REVERB’s Quarantine Kitchen – Episode 4: Tom Papa

We’re Getting Baked baking with Tom Papa in Episode 4 of REVERB’s Quarantine Kitchen

Have you been seeing all your friends posting pictures of their homemade bread online and thinking, ‘I should really do that?’ Tom Papa has… and he’s going to help you make your own delicious, Instagram-worthy sourdough bread! So take that, person-from-high-school-that-thinks-they’re-so-great-for-baking-during-quarantine-that-I-hate-follow-on-social-media. Anyway…

Tom has been perfecting his sourdough recipe for years and he’s going to show us all how to make it!

Learn to bake some incredible bread and finally have your own homemade sourdough to join the quarantine sourdough cult showoff on Instagram.

Check out the other episodes of Quarantine Kitchen and learn more recipes on REVERB’s YouTube Channel. And make sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to hear about upcoming episodes and much more!

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Tom’s Sourdough Recipe

Starter

• Equal parts flour and water by weight (1cup or ~100g of each is a good place to start)
• Mix flour and water and let sit at room temperature, uncovered or covered with a cloth, until bubbly and active. Discard half of starter, add equal parts water and flour by weight, and wait until frothy/bubbly, about 24 hours.

Bread

• ~6 cups flour (1000g)
• ~2 1/2 cups water (700g)
• 2 cups starter (200g)
• 2 tbsp salt

Note: The key is to follow your intuition about the hydration of your dough and adjust flour and water as needed to make the loaf you want. It’s always easier to start with a lower hydration (i.e. always add more flour before fiddling with the water).

Autolyse

• Mix flour and water with hands until a mass forms. Wait ~30 minutes to an hour.

Then

• Mix the starter and salt into the flour-water mixture until fully combined. It will be a gloopy mass.
• Transfer to a large container (square or circle, doesn’t matter) and wait 15 minutes.

Turns

• Run your hands down the side of the container and lift the dough in the middle. Let it fold in on itself.
• Turn the container 90 degrees. Set a timer for 15 minutes, then lift the dough again. Turn the container, set a timer for 15 minutes.
• Repeat 4 times.

First Proof

• Let the dough rest for ~3 hours at room temperature, or up to 24 in the refrigerator.

Shaping

• Turn the dough out onto a super-nonstick surface (like a silpat). Wet your hands. Use a bench scraper dipped in flour to separate your mass of dough into 2 masses. Use the bench scraper and your hands to pull the dough into a ball. Be sure to keep a sense of where the top and bottom of the mass is. Pull your hands along the surface, using the friction to help form the dough.
• Let both balls of dough rest, covered by a towel, for 20 minutes or up to an hour.

Second Proof

• Uncover the dough and flip it over so the ball is upside down. Fold the corners in on themselves so you make a sort of dough-envelope. Keep going until you have a ball of dough that holds its shape.
• Dust with flour, and place into a bowl with a towel draped over it. Fold the ends of the towel over the dough, so it’s covered in the bowl. Repeat with the other loaf. Place both loaves in the fridge over night.

Baking

• Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with a dutch oven inside. If your oven doesn’t go that high, as high as it will go. Place a piece of parchment paper over the bottom of the dutch oven.
• Uncover and take the dough out of the bowl.
• Place the dough in the pre-heated dutch oven upside down from how it was in the bowl (so what was on top in the bowl is on the bottom of the dutch oven. Spray 5-10 times with water, cut top with a lame, cover with dutch oven lid, and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Repeat with second loaf.
• After 20 minutes remove the top of the dutch oven, bring the heat down to 450 degrees, and place back in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
• After 15-20 minutes remove the bread from the dutch oven (being careful not to burn yourself) and place directly on the wire rack of the oven. Lower heat to 400 degrees. Leave in oven 10-15 minutes, or until browned to your liking. Remove bread from oven.
• Let the bread rest until cooled, at least 2 hours and up to overnight.

Eat

• Yum!