Tuscan Sour Dough Bread

I have loved my adventures in la cucina here at Suzie's Yard at Azienda Santeniello! One of the daily joys is making the fresh sour dough bread. The flour is made by a local organic producer who specializes in preserving ancient grain (like heirloom) varieties. 

Follow along below to see how the bread is made from start to finish!

The "Madre" (aka "Mother")

The Madre requires an 8 day process to ferment correctly. Once it is ready, it just needs to be "fed" daily in order to still be effective in providing flavor and leavening. 

To make the Madre... 

2 1/2 Cups Water

2 Cups of Farina Type "O" (AP Flour)

Mix together and let sit, covered, for 3 days in the fridge. 

On days 4-7 do the following (once a day):

Take half of the madre and discard it. 

To the remaining half, add another 1 C flour and 1 C water and mix well. 

Let sit, covered, in the fridge until ready to use on day 8.

This is me feeding the madre at night (10pm)

To begin using the madre (and make more) do the following:

Using the 50g of madre, add 150g Farina (flour) and 75 mL water and mix well (as seen in photo above)

Madre is wrapped in a towel (set in a bowl) and then wrapped with a plastic bag and set in a warmish place (near the fire place or laundry room in this house)

The next morning (10am)

Directions:

1. Remove 50g of the madre (reserve for later that night to feed) and set in a covered bowl in the fridge

2. Measure 500g Farina, 2 tsp Salt and 320 mL water and add to remaining madre and mix well

3. Knead well to introduce air pockets, which will help with leavening

Once the bread is kneaded (see above), then place back in towel, wrap, set in bowl, wrap with plastic bag and set in same warm place to rise. 

Approximately 5 hours later, remove dough and divide equally into desired loaves. Shape and cut an "X" into the top of the dough as shown above. 

Start oven at 300 C (600 F) and cook with convection fan for 6 minutes

Then turn to 200 C (425 F) and continue baking for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown

TA-DA!