Sourdough starting mixture:
Since barley flour is slightly healthier than wheat flour, and barley seems to make a softer bread (still crispy crust however!), I decided to try making sourdough bread using a mixture of wheat and barley flours. I got some barley flour that had the bran finely mixed into it to increase the whole grain nutrition also. You actually feed the sourdough for 3-4 hours before using it in the recipe. I also mix and “prove” my bread in a bread maker before turning it out for the final rise in 2 bread pans. This makes a good sliced, sandwich making, bread.
Sourdough starting mixture:
40 g unfed sourdough starter
140 g room temp water
115 g unbleached wheat flour
Mix this in the bread mixer on the dough setting (no cooking!) and let sit for 3-4 hours. You will then add the rest of the ingredients to this gooey sourdough
Bread ingredients:
30 g wheat gluten flour
290 g whole grain barley flour. I have tried adding more but it tends to get too dense.
380 g unbleached wheat flour
380 g room temperature water
8 g salt
15 g olive oil
After adding the ingredients to the bread mixer, start with the dough setting again to mix and do the proving of the bread. In my bread maker, this lasts 140 minutes. The bread has taken longer than this to rise to the top of the pan. I either leave it in the bread machine, or take the whole machine pan by the fire until it has risen to the top of the pan. That will take 3-4 hours depending on the temperature of the room.
For the final rise, I dump the bread from the bread machine onto a countertop and divide it into 2 loaves. Since I cook this for slicing bread, I shape the loaves and place them into 2 well oiled loaf pans for this last rise. You could also do a Freeform loaf onto a cookie sheet or bread stone. Cover the bread with plastic wrap (I spray them lightly with an olive oil cooking spray first) and let rise until double. This will take about 2 hours, depending on ambient temperature.
Preheat the oven to 475F, and place a pan with about a half cup of water or 10 ice cubes on the lowest shelf. Put the bread into the oven and bake for35 minutes. It is OK if the steam dissipates prior to the bread being done.This steps helps form the crispy crust of sourdough bread.
The hardest part of all of this? You should wait for the bread to cool completely before slicing it! This takes about an hour!
Yum!