Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most enjoyable and that's exactly how I feel about bread and butter. For a more intensive sourdough bread making guide, check out my bread making course SourdoughU - https://prohomecooksu.com/su-special/
00:00 - Day 1
06:23 - Day 2
08:55 - Day 3
For Sourdough Tools - https://lifebymikeg.com/pages/sourdough-products
For other products used in this video - https://www.amazon.com/shop/lifebymikeg
Music Credits:
Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com
Video Credits
Creator, Host - Mike G
Editor - Cooper Makohon
Motion Graphics - Raphael Oliveira
00:00 - Day 1
06:23 - Day 2
08:55 - Day 3
For Sourdough Tools - https://lifebymikeg.com/pages/sourdough-products
For other products used in this video - https://www.amazon.com/shop/lifebymikeg
Music Credits:
Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com
Video Credits
Creator, Host - Mike G
Editor - Cooper Makohon
Motion Graphics - Raphael Oliveira
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00So it's day one of the bread and butter journey and it's gonna be a big one. Day
00:11one is really where most of the foundation is laid down for what will be
00:15the perfect bread and butter experience on day three. And the first thing I'm
00:19gonna get moving on is this cultured butter. Now to make butter of course you
00:23need some good heavy cream. This cream is from Bat and Kill Farm Valley in upstate
00:27New York which is the best possible product I could get my hands on which
00:30then in return will give me the best possible butter I can make. I'm gonna use
00:34three quarts of heavy cream mainly because that's what I can fit in one of
00:38these Cambro containers. And that leftover quart ended up going to very
00:42good use. I had some frozen peaches from the summer that I defrosted. I made a
00:46nice vanilla custard base with some sugar, eggs, and that cream. Blended in
00:50those peaches threw it through my Ninja Creamy and this turned into one hell of
00:54an ice cream. The next process I'm gonna be doing is culturing this cream which
01:06then gives you that cultured butter. And to do that I'm using plain yogurt which
01:11is very important that it's plain and it also contains live active cultures which
01:16will then culture or ferment this cream. I'll mix in a few tablespoons of the
01:20yogurt to the cream and let that sit at room temperature for a few days to
01:24ferment and culture.
01:54So now that that cream is doing its own thing and culturing for a few days I can
02:02start working on my bread which starts with my starter. And this starter is
02:07completely depleted. It's been hanging out for a few days at room temperature
02:11so you can see that it's desperately craving some more food to get super
02:15active. So I'll take out a fresh container to make my levain. I'll dump in
02:18a few tablespoons of that spent starter and then I'll mix in some flour and
02:23water until I get a cake batter consistency just like this. And then I'll
02:27let that activate and double in size which should take a few hours. Now I still
02:32have about a cup left over of this spent starter which is just super fermented
02:36soury goodness so in my house this rarely goes to waste.
03:06Alright so after around five hours my sourdough starter is nice and active
03:27and ready for some bread baking. And since I'm really treating myself here to
03:30the perfect loaf I'm gonna be milling up some fresh flour. Now do I always mill my
03:34own flour? Absolutely not. But I will say if I do have the time and energy to do
03:38it there's no comparison to the levels of flavor and freshness you get when
03:43you're using that fresh milk flour. So what I have right here is a hundred
03:47percent whole grain flour which can be baked with in this form but the final
03:52bread product would be a little grainier it wouldn't rise quite as nice so I like
03:56to send it through just a basic sifter which removes a good bit of that outer
04:00bran of the wheat berry leaving me with a slightly more soft and more refined
04:05flour. Now this whole wheat flour will make a very nutritionally packed and
04:10flavorful bread but I generally don't bake with just this flour. I mean as you
04:14can see it's not an easy thing to produce plus for me it's very hard to
04:19get away from that super fluffy crumb that realistically can only be achieved
04:23by adding in some of that store-bought white flour that's just a more refined
04:27product. And the exact ratios I'm using for this sourdough are right here on
04:31this screen. Now keep in mind I have years of experience of handling higher
04:35hydration doughs so if you are more of a beginner with sourdough I would suggest
04:39lowering your hydration levels about five to ten percent basically using less
04:44water to make your dough a little bit easier to work with.
04:57So my dough has rested for about 20 minutes which is when I can start doing
05:23my stretch and folds. Now again since I've built a very long relationship with
05:27handling and working a more wet dough like this I prefer working my dough on a
05:31board with zero additional flour just a bench scraper and a little water to make
05:36my hands more nonstick. Actually in my sourdough course I teach both the
05:40beginner method that uses additional flour in this stage and the advanced
05:44method with no flour like I'm doing here. And in total I'll be doing around three
05:48to four folds with 20 minute intervals in between but really there's no exact
05:54science to it. It's all about a feel of how that gluten is continuously
05:58developing every single fold that you do until it starts to feel stronger and it
06:03starts holding in shape.
