If you have watched anyone talking about the need for salt in sourdough bread you will hear them say that bread without salt is just plain yucky to eat.
First, let’s backtrack in my story.
Digestion
I can eat my sourdough bread and not get the inflammation that I do from eating white bread (or sourdough bread) from the store.
The sourdough process is definitely beneficial, for me, in helping with digest-ability of bread. So …
So… I decided to try the autolyse method of mixing the flour and water together first and let that sit for awhile so that the two are well mixed before adding the starter … and salt.
Autolyse
After feeding my starter, first thing in the morning, I mixed my water and flour (which included 50 grams of buckwheat flour along with the white flour today).
I let everything sit until the starter was getting close to double in size. During this time, the flour became really hydrated and the two components were well blended.
I’m sure that there was more happening during this process, but that’s another conversation.
I, then, added the starter to the mix and carried on with the sourdough process, based on that of Elaine Boddy, author of The Sourdough Whisperer book.
Timing
My goal is to be able to bake my bread first thing in the morning, so I do the bulk fermentation in the afternoons and evenings and, then, put it into the fridge, slowing down the process overnight.
The error
At about 5:00 last night, halfway through the bulk fermentation process, where you just let the bread rest and rise, I realized that I hadn’t added the salt when I had added the starter to my dough hours ago.
I knew that I had to get the salt added and I knew that kneading the bread at this point was NOT part of the process. I really didn’t want to disturb the yeast and the gasses that were breaking down the proteins/gluten etc in the bread m.
But .. it had to be done.
I sprinkled the salt on top of the dough, gently massaged it into the dough, like a cat massaging a pillow, and, then, rolled and turned the dough into itself, until I couldn’t feel the grains of salt and the dough looked smooth.
Next, I let it rest and continued on with the process.
This morning, I put it into the oven and hoped for the best.
The result
I have to say that this is the best looking sourdough bread I have ever made!
What did I learn?
I like mixing the flour and water first .. helping with my digestion issue
You can add salt during the fermentation process
You can “knead” the dough during fermentation (gently, I would suggest)
