as this, it was very sticky, it took 30 minutes of kneading to get correct consistency, and after i scored it, it sealed right back up. I don't have much faith in this bread. But, to my surprise, it turned out PERFECT! Thank you Alex!
Salut Alex, Thank you very much for these shows. I have learned a lot from you. I am a semi professional baker (novice baker but selling my bread) and I have experimented a lot with your recipe for sourdough. It mostly didn't work. (i life in the tropics). Then, by accident I made the most amazing bread ever. I forgot to put the bread in the fridge overnight because I got drunk. The next morning the bread was just a gooey mess of sourdough. All that slapping and pulling for nothing. But I just added a little more flour folded it a couple fo times and let it rise. It worked great. I literally ate half a kilo of it before lunch time and I am on a low carb diet. So thanks - One more thing. Instead of throwing away the excess sourdough ever day, I collect it in a jar in the fridge and use it as a taste enhancer for other breads.
Hey Alex/chat, if I have my starter going well and not in the fridge, can I skip the first step of making a sub starter? (use 200g of my original starter I have going?) I imagine that I can, just wanted to know if that would be a problem since my starter is made with the 50/50 flour mix you recommend on not bread flour like you did in this video's sub starter. Thanks for any insight, and great videos!
I followed the recipe and the results were amazing. I highly recommend following him if it is your first time baking a sourdough bread. Edit: It has been a month and I have found that the bread is much cleaner and more enjoyable to work with if you extend the autolyse(first resting period before the salt is added) process to about an hour and a half - two hours. More time may help, but that is the amount that I have found to work well.
@@schwarzarne when I did it, the dough was fairly moist and at every step it was sticking to my hands and my kitchen counter. however, if you just push through, the results are amazing.
Hi Alex, after trying a number of different sourdough recipes and all of which turned out failures, I hit on yours, and I am so thankful I did. I followed every detail to the letter and I have made the most amazing sourdough bread. It’s perfect! Thank you, Pat
Hi Alex. Thank you for your effort and this is my first time making sourdough. My starter is fine and I follow the ratio of 1 part sourdough starter:2 parts water:3 parts flour that you hv recommended but my bread dough became a sticky mass until the very end (when putting into the dutch oven). What may hv gone wrong? Please advise. Thanks a bunch.
I thought mine was sticky at first too. I used 1/2 cup of starter 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 of flour. I ended up adding just a pinch of flour but eventually it came together beautifully. I was getting very frustrated at first because I thought I messed it up again! I had tried to convert grams to cups from a different video and this method was much better!!
It was the same for me. I made a horrible mess with the kitchen towel. I don't believe he actually made that bread with this recipe. It just sounds good and easy in a video. I looked up other recipes and they usually are drier.
as the gluten develops in the dough it gets less sticky which is why Alex's method for "kneading" is superior in this case, as it if done properly allows you too handle the dough with minimal contact. a little bit of dusting flour should be fine but use as little as possible
Thank you Alex for that great content. However I have some questions. I follow your mnemonic proportions but I always get a dough which is sticky as hell! I tried putting in less water when adding the salt but it didn't change anything. As the dough is too hydrated is it really cumbersome to work it. I have my hand full of dough and I have to use spatula to remove it from hy hands. I tried kneading for a longer time but it doesn't cut it. I am using half whole wheat rye flour and half white wheat flour, do you think it has to do something with it? Or perhaps I should be only manipulating the dough with my fingertips instead of the whole hands? Thank you.
Great video, thanks! That loaf of bread is just art. Just one thing, for everyone who's watching this, never put your sourdough in a plastic container, it is very acid and will eat away at the plastic over time. Always use a glass jar!
ive made about 10 "loaves" of sourdough before watching and following this guide. by far this was the easiest and most beautiful loaf ive made yet. thanks for the easy to follow instructions.
2:00 the captions say "I use nominee proportions" but from listening I think you're saying "mnemonic proportions" I feel like a newb saying I'm not sure what that means. Then at 2:05 you say 71.4g water per 100g flour but the quantities you then give (600g flour and 400g water) is 66.7g water to 100g flour. I'm looking for where I went wrong, my dough was super wet after the first rest, other possibility is that my "splash" of water with the salt was more like a "slosh". Oh well, I'll see what happens and learn something if nothing else.
This LITERALLY just happened to me and the kneading was such a mess. Please, tell me what did you do? I mean it was wet before the salt, but after the salt and water gosh I got a bile of mud and I suffered a lot. I feel really bad. I hope I didn't ruin it.
@@bikeybikebike I'm gonna bake it in 4 hours. I added more flour just to be able to get it off my counter, but not enough to make it easy to handle. Last time I made bread I made brioche and because I couldn't handle the dough and added more flour, it was very dense. I think I didn't wanna repeat this. I also think the reason for this is my flour. I used Egyptian baking flour which is the best for bread I could find in the local stores. I think next time I should get my flour from large food shops instead. I will tell you when it comes out and thank you for replying. Edit: It turned out dense too. I think because I added more flour in different stages of the making. I hope you don't quit though and try to make another one sometime.
My starter is 100g water/100 flour. I used 200/400/600 the first time and it was terribly sticky, so much so that I could barely slap/smash, and the bread crumb was very gummy after baking. I reduced the 400 water to 350 and now it's almost perfect, much easier to slap/smash and it rose much more as well.
Anyone else struggle with these quantities? 600g flour for a single loaf made something for me about twice the size of Alex's, full of air, and after three days prep and work it collapsed into a mess of... Well, shit, right into my dutch oven
It sounds to me like you overproofed the dough, and that it was too hot where you let it rest. I'd say just try and try again, like Alex said, he fail a lot of times. If you're not used to baking, this will be hard so just keep at it.
Remember how warm and humid your area is will change the specifics, if you find its collapsing try catching it a bit sooner than when you were, it should be a bit bouncy to the touch without fear of it collapsing
Luke from my research people commonly split sourdough recipes in half before the envelope folding step. I’m not sure how this affects baking time but I do plan to make 2 small loaves with this recipe instead of 1 large one
Hi Alex, i've just made this bread and it was the best sourdough bread i've ever made. The crumb was just amazing, very even with open texture and amazing flavor. One thing i did differently was to do the final overnight proof on my kitchen worktop at about 17 degrees rather than the fridge. Thank you for the recipe and video.
My first few times I actually used wheat flour to make the 200g of starter(2 tbsp my own starter, 100g water, 100g flour), and while that works it makes the bread much stickier and harder to work with, this time I used the proper bread flour for the initial starter and the "kneading" portion was significantly easier.
Shouldn't it be possible to use a dough kneading machine, or will it be very different from the slapping and folding? I'm not really sure about why that technique is supposed to be superior.
I think it depends on the person, and one method is not really superior to the other. There's the slap and fold, "turning" the dough at 30 min intervals during bulk fermentation, scooping it like a diving arm mixer, and good old electric mixer. I've seen many bakers even use a combination of kneading methods. It all depends on preference and time management. The perils of using a mixer is that you can actually over mix your dough to the point where you've over developed the bread and it becomes a hot soupy mess. And just before that stage, your bread can turn out tough and gummy if the gluten is too strong.
I would recommend always using a machine if you have one, for the first step when kneading the dough. You know it's ready when you can successfully make a gluten test. But after it's rested you should only work it by hand.
You made my evening, I was so frustrated with my big amount of starter you use lots and I love this. I am not up after first stretch and fold (4) hours I hope I can do as many strengthening stretch and folds as possible and hope in the morning I will bake a magical loaf. I have been baking sourdough for many years but took 2 years away until today. Thank you , my magical friend
One word: bravo. And some food for thoughts: it is not the steam which makes the crispiness of the crust happens, imho, but it does allow for the bread to develop. The heat, which is is ,in fact, responsible for the cooking (dehydration?) of the bread, which happens progressively, "enters" from the external surface, namely the crust. Hence the steam is needed to keep this surface elastic long enough to have the bread develop, otherwise once the temperature rises at the dough's center the external bubbles will have had enough time to develop while the others are facing the fact that the crust is already firm and non-elastic and cannot properly inflate, resulting in an uneven texture and an uncooked center of the bread. That is why for the last 25 minutes is recommended to remove the lid of the Dutch oven, the bubbles have already developed, the gel (such as the dough is) solidified and it's time to make that crusty crispy! :D
Dear Alex, thank you so much for the tutorial. I almost given up on my sourdough starter but you're technique is foulproof. I could not believe I managed to make a real french white bread and it was better then the baker's. keep up the great work.
Do ~6 stretch and folds in 30 minutes intervals and let rest for 2.5 hours after mixing salt with dough. You just need more time on kneading . Could help if you had a dough mixer. I personally use my fingers, it takes more time but works.
@@nels6991 personally I dont have a stand mixer so I do it all with hands. If you wanna knead you need a stand mixer. Search for kitchenaid stand mixer and you will see the typical mixer used at homes.
I found that keeping it covered in a paper bag, then put inside a large plastic container works to keep the bread softer and fresher longer. But the crust does go a little soft too - so warming it in a toaster or frying pan to get a nice crunch back (but the texture is still soft, not dry) gets best results. For panini/bread rolls you store the same way, and then put in the oven (with a tray of steaming hot water at the bottom to make it into a steam oven) for 5 minutes brings back the 'fresh baked' bread sensation.
I bake a lot of bread so when I make a few loaves, I slice them and put in a Ziploc to put in the freezer. pull out a slice each time and put it in the toaster, it's like it's freshly baked all over again!
I think the best way of storing it (for a 2-3 days) is standing on a wooden cutting board with the surface you've cut into facing down onto the cutting board. That way all moisture that evaporates gets trapped inside the crumb by the crust, and the crust won't turn soggy from moisture on its outside, like it will in a bag.
I bought a sourdough bread in a bakery and it’s already 5 days and the bread is still soft, it’s in a brown bag and no freezing, is this possible? What do they add?
I'll never forget the first time I tried sourdough. Nice and warm with a firm yet crunchy crust and soft and doughy yet fluffy interior. I think the best loaves have a perfect balance between these traits. That, and the smell is positively intoxicating!
I've had a bit of a rocky history with sourdough, but this recipe was a breakthrough for me! Tastiest loaf of bread I've ever baked. I feel so inspired to continue with sourdough now! Thank you Alex!
Alex, my dough is still super sticky after kneading for almost 1 hour. I used all the correct amounts of ingredients. But i switched your flour with a mix of bread flour and all purpose flour instead and my starter isn’t really floating when i tested it but i still used it because i’m in a hurry does that affect my dough stickiness? Help
When I put my bread in the dutch oven it flattens out a bit, and when the bread is baked and done it's even more bigger in width but not as much in height...why is that?
Just made my first two loaves last night and they are beautiful and delicious! I proofed it an extra day, since my schedule got a bit hectic. Thank you so much for the wonderful instruction. The only drawback I had, was a slightly burnt flavor from the bottom of the loaf. I’m hoping to take it out 5-10 minutes early and see if that helps the next time. Can’t wait to share this with my family and friends. Also, if you ever need a place to stay in San Diego, feel free to contact me! Cheers!
I’ve just baked my very first loaf of sourdough bread! I’ve followed the recipe and it came out insanely good!!! Thank you for explaining every single step in way that is very easy to follow. You’re amazing!!!
Hi Alex!! I really love your work, you're such an awesome and inspirational person!! Do you think that i can use terracotta pot instead of a cast iron one? ^^" I can't afford it, so i wonder if i can use my old pot. thank you!!
I just made my first batch of sourdough bread!! I found your video on youtube this morning and I felt that it was the most "beginner friendly" and I really appreciate your step by step instruction. I just made two loaves and they are in the refrigerator for the night. Thank you so much for this video!!
This video is simply why I am a Patreon
Bravo Alex x
+Irene Shaw 🙏
Alex French Guy Cooking Alex are you black?
The Projects: Why would you ask that? Why would you care? What does it matter? He's French. That's all you really need to know.
How to knead dough
The Projects 😧
2tbs starter, 100gram water, 100 gram breadflour.
Wait 4 hours 30 min. or until it doubles in size. In warm room
1 part starter, 2 parts water, 3 parts breadflour 200 gram starter, 400 gram water 600 gram breadflour, mix
Let it rest 30 min - 1 hour
12 gram salt, and a bit of water to dissolve the salt.
Stretch and fold for 10 min. (grap, turn, slap, rol. 3:40 )
Rest for 4 hours in a warm room(~30C)
Fold outside to center
Cover with plastic rest for 30 min.
Fold like an envelope, top to bottom, bottom to top and rol over, push dough in all directions.
Put a kitchen towel in a bowl and flour it. put the dough in seam on top
Let it rest in fridge (8 - 24 hours)
Get the dough out 2 hours before baking
Preheat dutch oven 250C (~30min)
Place the dough on a big circle baking paper, seam down. make a shallow cut on top.
Put the dough in the dutch oven, and spray in some water.
Set oven to 220C bake the for 25 min. with the lid on.
Remove the lid and bake for another 20-25 min.
Let the bread cool down.
Enjoy your fresh bread!
thank youuu 😁
I'm struggling to figure out the weight of the "2tbl spoons" of starter I should as reference. What is the right proportion of starter, in grams, to be activated by 100g of water + 100g of flour?
The thing is my starter looks much thicker (not as light) than the one Alex is using there, so I'm unsure about the right amount of starter I should be using... Can anyone help me with that?
