Sourdough simply uses wild yeast in place of commercial yeast to leaven bread. It relies on wild yeasts in the air around us and the yeast cultures in a warm and humid created with water, flour, and sometimes other components.

When creating a sourdough starter, we always felt like we were on an expedition trying to trap yeastie invisible beasts with our flour and water mixtures. Because I could not see the beasts, who were never sure what they had captured. Although generally successful, we never felt like we were in control. Perhaps that is how sourdough bread should feel a symbiosis with nature.

But there is an easier way: use commercial yeast starter. I know this is heresy on sourdough bread fan, but only care about the bread. Using commercial yeast is easier is the spirit of the long fermentation that creates fresh sour-like, and wild yeasts eventually take over the head anyway. Because it's easy, no big deal if you abandon your starter after a few weeks, you can easily start over when you're back in the mood or the weather.

Using this recipe for sourdough bread, a small amount of yeast used in the boot. As the starter is used and updated with new footage of flour and water, wild and cultured yeast are introduced.

For the starter:

• 1 cup hot water (about 110 degrees)
• 1 / 4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup unbleached flour high in gluten.

Mix the starter in a glass container or steel, covered with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature until doubled and bubbly, perhaps hours 4 to 6.

For the cake:
A sponge is a pre-ferment, a wet mixture of flour and yeast that acts as an incubation chamber of the yeast grow at the desired pace. Is added to the dough.

• 1 cup starter
• 3 / 4 cup warm water
• 2 cups flour

Mix one cup of starter with flour and water, cover and let ferment until tripled in volume. At room temperature, which will last four to eight hours. You can put it in a cool place - about fifty degrees - and allow it to benefit all night. (In winter, the garage may be appropriate.) You can also put in the refrigerator overnight. At temperatures of forty degrees, the yeast is inactive, but the friendly bacteria will still be working and improve the bitter taste of bread. If slow growth at lower temperatures ("Delay" is the correct term to curb the growth of yeast), simply put the sponge at room temperature and allowed to expand to three times its original volume before continuing.

For the dough:

• All of the sponge
• 1 1 / 2 cups flour (more or less)
• 2 teaspoons salt

Mix salt with flour. Knead the combination into the sponge by hand until you have a smooth, elastic, slightly sticky dough, adding more flour if necessary. Place dough in greased bowl and let rise again until doubled, about an hour.

Form the loaves:
Although you can make this bread in the molds, which works better as an independent great round or oval bar or two smaller loaves. Place a clean cotton cloth into a bowl or basket to hold the loaf. Lightly dust from inside the bowl with the flour. Place each loaf shaped head in a bowl on top of the dusting of flour. Cover the pan with plastic and let rise again until doubled. This increase is likely to have less than an hour.

Bakers in mind: You want a light coating of flour on the fabric to be transferred to the pan, not a heavy caking. Gently sift the flour of a filter is the easiest way to achieve a uniform layer.

If you decide to bake the bread in pans, skip this step. Instead, let the dough rise in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap until doubled. Form of bread mold, place the bread in greased pans and let rise until it is swollen and enlarged. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about 30 minutes.

Crusty bread baking:
To form a thick crust, chewy which is typical of artisan breads, follow these instructions: Place a large shallow pan, metal in the oven on the bottom shelf. Hot water is poured into the mold to create steam in the oven. (High heat is hard on pans for not using one of the best pots and don 't use a glass or ceramic may be broken.) A sheet pan is ideal age. Fill a spray bottle with water. You will use this to spray water in the oven to create steam further.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. When the oven is hot and the bread has fully risen and is soft and puffy - being very careful not to burn with the rising steam and with a hand PERMITTED turn your head and pour two or three cups of very hot water in the tray in the oven. Quickly close the oven door to capture the steam. With spray bottle in hand, open the door and spray the oven walls quickly to create more steam and close the door. The oven is ready for breads.

Work quickly to get the bread in the oven before the steam subsides. Gently invert the bread loaves on a lightly greased non-insulated in a baking pan a little cornmeal has been dusted. With your sharpest knife, quickly make two or three slashes 1/4-inch deep on top of each loaf. This venting of steam in the pan and allow the bread to expand properly. Immediately place the pan in the steam oven. After a few minutes, open the door and spray the walls again to load the steam. Do this twice more during the first fifteen minutes of cooking. This steamy environment will create the chewy crust prized in artisan breads.

Allow the bread oven to 425 degrees for fifteen minutes in the hot steam oven, then reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for a total of 35 to 40 minutes. Check the bread ten minutes before cooking is complete. If the top is browning too quickly, tent the pan with aluminum foil for the rest of the cooking to avoid burning. The bread is done when the bark becomes dark golden color temperature inside reaches 210 degrees. It is important that the bread is thoroughly cooked to drive moisture from the loaf. If the bread is baked, the excess moisture to migrate to the surface which no longer has the dry crust of bread to chew a great craftsman.

This sourdough bread is to die. The prolonged rising gives the yeast a lot of time to convert the starch into sugars and the friendly bacteria the opportunity to impart their flavors like walnut.