San Francisco-Style Sourdough Bread

I always wanted to make the famous San Francisco-style sourdough bread (also to please my husband, who hails from the City by the Bay). But when we visited the Boudin Bakery where they invented the recipe, I was told that the key to San Francisco sourdough is the wonderful fog that develops every day from the ocean’s evaporated water. The fog contains certain bacteria that don’t exist anywhere else. One might be skeptical about it but I believe it, as I know how starter reacts to any little change in conditions. This delicious, fluffy white version that I make at home is, in my opinion, a respected relative of the original sourdough baked on the shores of San Francisco Bay.

In comparison with darker bread that contains the rye flour, this one is lighter, less complicated and easier to make. And while dark bread belongs more to the colder parts of the world as it’s more substantial and warming, this white sourdough is like a soft cooling summer breeze coming from the South. It is good with lighter dishes, salads, fish and also, like the dark one, for healthy sandwiches.

Before you start baking, revive the starter.

Active starter develops nice bubbles and rises.

Ingredients

240g (8.5 oz) starter (see my page about starter)
600g (21 oz) white flour that is suitable for bread making (spelt flour, wheat flour or random mixture of spelt and wheat with protein percentage 12% and higher)
about 350g (12 oz) room temperature water
15g (0.5 oz) salt

Method

First mix gently only flour and 300 g water together and let it rest for half an hour to an hour. This is called autolysis, a process when flour enzymes are activated and start breaking gluten structures. Autolysis improves bread structure and taste.

After that, incorporate salt dissolved in 50 g of water along with the starter in the flour and water mixture. If you don’t have a stand mixer, knead the dough with a wooden spoon for at least 10 minutes. In case you are using the old technique, start with the wooden spoon at the most distant side of the bowl, pull under the dough firmly towards yourself 10 to 12 times. Then move the bowl 90 degrees counter clockwise, and repeat this stirring process. Turn the bowl again and so on for the required time until the dough is smooth and silky.

After 10 minutes the dough is silky and smooth.

Keep thou dough in the bowl and cover it with plastic or wet towel to keep it from drying.

Bulk fermentation for about 3 and half hours.

If you have time to fit stretch and fold procedure into your schedule; that will improve your bread inside structure, making it fluffier, with more holes inside. Stretch and fold technique helps to develop gluten structures in the dough and therefore strengthens the dough and makes it more elastic. After you put the dough back to the bowl, wait 45 minutes, then wet your hand and lay it underneath the dough and bring the dough up, stretching it as much as it goes, then fold the dough over the top. Move by 90° and proceed the same way, do about 4 S&F in total. Finally, flip the dough upside down. Do S&F 3 times during the bulk proof, every 45 minutes.

Then leave the dough to rest until you see that it is ready for the next step.

This is when the dough doubles its size and you notice bubbles beneath the surface.

Overnight option: After your last S&F put the bowl covered with plastic or a wet towel in the fridge overnight and remove it in the morning.

Next step: Remove the dough from the bowl and pre-shape it in a ball. Be gentle because you don’t want to get rid of the nice bubbles that will create desired holes inside the bread.

Gently roll the dough on the working surface to shape a ball.

Let it rest for 15 minutes, then stretch it on the working surface and shape the dough for the final rise.

First stretch the dough gently flat on the working surface. Sprinkle the working surface with flour.

Fold by flopping the bottom 1/3 of the dough over the central third.

Now fold it in half. Stretch the upper corners out.

Start with the upper corners, bring them together and continue down towards you, glueing the side parts together.

Roll the dough by holding it by the edge closest to you (the bottom part) and basically flip it over.

Put the ball in your basket or bowl for the final proof.

Place the ball either into a bread basket or a bowl with cotton cloth inside. The inside of a basket or a bowl has to be sprinkled generously with plenty of flour so the dough doesn’t stick to the form.

Form a ball and leave the dough to rise.

Final proof for one to one and half hours.

Wait for the dough to rise to about 2 cm from the basket’s edge. You recognise that the dough has risen enough by poking it gently with your finger. The poking should not make a hole but the pressed part should smoothly come back up.

Leavened dough is elastic, with bubbles underneath the surface.

I use a shovel to transfer the loaf to the oven.

At least 45 minutes before the dough is ready, heat up the oven up to 250°C (482°F). Place a metal sheet or a baking stone on the middle rack and a container with water on the bottom of the oven.

When the dough has risen and the oven is heated up, open the oven door and flip the loaf from the basket over onto the sheet. If you have the baking stone, transfer the loaf onto it with a shovel. You can score the bread before putting it in the oven simply with a sharp knife. Close the door and wait (without opening!) for 15 minutes. Then open the door quickly to let out the moisture, remove the water container and lower the temperature to 220°C (428°F). Another approximately 45 minutes and the bread is done. Knock on it and if it sounds like a bell, you can let it to cool down a metal rack.