Sourdough olive bread

Every fortnight I bring some bread into the office, my colleagues bring accompaniments, and we have ourselves a mini buffet. For this week I made an olive bread, which everyone enjoyed, but the comment from one of my colleagues sums it up "this bread even smells good"! So if you like olives and if you like bread, you should give this one a try.

Sliced olive bread

Ingredients

• 250g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 275g water
• 1 lemon, zest only
• 350g white bread flour
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 200g olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 2tsp italian herbs
• 2tsp salt

Method

• Measure the water into a mixing bowl and mix in the starter and the lemon zest.
• Add the flours, the herbs, and the salt and mix until well incorporated. Add the olives, and fold until they are part of the dough. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled surface and knead it about 10-12 times. Shape it into a ball, put the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Rest the dough for 30 minutes. Repeat this process three more times.
• After the last knead, put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and rest it for 1 hour. 
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes. 
• Shape the dough into a tight ball and put it in a floured bread basked, seam side up, and proof it for about 4 hours. 
• Bake in a pre-heated oven to 230C for 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 220C and bake for a further 20 minutes or until done.

Sourdough flatbreads

We have been trying to have a picnic for a while now, but the weather has not been very cooperative. So we had a picnic for two indoors, with a few dips, cheese, spanish sausage and salad, and served with this freshly made flatbreads. It is quite entertaining to watch them puff up in the oven while baking. These are best served soft and warm.

Sourdough flatbreads

Ingredients

• 100g sourdough starter
• 125g white bread flour
• 75g wholemeal flour or rye flour
• 135g water
• 15g olive oil
• 1/2tsp salt

Method

• Measure the water into a mixing bowl and mix in the starter and the olive oil.
• Add the flours and the salt, and mix until everything is well incorporated. Cover and rest the dough for 10 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled surface and knead it about 10-12 times. Shape it into a ball, put the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Rest the dough for 10 minutes. Repeat this process 2 more times.
• After kneading the last time, rest the dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, divide it in 6 pieces and shape each one into a ball. Cover and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Roll each ball into a thin disk, cover and rest it for a couple of minutes.
• Bake each piece in a pre-heated oven to 250C for around 4 minutes, or until puffy. Don't let the tops brown. Once backed wrap the breads with a cloth to keep them soft.

Spiced sourdough rye bread

This is a rye bread even for people that don't like rye. It is now one of my favourite breads, packed with aromatic spices, the smell that fills the kitchen when baking is just amazing, and so is the bread. It goes both with sweet or savoury toppings, but the way I prefer is lightly toasted with some goats butter. Simple but delicious.

Sliced and ready to be eaten

Ingredients

• 125g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 190g water
• 20g molasses
• 1tsp fennel seeds
• 1tsp aniseed
• 1/2tsp caraway seeds
• Zest of one orange
• 125g rye flour
• 125g white bread flour
• 1tsp salt

Method

• Measure the water into a mixing bowl and mix in the starter. Add the molasses, all the spices and the orange zest, and mix.
• In a separate bowl mix the flours together with the salt. Add the flours to the wet mixture, mixing until well incorporated. Cover the bowl and rest the dough for 30 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to an oiled surface and knead it about 10-12 times. Shape it into a ball and put the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Repeat this process 3 more times.
• After kneading the last time, rest the dough for 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Shape the dough into a tight ball and put it in a floured bread basked, seam side up, and proof it for about 4 hours.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven to 240C for 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to 220C and bake for a further 15 minutes or until done.

Rosemary, potato, and raisin sourdough

This one started by just being a simple potato bread, but during the mixing of the ingredients I decided to experiment and added a few more things, fresh rosemary leaves and some raisins.

Dough during the kneading stage

Ingredients:

• 250g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 300g water
• 75g grated potatoes, with skin
• 25g honey
• 2 sprigs of rosemary (leaves only)
• 100g raisins
• 2tsps salt
• 150g wholemeal bread flour
• 350g white bread flour

Method:

• In a large bowl mix the starter, water, potatoes, honey, rosemary, raisins, and the salt. Add the flours and mix until everything is well incorporated and you have a slightly sticky dough. Cover with a cloth and rest the dough for 30 minutes.
• On an oiled surface, knead the dough 10 to 12 times, shape into a ball, put it back in the bowl and cover it. Repeat this process three more times.
• After the last knead, put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and rest it for 1 hour.
• Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pre-shape it into a ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
• Shape the dough into a tight ball and put it in a floured bread basked, seam side up, and proof it for about 4 hours.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven to 230C for 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 220C and bake for a further 30 minutes or until done.

The finished product - Rosemary, potato, and raisin sourdough bread

Broa de milho (Portuguese corn bread)

Broa is a traditional Portuguese corn bread, usually made with a mix of corn flour with white flour and/or rye flour, and sourdough. According to my mom, my grandmother used to bake several loafs of  this bread every week, so I decided to try to follow tradition and gave it a try.

With a few hints from my mom and a recipe we found at a blog (in Portuguese) this is what came out from our oven.

Broa de milho

Ingredients:

• 350g maize flour
• 175g white bread flour
• 175g rye flour
• 200g sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 2tsp salt
• 450ml boiling water
• 50ml water

Method:

Add all the flours to a large bowl and mix them together. Add the salt to the boiling water and add it to the flours, mixing with a spoon. Let the dough cool down until its temperature is below 40C. Mix the sourdough and the remaining water and add it to the dough. Mix with your hands for a few minutes, until everything is well incorporated, adding more water if necessary - the dough should be quite sticky. 

With wet hands, smooth down the dough, and let it rest for about 2 hours. The dough is ready when it has risen and cracks appear on the surface.

To shape the dough sprinkle a clean bowl with maize flour, put the dough inside the bowl and sprinkle with more flour. Toss and rotate the dough in the bowl until it is shaped into a ball.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 220C for 40 minutes. 

Broa de milho - crumb

The broa should have a thick, crusty crust, with a moist dense crumb. It goes well with strong flavours, like a nice smoked ham, or an extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!

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In the oven

Tried a different method and ingredients another day.

White flour, fresh yeast, salt, sugar, water

We didn't have enough trays so we had to use muffin tins.

Shaped like a muffin

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First Sourdough Bread

It's our second weekend in our new home and since the unpacking, arranging, cleaning, and other chores are mostly done, we have time to make a bread. Definitely not the first time we have made this but the first in this kitchen.

And the oven took a bit of time to figure out the controls but so far, it's been very good. But the big test for it was how it would baked bread. With simple sourdough - 60% wholemeal, 40% white, we tried it out.

Dough in proving basket

Just after scoring

Just out of the oven

And finally the massive finished loaf.

The oven definitely passed the test! 

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