Sourdough Chronicles: It Begins

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

-Plato

Last Friday night - as i sometimes do - i mixed together some flour and salt to make a loaf of Saturday morning no-knead bread.  Unfortunately, when i rummaged around the back of the fridge, i realized that we were out of yeast.  The next day, we visited several grocery stores and realized (as many people had, months before), that EVERYBODY WAS OUT OF YEAST.   

I knew just from reading friends' recent Facebook posts that sourdough starter could serve as a suitable replacement for store-bought yeast.  I Googled some formulae and settled on one that seemed the easiest, from Kitchn.  Essentially: (4 oz flour + 4 oz water every 24 hours) x 4, keep at a constant temperature of 75-80 degrees.  

HOWEVER, i still had flour and salt sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting for some sort of leavening agent.  Last night, after 2 feedings, my starter already looked bubbly and smelled sour, so i decided to take the plunge and try to make no-knead bread with what i had.  

So, ingredients: 

3 cups unbleached flour

20 twists of kosher salt

Approximately 1 1/2 cups of purified water, room temperature, taken directly out of reverse osmosis tap  

1/2 cup of "sourdough starter discard"

Technique: 

1. At 9 PM: All ingredients were mixed together in a glass bowl.  The amount of water wasn't precise, i just added enough to make the dough "shaggy." 

2. At 6 AM: The "slightly risen" dough (this was disconcerting, i'm used to a more impressive rise overnight) was transferred to a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper, and folded once per side. 

3: At 630 AM: The dough looked a little flat, so i folded it again, once per side.  

4. At 715 AM: The parchment paper was lifted and plopped into the Dutch oven, which had been preheated to 450 degrees.  Baked/steamed for 30 minutes with the lid on.  

5. At 745 AM: The Dutch oven was uncovered. 

6. At 759 AM: The bread was removed from the Dutch oven, allowed to cool for 5 minutes, then eaten.  

Notes on the bread: 

1. It was a little flatter than i'm used to.  After cutting in half, i noted that the top had risen, and was "fluffy," while the bottom half was dense.  

2. The bottom was toasted, probably because of the density of the bottom half pushing down on it (?).

3. There was a slight sour taste, only noticeable if you thought about it.  

OVERALL VERDICT: Edible, but not good.  

Things to try: 

1. Use more "mature" starter.  Based on the Kitchn recipe, i needed two more feedings for it to mature completely. 

2. Dump the dough into the Dutch oven upside down, so the "risen" part gets pushed down a bit and the "flat" part gets a chance to rise - maybe this will lead to an overall fluffier loaf. 

3. Allow longer time for the dough to rise.  

4. Warm the water up in the microwave for about a minute before using. 

5. Add one early fold.

6. Change the proportion of ingredients: maybe just 2 1/2 cups of flour to 1/2 cup of starter. 

I'll bake another loaf after two feedings, we'll see what happens next.