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    Home » Recipes » Breads

    French Country Sour Dough Bread

    Published by Melissa on December 27, 2011 | Updated June 10, 2022 | 50 Comments

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    French-Country-Sour-Dough-Bread-slices-Barbara-Bakes

    Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

    Sourdough is made without adding any yeast or leavening to the bread. You let the natural yeasts in flour develop over several days. I’d never made sour dough before, so it was fun feeding the starter a little every morning and watching it slowly come to life.

    French-Country-Sour-Dough-Unbaked

    The dough is very wet and doesn’t produce a tall loaf like you buy at the market, but what it lacked in looks it made up for in taste. It has a fabulous flavor with a crisp, chewy crust and moist tender crumb. It smelled irresistible while it was baking. We couldn’t resist cutting it and eating half of it while it was still hot.

    French-Country-Sour-Dough-Bread-Garlic-Cheese-Bread

    We also had to make a recipe that showcases the bread, and I chose to make HoneyB’s Cheesy Garlic Bread. My sweet blogging friend Shelby, The Life & Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch, is celebrating her 4 year blogiversary with a small bites party and a giveaway and I’m helping her celebrate. Shelby and I meet through Daring Bakers and have been blogging buddies almost from the beginning. She is a kind, caring person, with loads of great recipes, like her wonderful Cheesy Garlic Bread.

    Information on how you can help Shelby celebrate and enter her giveaway are listed below. You’ll also want to be sure and visit the Daring Kitchen to see all the fabulous bread the Daring Bakers baked up this month. Thanks Jessica for hosting this month’s challenge. (I also want to thank Kelley, Mountain Mama Cooks, for giving me the cute frog bowl and the fabulous Trader Joe’s Garlic Olive Oil. I drizzled it on the bread instead of butter and garlic and it’s amazing!)

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    French Country Sour Dough Bread

    Cook Time50 mins
    Total Time50 mins
    Course: Breads
    Keyword: baking, Daring Bakers, food, Giveaway, recipe
    Servings: 1 large loaf plus extra wheat starter
    Author: Barbara Schieving
    Prevent your screen from going to sleep

    Ingredients

    Wheat Starter - Day 1:

    • 4 ½ tablespoons 70 ml (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
    • 3 tablespoons 45 ml water
    • Total scant ½ cup 115 ml (3 oz/85 gm)

    Wheat Starter - Day 2:

    • 4 ½ tablespoons 70 ml (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
    • 3 tablespoons 45 ml water
    • scant ½ cup 115 ml (3 oz/85 gm) starter from Day 1
    • Total scant cup 230 ml (6 oz/170 gm)

    Wheat Starter - Day 3:

    • 4 ½ tablespoons 70 ml (40 gm/1 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour
    • 4 teaspoons 20 ml water
    • scant 1 cup 230 ml (6 oz/170 gm) starter from Day 2
    • Total 1? cup 320 ml (230 gm/8-1/10 oz)

    Wheat Starter - Day 4:

    • ¾ cup plus 1½ tablespoons 205 ml (120 gm/4 ¼ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
    • ½ cup less 4 teaspoons 100 ml water
    • 1 ? cup 320 ml (230 gm/8 oz) starter from Day 3
    • Total scant 2? cup 625 ml (440 gm/15½ oz)

    French Country Bread

    • 1 cup less 1 tablespoon 225 ml (160 gm/5 ? oz) wheat Leaven Starter
    • 6 tablespoons less 1 teaspoon 85 ml (50 gm/1¾ oz) stoneground bread making whole-wheat or graham flour
    • 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons 250 ml (150 gm/5 ? oz) unbleached all purpose flour
    • ½ cup 120 ml water
    • Production Leaven Total 2¾ cups plus 4 teaspoons 680 ml (480 gm /1 lb 1 oz)
    • French Country Bread
    • ¾ cup less 1 teaspoon 175 ml (100 gm/3 ½ oz) stoneground breadmaking whole-wheat or graham flour, plus more for dusting
    • 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons 510 ml (300gm/10 ½ oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
    • 1¼ teaspoons 7½ ml (7 gm/¼ oz) sea salt or ? teaspoon (3? ml) (3 gm/? oz) table salt
    • 1 ¼ cups 300 ml water
    • 1 ¾ cups 425 ml (300 gm/10 ½ oz) production leaven–this should leave some (1 cup) for your next loaf.
    • Total 6 cups less 2 tablespoons 1415 ml 1007 gm/35 ½ oz/2 lb 3½ oz

    HoneyB's Cheesy Garlic Bread

    • 1 loaf Italian bread
    • 4 Tablespoons butter softened
    • ½ Tablespoon refrigerated minced garlic
    • ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese I use a micro plane zester. If you don't use this, you may want to adjust the amount of cheese.
    • ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
    • oregano

    Instructions

    Wheat Starter - Day 1:

    • In a Tupperware or plastic container, mix the flour and water into a paste. Set the lid on top gently, cover with a plastic bag, to prevent messes in case it grows more than expected! 3. Set somewhere warm (around 86 F if possible). I sometimes put mine on a windowsill near a radiator, but even if it’s not that warm, you'll still get a starter going–it might just take longer.

    Wheat Starter - Day 2:

    • Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 1, cover, and return to its warm place.

    Wheat Starter - Day 3:

    • Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 2, cover, and return to its warm place.
    • Wheat Starter - Day 4
    • Stir the flour and water into the mixture from Day 3, cover, and return to its warm place. At this point it should be bubbling and smell yeasty. If not, repeat this process for a further day or so until it is!