@@dfkl I use around 10 to 15 grams. the thickness of the starter depends on a lot of thinks but mostly water to flower proportion. if it's always very stiff then add a little bit more water before the last feeding, (the day before the start of the recipe) this way it is more runny and you can pour it. like Alex does.
Good luck
HELP! Is 24 hours in the fridge OK? I can't bake it before coming back from work tomorrow evening, which will make it 22-23 hours roughly. Thanks!
@@marinakion5923 24 hours should be ok but no longer!! let us know how it goes :)
Why is this so intimidating? I feel like i'm about to drop my starter off for its first day of school.
nailed it xD
jesus totally I was so proud of myself when I made the starter.. I was like.. see, I raised you and then I was like shit what do I do now
haha very relatable
@@annasssokol eat it
@@annasssokol LOL me too..
hey sorry for posting a non food related comment but i want you to know your vids have helped with my depression. Sometimes you just need to see someone with a passion for life to get you out of a bad mood.!
Love it! He's definitely fun and peppy to watch, and he's also pretty brilliant and interesting.
me too
David Walkenstein me too!!!!! Me tooooooooo))))))))) He was born to do it
Hi David...It's now January 2018, & I'm really hoping your depression is fading & that you're feeling much better now...Do you have any interest in cooking as it's a truly wonderful way to relax & be creative...On top of then having something deliciously tangible for your efforts... : ) I hope this finds you in good spirits...
Yep.
To all those who have followed this recipe exactly to find that their dough is sticky/runny: I had the same issue. I wonder if Alex is using a higher protein flour than I am (my flour is something like 12% and I see that his is labeled 13% in the vid). Anyway, yesterday I experimented with very good results. I CUT the initial water by 50g. Then, I carefully measured 10g of water and dissolved the salt in it before adding to the flour/water/starter mix. The recipe turned out wonderfully. [I'll add that this seems like a really flexible recipe: just prior to the overnight fermentation in the fridge, as I did the final shape, I added in chopped Kalamata olive and finely minced, fresh rosemary from the garden. The final results are EXCELLENT.]
Thanks!
Someday I want to find someone who loves me as much as Alex loves his bread!
Good luck! You'll need it.
🙋🏻♀️
Mee too!
but can you love him/her back that much?
A sennnnnsual experience!
Alex, I made this sourdough yesterday and after 25 minutes I opened the cast iron pot. Oh my god, it turned out so perfect I was amazed! After it cooled i cut into it and discovered a light soft bread with oh so many beautiful holes in it! The crust was crispy and chewy. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe and technique!
How did I not find Alex French Guy Cooking until just this week?! What a joy your videos are to watch...I binge watched for about 6 hours yesterday and already I want to do nothing but make bread and butter and French onion soup! Bravo, Alex!
This and the “sourdough master class” from Patrick are the two best processes I’ve found on CZcams. You did an excellent job of simplifying the system, Alex. I had already learned from Patrick’s, but I’m using your proportions and some of your techniques now with great results. Thank you!
Dear Alex, thankyou so much for helping me impress my german mother in law with your sourdough bread. you know the recipe is solid when you can get an authentic DDR resident nodding about the quality and practicality. Your explanations about the types of flour and their hydration properties were invaluable..i went with t he 450 type and the 650 type flour available in gerrman supermarkets for my starter...from a gal who only knew how to make rotis and naan....:) love from all lost indian students worldwide. hugggggggggg.
Sneha Banerjee thanks for mentioning the german Flour types! I find the different numbers so confusing ;)
Sneha Banerjee hey. wanted to start a starter tomorrow as well for a nice rustic tasting bread. which Supermarkt did you go to ?
hey Toffsen 100..i usally go to kaufland or edeka. They have a nice variety of regular and bio variety of flour. And recently to my pleasant surprise i also discovered that dm (the drogerie) has many kinds of flour as well..from roggen to dinkle etc. and happily all bio. so if you have a well stocked big dm filiale in the neighbourhood it might be worth your while to check it out! all the very best for your starter! cheers! :)
Ein großen Kaufland und nen niegelnagelneuen großen edeka direkt um die ecke =) werde ich montag nach der arbeit mal vorbeischauen wie dort das sortiment ausssieht. Sosnt eventuell das ganze korn von dm und dann mit der kaffeemühle mahlen =) Thanks for the detailed answer.
Toffsen100 Es gibt ja auch eigene Alnatura (die Bio Marke von dm) Läden. Ansonsten hat jeder Biosupermarkt verschiedene Getreide in Voll- und "Halb"korn. :) aber pass bloß auf keine Dinkelbrot-Backmischung zu kaufen! Das war eine Katastrophe!
Having an intense relationship with this "sour" dough. So loving, so gentle, so understanding of it's kneads.
Getting back into making sourdough after several years and rediscovered this gem of a video. Thanks again for the tutorial!
My favorite flour to use is definitely freshly ground white wheat flour. I grind it myself, and use it while it's still warm from the grinding. It is amazing to work with, it rises very quickly and the flavor is something you cannot duplicate, it is so full of nutrition . It makes the best bread, bar none. I loved your show, I learned a lot , you have inspired me to make bread again, thank you, french man who likes to make bread.
Thank you for making these videos, they have helped me so much. I have always had a love for baking, but lost the ability to find joy in anything during my battle with PTSD. My therapist advised me to find a creative hobby and I chose to start baking again. I wanted to challenge myself further and decided to start bread making. That's when I found your sour dough videos and managed to get perfect bake with your instruction. Seeing your true joy in baking reminded me of the person I used to be and realized how much I missed having that passion for baking. It's been the most soothing thing putting energy into kneeding, having to have patience for each step and ending up with a tangible piece of my hard work. I have gained so much pride in my new found skills and mastering bread making has changed my life. I'm in a much better place now, my good days and bad days are 50/50 compared to 25/75 I was having.
Wanted to come back and say that I've been following this video for the last five years and it produces a perfect sourdough loaf every time. Have yet another going into the fridge tonight. Thanks again, Alex!
Made this dough yesterday and baked today. Dough was a bit sticky but managed to keep it moving..wet hands can help with sticky dough. Still cooling but looks and smells terrific.
Have made two delicious breads so far and have developed a sense of caring friendship with my sourdough starters, thank you!!
Is it still alive? It's been a year.
Thanks so much for the recipe, Alex! Love this video and how you explained all the steps so succinctly. I think I just about watched it 12 times before I dare to attempt it myself.
For those of you living in hot, humid climates like I am (currently 34 °C and 80% humidity where I'm at, Singapore!), you may want to consider reducing the amount of water which goes into the first step, or try adding it bit by bit to the flour + starter mixture just in case it gets too wet. I had to use a 200g starter, 350g water for 600g of flour compared to Alex's 200 x 400 x 600g ratio. The dough still appeared slightly wetter than the video's, but luckily it got much better when it come to the 2nd proofing!
Your recipe and approach is the bomb. Works perfectly. Been trying to get to this state for over a year and have now arrived. Thx for all your help!
After watching the MANY CZcamss about sourdough bread, I found this video has the simplest, easiest recipe ever. No more strech and fold and all the complications. Thanks Alex!
"let it cool down completly before slicing"
*steam rises from bread after slicing*
That's the hardest part
Very best bread. Love it! Will make it!
This.
OMG how did you see that, I had to go back to see the steam :D
@@observer698 Me too!
I made the perfect loaf of sour dough bread. It failed the firs time but the second time it was perfect... beautiful crust and crumb. Based on your video. wish I could share but the picture is on Face book. Beautiful bread. Unfortunately I had to slice it up and share at work tomorrow. It was a piece of art.
little tip : if you dont have a dutch oven or a pot like this. use a pizza or bread baking stone ( tiles will do too) so that it gets lots of heat at the bottom very quickly to make it rise. for the steam you take one shotglass of water drop it onto the bottom of the oven and after a few minutes you reopen the oven to let the excess steam out. it will have the same effect for good crust.
I have never baked anything, ever . I got some sourdough starter that hadn’t been used in ages and looked dead , and it had little sourdough smell to it . i followed your excellent instructions ( except the screen said 2 gms of salt instead of 12 so I mistakenly used 2 gms ) The starter doubled in size after several feedings but still would not pass the float test, I used it anyway . I struggled with really sticky dough, and my slapping of the dough was pathetic. The final dough didn’t look great BUT I got the most amazing beautiful loaf ever -I was amazed !!! It tasted great , and I was encouraged to make more.. thanks so much for your videos , I have watched a bunch now and I think you are just great.
“Enjoy it naked” I like the way you described eating the bread, I could here the passion in your voice.
After 4 failed attempts using different sourdough recipes, I finally nailed it with this one. Thank you Alex! Great way to create this type of bread.
Will lol I failed with this recipe..I did well on Joshua Weissman’s advance recipe
Technically both Alex and Joshua have same technique
I've been baking with my own sourdough starter for 12 years and I've learned a bunch from this series. Bravo!
This is exactly the video I've been looking for! The most clear of "here's how you use your starter..." "here's exactly how to knead" etc. Merci!!
Alex, your technique for folding the bread dough is fantastic.
My bread looks like it is on steroids.
So I named it Herman.
Louise, Herman is actually the name of a specific type of sourdough. My family kept some in the fridge for years until it died of an ice storm.
I know you can not replace your beloved pet starter, but there is an organization that gives away samples of a starter from the Oregon Trail. You can find the contact info at carlsfriends.net/
Did you get a soft bread?
Herman is a sweet sourdough with milk in place of water. My family has been making it for years
Wow, interesting, I'm feeling inspired
Oh my - what a beautiful bread! I can almost taste it! Bravo - I am plucking up the courage to try my first sour dough bread, and your series is just what I need to inspire me and show me how to do it. THANK YOU!
First of all I would like to say that I love your video Alex, this is how I got into bread baking, I love your energy and the step-by-step instructions. There is one thing I do not understand, as apparently everyone in the comment section made their best bread ever (even when they baked for the first time) - for me it is still not perfect. 4 hours of fermentation in the oven with only the light on produces a massively overfermented dough, it’s basically liquid afterwards and without adding a ton of extra flour would be unsalvageable. I use the same protein content flour, and the same measurements as in the video, to the gram. I tried 3 hours room temperature + overnight proof, still somewhat overfermented but much better than the oven option. I live in Central Europe so I can’t say my kitchen would be particularly warm, so I’m not sure what am I doing wrong. If anyone has an idea, please do let me know, I tried to bake with this recipe more than 10 times and it was never perfect (did make tasty bread though every time, just the texture is not as it should be). Thanks in advance
Today I followed each step and the results were incredible! I must have watched this video about 20 times in total. Now I can't get the background music out of my head.
Thanks.
Haha I feel the same way. This is the second time I'm making a loaf following this and I even wrote down all the steps for further confirmation. I feel like I've been with Alex all day.
I cook well but have steered clear of baking, for decades. I've been wanting to make sourdough for a few years now but didn't have the confidence. I dabbled on net from time to time looking at various 'methods', then finally came across your vid! I watched it several times, rewound parts of it lots of times, then took the plunge. Can't believe it, my sourdough turned out fabulously! I had psyched myself up for a fair bit of trial and error, so with this loaf that I baked this morning, that both hubby and I prefer to what I can purchase, I'm really stoked. Thank you Alex. I'll share this vid and check out the terms of 'patreon' in short order. Cheers to ya! :)
+Carmel Underwood So Glad it helped 🙏
Hey Alex, I asked this question somewhere else but didn't word it very well, sorry - I'm wanting to know if the patreon fees are in USA dollars so I can correctly calculate the conversion before committing. I'm presuming you're not referring to Euros but am wanting confirmation, thanks.
As perfect as the loaf is, i would really love to see the fails that you've mentioned. Maybe some can learn from that mistakes.
I think i may try to setup a sourdough starter, that loaf just looked beautiful :)
Riku yea! Maybe a second channel for the less polished stuff and a glimpse at the things you are still working on
It's totally worth it. The bread tastes so much better with a natural starter and taking your time rising, proofing, and fermenting the dough overnight. No comparison
Everyone's first loaf is usually a flat, dense, black disk. It takes some time and practice to get a loaf like his ;)
Eric Kelly I tried making a loaf a while back; it literally turned out as a solid block of gluten, even shaving it was too dense to eat! XD
edit: I have now made my first try with this recipe, and it turned out beautifully!! almost a replica of the video.
Wellcher Visounnaraj there’s already a video on it. look up “ A Frenchman’s guide to making sourdough starter “
I’ve never baked a bread in my whole life, I followed your video and it came out just perfect! Thank you!
These instructions are spot on. I make sourdough twice weekly his way as a hobby. There are two things I have observed though 1) I don't think the dough really cares when the salt is added - it can be added at the very beginning with the flour etc. Purists will rebuke this. 2) In addition to Alex kneading technique which I use, an even stronger gluten can be developed by adding 3 intermediate stretch and folds of the dough during the 4-5 hour bulk rise. IMO the stretching is where the gluten and well structured crumb are developed more so than initial kneading. The resulting crumb is more open and the oven loft even higher-a less dense loaf. Awesome video Alex.
Ed Thank you for your tip. Can you elaborate your #2? Would you do the stretching before the final shaping ie after the 4 hour rest? What king of stretching? Merci.
@@popcorn7657 My 4 hour bulk rise takes closer to 4-1/2 hours.
