BLUES IN SHOES: Polish cuisine for dummies part 1- Homemade sourdough bread

I’m native Polish and must admit that cooking is very important part of our culture. Simply we love feeding people. So if there will be occasion to visit Polish family, you can expect that you won't leave hungry (especially if you meet there Polish granny - feeding is a mission of her life!). You can find many typically Polish cuisines but actually many of them were influenced by foreign cooking especially from eastern part of Europe and Germany. That's undeniably effect of people's migrations resulted by turbulent history of Poland.

I know, I should start with something extremely easy to cook. Making bread is relatively easy but takes time, so if you are very impatient just skip this recipe. If you like challenges and You want to surprise someone with your cooking skills this is exactly what you looking for!

Sour dough bread is very important ingredient of our daily menu. I know some Polish people that add bread to every meal during the day. We are experts at recognizing good quality one. Actually we've been spoilt by our bakeries supplying still warm, fragrant, crispy outside and soft inside sourdough breads and buns every single morning. I'm mean good old traditional bakeries, not those mass production factories in supermarkets that use a lot of cultivators. I've heard many times Pole complaining about "chemical, puffed, soft breads" they’ve tried in different countries around the world. This kind of baking is available in Poland but is usually used for toasts.

This recipe I found on Polish blog of the lady who has a lot of experience with baking bread: http://dancia.bloog.pl. Preparation of sourdough (the longest stage which last 5 days. With ready sourdough you can skip this part of preparation) Recipe I’ve used gave me much more sourdough than I needed for one baking so I could store the rest in fridge for next bread. Older sourdough gives better results than freshly made but you need to remember to feed it once a week with 2 table spoons of flour and warm water (enough water to keep it as thick as yoghurt) , two hours in warm place and then back to the fridge again. Be aware that sourdough changes smell and gets bubbles as effect of fermentation.

So far the worst thing that I found about bread recipes is extensive description. You can feel overwhelmed with those all details and information what makes relatively simple process sounds like production of atomic bomb. So I decided to describe as simple as possible using a table. For basic recipe you need only 4 ingredients:

Rye Flour (whole grain is the best option).
Wheat Flour ( unbleached! Who the hell invented bleaching flour? Bleaching toilets or hair but flour? It doesn’t sound healthy at all! My husband says that those bleaching agent are used during production of bomb)
Warm water
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar

Making sourdough	Day 1	Mix 3 tbsp. of rye flour and warm water in glass jar(mixture should have yogurt consistence), put it warm place and cover with cloth
	Day 2- around 24 hours later	Add 3 tbsp. of rye flour and warm water (enough water to keep yoghurt consistence)
	Day 3- around 24 hours later	As above
	Day 4- around 24 hours later	As above
	Day 5- around 24 hours later	As above
Making leaven	Step 1	Combinate: 5 tbsp. of sourdough (rest of sourdough store in fridge in covered but not twisted container) 1. 10 tbsp. of rye flour, 2. 10 tbsp. of warm water Keep in warm place
	Step 3 (12 hours later)	Add to the mixture 1. 10 tbsp. of rye flour, 2. 10 tbsp. of warm water Keep in warm place
	Step 4 (6 hours later)	1. 10 tbsp. of rye flour, 2. 10 tbsp. of warm water Keep in warm place
Kneading and shaping	Step 1 (4 hours later)	You created 60 tbsp. of leaven which is enough for 2 loaf of bread Combinate it in large bowl with: 1 kg of wheat flour 2 cups of warm water Pinch of salt Pinch of sugar Knead it for around 10 minutes. It should be smooth and flexible. Leave it covered with a cloth for around 1-2 hours to rise.
	Step 2	Turn half of the dough out of the bowl on floured table top or wooden board
	Step 3	Start folding the far edges into the middle of the dough repeat it this process for couple of minutes to make it firm and remove gases created during fermentation process. Spring your finger and the surface under the dough to keep them from sticking
	Step 4	Keep folding the dough to create a ball, then turn it upside down (smooth side will be on the top, folding marks will be hidden on bottom)
	Step 5	Make couple of parallel cuts on the top and brush over with warm water, follow Steps 2-5 with the other half of the dough. Place loafs into floured baking tins.
	Step 6	Place loafs in warm place to rise. They should double in size. Cracks may appear on the top of them.
Baking	Step 1	Preheat oven to 250 C˚. Sprinkle it well with a water and place loafs on upper rack (in bigger ovens both loafs should fit together on one rack)
	Step 2	After 10 minutes place 3 ice cubs on the bottom of the oven and reduce temperature into 230 C˚
	Step 3	After another 10 minutes reduce temperature into 200C˚ and keep loaf in oven for another 20 minutes. After 40 minutes of baking loafs should be golden- brown and crispy outside and soft inside. After cooling store loafs covered with kitchen foil to prevent them from drying