    French Country Bread Stage 1:

    • Refreshing the leavenMix everything into a sloppy dough. It may be fairly stiff at this stage. Cover and set aside for 4 hours, until bubbling and expanded slightly.
    • French Country Bread Stage 2: Making the final dough
    • Mix the dough with all the ingredients except the production leaven. It will be a soft dough. Knead on an UNFLOURED surface for about 8-10 minutes, getting the tips of your fingers wet if you need to. You can use dough scrapers to stretch and fold the dough at this stage, or air knead if you prefer. Basically, you want to stretch the dough and fold it over itself repeatedly until you have a smoother, more elastic dough. See demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqS3raEGdwk
    • Smooth your dough into a circle, then scoop your production leaven into the centre. You want to fold the edges of the dough up to incorporate the leaven, but this might be a messy process. Knead for a couple minutes until the leaven is fully incorporated in the dough. See demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPO97R4iO4U
    • Spread some water on a clean bit of your work surface and lay the dough on top. Cover with an upturned bowl, lining the rim of the bowl with a bit of water. Leave for an hour, so that the gluten can develop and the yeasts can begin to aerate the dough. Once your dough has rested, you can begin to stretch and fold it. Using wet hands and a dough scraper, stretch the dough away from you as far as you can without breaking it and fold it back in on itself. Repeat this in each direction, to the right, towards you, and to the left. This will help create a more "vertical" dough, ready for proofing. See demonstration here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDoJRCMfclE
    • Heavily flour a banneton/proofing basket with whole wheat flour and rest your dough, seam side up, in the basket. Put the basket in a large plastic bag, inflate it, and seal it. Set aside somewhere warm for 3-5 hours, or until it has expanded a fair bit. It is ready to bake when the dough responds to a gently poke by slowly pressing back to shape.
    • Preheat the oven to hot 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Line a baking sheet with parchment, then carefully invert the dough onto the sheet. I like to put the baking sheet on top of the basket, then gently flip it over so as to disturb the dough as little as possible. Make 2-3 cuts on top of the loaf and bake for 40-50 minutes, reducing the temperature to moderately hot 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6 after 10 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.
    • HoneyB's Cheesy Garlic Bread
    • Slice loaf of bread in half lengthwise. Mix garlic into softened butter. Spread evenly on both sides of bread slices. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, then sprinkle with mozzarella and oregano. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Turn to broil and broil until cheese just begins to brown. Cool slightly, slice & enjoy!

    Giveaway details:

    • The giveaway is for a $50 gift card to ONE of the following choices: Sears, Kohls, Amazon, Target, Wal-mart, Chili’s, Uno’s, Marshalls/TJMax, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Macaroni Grill, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble
    • To enter leave a comment on this blog post telling me who inspires you.
    • For more entries, visit the links in the bloghop below and leave a comment on their posts.
    • Giveaway will end on January 7th at 5 PM EST and is open to residents of the US & Canada only.
    • Winner will be announced on January 8th via blog post on The Life & Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch.
    • Winner will be chosen via random drawing by Grumpy.


    ‘); // ]]>

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    About Melissa & Barbara

    As of June 2022 Melissa Griffiths now is the one adding recipes. So think of it as Barbara Bakes, and Melissa too! Melissa and Barbara have been blogging friends for over 10 years and when Barbara was ready to retire and spend more time with her family, Melissa took over the site. Read more...

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Carmen

      January 04, 2012 at 11:57 am

      My best friend is the one that most inspires me. I often think she has it all together (although I know in reality she doesn’t)

      Reply
    2. Becki's Whole Life

      January 02, 2012 at 7:41 pm

      I had no idea that sour dough didn’t use yeast. It’s probably my favorite bread, too – I will have to try this out!

      Reply
    3. F.emme

      December 30, 2011 at 2:11 am

      Your loaf may not be super-tall, but it did have quite some rise to it! When I look at the before-baking picture, I expect a flat-bread, and it’s very far from flat–awesome job!

      Thanks for your kind visit to my blog! I came here when I saw your link, and am drooling over the wonderful images in your sidebar–your gorgeous cheesecake entremet is calling my name!

      Reply
    4. Lisa

      December 29, 2011 at 8:24 pm

      What a perfect combo – Shelby’s Blogiversary Cheesy-Garlic Bread with Daring Bakers Sourdough! Your crumb is absolutely gorgeus – perfect, airy holes, and I can only imagine how great it is with the cheese and garlic toasted into it.

      Now, who inspires me besides you? 😉 OK, if it has to be someone living..Jacques Pepin, hands down. He’s the reason I cook and bake – the beginning of my love and preparation of all things food.

      A safe, happy and wonderful New Year to you and your family!

      Reply
    5. Katy

      December 29, 2011 at 12:50 pm

      GORGEOUS! and totally IRRESISTIBLE!! I am such a bread-aholic. Once again, you win my heart with absolute deliciousness!

      Reply
    6. Cathy at Wives with Knives

      December 29, 2011 at 10:22 am

      Learning to do a better job baking bread is at the top of my resolution list this year. There is nothing like a homemade loaf (when it isn’t heavy as lead). I’ve enjoyed all your posts this year, Barbara, and look forward to reading about what your are baking in 2012. Happy New Year to you and your family.

      Reply
    7. Cookin' Canuck

      December 29, 2011 at 7:06 am

      I can imagine how good this bread smells while it’s baking. Congratulations to Shelby!

      Reply
    8. katie

      December 29, 2011 at 5:13 am

      the bread looks really good.. can’t wait to make it

      Reply
    9. katie

      December 29, 2011 at 5:12 am

      recipe looks amazing

      Reply
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