Bread Week: Sourdough Cottage Loaf - GBBO Bloggers 2017

For bread week, I've been rather crazy and attempted not one, but 2 bakes. Both on the same day. I couldn't decide whether to attempt the signature tea cakes, the technical cottage loaf or the show stopper coloured bread sculpture. Ok, let's face it, it was never going to be the bread sculpture. Which left me with two to choose from. So I sort of did both. First up is the Cottage loaf and I'll write about my second bake in a different blogpost.

I've rarely eaten cottage loaf and yet I have fond memories of it! When I think back to my primary school days there are very few memories of any actual learning experiences there but one of my early memories of there is making bread and being taught to make a mini cottage loaf. I remember also being shown how to plait bread and it was all such a fun experience.  It really does show how beneficial 'hands-on' learning experiences are to children if I can still remember it over 30 years later!

I've had my own sourdough starter going since the 18th May this year and I decided I wanted to incorporate that into my Cottage Loaf. I haven't have the best experiences of baking with my sourdough starter - It tastes just like it should but I always end up with dense loaves despite trying different rising times and tweaking different things along the way.

my sourdough starter which began life in May

I've discovered that adding a sachet of dried yeast too helps make a softer loaf but it does sadly reduce the sourdough taste (and I suppose defeats the purpose of sourdough being able to be it's own raising agent with the wild yeast in it). But I was desperate for my cottage loaf to work so added dried yeast did go into it.

ingredients mixed in to make the sourdough 'sponge'

I started with 150ml of sourdough starter. To this I added 250g strong wholemeal flour and just under 300ml tepid water. I also added the dried yeast and 10g salt at this stage too. I mixed well and left covered with clingfilm for several hours. This makes what is known as a 'sourdough sponge' and you can see it bubble up. oh, I also added a little squeeze of honey. I wouldn't normally do this and the salt and oil would go in at the next stage ordinarily, but because of the normal yeast being added, I felt I should add the salt and honey too.

how the sourdough sponge looks after several hours

Then it's time to add a further 300g flour. Again I used strong wholemeal flour and a tablespoon of rapeseed oil. This is then kneading time. I actually use the dough hook on my mixer for 10 minutes.

This then gets left again - covered in clingfilm for around half and hour to an hour or two. Then it is knock back the dough time (I've discovered it's best not to knock back sourdough too much as it doesn't always rise well after this).

I shaped it into two cottage loafs and placed them on an oiled baking tray (in the hope that two smaller loaves would cook better than one massive one). I cut the slits in the dough and left it covered with clingfilm for several more hours.

One of the things I struggle with when making bread is the long wait between stages as the dough rises. In theory it may seem that sourdough is even trickier with its longer rising times but I actually find it can fit in with my life better as I can leave it so absolutely ages if I need to and it is just left at room temperature so that makes it easier too.

Finally when it looked like it had risen enough it was oven time! Oven needs to be really hot for sourdough - and steamy. So I use a baking tray of water underneath and I also squirt some water in the oven too.

my UFO look-a-like wholemeal sourdough style cottage loaves

I had the oven at 230C and put the cottages loaves in for 15 minutes to begin with. Then another squirt of water for more steam and another 15 minutes at a slightly lower temperature of 200C.

I have no idea if any of this is 'right' but it is just what I've been doing since making sourdough and it seems to work for me. I think next time I will go back to using just the sourdough starter with no additional yeast and the flavour is amazing - I'll just have to enjoy having denser loaves again.

I was pleased that they remained 'cottage loafy looking' at the end of the process. So I guess that's a good bake.

texture could have been better and more 'sourdough' like but it tasted lovely warm from the oven with butter! 

Linking up with Mummy Mishaps #GBBOBloggers2017: