So much Sourdough
I had planned to do a blog entry about decorating for my kids birthday parties. In our house, we have birthdays every single month from August to December. This makes for a crazy hectic schedule between school, sports, family time, and obligations. In the past we took the kids to Disney for a long weekend, but since Covid we’ve kept it simple and mostly celebrate with family at the house and let the birthday boy or girl pick a family activity. We have our little traditions we’ve started over the years, and I like to think it’s creating memories they’ll carry on to their own children.
But, I’m actually not going to talk about birthdays…at least more than I already have. I figured I’d get straight to it and put it out there that I’m sourdough obsessed. It started out innocent enough, I like to make all sorts of things from scratch. I used to use the instant yeast for everything from brioche to hamburger buns. But my health nut mom was complaining about gut health and the processed bread one day, and I had been reading recently about fermented foods being great for your gut. I did a little research, and found Farmhouse on Boone through Instagram. And so it began. The slow decline into the madness that is bread baking.
So far, I’ve started, killed, then restarted my Sourdough Starter at least 5 times. Finally, after nearly 9 months of painstaking trial and error, I was successful enough to keep my start alive long enough to name it.
Quasimodough is a labor of love, like another kid in the family requiring feedings and changes, and its survival hinges on careful planning thru Florida’s hot a humid summers. However, it truly is worth the effort. I could probably write at least 5 entire blog posts about what I’ve learned, how I’ve made it so easy for myself I don’t even measure the starter, flour, or water at feedings, or how I have incorporated the discard into tons of delicious meals. However, I’m not going to do that. I’m going to tell you the secret to the literal best loaf of sourdough you’ve ever had.
I bet you won’t guess what the secret is.
Or maybe you will. I’ll give you a hint. Paula Dean would have drowned in it in the ‘90’s if you’d let her.
Yep, butter.
It’s the viral Sourdough Croissant Bread. Buttery, flaky, airy, amazing. It’s perfect as a sandwich with tomato and mayo, as a base for avocado toast, or just on it’s own with some jelly. My most recent loaf was used to create shredded beef sandwiches with melted cheese and pickled onions. I ate it for lunch 4 days in a row until I couldn’t stand the thought of beef anymore.
Anyway, I used the recipe from Amy Bakes Bread to start with and tweaked it after a few tries. Her recipe calls for a levain, which is just a fancy word for a starter that you’ve removed from your main stash and changed your feeding ratio. The idea behind this is you can make your levain/starter with more flour and water to give your croissant dough more rise power, or you can use more started and let it ferment longer to create more of a pronounced ‘sour’ taste. But, I don’t go out of my way to make a levain for this because I’m happy with the taste of Quasimodough and I’m lazy.
I also added an extra step of hand mixing the initial dough before our stretch and folds, which really only adds an extra 2-3 minutes to the overall recipe time, but I feel it does make a difference in texture and gluten development.
The trick to making this bread perfect is making sure your butter is super cold when you add it, and your house isn’t warmer than 72 Fahrenheit. I like to freeze my butter stick for about 20 minutes before shredding, and in the summer in Florida when I make this I bulk ferment at night when I can easily set the AC temp down to 70 with no issues.
I’m telling you all of this because I’m working on the premise that you’re not a total newbie to the process of sourdough, but if you are don’t worry, I’ll have an in depth post up about how I created, maintained, and use mine in a way that is hopefully a little easier to digest then some of the Instagram content I’ve seen floating around the last couple of years. I promise it isn’t complicated!
And if you’re feeling super adventurous, adding some mini chocolate chips or cinnamon sugar during the shaping phase before the cold ferment will knock your socks off.
So, without further ado, my take on the Sourdough Croissant Bread.
