Recently I attended a sourdough bread course online where Martha Levie shares tips from her experience baking, slicing, and storing sourdough bread. This course is usually offered at Abigail’s Oven bakery in Spanish Fork Utah, but with COVID-19 they decided to develop an online course to maintain social distancing. These are some of my notes and Martha’s direct quotes when I could keep up with her.
After explaining the step leading up to baking bread, she began here with Step 5, “The Final Rise.” Once the dough has fermented overnight, she said, begin by preheating your oven while your bread is going through the final proofing stage. This is a natural way to use the time.
If you are using a cast iron dutch oven, she explained, it should be in the oven preheating too. When the oven is hot, it is time to place your proofed bread on a sheet of oiled parchment. Abigail’s Oven uses a light coating of olive oil brushed on, while I spray olive oil on mine.
Then score the top with a sharp knife and place it into the preheated dutch oven. Dip your hand in some water and throw a handful into the dutch oven with the bread. Cover the dutch oven and put it back into your preheated oven for 30 minutes.
We bake our sourdough bread at Abigail’s Oven at 465°F (240°C) for 30 minutes, Martha Levie explained, “so that time is not precise for us in the bakery. It’s just a rhythm that we’ve gotten into so that sometimes it is a bit longer than 30 minutes.
“Then there is the problem that some people’s ovens may heat differently. So that’s why I tell people to do 30 minutes. Then take a look because some ovens are hotter. My mom’s oven is always hotter than my oven.”
When baking sourdough bread I don’t always cook in cast iron. Sometimes I use uncovered stoneware because my oven is the kind that can add hot steam. Stoneware bakes quite differently than cast iron does.
This week when I baked in a Dutch oven, it took just 25 minutes. As you can see here I had achieved a good loaf already.
“So yes different containers will bake it differently, Martha clarified. ” You just have to watch the bread and you can test it with a thermometer to see if it’s above 200°F (93°C).”
Slicing Your Sourdough Bread
Martha says, “It is import to let it cool, otherwise, it gets gummy. But when it has cooled for two hours you can slice it all up at once or you can tear it apart. You know, people like to tear chunks of bread off or however you want to do it.
“You can get an electric knife which makes it a little bit easier. I like the electric knife way, but my husband Allen, not so much
“Also, a good way to cut a boule is to first cut it in half, (as shown in the feature image at the beginning of this post. Then you can take that half and put it face down on the board and slice it. That way it cuts a little bit easier.”
Storing Your Bread
“Sourdough bread stores really well in the freezer,” she promises. “So if you make a couple of loaves, make one for the freezer. Slice it up before you put it in. Then pull it out and it’s ready to toast—it tastes like it’s fresh bread. But you don’t want it to go for longer than two months.
“It does not store really well in the fridge,” however she points out. “That makes it get a little dry. The bread breaks instead of being soft and pliable. So I don’t like it in the fridge, but I know a lot of people who eat it out of the fridge, just not me.
“It will be fine in your cupboard as long as you let it cool before you put it in a plastic bag. You can also put it in a paper bag before it cool and it’s fine. But if you put it in plastic before it cools it will mold faster. So you want to make sure it’s completely cool before you bag it.
“At our home, we’ve had bread lasts anywhere from five days to three weeks. But sometimes it’ll mold at five days depending on weather changes.
“When the weather does change we will find this happening at some of our stores. It will be on the same bread wall or shelf where it lasts just fine and then it gets moldy for some reason. We just don’t know why.
“A while back I took a loaf of bread to my midwife. When I came back two weeks later for another checkup, she said that she went into her pantry and it had gone moldy. I was about to say, ‘I’m so sorry.’ But she inserted, ‘It was something I thought was wonderful.’ I asked, ‘Wonderful?’ She said, ‘Yes because I knew I was eating real food. I always wonder what did they put in the bread at Costco so that it can sit on the shelf for three weeks. That is not natural.’
“Hopefully, it does not sit that long. But when she said, ‘I knew I was eating real food,’ that is when I thought that was just a brilliant lesson to me. I thought you know what? That is so true, it is real. Just rejoice that your family is eating real food and if it does mold cut it off and toast it,” she said with a smile.
Closing Martha suggested, “Toasting always fixes everything with sourdough bread. If it’s a little old and dry just toast it and it tastes perfect. If anything is wrong with your bread, just toast it and it’ll be fine.”
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