Dough for two ... and two for dough

August 28, 2024 3:38 PM

Should I start/keep a sourdough starter? And if so, how best to optimize for baking for two people? Snowflakes inside...

I've been thinking about diving into sourdough for a while now, and I'm not 100% sure whether it's right for me. I enjoy making yeasted breads, and I'm not intimidated by the processes of that or that of sourdough.

I like the flavor of sourdough and levain breads, and frankly, I'm not impressed by the quality of bread I can readily access in the stores. So I'm a good candidate for making sourdough, right?

My concerns:
--I prefer softer-crusted breads. 85% of the time, I'll want a soft, chewy bread without a crust that will tear up the roof of my mouth. Does sourdough lend itself to non-crusty breads, like a sandwich bread or a soft roll? I'm not so much against the round boule shape; I just like a softer crust.

--I'm only baking for two people. So I actually want to start making smaller loaves. This isn't sourdough specific, but are there half-loaf pans? I can't find something that's say 4" long instead of 8" or 9" long, but just as tall. Or do I ball up some foil to create my own half loaf pan? Any other recommendations for small loaves? (I'm fully aware that I can freeze extra bread, but I'd rather bake the right size for now.)

Is sourdough the right choice for me, or should I stick with yeast?

posted by hydra77 to Food & Drink (16 answers total)

I've had good results with the 5-minute no-knead bread recipes.
I find that yeast is more consistent, and leaving the dough in the fridge for 5 days gives it that nice tangy flavour.
As for shape, sour Pullman loaf or foccacia would fit your bill.
posted by dum spiro spero at 3:48 PM on August 28, 2024

Best answer: Perfectly straightforward to make a softer loaf, I have been baking 2 x 900g loaves every 2 weeks for years now and gradually adapted the recipe to make it softer (suitable for sandwiches) with a thinner crust. Using even a small percentage of rye flour can make for a softer overall texture. One loaf goes in the freezer for a week while the two of us get through the other. The starter gets fed nearly every day on average, less frequently when it’s cooler (conversely, more frequently when it’s warm, meaning I tend to discard starter in the summer months but rarely need to in winter months). I bake in loaf tins rather than making freestanding boule loaves, since rectangular loaves fit in the freezer more efficiently. I find making a smaller quantity than 2 loaves feels like it’s not a good use of a hot oven (but I’m sure someone who bakes double what I do would consider my quantities inefficient).
posted by Joeruckus at 4:03 PM on August 28, 2024

Best answer: The crust hardness is mostly down to baking technique (steam, temperature, baking on stone with radiant heat versus baking in pans with more convection), proofing (longer proofing leads to a drier outer layer of dough, encouraged by traditional proofing techniques like the use of cane baskets or linen cloth) and hydration of the dough. So if you don't use the kinds of techniques that encourage a thick, hard crust, you won't get such a crust. Sourdough made in a pan in a normal home oven at moderate temperatures will probably come out with a fairly thin soft crust. You have to make efforts to get the kind of thicker, harder crust you might be thinking of.

You can also add a small amount of oil to your dough, which will have a strong effect in producing a thin, soft crust.

It sounds like you could use a 4" or 5" square cake pan at 3" high for your half loaf. Something like this perhaps?
posted by ssg at 4:15 PM on August 28, 2024 [3 favorites]

However, I'd recommend baking a few times before you invest in small pans. The effort that goes into making a loaf of dough is likely to make it not worth your while to make just a few slices of bread.
posted by ssg at 4:19 PM on August 28, 2024

Best answer: You might like this King Arthur recipe for sourdough sandwich bread (though it technically uses a little bit of commercial yeast). I like a good crust, but I find that this recipe w/ only natural levain is not crusty enough unless I do the optional steam method - I find the bâtard shape is great for sandwiches. Finally, this recipe is kinda perfect for two people (my situation too) in that the dough can sit for up to 48hrs according to the recipe, but I've pushed it to 72hrs and it's been fine - and it produces three small loaves.
posted by coffeecat at 5:43 PM on August 28, 2024 [1 favorite]

Easy sourdough starter begins the night before with two cups lukewarm water mixed with a packet of yeast. After ten minutes mix in two cups of flour and store, covered with a cloth, in a warm dark place. The next morning, voila. All I need for the family waffle or pancake recipe, or to make a loaf of bread. Sourdough purists have issues with this method.
posted by Rash at 6:38 PM on August 28, 2024 [1 favorite]

I've heard the maintenance of sourdough starter compared to keeping a pet, and my brief experience with it would lead me to agree. Smelly, messy, and tricksy to boot. No thanks.

Quick breads without commercial yeast, and baking powder bakery, are my substitutes. And I have a great sourdough bakery nearby.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 7:15 PM on August 28, 2024

I maintain a 100% hydration sourdough starter. I occasionally make a couple of big boules at one time and generally slice and freeze.

