White Sourdough 'desem' Bread Recipe

also known as the 'dry dough' sourdough method.

There are different ways to make desem, and the way i've settled on here is one way only - and I choose it because it's easy to maintain, and because of its resilient nature. It also has an absolutely distinct flavour, and if you are a long term sourdough propeller head like me, you'll appreciate it straight away as being one of a kind, as all good ferments become over time. The longer, the better!

You'll need:

1200g of white stonemilled wheat flour

 

120 grams (approx) of dry dough (desem) starter

700 - 800 mls of water

25 grams cooking salt

You'll also need:

Thick (heavy duty - not a salad whisk) whisk or fork. Whisk is best. You can get great small ones at kitchen stores, and there's one free in the Bakery in a Box.

Like other desem recipes, this one does best with a fair bit of bench work.  If you are lazy, there are some shortcuts, which I'll explain as I go along... However, the 'dry dough' or desem sourdough starter is tough stuff! This sourdough recipe requires a bit of bench work, and quite a few short bursts of activity over a few hours. You can be doing something else at the same time, like writing your book, for example. The breadmaking is quick work, just a few repeats. Awesome, awesome bread awaits!

 

Mix the dry dough starter with the water - reserve about 100 mls for adding later. Break up the dry dough and stir through the water. The water will become cloudy with little lumps through it. Allow to stand for ten minutes to disperse, if you like. Whisk a couple of times at the middle and the end to help the starter disperse.

First shortcut: Soften the chunk of dry dough overnight in all the allocated amount of water, with a fifth of the total amount of flour in the recipe (c'mon, it's 240 grams! What is it with you people!) sifted into it, whisked and left on the bench or in a warmish place, covered so it doesn't skin with the lid loosely on the container. The 'sponge' from the desem can be whisked again before adding the rest of the flour the next day at the same time.

So now, we've either got a softened starter from a quick soak, or a sourdough sponge, depending on which route we took. From here on, what follows is the pattern. The only difference between shortcut and regular methods is how many times you do this - once, twice or many.

Pre - kneading method from 'sponge' to 'dough':

Slowly whisk in the remaining (or all) the flour to the liquid mass. It will get to a point where it becomes too hard to whisk. Begin folding, and sift a bit more flour in each time, folding as you go until it begins to be kneadable.

If you're not in a hurry, do this flour addition in small amounts, in stages, over an hour or more - mind you, if your starter is as ripe as mine is, you won't get a whole lot of rest - this dough grows very quickly when your desem is really ripe!

Once you have added all the flour, and sooner or later this has to occur, your dough should be soft, not a tough dough at all. In the scale of things, i'd call this a 'medium hydration' dough. It's soft, but still a dough, not a batter...

When it's rested, add the salt. Same technique - push it through the dough with your fingers at first. Then, as the dough comes together, start kneading it into a large ball, leaving the 'seam' at the bottom. Place the rough ball of dough back in your doughbox or bowl, cover it, and return it to your warm place.

Every fifteen minutes, remove your dough from the box or bowl. Work it for a few minutes on the benchtop, using this method:

Here's a good basic kneading technique:

 

Place the dough with the seam facing you (in other words upside down) on the bench.

 

Flatten out the ball of dough with your knuckles. Fold into a longitudinal rectangle and flatten again with your knuckles. Go for evenness at first, both in thickness and width. (Try poking the dough down with the tips of your fingers to even out the dough before flattening it).

 

Repeat the same thing in approximately fifteen minute intervals for the first hour or two of dough development - as many as six turns can go into the dough. Each turn takes only a minute, and is very clean, as no flour or water is added.

 

In this manner, you will be getting a really well developed dough, which is comparible to a machine made dough for the development it achieves. Be careful when using this technique to avoid tearing the dough. If it begins to tear, let it rest for another fifteen minutes before trying again. If it tears every time, you have taken the dough too far. This shouldn't be a problem though - if done correctly, you should always begin with a well relaxed dough. A couple of 'turns' (this process) is enough. Time does the work, once again.