After the first 1-1/2 hours, then 3 hours, then 4-1/2 hours I remove the dough to the bench. I pull the dough in all directions like a thick pizza pie probably no larger than 20 cm diameter, then fold it in thirds like a letter, then roll that up into ball and put it back to rise. Just do it onc time each 1-1/2 hours, leaving it on the bench after the last one. Timing is not critical.
A little flour is used on the bench to prevent sticking.
For the first stretch the dough is still very slack, sticky, and has not grown. At stretch 2 and 3 you will notice a very noticeable gluten structure and a resistance to stretching.
Let the ball sit for 10 minutes after the last stretch, then form into one or two boules. Honestly, the boule forming process that Alex does achieves the same as a stretch and fold so the third stretch is optional.
Ed Thank you so much. I appreciate the details. I will try your technique. Merci.
Quote: Don't skip the resting period, it is crucial (...) In fact do not skip any step in this recipe, because I already did it.
Me: Instant sub! ;]
This turned out so good! Thank you :) My starter needed a lot longer to pass the float test, so keep that in mind when you're planning to bake a bread ;)
You are such a brilliant presenter. After searching out how to make the bread in soooo many websites, with no clear idea of how to proceed, you have at last shed clear light on the process which I will follow. Merci beu coup Alex, you are the best.!!!!!!
I wholeheartedly adore your way of making a totally comprehensive tutorial, where you yourself are learning to avoid pitfalls. Unlike other tutorials that show you a sorta basic overview of a method, you get down and dirty and show us your mistakes and every single step, which is really cool if you don't have a grandma who showed you this stuff (or something). Much love for your channel man, congratulations on a truly inspiring and transformative approach!
Great job as always Alex 👍🏻😄🙌🏼
Luv you guys
I think you should mention that "warm water" means water up to about body temperature, not more. Above 40 degrees Celsius the yeast will die and you'll end up killing the sourdough instead.
Ermude10 how much do you think you would speed up the rise by using tepid water? by the time you have handled the dough for 10 mins kneeding it I'm not sure the temperature makes much difference (between cold tap - my cold tap today is circa 16c and tepid temperatures)
thats literally what warm means my man
alexkeary9 po oil
@ermude Why would you intentionally use water over 40 deg in the first place?
I tried your process, Alex. For the minimal amount of steps, I give it an 9/10. I am a chemist and chef, and appreciate maximum reward for minimal effort. I do say that the amount of flour needed to prevent sticking to the cloth is critical. If not, you can easily deflate the loaf when removing the cloth. Perhaps that is why you suggested rice flour. I use generous amounts of wheat bran, that I sift out of my whole wheat flour. EXCELLENT RECIPE that I have reproduced at least 5 times now. The water spray is a great trick! Keep on trucking!
Yo Alex! My brother and I have used your videos to make our first bread ever. Starting from scratch, making a starter, baking the first loaves. Thanks to your tutorial we nailed the first ever try. It was a very encouraging and bonding experience. I've got another dough proofing in the oven and we'll give it to our mom tomorrow. Thank you so much!
I LOVE your channel! Thank you so much! I'm making this bread tomorrow!
pleasure !
Made this recipe today (baked it today) and it came out great even though the dough was very hydrated and still sticky even after about 20 minutes of slapping and folding. I even put it in my stand-up mixer for a while which helped but still sticky. I made mine without salt because I'm on a salt restriction and I'm wondering if that affected the hydration level. Will definitely make this again, probably without the added splash of water since I'm not needing to dissolve salt. Thanks for your videos Alex! ( Also, don't swear. Your mother wouldn't like it.)
I made this recipe several times without adding a splash of water with the salt and always the dough was very hydrated/sticky. I'm wondering if i need to try with less water, it's so frustrating! However, the result is always fine!
Ekaterina Olortegui The second time I made this I used Alex's exact measurements including the splash of water used to dissolve the salt. I did not use his slap and turn method to work the dough after mixing. Instead I immediately put it in my stand up mixer set on low and fitted with a dough hook and kneaded the dough for 15 minutes. After that time, the dough was still sticking to the sides of the bowl so I dusted it with a little flour and continued to keep kneading with the mixer until the dough pulled away from the sides of the bowl. (It was still consistently sticking to the bottom of the bowl.) Then I dusted the counter with flour and turned the dough out onto it and dusted the top of the dough as well before I did the fold and turn. This is all to say that I still found the dough to be pretty wet so I did use a bit more flour dustings than Alex to be able to work the dough. I can't emphasize enough the need to work with quick and confident moves as he suggested while shaping the dough. In the end the dough was much more manageable the second time around with and little more flour dusting and using the power of the mixer instead of slap and fold.
Double check your flour, is it 13-15g protein, and keep your flour in sealed jars because moisture content in your flour changes how much water it absorbs when mixing later. Or just use less water.
Micaelangel07 Thanks for the tips. I am not sure of the protein content of my flour, but I am using high gluten flour that I store in 5 gallon buckets with fitted lids because I buy 50lbs at a time. I have gotten great results with Alex's recipe even if it has been challenging. I will definitely look at the protein content next time I buy four.
Micaelangel07 so it does not work without that amount of protein %?
After reading various blogs and books confusing myself in the process. I followed this video and got the most beautiful loaf. The starter I used cane from a friend but the technique for needing and the water test were really helpful. I didn’t have a Dutch oven so used a very old self baster which did the same job. I added a bit more of a splash of water when I added the salt so it was a bit sticky but I persevered and glad I did. Can’t wait to give it another go!
my very first loaf is in the oven as we speak. thank you alex!
helping new people 3 years later!
Seriously, you've got one of my favorite channels! Keep up the great work!
Brilliant video! Just binged all three episodes in this series to not lose continuity. I do have a question, if you have suggestions. I live in Chile, and we have mediocre flour. Chile consumes a lot of bread, so wheat production is insufficient, and we import some from other countries. It's not great wheat, and we produce not-so-great flour. I do know of some "organic" sources, but they are unreliable. We do have bread and pastry flours, but they are very expensive.
We can, however, get some 00 italian flour, which is what I have generally been using to make bread (and pizza, and pasta, of course), but it's white, I might have to check if it's bleached, and we don't get that kind of quality in whole wheat.
Do you have any suggestions on what to do to get great results in making sourdough starter? Thanks, and keep up the good job!
You can find great bread flour on Amazon. Here's one of the ones that I bake with: www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Unbleached-Flour-5-pounds/dp/B0047YX0J8
carlos garcia: as far as I know, bleaching is not allowed in the European Union, so if the 00 type flour is coming from Italy, there's a good chance is unbleached. I'd say you can make a good sourdough bread this way too.
