Dr. James Stokman’s
Sourdough
Bread
WRITTEN BY MICHELLE LEMIEUR
PHOTOGRAPHED BY MARGARET NELSON
It’s morning, just before six o’clock. I pull into the driveway and see a house already stirring.It seems the Stokmans and their six children are early risers. As I approach the door, Dr. James Stokman ushers me inside. I sit at the counter on a tall stool. He pours me a cup of thick black coffee with a splash of real cream. I’m already delighted. Today I will learn how to make sourdough bread. As he begins, he cuts me a slice of his bread, toasts it, and slides the butter dish over to me.
Stokman explains that his love for sourdough began with his wife’s New Year’s resolution to bake bread for their family. “It’s easy to buy bread, but with a large family, it’s expensive, and the idea of using real ingredients appeals to her,” he says. Stephanie ordered a cookbook and began her research. A few days in, she says, she felt a bit intimidated by the process. Not to mention, her early mornings are often hectic getting kids ready for the day. Stokman, a spine surgeon, and scientist at heart, loves the chemistry and physics involved in the sourdough process. He began working with Stephanie on developing their recipe and never looked back.
During my tutorial, Stokman explains that when making sourdough, you replace the baker’s yeast, used in most breads, with a starter—a self-sustaining mix of flour and water left at room temperature to ferment over the course of a few weeks. While you can get starter from a local baker or order some online, Stokman encourages making your own, like he did, or asking a friend to gift some of theirs. Once established, the starter needs to be kept at room temperature and fed with more flour and water each night.
When crafting his sourdough bread, Dr. James Stokman brings a love for both science and art into the kitchen.
This morning, Stokman pours the starter into a bowl and empties the excess into two other containers: In one, he puts 20 grams for the next loaf. The extra is set aside for other purposes, he says. “A few times a week, I’ll make a batch of pancakes, or a skillet using ground beef, peppers, and mushrooms with the discarded batter poured on top, then baked. Both are family favorites.”
As I sip my coffee, I watch him move about the kitchen with a precision that makes it easy to imagine him in his operating room. He measures his ingredients in grams using a scale, rather than cups and ounces. According to Stokman, it’s more accurate and makes less mess. The scale, bowl, spatula, thermometer, and water bottle are his only tools. Stokman explains that he bakes the bread on the days he is in the operating room and makes dough on days he meets patients in clinic, since his start time on clinic days is a bit later.
He puts the ingredients into a bowl, then mixes. Next, he pushes salt into the dough, using 25 grams, a bit more than most recipes call for. The dough appears stringy at first, but after about five minutes, it begins to unify, and I see it take shape. He sets the dough on a piece of parchment in a cast iron Dutch oven and covers it with a waffle-weaved towel for the unique texture left behind. Using the oven light as the only source of heat, the dough rests inside for several hours and is pulled and stretched every thirty minutes or so by Stephanie. It’s then moved into a standard mixing bowl and folded once again into the towel to be refrigerated overnight. When ready for baking the next morning, Stokman sprinkles the dough with flour and uses a safety razor to score the dough in a pattern uniquely his own.
For Dr. James and Stephanie Stokman, baking their own bread gives them more control over the ingredients they serve their busy young family.
The process may seem cumbersome to the novice, but Stokman assures me it’s not. He has only thrown one batch out since he started baking bread. “There’s a lot of trial and error to achieve the flavor that makes the bread your own,” Stokman explains. “But the process is forgiving, so there’s not a lot of failure.”
As I drive home, finishing off the piece of bread I refused to leave on my plate, I can’t help but wonder if baking sourdough is more science or art for Stokman. I feel it may be equal parts both. I don’t doubt that if he relies more on one than the other, he’d be leaving something very important out. And, after tasting this bread, I can say that just wouldn’t do.
Stokman’s Sourdough Bread Recipe
Ingredients
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Starter (Developing starter can take two to three weeks. You may be able to get some from a friend. If not, recipes are readily available online. I’m assuming you’ve already acquired it.)
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1,000 g flour
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600 g/ml water
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25 g sea salt
Daily Feeding of the Starter
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Reduce starter to 20 g, set aside the excess for recipes like sourdough pancakes.
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Add 70 g white flour, 30 g whole wheat flour, and 100 g/ml warm water.
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Store in a warmer room for about 24 hours (until next feeding).
Day 1: Evening (if starting a new loaf), Levain Preparation: (Levain is a “ripe” starter, or a starter that has risen, is bubbly on top, has a sour aroma and a looser consistency.)
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Before your daily starter feeding, and in a separate jar from your ongoing starter, combine 20 g starter, 100 g white flour, and 100 g warm water.
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Let ferment overnight (about 12 hours) in the oven with only the light on to generate a warmer environment.
Day 2: Morning, Dough Mixing
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Mix 1,000 g white flour with 600 g warm water (approx. 90°F) until it starts to stick. (Don’t mix in the levain yet!)
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Stretch and fold until it gains some consistency.
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Autolyse: (This is the gentle mixing of the flour and water, followed by a rest period, before kneading when enzymes are broken down.) Let the dough rest in the mixing bowl 30–60 minutes.
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Incorporate levain and salt.
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Spread ripe levain and 25 g sea salt over the dough and use fingers to “push” them into the dough.
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Fold, stretch, and roll the dough. (It will initially feel slimy and stringy but will soon become smoother and more uniform.)
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Fermentation: (This is the period just after all the dough has been mixed when it is allowed to mature or ferment.) Cover and let the dough rest a total of 6 hours for fermentation (timing does vary depending on dough and room temperature).
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Fold the dough twice during this time—30 to 60 minutes apart.
Day 2: Evening, Proofing: (This is a second fermentation stage.)
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Transfer the dough to a cloth-lined bowl for proofing.
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Cover with a large pot lid or put inside a used plastic grocery bag—be sure the seal is tight enough to minimize air movement and the bowl is deep enough for the dough to double in size—and refrigerate overnight. If the dough rises, it “proves” itself as being good!
Day 3: Morning, Baking:
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Preheat oven and Dutch oven to 450°F. When preheated, place the cold dough on parchment paper, sprinkle with flour, and score (cut the outer surface of the dough) with a razor.
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Place the cold dough in the Dutch oven and bake 20 minutes covered, then 25 minutes uncovered.
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Remove and cool for at least one hour before slicing.