Sunny Sourdough

It was a wonderfully sunny day so I named this bread Sunny Sourdough. Sunny sourdough is made with motherdough that has been aged at least 3 – 5 days. I had some 60% motherdough that was two weeks old and I wanted to use it so I made this bread.

You need to start ahead by making some 60% motherdough. Sunny Sourdough formula takes 245g (about 8 oz), but it is always good to have extra motherdough on hand. Click here to make the 60% motherdough. You can keep motherdough fermenting in your fridge and have it ready to use whenever you need it. Just use it or feed it before it turns “gluey” (which takes a while in the fridge). No need to discard unless you leave until it’s gluey and has lost all of it’s gluten structure. Even then you can use it in a low hydration dough and have some interesting results.

After your motherdough has fermented in the refrigerator for at least three to five days you can make Sunny Sourdough:

Sunny Sourdough

Makes 1366 g at 67% hydration (two loaves)

245 g motherdough 60% hydration -aged (pull apart into chunks)
450 g water
15 g salt
30 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon diastatic malt (optional)
626 g bread flour

Mix together the motherdough, water, salt, whole wheat flour and diastatic malt.

Incorporate the bread flour.

Allow the dough to proof at around 75F for 5 hours folding four – five times.

Shape loaves.

Refrigerate your loaves overnight, covered in plastic.

Next day, stagger loaves, proof at 70 – 80F until done proofing. I will use my Brod and Taylor proofer if the house is too cool(if you can afford one, just get one!).

Bake in a preheated oven at 480F for 15 minutes with steam then 10 – 15 more minutes without steam.

Long fermented motherdough will produce a loaf with a smell and taste so good you won’t believe you made it. It also has a great oven spring, even when the dough looks somewhat slack.

That is because the C02 is being absorbed into the dough during the long cold ferment and when it is hit by hight heat, the gas bubbles quickly expand creating large holes. You have to make sure your oven is VERY hot. I preheat my oven for at least an hour at 500+ degrees and turn it down to 480 once the loaf is in the oven.

The slackness of the dough makes it hard to estimate when the proofing is done. But it doesn’t seem to matter much as long as you do a long overnight cold proof, as the co2 absorbed into the dough will make the dough spring up anyway, so a cold proof and cold bake work great with this type of dough.

Motherdough will produce a mild super flavorful bread with an aroma, flavor and crust color that is out of this world good!

If you are interested in taking your baking to the next level, see here: Online Sourdough Baking Courses

Do a search for “motherdough” on this site to find other recipes for using motherdough, some going back many years as I experimented with this technique.