For the day to day bread though, we primarily use a bread maker (a Zojirushi). We substitute about half the water and flour in the recipe with the sourdough starter discard (you can do this in other recipes -- 100g of discard replaces 50g flour and 50g water). It makes a very flavorful bread and I find the addition of the discard makes the bread last longer wrapped up on the counter. The bread has the texture of a strong sandwich bread and the crust is soft. It does also freeze very well (defrost on the counter for fresh texture).
posted by miscbuff at 7:54 PM on August 28, 2024

One of the features of sourdough is that the acidity means the bread stays fresh for much longer than when using yeasted doughs, so you may find you don't need to make smaller loaves. I only bake for myself and have no issue finishing the bread before it goes stale.

Keeping the starter can be easy if you store it in the fridge - I only feed mine once a week or so. You just need a day to re-activate it before you use it for baking.
posted by Limivorous at 2:52 AM on August 29, 2024

I was honestly about to say "no" until I got to the part where you said you already bake bread a lot. I had a sourdough starter for a while (someone in my buy nothing group was giving it away), but couldn't really figure out what to do with it; I am usually only cooking for one, and while I did end up making a couple of pizzas or some small-batch rolls with it now and then, I don't really bake enough bread for myself to justify it, and it was more of a burden after a while.

I did enjoy having an excuse to make sourdough pancakes for myself with the discard every week, though.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:39 AM on August 29, 2024

Best answer: Whoops, forgot the summation -

So I think that since you're already in the habit of baking bread you may have more success. There are a lot of sites that cater to the sourdough crowd, and more than a few also cater to the "small batch" crowd. I found a lot over on a site maintained by someone called the Zero Waste Chef - here's a link to a list of recipes she has for sourdough discard, which may also give you ideas for small-batch baking.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:42 AM on August 29, 2024

Best answer: We are a two person household. I bake a 900g sourdough loaf every 3 or 4 days. I have a jar of starter in the fridge. I generally pull it out some time between 1 and 2pm, feed with 80g of rye flour and 80ml of water, and make dough some time between 5 and 6pm with 150g of starter. The dough is folded every now and then during the evening and at 10pm is in tea towel lined colander in the fridge for an overnight cold rise to be baked first thing in the morning. I never feed the starter otherwise.

Sourdough stales less quickly than yeast bread.

I find crustiness is more about temperature and baking time than yeast vs sourdough.

I can't speak to tins - I make a boule baked in a round Dutch oven.

I used to sometimes only bake half my dough and shove the other half back in the fridge to bake a day or two later. The flavour of that second loaf was often superior. I don't do this any more because I just can't be bothered, it's easier to make the bigger load which still gets eaten in time.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:54 AM on August 29, 2024 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I don't have any advice re: sourdough, but I too have been on the search for some kind of pan to bake half-size sandwich loaves, with no success thus far. What I'm using for now is a 2 quart enameled dutch oven--the specific one I have is an AKS which appears to now only be available on eBay, but there are other models on Amazon--with a regular no-knead recipe cut in half. The pot also works really well for making smaller quantities of stew, soup, casseroles, and so on.
posted by Kat Allison at 8:29 AM on August 29, 2024

Best answer: Oh come on in, the water's lovely! I've been baking bread for 40, and sourdough for ?8? years. The high point of that life was when I went to visit my sister in an intentional community and volunteered to make the bread for 10 households: no piffling about with tiny tins there. But to your questions: my experience is that bread baking is the most forgiving process in the kitchen - every loaf is different and every loaf (or bun, or roti, or paratha, or foccacia) is Good. Worry that your starter will get away from you and go off; or come bounding up the stairs when you're sleeping can be met by following i_am_joe's_starter's advice about the fridge above.

My standard operating procedure now is to add starter [only fed with ryeflour] to a cupful of lukewarm water + a handful of wholemeal wheat flour and leaving them to get acquainted for a while [an hour, overnight]. Then add ~10g of fresh baker's yeast, salt and the rest of the flour. Knead, proof, knock back, put in a tin, let rise, bake 40m at 200°C = 400°F. If no fresh yeast (check Polish shops), dried will do; but neither is essential.

If you want soft-crust and are prepared to invest in kit then buy a cast-iron skillet. I have a dedicated no-oil-ever "chapatti pan" and roll out 2oz = 60g balls of dough into a round as thin as you dare. Bake these on the hot skillet turning once early to seal both sides of the discus and turning every so often until they puff up (crying "fußball !" to amuse the kids, if any, is optional). Ideal for sandwiches.
Good luck, could be fun.
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:48 AM on August 29, 2024

Best answer: Back when I was keeping a starter, once it was established I ended up keeping it in very small amounts to cut down the waste—as in it was 1/4 cup or less in a drinking glass and I fed it with something like 5-15g flour and water each day (I don’t remember the exact amount). Easy enough to take a couple of days to spin it up to a larger amount when I planned to bake.

And the keeping power of sourdough loaves is not exaggerated-we just put it cut-side-down on a cutting mat with a towel or open plastic bag over it to keep off ambient dust and cat hair and it’s lasted forever.
posted by telophase at 8:56 AM on August 30, 2024

Best answer: I think sourdough is honestly perfect for making small loaves often.

And crust is about the baking method.

I have killed my starter with neglect a few times over the last decade, but there's always a neighbor happy to get me going again. And by neglect, I mean I went months without feeding it. I keep mine in the fridge and about every week, I feed it and then start a loaf the next day when it's nice and vigorous.
posted by amandabee at 11:13 AM on August 31, 2024