Hello friends! I live in the UK, and I'm here to share a lesson I've learned with you all. A quick note for our American friends – British supermarkets generally sell four types of flour, known as Plain (for pastry), Self Raising (for cakes), Strong White Bread Flour and Wholemeal Bread Flour.
The majority of sourdough recipes online and in books seems to be from the US, and assume the use of US flour. Some quick research online had taught me that US flour has a higher protein content and absorbs more water, so a 1:1 ratio made with British flour will be wetter than a 1:1 ratio make with US flour. What this has meant for me – I've been feeding my starter too much water, it's been too wet, and it hasn't been rising/bubbling properly.
And I had a Eureka! moment yesterday. I wondered why my starter never bubbled enough and why my loaves always came out a bit gummy in texture. And it realised, it wasn't that the water content of my loaves was too high, it was that the water content of my starter was too high. So when I fed it yesterday morning I added roughly 100g of strong white bread flour, no water, and lo and behold – it bubbled like crazy and doubled in size after a couple of hours. Perfection.
I followed my usual overnight proof recipe (I'll write the full recipe below) and baked this beautiful loaf this morning. I'm thrilled. It's the best loaf I've ever baked. I've got the crumb, I've got the ear, I've got the blistering. And from now on, I'll be feeding my starter 4:5 water : flour.
TLDR if you're using British flour and want to follow an American recipe, only use 80% of the water content they tell you.
My sourdough recipe:
Starter fed every morning with 40g water 50g flour
In the evening (6pm ish)
To a mixing bowl, add 160g cold water and 100g boiled water (will give temp around 40°C)
Add 140g starter
500g strong white bread flour
Mix together and leave to autolyse for one hour
Knead the dough and incorporate 18g table salt (I knead by hand)
Leave to proof overnight in an oiled bowl
The next morning, shape and second proof in a banneton for 2 hours
Preheat your oven & Dutch oven to 260°C
Bake for 30mins with the lid on
Then 10 mins with the lid off
Voilá. Enjoy!
by Drumknott88
6 Comments
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THANK YOU!!! (Gets starter out of fridge for another go!) ❤️
This is the way. I use 150ml water and 300g flour, 100g starter so checks out for a smaller loaf.
Just check the protein content on the flour. They’re required to provide it. You can easily get 14-15% protein flours in the UK, even just in Tesco. Allison’s flour is more than sufficient and completely in line with what these recipes expect.
I had this problem in Europe as well. Unless I splurged on the “good” Manitoba Oro flour, I could not get bread to go above 65% hydration. The issue isn’t just protein content, it’s gluten content in that protein. Different varietals if flour have different gluten percentages so you really have to test them out.
You can test your flour by making a series of small bowls with increasing hydration to see which one performs the best. Even 10 g of flour and 5 to 10 g of water, increasing 1 g per bowl, will give you actionable results.
I have found US levels of dough hydration unreachable in the UK. I’m typically in the high 60% ish region. Anything more is batter.