If you want some more body to the bread, you can try a German trick: replace part of the flour by breakfast cereals (not granola or so, but simple rolled flakes): pour the water of the recipe boiling over the flakes, let it cool down and then add the rest. You might need a little more water, as it seems the breakfast flakes will hold more water.
Anyway, you would need to do some experimenting... but that's a big part of the fun, no?
carlos garcia ive been running a sour dough starter here on plain white flour with reasonable success. however when i add a tablespoon of wholemeal organic flour the activity increase is very clear. if in doubt, try. It's worth 5 mins a day for a couple of weeks to see what you get 😉
I'd maybe use the commonest wheat flour you can get, and maybe use a rye flour recipe. Rye has much less gluten than wheat flour, so if your wheat flour is poor, rye recipes may be closer to what you need. I wouldn't go ordering special flour from overseas, this might limit how often you bake, and make your bread more expensive to make, too. I'm sure with some practice, you'll get the perfect loaf.
You could use 20-50% rye flour in your starter, it activates it really well. Maybe start with 50% then go down to 20%. So first one would be 50 ml water, 25g rye 25g wheat, all the next ones: 50g starter, 50g water, 40g wheat, 10g rye. Gives it a good boost and you can easily use it in any wheat recipe.
Hey Alex, I just finished my first sourdough bread according to your recipe and you were right: the crust is absolutely outrageous, fantastic, sensational! Thx a lot. Keep on the great work.
Perfect recipe for beginners! My first sourdough ever and it's better than what I expect from a nice restaurant. I halved the weights and cut the bake times to 20 min. covered and 17 uncovered (removed at 200ºF internal). Made a nice 8" round. Educational *and* entertaining video. Thanks, Alex!
Thanks to you I'm making the best pizza dough I have ever tried. I guess it's time to sourdough bread :)
MightyElk my wife won't let me make it any other way since we made our Alex the sour dough starter. (well, he did say we should name it)
"...puddles of water..." hahaha you are so cute
Today was my 5th attempt at making sourdough. However it was my 1st time using this video as a guide. It’s my BEST bread yet! So good! Inside is very soft and spongy. Proofing in the oven with the light on was a good idea!
Many Thanks for this video! For all of those who are not bakers this is the one to follow. My sourdough came on point!
“Depends if your a fan of Chinese or Lebanese take away” 😆😆
Hi Alex
Made this loaf and found the hydration to be too much at 400mls of water plus the 200g sourdough. Do we not have to take into account the water ie. 100mls, present in the sourdough? This works out to be 86.6% hydration. Difficult to handle if nothing else.
The crumb was fairly good but the loaf remained flatish. Very little oven spring. Please can you help, as I feel I am nearly there with my bread. Been baking sourdough now for 8 months, just found your site.
Same here, way too much
I think it has a lot to do with the flour you use ie. how it can absorb water. Alex uses bread flour, and this is flour made entirely from hard wheat. This flour has a larger amount of gluten and will help your bread rise higher, the gluten protein itself also aids in the hydration process. If you have all-purpose flour you can add a few tablespoons of wheat gluten to the flour before adding water. If you only have all-purpose flour and nothing else you would have to cut back on the water.
@@MrHenhei I also used string bread flour
I also start with slightly less water, about 190ml rather than 250 (according to Alex's 3:2:1 ratio) as that makes the dough easier to handle. However, throughout the kneeding I keep moistening my hands to counteract the increasing stickyness of the dough. At the end I get a dough that looks and feels good and I am guessing it has probably absorbed another 50ml of water from my hands in the process. The advantage here is that the kneeding helps me feel when the hydration is right.
Morgan David what do you mean 190 ml instead of 250? In his recipe water 400 gram and water in sourdough starter 100 gram???
Alex, mille mercis 🙏🙏🙏🙏 je suis passée par bien des vidéos et c'est grâce à ta série que j'ai enfin réussi à faire le parfait pain au levain 😊 avant il était presque plat. Le levain date du début du confinement et j'utilise 2/3 de farine semi-complete et 1/3 de farine complète d'une ferme du coin. Tout le monde l'adore !!! Mon passage préféré est la routine de pétrissage, quel bonheur de sentir la pâte devenir élastique !! 😍 Encore merci 🙏🙏🙏
This video is fantastic. Just made my first successful sourdough loaf after two failed attempts. Thank you so so much.
Hi Alex, the bread came out amazing in the end but I had a few problems along the way:
- after two minutes of the pull and fold technique, my dough became stickier and stickier so I couldn’t do it for 10 minutes. The texture never became easy to handle like yours.
- my dough raised like a balloon and by the end it was bigger than the cast iron and almost didn’t fit. I had to push it underneath and reshape it.
Any thought? Thank you!
I ran into the same problem, too sticky/wet, and then when I did work it and let it rest it blew up huge.
Too much water! The 1:2:3 proportions used by Alex don't work for me. I use less water and everything is fine. Hope I helped you
i had the same problem with how sticky it was, couldn't get it off my hands lol.
so less water seems to be the trick.
'This outrageous crust' comment reminded me of that monty python scene :)
Which one??
I am thoroughly impressed with your expertise in the art. Having now seen how much effort is involved in making sourdough bread, I shall to continue enjoy that which others have prepared for me!
I have tried 10 times to make sourdough with a starter and have failed every attempt. I happened upon your video a couple of days ago and finally succeeded!!! Thank you so much for this video Alex. You have a new life long sub. I hope all the good things in life happen to you good sir.
If you are making sour dough, watch this video first, far better than anything else. Save yourself a lot of time.
Great video, thank you so much! I finally had a successful result! Wish I could send you a picture of how beautiful it is :) I'm curious; why is there no oil in this recipe?
Oil makes the crust too soft!
After my first failed attempt, I decided to watch this video. It was a rough start: my dough was not well together as this, it was very sticky, it took 30 minutes of kneading to get correct consistency, and after i scored it, it sealed right back up. I don't have much faith in this bread. But, to my surprise, it turned out PERFECT! Thank you Alex!
Salut Alex, Thank you very much for these shows. I have learned a lot from you. I am a semi professional baker (novice baker but selling my bread) and I have experimented a lot with your recipe for sourdough. It mostly didn't work. (i life in the tropics). Then, by accident I made the most amazing bread ever. I forgot to put the bread in the fridge overnight because I got drunk. The next morning the bread was just a gooey mess of sourdough. All that slapping and pulling for nothing. But I just added a little more flour folded it a couple fo times and let it rise. It worked great. I literally ate half a kilo of it before lunch time and I am on a low carb diet. So thanks - One more thing. Instead of throwing away the excess sourdough ever day, I collect it in a jar in the fridge and use it as a taste enhancer for other breads.
