Buckwheat Sourdough Recipe
That's the only picture you're going to see of this bread. I'm just laying that out there, right now, before anyone gets up in arms about the dearth of pictures of this bread. It's for a very good reason, honestly. You see, I tend to be on the lookout for alternate flours whenever I walk into a grocery store, and this buckwheat flour just hopped into my basket the second I saw it. After consulting with Tommi, I turned to my (borrowed from the library) copy of Daniel Leader's Local Breads and ended up making this buckwheat sourdough bread.
Let's just say that it was more of a farce than that one picture shows you. Refreshing my starter, turning some into a buckwheat starter, mixing up the dough, those all went okay. And then it just sat. Like a beautiful, blue-gray flecked little lump. After six hours of staring at it, sticking it in my oven on warm, and staring at it some more, I said to heck with it. I shaped it into a basic boule (with a nice smattering of oil to keep it from sticking to everything and their mother) and stuck it on a parchment lined sheet pan, covered with plastic wrap and a towel. Well, 30 minutes later, reflecting on the stickiness of the dough, I realized that the plastic wrap was probably bonded to it. For life. I tried to scrape it off, but just ended up mangling the boule. Fine, I'll just reshape it and tent the plastic wrap over the dough using some teacups. We'll ignore the fact that I should have used the teacups to have some nice, calming tea by now. I wanted to murder that dough. Especially since it wouldn't keep its shape (I'm praying Santa brings me a banneton sometime soon...).
Pah. I shoved it in the oven after some half-hearted slashing, and left it to die. Thirty minutes later, I took out a loaf that was about the same size as before and heavy as a rock, just with a slash that didn't open up and edges that rose up instead. Grr. I let it cool, figuring that it'd end up in the garbage bin anyway. Right before bed, I took a knife and hacked an end off, mostly just to relieve my aggression towards this annoying bread. And then I tasted it.
Okay, so it's not the prettiest loaf on the block, but wow. That's one tasty and complex bread. And *crunch* *crunch* - it had the most delicious crust ever. So I forgave it. Mostly. I dole out a little more forgiveness towards it each time I have a slice, toasted, with a hunk of cheddar. Maybe by the time I've finished this loaf I'll have forgiven it completely? You never know.
By Engineer Baker
Buckwheat Sourdough
(Adapted from Daniel Leader’s Local Breads, shamelessly stolen from Tommi)
Ingredients:
Buckwheat starter
- 25 grams ripe wheat starter (at 100% hydration)
- 20 grams water
- 25 grams buckwheat flour
Final dough
- 150 grams water
- 225 grams bread flour
- 25 grams buckwheat flour
- 70 grams buckwheat starter (all of it)
- 10 grams salt
Directions:
The night before
Mix the buckwheat starter. Cover and let stand for 8-12 hours, until ripe.
Mixing
Once the buckwheat starter is ready, combine the bread and buckwheat flours with the water. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes. Add the buckwheat starter and salt and knead 10-12 minutes by hand or 8-9 minutes in a stand mixer with a dough hook. The dough should be sticky and a little on the wet side. If you are kneading by hand try not to add much extra flour, instead coat your hands with oil to prevent sticking.
Bulk Ferment
Ferment in an oiled, covered container until doubled in bulk, somewhere in the area of 3-6 hours.
Divide and Shape
Split the dough in half or don’t. Preshape into rounds and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape however you like.
Proofing
2 hours or until the imprint of your finger doesn’t bounce back immediately.
Baking
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Slash loaves and load with steam. Wait a minute then turn the oven down to 450. Bake for 25 minutes if you have 2 loaves and 30 minutes if you have one.
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