We have seven children. Yes seven. I have a hard time believing it myself some days. With that being said…bread doesn’t last long in the house. One of our goals as a family, is to make as much food as we can from scratch. From our research and experience, our stomachs do better with homemade sourdough bread. BUT it takes time and effort to fit it into the schedule. As the years went on, and the baby blessings multiplied…I quickly realized that we couldn’t keep up production for the hungry bellies.
But since you have stumbled on this page, I know you’re busy and don’t need my sourdough-life backstory. It’s pretty pathetic anyway. So many loaves of bricks have been made….I was straddled between keeping up a baking routine or just buying the jumbo loaves of Dave’s Bread at Costco.
I was sick and tired of buying the Costco bread. Surely I could figure this out. I needed a routine that didn’t feel like I was in the kitchen 24/7, but also yielded lots of bread. One day I had the revelation of looking into how *bakers* do large quantities of sourdough. Their techniques require consistent outcomes, because you know…they need to pay bills. I may not pay bills with this bread, but I certainly need the consistency to feed the starving masses in my domestic cafeteria.
3 Hacks for Large Scale Baking at Home
1. Do bulk fermentation in a large food-safe container. This is a game changer right here. Instead of scouring the kitchen for every bowl you got, just do all of your mixing in one large container. My current routine makes 6 loaves of bread, with plenty of room for expansion if I wanted to add more loaves to my recipe.
2. Have lots of baskets with liners for final proof. I wish I could find cheaper options. The oval shape basket is my favourite. If you’re on a tight budget you can always line bread tins with parchment paper (top two loaves above are in tins).
3. Keep all loaves in the fridge during final fermentation, until ready to bake. This is probably the best tip. You can make several days worth of bread all in one day. Before final proof, put all of your loaves into the fridge. The next day, bake what you need. The next day, bake what you need etc. We now get to enjoy fresh bread everyday, with only a minimal amount of effort.
I tuck my fermenting loaves back into the proofing container, head over to the farm walk-in cooler, and leave the loaves there till I need them. If you’re short on space: wrap up your baskets with plastic bags, or a clean towel, and find a cozy spot in the fridge. The drawers would be the perfect place.
The loaves that sit in the fridge the longest are the healthiest, because they were fermented longer. Since they’re chilled, they also release from the fabric liners very nicely. There really is no downside to doing bread this way. Except that right now, we eat two loaves a day. Which means I need more baskets.
Here’s a recipe and a picture tutorial on what I bake for my family every week.
Leave a Reply