You don't need to knead with a machine - but even if you were keen on using a mixer, the same technique will bring amazing results!

Once you have put a number of turns into the dough, allow it to rest for a couple of hours.

General Kneading Tips:

• Remember, the more turns you can get into the dough, the lighter your finished bread will be. You will notice that with each successive turn, the dough feels silkier and more elastic.

 

• Once the dough begins to feel slightly stick or tacky, that's about it - after this point, all your efforts will have a negative effect. Leave it alone now. It will recover.

• If a dough is really soft (that is, if it runs all over the bench in only a few minutes after kneading) you may find that adding a little sifted or 'flung' flour over the dough will make it easier to handle. Even just dipping your fingertips into flour before handling a soft dough can make a world of difference.
  

• Once your dough feels light and elastic, allow to proof for a couple of hours, just at room temperature.

• With a small amount of ferment, such as with desem recipes, you can allow the dough to fully 'gas' overnight (for about 6 hours or more, if you're counting!). Then, you simply divide the dough as per the next step, and proceed.
  

After the final proof, no matter whether it's two or six or even eight hours, your white desem dough will be ready to be cut and formed. In a 'short' proof it should have at least  doubled in size; in a 'long' proof (overnight or more than 6 hours), it will pretty much fill whatever container you've used (this is known as fully 'gassed' dough). It'll be very soft, and collapse completely. This is great dough.

 

Round the chunks or dough. Spray with water and leave on the bench.

 

Rest for another fifteen minutes, then pick up each cylinder using only the outsides of your hands, cupping the dough like a bowl with your hands underneath. I guess you could say it is a bit like holding a book in your palms. Stretch the face of the dough to begin a cylinder shape, and simply squeeze the base together with the outside edges of both hands.

Spray the doughs with water, and dust with semoilina or rice flour. Slash as you normally would.

Place on flat baking trays, allow to proof (in boxes, as usual) until quite large and not resisting being poked with a little fingertip. If you're heading for the 'sole' of your oven, you can let these babies get massive before baking, because the 'kick' will be large.

Final Proof

You will get an amazing rise from this bread. The crumb, when it's baked, will glow - because of the development that you will have achieved from so many kneadings.

The white desem dough will rise a great deal from the final turn, and I found that I could literally proof it until it was almost overfilling the trays I used. Even when I proofed them for what I thought would be well and truly long enough, they still kicked out sideways in the oven, indicating that they could have even gone further!  This bread will give a big oven kick, if you've mixed and turned the dough correctly - so it might take a couple of attempts making this recipe to understand how much oomph there is in the dough.

If you've really got this dough right, though, and you have a pizza stone or hot tiles in your oven, you can proof this dough for an really, really long time, and it will hold its shape in a batard no worries at all. It loves a good sole bake!

Baking

 

I think this bread is best made with a thick crust, but however you like your crust, it is an utterly delicious style of sourdough. I have to say that I've tasted a lot of sourdough bread in my time, and this one is up there for flavour. It's complex, delicate, earthy and subtle, all at once. Quite an achievement.

Follow the instructions for baking sourdough bread in the site. I have some really great high protein Baker's Flour in SourdoughBaker Shop at the moment, and if you indicate you'd like the 'premium baker's flour', I'll make sure you get it.

For the full list of 'dry dough' sourdough recipes, have a look at:

• Light Wholemeal Sourdough Desem Bread Recipe
• White Sourdough 'Desem' Bread Recipe
  
• Hearty Wholemeal Sourdough Desem Bread Recipe
  
• Earthy Spelt Sourdough Desem Bread Recipe
• Pumpernickel Sourdough Desem Bread Recipe

For more information about Sourdough Starters, follow the links below by title:

• Sourdough Starters

• Liquid sourdough starters
  
  • • Introduction to Starter
    • 7 Day Starter Recipe
    • Starting the Starter
    • Spelt Starter
  • Dry Dough Starter
  • Old Dough Starters
  • Powdered Starters
  • Maintaining a starter
  • Storing Sourdough Starter
  • Healing Your Starter