Bread & Co.

Owen Cochrane

A master in the art of sourdough making

I'm Owen Cochrane, I’m 42, I live in Brighton and Hove on the south coast of the UK with my wife and 2 small kids. I've been working in IT and project management for the last 15 years, which is fine, but when I'm not either working, parenting, or tidying up, I'm almost certainly thinking about, reading about, preparing, or just eating food. I've always cooked obsessively, as far back as I can remember and it’s a hobby that, luckily for me, I get to practice daily, what with humans being compelled to eat several times a day to survive and all. Cooking something nourishing and with care, every day for myself and my family is a far better use of time than, say, kite surfing or collecting hats.

Sourdough came along in earnest in September 2019, I birthed my starter on my birthday, because (spoiler) that’s the sort of thing you do in your 40’s - I’m afraid. I'd had a go at sourdough about 15 years ago, but back then you had to read actual books from libraries and follow ill thought out diagrams on how to fold and shape loaves, so it was hard and quite unrewarding. I made some real crap and had no one to ask why it was rubbish or how to fix it. So when I went on holiday for a month, after forgetting to refrigerate my starter, I was oddly elated to return home to find it had died.

15 years later I'm a better, more patient person, a better cook. Also, Google, Youtube, and Instagram have made masses of information, techniques, and tutorials accessible in real-time. Making bread a few times a week is now just a pleasing ritual and sourdough in particular never ceases to impress me in that you can create an incredibly delicious thing out of virtually nothing; flour, water, salt, time, and heat. Plus, it’s MUCH cheaper than buying it.

Also, sourdough takes time and it’s a nice benign exercise in mindfulness; something that requires a bit of planning, some regular (if minimal) intervention, a bit of technique, some room for panache if you’re that way inclined, then at the end of it you more often than not get a great sandwich. It’s art, science, therapy, and lunch - all at the same time.

I started my Instagram account in February 2020 as a bread diary for me and as a way to stop spamming my personal feed with nerdy posts about hydration % and internal dough temperatures. I didn’t even bother telling anyone about it (most of my friends still don't even know that it exists, which is a bit weird now that I think about it) and I never intended for anyone to care about it. But then, global lockdown happened and the whole world started baking so here we are. But bread Instagram is a nice, instructive and supportive corner of the internet, I've learned loads, met lots of really lovely, helpful people from all over the world, so that’s nice.

I’ve never really considered making bread in terms of future plans, but the idea of staying up all night on my own listening to music and playing with the dough in my own, extremely thoughtfully furnished micro-bakery is something that, now I write it down, sounds very appealing. So you never know.

I'm also vehemently opposed to the naming of starters. Moreso if it involves some sort of pun. So if you're currently feeding Dough Pesci twice a day, that's fine and your business, but it's unlikely we can ever be friends.

RECIPE

Overnight Sourdough Focaccia

Probably the least effort/greatest reward in the sourdough back catalogue, if you can mix things and scatter things you’re good. I use mozzarella brine to hydrate as it’s more interesting than water and gives a soft, milky crumb, plus throwing stuff away is silly. I realise 380g is a lot, but it freezes brilliantly, so each time you have fresh mozzarella, reserve the brine and store it up in the freezer until you have enough. (It also makes great pasta incidentally). Or, just use water like a normal person.

Ingredients

250g strong flour (50%)

250g plain AP flour (50%)

380g mozzarella brine (the liquid fresh mozzarella comes in) (76%)

100g active starter, recently fed @ 100% hydration - equal weights of flour water and more than doubled in volume (20%)

10g olive oil (2%)

10g salt (2%)

18:00pm Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl, it’ll be a very wet and sticky mess. This is fine. Cover and leave to sit for an hour at room temp.

19:00pm With wet hands, perform a set of folds (essentially pull up a corner of the mass, stretch it up, without tearing it, and fold it over to the opposite side of the bowl, then ¼ turn the bowl and repeat until you’ve completed a 360-degree turn) Cover and rest at room temp.

20:00pm Perform 2nd set of folds. Cover and rest at room temp.

21:00pm Perform 3rd set of folds. Cover and rest at room temp.

22:00pm Perform 4th set of folds. The dough should be very smooth and showing solid signs of fermentation at this point. After you’ve folded, transfer into a well oiled non-stick baking tin, mine is 23cm x 32cm, coverwell with cling film and leave on the counter till breakfast.

10:00am The dough should have spread to fill the tin completely, if not give it a little help with wet hands. It should have risen slightly and be bubbly. Drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil and with wet hands dimple with your fingers right down to the bottom of the tin.

Then top with whatever you fancy/have to hand, this one has sliced new potatoes, onion, rosemary, lemon thyme, chive flowers, nasturtium leaves and flowers, and Maldon sea salt.

Bake at 230c for around 30 minutes or until done to your liking, I like it on the cusp of being burnt, but each to their own. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, but it’s best enjoyed warm, outside, and in a single sitting.

Recipe | Basic Sourdough Method

This makes a loaf approx 750g uncooked weight, which will fit nicely into a 21cm oval banneton, but you can use pretty much any vessel of any shape for final prove. If you don’t have bannetons a bowl lined with a well-floured cloth is fine. Overall hydration is around 72% (this includes the water in the levain), which is on the low side for sourdough, but I find it much easier to handle, shape and score and feel much more competent doing it.

