This bread ended up going really off-piste. It was meant to be a simple white sourdough bread with a tiny hit of ginger in the sponge. But I ended up with some excess soaked bulgur, so I just dumped it into the dough. And I ended up using less flour than called for since the dough seemed way too dry, even with the extra water contributed by the soaked bulgur. I think I also ended up leaving out the cream of tartar and mixing in some sourdough discard as a way to simultaneously incorporate more acidity and moisture. But I don't quite remember all the details since I failed to do this write-up immediately after making it and didn't even have all the measurements to begin with!

Possibly, given how many blanks and question marks are going to end up in this recipe, I should forgo the write-up altogether. But it ended up being one of TF's favourite breads, so I feel like I should at least make an attempt at organizing some notes for future reference.

Starter White Bread with Bulgur

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

Sponge

• 125g active (fed) starter @ 100% hydration
• 90g all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 c. water, divided
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Dough

• 1/2 c. skim milk powder
• 250g sourdough discard
• 1 c. bulgur, soaked overnight¹
• ~240g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. lard²

Directions

1. Make sure to feed your starter and get it nice and active before mixing the sponge.
2. Combine the starter, flour, and 1/4 c. of the water and let stand, uncovered, for two hours.
3. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the sugar, ginger, and water.
4. Once the starter mixture has sat for two hours, pour the liquid over, cover, and let stand at room temperature overnight.
5. The next day, uncover the sponge and mix well.
6. Add the skim milk powder, sourdough discard, bulgur, ~60g of flour, baking soda, and salt and beat for ~1 minute on medium speed (or ~50 strokes by hand).
7. Add the lard and ~100g of flour and beat into a smooth batter.
8. Switch to dough hook and gradually work in flour until the dough comes together and cleans the sides of the bowl.
9. Continue kneading with dough hook for a few minutes or turn out onto work surface and knead until supple and elastic (10-20 minutes by hand; maybe only 2-4 by machine).
10. Cover and let rest for ~20 minutes.
11. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one.
12. Cover and let rest for another 10-20 minutes.
13. Meanwhile, grease two 20x10cm (8x4") loaf pans.
14. Shape each round into a loaf and place, seam-side-down, into the prepared loaf pans.
15. Brush the top of each loaf with a little melted butter if desired.
16. Cover and let rise at room temperature until fully risen (2-4 hours³).
17. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
18. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30-45 minutes.
19. If crust is insufficiently brown, remove loaves from pans and return to oven for 5-10 minutes.
20. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ Since I was initially planning on using the bulgur for a completely different recipe where the volume of water used to soak it didn't matter, I didn't measure it. I have no idea how much water I used. It was enough that the bulgur was fairly wet without being soupy. The water had been almost entirely absorbed with only a very small amount pooling at the bottom of the bowl, but it was definitely saturated and the grains were clearly holding a lot of moisture. ^Back
2 Rather than using store-bought lard, I actually tossed in ~1/4 c. of the fat that rendered out of the pork shoulder I'd cooked the day before for the pulled pork with peach-mustard sauce. I'm not sure if this had any impact on the flavour or not. The fat looked very smooth and white, but it may have added some subtle flavours to the bread that would not have been present if I'd used commercial lard. I'm not sure, but I figured it was worth noting. ^Back
3 I don't remember how long I let this bread rise for, but I remember it being significantly longer than the 2 hours specified in the recipe. I think 4 hours is probably about right. Of course, this will vary a fair bit depending on your room temperature and how active your starter is and your flour and all sorts of other things. ^Back