5:44 *strokes dough like baby *
Hey Alex/chat, if I have my starter going well and not in the fridge, can I skip the first step of making a sub starter? (use 200g of my original starter I have going?) I imagine that I can, just wanted to know if that would be a problem since my starter is made with the 50/50 flour mix you recommend on not bread flour like you did in this video's sub starter. Thanks for any insight, and great videos!
I followed the recipe and the results were amazing. I highly recommend following him if it is your first time baking a sourdough bread.
Edit:
It has been a month and I have found that the bread is much cleaner and more enjoyable to work with if you extend the autolyse(first resting period before the salt is added) process to about an hour and a half - two hours. More time may help, but that is the amount that I have found to work well.
Did you really follow it? I did and the dough was way to moist and made a big mess with the kitchen towel.
@@schwarzarne when I did it, the dough was fairly moist and at every step it was sticking to my hands and my kitchen counter. however, if you just push through, the results are amazing.
Hi Alex, after trying a number of different sourdough recipes and all of which turned out failures, I hit on yours, and I am so thankful I did. I followed every detail to the letter and I have made the most amazing sourdough bread. It’s perfect! Thank you, Pat
Hi Alex. Thank you for your effort and this is my first time making sourdough. My starter is fine and I follow the ratio of 1 part sourdough starter:2 parts water:3 parts flour that you hv recommended but my bread dough became a sticky mass until the very end (when putting into the dutch oven). What may hv gone wrong? Please advise. Thanks a bunch.
I thought mine was sticky at first too. I used 1/2 cup of starter 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 of flour. I ended up adding just a pinch of flour but eventually it came together beautifully. I was getting very frustrated at first because I thought I messed it up again! I had tried to convert grams to cups from a different video and this method was much better!!
It was the same for me. I made a horrible mess with the kitchen towel. I don't believe he actually made that bread with this recipe. It just sounds good and easy in a video. I looked up other recipes and they usually are drier.
Mine was a little sticky but by adding more flour and working the dough it came together and it was delicious
as the gluten develops in the dough it gets less sticky which is why Alex's method for "kneading" is superior in this case, as it if done properly allows you too handle the dough with minimal contact. a little bit of dusting flour should be fine but use as little as possible
Thank you Alex for that great content.
However I have some questions. I follow your mnemonic proportions but I always get a dough which is sticky as hell! I tried putting in less water when adding the salt but it didn't change anything. As the dough is too hydrated is it really cumbersome to work it. I have my hand full of dough and I have to use spatula to remove it from hy hands. I tried kneading for a longer time but it doesn't cut it. I am using half whole wheat rye flour and half white wheat flour, do you think it has to do something with it? Or perhaps I should be only manipulating the dough with my fingertips instead of the whole hands?
Thank you.
This is a great question. Alex can you please answer this
I have the same issue. I'm measuring by weight. 200g starter, 400g water, 600g "bread" flour (US)
I'm having the same issue. I measure by weight. I use Wheat Montana flour and live at 600ft in elevation.
The more rye flour you use, the stickier the dough will be. I suggest you use less rye flour.
@@sea1song Uh I don't use any rye flour.
Great video, thanks! That loaf of bread is just art. Just one thing, for everyone who's watching this, never put your sourdough in a plastic container, it is very acid and will eat away at the plastic over time. Always use a glass jar!
ive made about 10 "loaves" of sourdough before watching and following this guide. by far this was the easiest and most beautiful loaf ive made yet. thanks for the easy to follow instructions.
2:00 the captions say "I use nominee proportions" but from listening I think you're saying "mnemonic proportions" I feel like a newb saying I'm not sure what that means. Then at 2:05 you say 71.4g water per 100g flour but the quantities you then give (600g flour and 400g water) is 66.7g water to 100g flour. I'm looking for where I went wrong, my dough was super wet after the first rest, other possibility is that my "splash" of water with the salt was more like a "slosh". Oh well, I'll see what happens and learn something if nothing else.
This LITERALLY just happened to me and the kneading was such a mess. Please, tell me what did you do? I mean it was wet before the salt, but after the salt and water gosh I got a bile of mud and I suffered a lot. I feel really bad. I hope I didn't ruin it.
I added a little more flour. My bread was ok and edible but really dense, which might have been because of the extra flour. How did yours go?
@@bikeybikebike I'm gonna bake it in 4 hours. I added more flour just to be able to get it off my counter, but not enough to make it easy to handle. Last time I made bread I made brioche and because I couldn't handle the dough and added more flour, it was very dense. I think I didn't wanna repeat this. I also think the reason for this is my flour. I used Egyptian baking flour which is the best for bread I could find in the local stores. I think next time I should get my flour from large food shops instead. I will tell you when it comes out and thank you for replying.
Edit: It turned out dense too. I think because I added more flour in different stages of the making. I hope you don't quit though and try to make another one sometime.
You have to factor in the 100g flour and 100g water in the starter if it's 100% hydrated like it should be. So, 500g water, 700g flour.
My starter is 100g water/100 flour. I used 200/400/600 the first time and it was terribly sticky, so much so that I could barely slap/smash, and the bread crumb was very gummy after baking. I reduced the 400 water to 350 and now it's almost perfect, much easier to slap/smash and it rose much more as well.
Anyone else struggle with these quantities? 600g flour for a single loaf made something for me about twice the size of Alex's, full of air, and after three days prep and work it collapsed into a mess of... Well, shit, right into my dutch oven
Luke Dorning Me too. But I haven’t baked it yet. Considering of making 2 bread with that dough.
It sounds to me like you overproofed the dough, and that it was too hot where you let it rest. I'd say just try and try again, like Alex said, he fail a lot of times. If you're not used to baking, this will be hard so just keep at it.
Remember how warm and humid your area is will change the specifics, if you find its collapsing try catching it a bit sooner than when you were, it should be a bit bouncy to the touch without fear of it collapsing
Luke from my research people commonly split sourdough recipes in half before the envelope folding step. I’m not sure how this affects baking time but I do plan to make 2 small loaves with this recipe instead of 1 large one
Hi Alex, i've just made this bread and it was the best sourdough bread i've ever made. The crumb was just amazing, very even with open texture and amazing flavor. One thing i did differently was to do the final overnight proof on my kitchen worktop at about 17 degrees rather than the fridge.
Thank you for the recipe and video.
My first few times I actually used wheat flour to make the 200g of starter(2 tbsp my own starter, 100g water, 100g flour), and while that works it makes the bread much stickier and harder to work with, this time I used the proper bread flour for the initial starter and the "kneading" portion was significantly easier.
Shouldn't it be possible to use a dough kneading machine, or will it be very different from the slapping and folding? I'm not really sure about why that technique is supposed to be superior.
+Ermude10 A dough kneading machine should work well too, but i would use it on low speed.
Alright, thanks!
In other videos, pro bakers use dough making machines, but the last steps are often done by hand.