Ingredients

360g Strong white flour (90%)

40g strong whole wheat flour (10%)

275g water (69%)

80g active starter, recently fed @ 100% hydration - equal weights of flour water - and more than doubled in volume (20%) 9g salt (2.2%)

08:00 Feed starter with equal weights of flour and water and leave to rise until doubled. At the same time I mix my flour and water for the autolyse; this stage allows the flour to fully absorb the water and activates enzymes that stimulate the proteins to start gluten development. This makes the dough very extensible and relaxed by the time you come to add the starter and salt. I favour a long autolyse, but mainly for ease and to fit my schedule, I feed my starter and mix the autolyse at the same time, go off and do other things and when the starter has doubled (usually 4 to 5 hours in my case) the autolyse stage ends and the starter is mixed in. If you’re going to autolyse for more than 2 hours, ensure you cover it well to stop a crust forming, I use lightly oiled cling film in direct contact with the dough. Even an hour will make a big difference to the dough so it’s definitely worth doing.

13:00 add the starter to the autolysed flour and water and mix for 1 min until fully incorporated. Cover and leave to rest for 30 mins.

13:30 Mix in the salt until you can no longer feel the grains, 4 or 5 mins. Cover and leave to rest for 45 minutes.

14:15 Stretch and fold the dough. With wet hands, pull a handful of dough up from the corner and stretch it upwards (taking care not to tear it) and fold it over to the opposite side of the bowl, then ¼ turn your bowl and repeat until you’ve gone round the full 360 degrees. Folds over the next few hours will build strength and give your dough structure. Cover and leave for 45 mins

15:00 Lamination is essentially stretching the dough out on a lightly wet counter into a large rectangle (which is much easier than it sounds) you can add anything you like at this point, herbs, seeds, cheese, etc. I mainly bake plain bread because children, I just enjoy doing this part, plus it helps build a lot of strength. You should easily get a rectangle around 70cm by 50cm with these dough specs, once stretched out, fold it back up like a book, to the size of a paperback - (I'd recommend just googling this process, or skip it if you can’t be bothered, just do another stretch and fold). Transfer the dough to a very lightly oiled high sided dish in which the dough fits snugly, this helps support the dough as it rises. Cover and leave for 45 minutes.

15:45 Perform the second set of folds, Check internal dough temp if you can, you’re aiming for around 25c, ideally, check the temp at every intervention, try to keep it constant.

16:30 Perform the third set of folds. The dough should be increasing in size and showing solid signs of fermentation. Cover and rest for 45 minutes.

17:15 At this point bulk has been going for just over 4 hours, so in some climates may be ready for shaping. I find my dough normally needs between 5 and 7 hours at a constant internal temp of around 25°c, but different conditions will affect this, you’ll need to make a call on how it’s looking. The decision to end the bulk stage is a crucial one and will dictate whether you under or overproof (or of course, absolutely nail it), if it’s grown by between a 3rd and half and is wobbly and puffy, it’ll probably be ready for shaping. A handy way to leave intuition out of it, is to snip off a small chunk of dough with wet scissors (about the size of a walnut) and drop it into a glass of water. If it floats, you're ready to preshape. If not, chuck the walnut back in the dough and perform a final set of folds. Cover and leave for 45 minutes, or until your walnut floats.

18:30 Preshape - I find this stage, and the bench rest after, helps make a tighter, stronger loaf during final shape, which I feel helps scoring and oven spring. It also helps to de-gas the dough more evenly distribute the air, but a lot of bakers don’t bother with this, feel free to skip. I don’t use any flour, just lightly wet the counter, fold, stitch and roll the dough then form into a taut ball with your dough scraper - google it, a video is for more instructive than me clumsily describing it. Cover with a large bowl and leave to rest for 30 mins. N.B. Bulk ends at this stage, so this dough has been bulk fermented for 5.5 hours.

19:00 Final shape. Lightly flour the counter, flip the rested dough, fold, stitch and roll the dough into a batard/boule and place into a well-floured banneton or vessel of choice lined with a floured cloth. Again, google shaping if you’re unsure. Place in a plastic bag and refrigerate at 3 to 4c for at least 12 hours.

08:00 Preheat your oven to 250c for at least an hour, if you have a cast iron dutch oven or pot, even better, this needs to be preheated too. A pizza stone will work if you don’t have a pot. Score your dough, straight from the fridge, with a razor blade as artfully as you can, or are inclined to, then straight into the dutch oven on parchment paper. Splash some water into the pot before clamping on the lid. If you’re not using a pot, you can spritz the loaf with water and splash a cup of water into a preheated tray at the bottom of the oven. Steam is integral, it stops the crust forming too quickly and allows your loaf to spring. After 25 minutes, turn the oven down to 220c and remove the lid (if using one) and bake until you’re happy, around a further 20 minutes is a good rule of thumb.

Leave to cool for as long as you can before slicing. If it’s worked well, you’ll probably need to restrain yourself from immediately going and doing it all over again immediately. (See also if it’s gone badly).

OWEN COCHRANE

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