Mock Sourdough Bread

We love sourdough bread in our house, but I don't even begin to have the patience for it.  Feeding the starter, keeping it going, etc. is just not my thing.  I can't even keep plants alive, never mind a sourdough starter.  I had given up on providing my family with homemade sourdough bread until I found this recipe recently.  The bread is made with 2 cups of yogurt instead of a sourdough starter so it's not true sourdough bread, although you could have fooled me.  This bread is phenomenal and yes, it does have that sourdough tang to it.  It's delicious!

I made this last weekend and we literally devoured the entire loaf in one day.  I originally made this bread to serve these herbed ricotta bruschettas and assumed I'd have about half the loaf left over, but we were just cutting thick slices of this bread warm from the oven and slathering the fresh ricotta on it and inhaling it.  And that was before I even made the bruschettas, so by the end of the night, one entire loaf of bread was gone.

Needless to say, I was thrilled with how this bread turned out and I will definitely be making this recipe again and again.

If you have an oven-safe pot or dutch oven, you can bake the bread right in the pot like I did (instructions below).   This is the second time I've made bread this way and I just love how it comes out.  By baking the bread in a covered pot, you get the surrounding heat of a professional oven, and in the covered pot the bread itself supplies the moisture needed to produce a great crust.  You don't have to bake it that way, feel free to bake the bread on a baking sheet too.  Either way, you're going to love it.

Enjoy!

Mock Sourdough Bread

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2 cups plain yogurt
1 tablespoon yeast (I used instant yeast)
1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon oil
4 - 5 cups flour, divided

Heat yogurt just to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Stir in yogurt, honey, salt, oil and 2 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Gradually stir in remaining flour just to make a smooth dough.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. (If using a heavy duty mixer, let dough knead for 7 minutes.)

Place dough in a greased bowl; turn once and leave greased side up. Cover and let rise until double, about one and a half hours.

NOTE:  I used my bread machine for the above instructions.  I used instant yeast and didn't bother dissolving the yeast in the water.  I just placed all my ingredients in the bread machine for the kneading and first rise, then removed the dough at the end of the dough cycle and continued on as below.

Punch down. Shape the dough into one large round loaf on a greased baking sheet. Let rise, covered, for 30 minutes. (If using an oven-safe pot/dutch oven to cook your loaf, place dough to rise on a greased sheet of parchment paper set in a pie pan.  This will help it retain it's shape and make it easy for you to place dough in pot. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, heat oven to 450F with pot inside, without lid.)

For non-pot method: Heat oven to 375F.  Brush loaf  with cold water and bake until it sounds hollow when tapped, about 45-50 minutes. Brush or mist with water every 10 minutes to get a crisp crust. Cool on a wire rack.

For pot method: Once pot has heated for 40 minutes in the hot oven and the loaf has risen, carefully remove the pot from the oven (using pot holders!) and gently place the dough inside using the parchment paper as a sling. Cover the pot and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and let the loaf cook another 10-15 minutes or until browned. Remove pot from oven, carefully removed bread and allow it to cool on a wire rack.

 Makes 1 large loaf.

Source:  Slightly adapted from 101 Things to Do With Yogurt


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