Mini Sourdough Tin Loaf
I started making these smaller tin sourdough loaves for my farmer’s market stalls as noticed that many customers often don’t get through bigger loaves but still wanted to enjoy fresh bread! They are actually now my favourite way to enjoy sourdough as the crumb is so light and, when thickly sliced, it makes the best bite ever simply with olive oil and sea salt or butter of your choice!
Notes
* makes 2 x 500g tin loaves *
* I’d recommend looking into purchasing these 500g loaf tins from Bakery Bits.
Ingredients
300 grams water (Stage 1)
100 grams sourdough starter (fed 12 hours before at a ratio of 1:3:3
300 grams strong white bread flour 200 grams wholegrain bread flour Optional: mixed seeds
12 grams sea salt
80 grams water (stage 2)
Method
Firstly mix together your stage 1 of water with your active sourdough starter in a large bowl. I like to make my hand into a sort of claw to help disperse the starter through the water evenly.
Then add in your strong white bread flour and wholegrain bread flour. Knead together for 5 minutes before adding in your stage 2 of water and sea salt. If you have a dough mixer, it is a little easier to incorporate the water and salt. But if not, just simply dissolve the salt into the water stage 2, and dimple your dough. Use your hands to bring the dough together; it may feel like it’s coming apart, but keep going and your dough will become stronger. Knead until you can do the “window pane test” and when you gently stretch the dough up to the light, you can see through it slightly. This means you have developed enough gluten
strength!
(aim for 3 hours as your bench mark but in winter time, you may need to increase slightly, and in summer, decrease due to different rates of fermentation)
Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover
with a tea towel at roughly 23-24 c. Every 30 minutes
for 3 hours, stretch and fold your dough lifting up
one side and bringing it into the middle. Rotate the
bowl and repeat this for each quarter of the dough.
You are looking for your dough to have grown
considerably (about 50%) in size, for bubbles on top
of and throughout the dough and there should be a
sweet aroma to the dough too! With more sourdough experience, you will develop an intuitive sense as to when
your dough is finished proofing.
Pre- Shape
Now that your bulk fermentation is over, dust your surface with a little rice flour and turn your dough onto the surface. Use a dough scraper so that the floured side is facing down. Take your dough and shape into two smooth, round balls. Leave these to rest on your surface for around 20-30 minutes.
Final shape
Grease 2 x 500g tins with a little sunflower oil. Take your dough and with two hands cupped together, fold each side of the dough into the middle creating a seam. Repeat for the second piece of dough. Put the dough seam side down into the loaf tin so there is a slight curvature on the top of the dough (as you can seeing the photo above).
Cold ferment
Pop your tins into the fridge and leave to cold ferment until you’re ready to bake the following morning.
Bake
Preheat your oven to 250c and place a large oven proof dish of water at the bottom of the oven to create steam. Make one confident score using a razor blade on both of your tin loaves.
Bake at 250c for 20 minutes. Remove the oven proof dish of water and bake for a further 20 - 25 minutes until you have a lovely golden/dark brown crust. Leave to cool before slicing into your tin loaves and enjoying!