This page will teach you how to bake a very tasty loaf of Sourdough bread, pictures/videos of process will be added during next bake.
Sourdough starter
Wheat flour
Fresh water
Dutch oven/cast-iron pot
Oven
- Feed your starter, equal amounts of starter/wheat/water (in this case, we will use 50g of sourdough starter, 50g room temp-water, and 50g full wheat flour)
- wait until starter has doubled in size. This will take a long time, for me, it usually takes 8-10 hours, so be patient! I usually feed it in the morning before going to work
- once it's doubled in size, remove 100g of the starter and place it in a separate bowl to prepare your dough. Put the remaining starter back in the fridge for next weeks bake.
Do note that all the times below are estimates, these are what work for me in my enviroment, they might be longer/shorter in your area, but use them as a guideline and find your way forward
Terms
Stretch & Fold - I need to get a video here
Tighten the dough - I need to get a video here
Score - I need to get a video here
Mix the following into the bowl that you added the 100g of sourdough starter into
- 400g Flour (I usually do 300g wheat flour + 100g full wheat, you can also mix it 300g wheat and 100g rye for different tastes etc)
- 260g room temp fresh water
- 10g salt
Mix all the ingredients together using your hands, it should become a very sticky dough, put a towel over it and place it somewhere safe with no sun on it
set a timer for 60 minutes
Do a "Stretch and fold", then put the towel back over the bowl
Set a timer for 45 minutes
Do another Stretch and Fold, then put the towel back over the bowl
Set a timer for 45 minutes
Do another Stretch and Fold, then put the towel back over the bowl
Set a timer for 45 minutes
Do another Stretch and Fold, then put the towel back over the bowl
Set a timer for 45 minutes
Put some flour on a flat, clean surface and pour out the dough on the surface, then "tighten the dough"
cover it with the towel and set a timer for 15-20 minutes
Take out your bread basket and put the towel into it, with enough space to be able to fold over the dough
Make sure the dough is tight, if not, tighten it some more one last time and shape it so it will fit into the bread basket
Dust the dough with flour ontop of it, scoop it up and place it "upside down" into the bread basket, then softly wrap the towel to cover the bread and place it in your fridge for 12-24 hours
After 12-24 hours have passed
- Preheat oven to 250c (230c if you use a hotair variant), place the dutch oven inside as it is being preheated
- Once the oven is ready, remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap the dough, place a bakingsheet over the top of the bred basket and use a cutting board as a lid, then flip the bread basket upside down to make the dough "fall" out onto the baking sheet/cutting board
- Remove the bread basket and towel, brush off any extra flour you don't want on the bread.
- "Score" the dough if you want to try and get a more stable/controlled form of the finished loaf
- Remove the Dutch oven/Cast-iron pot from the oven, and place the dough inside (lift it using the baking sheet), put the lid on the Dutch oven/cast-iron pot back and then place it all inside the oven. Set a timer for 25 minutes
- After 25 minutes, remove the lid from the Dutch oven/Cast-iron pot, and lower the temp in the oven to 230c. Set a new timer for 20 minutes, this is the "colouring/crust" period, make sure to check in on the dough (without opening the oven) every 3-5minutes until you get the colour you want on it, for me, this sweet spot is 15 minutes.
- remove the bread once it has the colour you want, place it on a ventilated surface
Your bread is now done and ready for consumption, once it's cooled a bit, some notes regarding the cooling period:
- Cutting into the bread before it's rested properly means you get a warm, juicy and super tasty bread, but it will dry out faster.
- Letting it rest until room-temp (usually around 2,5-4h) will make it taste "fresh" longer, but you miss out on the goodness of the warm bread...
- if the bread is dry, just warm up some butter and spread on it to let it seep into it, or use some olive oil drizzled over it