Sourdough Bread

Ingredients

Sourdough Starter

125 g of active starter (starter will be light and bubbly)

350 g of filtered/purified water

12 g of pure sea salt (cannot be iodized)

500 g of bread flour

Directions

Feeding the Starter:

Feed with equal parts (90 grams)- hungry starter, water, and flour (make sure they are equal weight)

To increase sourness, add a little dark rye flour to the flour portion (20% of total flour)

The fed Starter takes about 4-8 hours to become active. The stronger the hungry starter, the faster it will activate. Use float test (if floats in water it is active).

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Making the dough:

Mix ingredients in a 12 cup (or larger) mixing bowl. Mix starter, salt, and water until milky. Then add flour. Mix with spatula or dough whisk until all flour is absorbed into the dough. There should be no loose flour left. This will take a few mins.

Put the lid on, and let it rise for 8-12 hours. You will know it's ready if it is bubbly and it has risen at least 50% - double in size.

Do not let it rise more than double its original size.

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At this point you can go straight to baking, or you can stick the dough in the fridge for fermenting. This breaks down gluten proteins and makes it more gluten friendly. It also increases the sourness of the loaf. You can leave it in the fridge for up to 48 hours. When I do it, I usually leave it overnight. So about 8-12 hours. If you put it in the fridge, take it out and go straight to the next step.

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Prep and Baking:

Once the bulk rise is done and the dough is almost double the size, it is time to bake.

Sprinkle a light layer of flour on top of the dough. Tap the sides of the bowl to distribute flour.

Flip the bowl upside down onto a plate. Wait till dough is released from bowl.

Lift plate and slide dough into proofing basket. The center of dough (what does not have flour on it) should be in middle.

Pinch the sides of the dough together to close the dough into a loaf.

Shape your dough by tucking into the shape you prefer, Be gentle, not to pop any holes that have formed or release naturally formed gas.

Put the bowl back on top of the dough, and let it sit for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 460° when its been sitting for 45 mins. If your pan is not aluminum, put the pan in to preheat too.

When your dough has sat for an hour, put the lightest layour of flour on top, and use a knife to scroe a parrtern on top. Make at least one deep cut on the loag to allow expansion during baking.

Place dough in dutch oven with lid and bake for 40 mins at 460° (Baking time could change depending on your oven).

If you put your dutch oven on a cookie sheet, it will hel the bottom of your sourdough be a bit less dark.

At 4 mins, remove the lid and let the top of your loag brown to your liking - for 2-4 mins.

Remove bread from pan right away onto cooling sheet.

Wait an hour before you cut into it. If you cut into it too soon, your bread could be gummy.

Notes

I always keep my starter in the fridge. It will stay good there for 2 weeks. It will stay good at room temperature for 48 hours.

Example of baking timeline- if I want my loaf to be ready at 10:00 am on Friday then on Thursday (the day before) at 2:00pm I take out my hungry starter and feed it. At 9:00pm Thursday night I make my dough. Then my dough sits on my counter from 9:00pm- Friday morning at 7:00am. Then I do my shaping, and leave it for 1 more hour. I put my dough in the oven at 8:00am, and it will be done cooking at 8:40. I let it sit for 1 hour, then it is ready to eat right before 10:00am. Add more time into the schedule if you choose to put the dough in the fridge.

You can keep your loaf from drying out by keeping it wrapped in tin foil, or in a sealed plastic bag.