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Artisan Bread Baking without Special Equipment
Traveling with Sourdough Starter
The easiest way to travel with starter is to give it a low-hydration feed just before you leave. This works for the starter you’re leaving at home in the refrigerator too. The starter has a slow “meal” while you’re in transit and can be fed upon arrival or simply refrigerated. Use a sandwich size zip-bag or a small jar to hold the starter. A feeding ratio of 1:2:1 (e.g. 30 grams starter, 60 grams flour, 30 grams water) will work for cooler and shorter trips, and 1:4:2 (e.g.15 grams starter, 60 grams flour, 30 grams water) for warmer and longer trips.
Low hydration starter
Flour and Water
Sometimes I bring a Tupperware or bag of milled whole grain flour on my travels and sometimes I just use whatever all purpose flour is at my destination. This article on Bread Baking and Flour Substitution Tips can help you get comfortable making bread recipes work with whatever flour you have on hand.
My sourdough starter and dough have thrived on tap water for a week or two, but I haven’t tested this over a longer time period. Moreover, the water in question doesn’t have a strong chlorine smell like some tap water does. If that were the case, I would leave a uncovered pan of water out overnight to evaporate off some of the chlorine, or I would buy spring water.
Volume and Weight
If your recipes are in grams and you usually use a scale to measure ingredients; the internet, a calculator app, and your senses will help you switch to measuring cups and spoons if they are all you have available. Conversions can be found by Googling “1 cup water in grams” or “1 tsp salt in grams.” After that, a calculator will help you figure out the volumes. For example, if Google tells you a cup of water weighs 237 grams and the recipe calls for 350 grams water, your equation is 350÷237=1.47 or about 1 1/2 cups water. Finally when mixing the actual dough, you need to touch the dough and assess if it feels right or needs more water or flour. “Right” may be defined by the description of the dough in the recipe or how you remember the dough from making it in the past.
Google says a cup of flour weighs 120 grams, but it’s always 130 grams with different measuring cup brands and humdity levels, so that is the conversion I used in the Breadtopia recipes I’ve written.
Bowls and Mixing Tools
Any bowl with room to stir vigorously works for mixing the dough. To track fermentation, bowls with measuring marks or straightwalled buckets are ideal but not always available so I simply guesstimate dough expansion in a regular bowl. Another option for precision is to look for a very narrow container to turn into an aliquot jar. For mixing, I use a spatula or a wooden spoon when I don’t have a stand mixer or Danish dough whisk as well as a dough scraper to neaten up the bowl.
To cover your dough, I recommend placing a baking sheet or a plate over the bowl, or put the entire bowl in a plastic grocery bag if you have one handy, or if you have reusable bowl covers and you’re traveling, pack one along with your starter. Plastic wrap is a last resort for me because it’s a single-use waste product and also very tedious when it sticks to itself as I uncover and re-cover the bowl for stretching and folding the dough.
Note that the caution you may have heard to not use metal with sourdough has to do with how aluminum breaks down when exposed to acid, but most bowls and utensils are stainless steel and therefore completely fine to use.
Mixing with a spatula
Temperature Control
With sourdough baking, you always want to follow the mantra, “Watch the dough and not the clock.” This is especially true if you’re used to a temperature controlled Brod and Taylor Proofer or a warming pad like the Raisenne Dough Riser. Using the oven with the light on as a warming box can work but only if you have a thermometer to check just how warm the light makes the oven. Some ovens hover in the mid-80s with the light on and others get up into the 90s and beyond. I prefer my dough to stay under 85°F to keep the texture manageable and the flavor a bit less sour (temperatures over 80°F favor lactic acid production).
Shaping
The most important tools for shaping the dough are your hands, flour, and a clean work surface. If a large wood cutting board is available, that’s a good option to use as a work surface as it has probably only been cleaned with food-safe methods. If you’re using the countertop, make sure you thoroughly wash it. Rub the surface with a wet cloth (water or water and white vinegar), wipe it dry, and do this a couple more times using a fresh cloth or paper towel at each step. In a pinch, you can also shape your dough inside the bowl it has been rising in: lift the dough out with one hand, flour the bowl with the other, place the dough back in and proceed with shaping, if a bit awkwardly.
If your dough is extremely sticky and you’re really missing your bench knife, use the side of a straight-edged “metal turner” spatula to move the dough around.
Proofing Basket Alternatives
Before I ever owned a proofing basket, I use a relatively deep and narrow colander lined with a floured tea towel for the second rise of my dough. Any bowl that encourages the dough to expand upward in the loaf shape you desire is a good choice, and if you want a bâtard shaped bread, use a loaf pan lined with a floured tea towel.
The most important thing is to make sure you work plenty of flour into the cloth. I find that all purpose flour is sufficient even though rice flour is better at keeping the dough from sticking. Let the towel dry completely before folding up to store for your next use. If you want to wash the tea towel, do so in the sink with lukewarm water. Make sure the flour is out of the fabric before putting it in the washing machine, otherwise the towel (and your clothing) will come out with tiny, embedded black dough dots.
For a shorter final proof (under 3 hours), you can gently fold the towel over the top of the bowl as a cover. If you’re refrigerating the dough for a longer final proof, place the basket inside a plastic bag or top it with a plate or bowl to keep the top of the dough from drying out.
Deep bowl lined with a floured tea towel and covered with a plate
Baking Vessels
A cloche or Dutch oven is the best choice for baking artisan style loaves of bread. They provide the ideal amount and timing of steam to the dough, and they tolerate the high temperatures that maximize oven spring and make a classic crispy crust. If these aren’t available, some alternatives include:
Miscellaneous Tips
In place of a lame, I use a serrated knife to score my dough unless there is a well sharpened smooth-bladed knife at my disposal.
Simple deep scoring
If you’re used to baking in clay vessels and are now using a cast iron Dutch oven, enameled or not, you should read this FAQ on Preventing a Burnt Bread Bottom.
Without a probe thermometer, your best bet for making sure the bread is baked through is to push the bake a little darker than you normally might and aim for a hollow sound when you knock on the base of the bread. However, if you’re baking in an open oven on a stone/steel, the bread will likely get dark before it is cooked inside and you may want to tent it with foil partway through.
50:50 All Purpose and Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
The bread in these photos was made using the tools described above and baked in a basic Dutch oven. I followed the framework of Eric’s No Knead Sourdough Bread recipe from 2007 with a few modifications. I had all purpose flour rather than bread flour so I reduced the water from 85% to 82% hydration (calculated with the starter’s flour and water). I also wanted a smaller loaf so I scaled the recipe down from 520 to 460 grams total flour.
The first rise was 8 hours in a cold kitchen. I did four rounds of gluten development instead of two, and the rests in between were 20-30 minutes. The final proof was 1 hour at room temperature plus overnight in the refrigerator, then baked directly from the cold.
Artisan Bread Baking without Special Equipment