Brown Bread Flour Sourdough

During the height of lockdown when white bread flour was scarce I made this brown bread flour sourdough. I was really pleased with the taste, even if the loaf come out a little bit flat.

Brown Bread Flour Sourdough
Brown Bread Flour Sourdough
Head straight on to the Recipe For ♥ Brown Bread Flour Sourdough ♥

One of the features of my new fitness tracker is sleep monitoring. And to be more specific, the nightly recharge of my sleep. The information I am given is extremely comprehensive. And has resulted in a lot of research. Given my lung health which is not good, and the Covid-19 virus, I have been extremely interested in my breathing rate. This is one of the four vital signs to check our health. It sounds very simple, the respiration rate is the number of breaths a person takes per minute. The best time to measure this is when a person is at rest. And the easiest way to monitor this is a smart fitness tracker that does it for you while sleeping. Basically, it is the number of breaths one takes in one minute. For a healthy adult this is between 12 to 16 breaths per minute.

Today’s inspirational recipe from Lavender and Lime ♥ Brown Bread Flour Sourdough ♥ #LavenderAndLime Share on X

If it is very cold or the air is muggy, I have difficulty breathing. This is from countless bouts of bronchitis I have had since I was 16. And has been exacerbated by smoking and having had pneumonia. My lungs are so bad that I cannot blow out candles or inflate a balloon. And so you can understand my fear at this time of contracting this virus. I know that respiration rates may increase if I have a fever or am ill so I check my breathing rate every morning. My 28 day average is 14.7 breaths per minute. Which is a reassuring result on two levels. One is that I am healthy, and the other is that despite being able to ‘feel’ my lungs sometimes, I am not sick.

Brown Bread Flour Sourdough

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5 from 1 vote

Brown Bread Flour Sourdough

This is an adaptation of a San Francisco Sourdough Loaf
Recipe Category: Bread
Makes enough for: 1 loaf of bread

Ingredients

For the sourdough starter

  • 80 g sourdough starter
  • 80 g bread flour
  • 80 g water

For the brown bread flour sourdough

  • 530 g brown bread flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 370 g water
  • 10 g fine salt

Method

For the sourdough starter: day 1

  • Place the starter, flour and water into a stand mixer bowl
  • Stir to combine, cover and set aside for at least 8 hours

For the brown bread flour sourdough: day 2

  • After completing the float test, add the flour, water and salt to the bowl
  • Using a dough hook, combine the ingredients
  • Once a dough has formed , knead for 10 minutes
  • Cover the bowl with a shower cap and set aside for 6 hours
  • Every hour during this time stretch and fold the dough
  • Turn the dough out onto a well floured surface and stretch and fold
  • Shape into a ball with the seam side down
  • Flour the top then place it seam side up into a well floured proving basket *
  • Cover with a shower cap and set aside to prove until it passes the probe test
  • Preheat the oven to 230° Celsius
  • Gently, tip the dough out onto a lined baking sheet
  • Slash and place into the oven and bake for 10 minutes
  • Reduce the temperature to 200° Celsius and bake for a further 30 minutes
  • Remove from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool completely before cutting

Notes

Float test: drop a small amount of the rehydrated starter into a glass of water. If the starter floats, it is ready to use.
To stretch and fold the dough, I use a dough cutter and pull the dough in from the 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock positions, towards the middle. 
* At this stage I divided the dough in half and placed half into the fridge to make a second loaf when we had eaten the first. This is why the bread is a bit flat.
Probe test: gently poke the dough with your finger - if the indentation springs back within a minute your dough is proved.
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime July 31:

Have you ever measured your breathing rate?

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