06:24All right it's a new day and like I mentioned yesterday most of the heavy
06:31lifting has been done so today is gonna be pretty simple. The first thing that's
06:35very exciting is I get to check in on how this heavy cream is culturing and
06:40you can see it's slightly thickened on the top but just underneath that layer
06:44is still very liquidy and it's just starting to build some tangy notes from
06:50the fermentation but it still needs time. After about 20 hours in the fridge
06:54my dough has doubled in size but I'm not relying at all on time here. Temperature
06:59in your house, the activity levels of your starter, these are all variables
07:03that will completely change how your dough rises at home which is why I love
07:08these Cambro containers because I can just rely on volume. When that dough has
07:13doubled in volume I know that bulk rise is done and I'm ready to move on. I'm
07:17gonna first split this dough right in half and give it a very rough shaping to
07:21start building the final shape of these loaves. After 20 minutes of this dough
07:26resting it is time for the final shaping and there are so many methods and
07:30techniques for shaping bread it used to give me a lot of anxiety just seeing all
07:34these professionals whip up bread so fast and that's really what separates
07:39the professionals from a home baker. It's just repetition if you're doing this all
07:44day long you're gonna naturally be very good at it but as a home baker even if
07:48I'm baking bread say once or twice a week that's generally not enough
07:52practice to really perfect this which is why for me I have simplified this
07:56process I just use a simple tension pull technique which I can easily replicate
08:02and the loaves generally come out very nice.
08:07And this is really the first time in this shaping process that I'm
08:15introducing more flour to the dough and I do not skimp on the flour here. The
08:20last thing I would want is to spend two days making bread just for that bread to
08:25stick to your proofing basket and completely ruin your final bread loaf.
08:55So we've made it to day three and it is going down today my friends. It's baking
09:02day and it is butter making day. So the first thing I'm gonna do is get that
09:05Dutch oven preheating and I can check in on this fermenting cream. Now that's what
09:11I'm talking about. Three days in for me and it is completely thickened but of
09:15course this will depend on variables like your ingredients that you're using
09:19and the temperature of your room. So what I've done here is transformed this heavy
09:24cream into creme fraiche. Now keep in mind a sour cream is a very similar product. I
09:29mean it's called sour cream but because I used a very high fat content cream I
09:34have a thicker and creamier creme fraiche. First a slightly thinner sour
09:39cream but either way we can now make our cultured butter. I'll dump in the
09:42cultured cream into my stand mixer and get that whipping on high speed. After a
09:47few minutes it's gonna fluff up a bit and turn to a cultured whipped cream and
09:51a few minutes later you can start seeing that cream getting a little
09:55greasier which is when I will slow down the mixer just a bit and once you start
09:59seeing liquid kind of being shot out of the mixer that's when you know your
10:03cream is about to break which is what we actually want in this case. Complete
10:09separation of those butterfat solids from the buttermilk which I'll then
10:14strain off and cultured buttermilk is one of my favorite products to have on
10:18hand. I'll use this to make dressing all types of baked goods but my favorite
10:24thing to make are fermented sourdough buttermilk waffles. I'll usually make a
10:28big batch of these at once because they freeze so well and then you have these
10:32sort of gourmet extremely delicious Eggo waffles that are much easier to digest
10:39with all of that fermentation involved.
10:43Now this butter is not done. I still have to wash out all of the residual
10:50buttermilk. If you don't do this step and some of that buttermilk gets left behind
10:54your butter is gonna spoil a lot faster. We need just that pure butterfat and I
10:59found the easiest way to do this is just to run the butter under cold water and
11:04continuously work it with your hands which slowly works out all of that
11:08excess buttermilk and you know that's happened when the water in your bowl
11:11starts running completely clear.
11:24Now the final thing I need to do is just finish off this butter with a little bit
11:29of salt to season it and it's ready to package up and I do like making butter
11:32in large batches because it's a more intensive process and it freezes very
11:36well. So I'll package some up to eat fresh this week and I'll send a few
11:40packages off to the freezer for the winter.
11:53So my loaves got another 20 hours in the fridge for a cold proofing. Now you don't
11:59have to extend the process of fermentation this long but the reason I
12:03like doing this cold bulk rise and this cold proofing in the fridge is because
12:07yeast will slow down in these cooler temperatures which of course then will
12:11slow down the rise of your bread but there's still a ton of bacterial
12:15development that continues to thrive in colder temperatures which I find gives
12:20you a much more complex and dynamic flavor of your final bread.
12:37One thing I've learned about cooking over time, this is pretty classic for
13:07a lot of chefs and home cooks, is that things tend to simplify over time. When I
13:12started cooking since I had less skills and I had no clue how the quality of
13:16ingredients actually impacted the food I would tend to add more to things
13:21thinking that more was better and that would enhance the experience but as I
13:25tuned in on my skills and focused on quality of products I've learned to
13:29simplify and it's amazing that something as simple as bread and butter can hold
13:34up to any culinary experience out there.