Sourdough Bread - greatly refined!

Sourdough Bread - really easy!!! As you know, I am really missing the sourdough, and have taken to baking it myself. With a lot of practice since Feb 2008, I have come up with a more successful receipe! This one needs a bread baking form, as the dough is rather wet, or you will just have very flat bread.

You will need

one package dried sourdough (I import them, and often have some spare)
half a piece fresh yeast (stocked by the organic store in North Lane, but I hear Morrison has it as well)
50 ml milk
400 g Rye Flour (whole meal, stocked by our organic shop)
100 g bran (can be wheat or oat or spelt)
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon spice mix (ground cumin, onion seed and paprika spice)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
300 ml water (1/3 boiling, 2/3 cold - sparkling mineral water works best, but it must be from a bottle from which no-one has drunk, as saliva inhibits the rising process)

method

Start the yeast by heating the milk (goats milk works as well as cows milk), pouring into a ceramic or porcellaine bowl and adding sparkling mineral water until luke warm, sieve some of the flour into it, and crumble the yeast on top. Cover with a clean cloth and sit in a warm place for app. 10 minutes (until there are bubbles on top)

Sieve the rest of the flour (organic flour may have organic ingredients you don't want in your bread), mix in all the spices and the sourdough powder.
Add the yeast fluid and the rest of the water and oil, and start kneading (best with machine, as a bit wet)

Put into an earthenware bowl, cover with a clean dishcloth, and leave to rise in a warm place (e.g. on the window sill when the sun is shining). the first rising takes about 2 hours, and the dough should double.

Preheat oven to 200 degree C (a small piece of white paper gets brown at the edges if the temparature is right).

Pour into bread form or form 2 flat breads. If you form breads, these need to rise for another 20-30 minutes.

Place breads on a tray in the middle of the oven, and place a metal pot with boiling water (a pint will do) on the bottom of the oven.

Lower temperature to 180 degrees C after 15 minutes (a paper only gets yellow at the edges) and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes, if you have made two loaves, or 30-40 if using one form. The baking process is finished if the bread does not crackle any longer. Switch oven off and leave bread to cool down gently within oven (door open if possible). Enjoy!

Dagmar 16 BP