I think it depends on the person, and one method is not really superior to the other. There's the slap and fold, "turning" the dough at 30 min intervals during bulk fermentation, scooping it like a diving arm mixer, and good old electric mixer. I've seen many bakers even use a combination of kneading methods. It all depends on preference and time management.
The perils of using a mixer is that you can actually over mix your dough to the point where you've over developed the bread and it becomes a hot soupy mess. And just before that stage, your bread can turn out tough and gummy if the gluten is too strong.
I would recommend always using a machine if you have one, for the first step when kneading the dough. You know it's ready when you can successfully make a gluten test. But after it's rested you should only work it by hand.
tuerieeeeeeeee
merci ma poule
tu nous regales
Charming baker conjures up super bread in an attractive, creative kitchen. Congratulations.
from Budapest.
You made my evening, I was so frustrated with my big amount of starter you use lots and I love this.
I am not up after first stretch and fold (4) hours I hope I can do as many strengthening stretch and folds as possible and hope in the morning I will bake a magical loaf. I have been baking sourdough for many years but took 2 years away until today.
Thank you , my magical friend
Your kitchen reminds me of Casey Neistats workshop
why do you have to insult alex?
It's a multi purpose space
I was down to my shorts when I realized what you meant by having this first naked
XD I mean..you CAN. Not like anyone's gonna see you here
One word: bravo. And some food for thoughts: it is not the steam which makes the crispiness of the crust happens, imho, but it does allow for the bread to develop. The heat, which is is ,in fact, responsible for the cooking (dehydration?) of the bread, which happens progressively, "enters" from the external surface, namely the crust. Hence the steam is needed to keep this surface elastic long enough to have the bread develop, otherwise once the temperature rises at the dough's center the external bubbles will have had enough time to develop while the others are facing the fact that the crust is already firm and non-elastic and cannot properly inflate, resulting in an uneven texture and an uncooked center of the bread. That is why for the last 25 minutes is recommended to remove the lid of the Dutch oven, the bubbles have already developed, the gel (such as the dough is) solidified and it's time to make that crusty crispy! :D
Dear Alex, thank you so much for the tutorial. I almost given up on my sourdough starter but you're technique is foulproof. I could not believe I managed to make a real french white bread and it was better then the baker's. keep up the great work.
my third try at sourdough, ugh I want to cry, my dough is too wet to knead, I tried adding a tad of flour, but its a sloppy mess.
Gina Watts I feel your pain
Same. I'm mentally destroyed.
Do ~6 stretch and folds in 30 minutes intervals and let rest for 2.5 hours after mixing salt with dough. You just need more time on kneading . Could help if you had a dough mixer. I personally use my fingers, it takes more time but works.
@@yardakani Would a mixing machine like what is used for making mashed potatoes work for kneading?
@@nels6991 personally I dont have a stand mixer so I do it all with hands. If you wanna knead you need a stand mixer. Search for kitchenaid stand mixer and you will see the typical mixer used at homes.
Hey Alex, what is the best way to keep a loaf of sourdough I've already cut open? Leave it out or store in a bag?
I found that keeping it covered in a paper bag, then put inside a large plastic container works to keep the bread softer and fresher longer. But the crust does go a little soft too - so warming it in a toaster or frying pan to get a nice crunch back (but the texture is still soft, not dry) gets best results. For panini/bread rolls you store the same way, and then put in the oven (with a tray of steaming hot water at the bottom to make it into a steam oven) for 5 minutes brings back the 'fresh baked' bread sensation.
Usually I wrap it super tight in 2 kitchen towels, and yes, warm it up before eating can counter its loss of crispness.
I bake a lot of bread so when I make a few loaves, I slice them and put in a Ziploc to put in the freezer. pull out a slice each time and put it in the toaster, it's like it's freshly baked all over again!
I think the best way of storing it (for a 2-3 days) is standing on a wooden cutting board with the surface you've cut into facing down onto the cutting board. That way all moisture that evaporates gets trapped inside the crumb by the crust, and the crust won't turn soggy from moisture on its outside, like it will in a bag.
I bought a sourdough bread in a bakery and it’s already 5 days and the bread is still soft, it’s in a brown bag and no freezing, is this possible? What do they add?
I'll never forget the first time I tried sourdough. Nice and warm with a firm yet crunchy crust and soft and doughy yet fluffy interior. I think the best loaves have a perfect balance between these traits. That, and the smell is positively intoxicating!
I've had a bit of a rocky history with sourdough, but this recipe was a breakthrough for me! Tastiest loaf of bread I've ever baked. I feel so inspired to continue with sourdough now! Thank you Alex!
Alex, my dough is still super sticky after kneading for almost 1 hour. I used all the correct amounts of ingredients. But i switched your flour with a mix of bread flour and all purpose flour instead and my starter isn’t really floating when i tested it but i still used it because i’m in a hurry does that affect my dough stickiness? Help
Did you rise it longer than he says? Because I overfermeted my once and the whole thing was just a gloopy mess
Nope i rise it just according to what alex said
I think its because how i handle the dough incorrectly since its my first time and because my yeast isn’t ready and active enough
When I put my bread in the dutch oven it flattens out a bit, and when the bread is baked and done it's even more bigger in width but not as much in height...why is that?
Maybe you didn’t build up enough surface tension
Just made my first two loaves last night and they are beautiful and delicious! I proofed it an extra day, since my schedule got a bit hectic. Thank you so much for the wonderful instruction.
The only drawback I had, was a slightly burnt flavor from the bottom of the loaf. I’m hoping to take it out 5-10 minutes early and see if that helps the next time.
Can’t wait to share this with my family and friends. Also, if you ever need a place to stay in San Diego, feel free to contact me! Cheers!
I’ve just baked my very first loaf of sourdough bread! I’ve followed the recipe and it came out insanely good!!! Thank you for explaining every single step in way that is very easy to follow.
You’re amazing!!!
I appreciate my "bought" sourdough now.
Hi Alex!! I really love your work, you're such an awesome and inspirational person!! Do you think that i can use terracotta pot instead of a cast iron one? ^^" I can't afford it, so i wonder if i can use my old pot. thank you!!
Go for it.
Moreno Lanza like a tagine? hmmm .... 🤔
@@FrenchGuyCooking I'm so glad to see this question and answer. I don't have a Dutch oven, would a tagine be ok (as different, conic kid)?
Hi @morenolanza8922, I know it's long ago but did it work with a terracotta pot? I'm about to use one, I don't have a Dutch oven.
True love is when you hear the crunch while slicing your bread! Aah..love love love ❤️
That moment !!!
I just made my first batch of sourdough bread!! I found your video on youtube this morning and I felt that it was the most "beginner friendly" and I really appreciate your step by step instruction. I just made two loaves and they are in the refrigerator for the night. Thank you so much for this video!!
How did they turn out?