Classic Sourdough Bread
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 50 mins
Total time: 1.5 days
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
3.5 cups organic, unbleached, all-purpose flour or bread flour
1- 1 1/3 cup filtered water (use more if you’re not using whey)
2/3 cup active sourdough starter
1/3 cup whey (from strained yogurt or cheesemaking), optional
1 tablespoon of raw honey or maple syrup
2 teaspoons sea salt
Instructions:
Feed your sourdough starter approximately 4-8 hours in advance.
Sift flour into a large bowl. Sprinkle in salt. In a 4 cup glass measuring bowl, whisk together sourdough starter with whey (if using), and honey. Add the water and stir to combine. Using a large wooden spoon, stream wet ingredients into the flour and mix just to combine. Once all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough is shaggy, cover and allow the dough to hydrate for 30 minutes.
Return to the dough for a stretch and fold session. You will grab one end of the dough, pull it up toward you and then fold it over the other half of the dough. Give the bowl a quarter turn clockwise and do it again, grabbing the dough from a different place than before, stretching and folding it over onto itself. Do this 4 times. Cover the dough and rest.
Repeat the stretch and fold process every 1-2 hours for a total of 5 times. The last time, take the dough out of the bowl, lay it on the counter, and fold it into itself, like a letter. Rotate and repeat before shaping into a tight ball. Dust the interior of the bowl with flour. Dust the dough ball with flour thoroughly as well, before returning it to the bowl.
Is using a glass bowl for the bulk rise, you can tuck a piece of parchment paper under the dough now too. This will remain under the dough during any transfer to the counter and then again to the oven.
This is also the point where you can move the dough to a banneton basket if using. Cover with a clean towel and leave it overnight.
The next morning, move it to the fridge until you are ready to bake it. The chilled dough will be easier to transfer without deflating it.
The next day, when you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450-500 degrees, or as high as your oven will go. Place your empty Dutch oven inside the oven. While the oven preheats, remove the dough from the fridge and transfer the dough to the counter, being careful to pick up the parchment paper underneath. Place the dough on an additional sheet of parchment paper, slightly larger than the dough in order to use it as a sling to transfer to the hot Dutch oven later. Score a cross across the center and spritz with fresh water.
Preheat your oven for 30-60min before baking. When the oven comes to temperature, remove your cast iron Dutch oven from the oven using heavy duty oven mitts, set it on a heat safe surface. Quickly transfer and gently drop your dough into the hot Dutch oven, with the parchment paper remaining underneath the dough. Cover with the lid or aluminum foil if you do not have a lid (a lid is better). Move the Dutch oven back into the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 450-500 degrees.
Set oven timer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes reduce heat to 425-450 degrees, depending on your oven settings, and bake bread for another 20-30 minutes or until the center reaches at least 200 degrees. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer to a heat safe surface. Allow bread to rest for at least one hour before cutting.
Tips for a perfect loaf:
-Use ceramic or glass bowls and wood utensils, instead of metal or plastic bowls/utensils to avoid any chemical reactions with the sourdough or impure flavor.
-Sift flour for a lighter bread. This makes a huge difference especially in organic and whole grain flours.
-Whisk all your wet ingredients together before adding the flour for a lighter dough,
-Add more water for a lighter dough. If the dough looks dry, drizzle in a bit of water. If it’s clinging to the sides of the bowl, get your hands wet to turn and fold. A slimy dough is too wet and will not rise correctly, but it’s okay for the dough to be slightly sticky.
Only dust with flour before letting it rest in the fridge overnight and shaping it into a tight ball. This way it will easily spring from the bowl. Handle the dough delicately after the final fold to avoid collapsing bubbles.
-Score the dough, and mist with water after removing from the fridge. Allow dough to rest on a piece of parchment paper, on the counter, while the oven preheats. Be careful not to let it come to room temperature or the dough will spread and lose its shape. Drop the dough, including parchment paper, into a hot Dutch oven when the dough is still slightly firm from being chilled, but not cold. Cold dough can create problems in the oven like less of a rise, uneven baking and a more dense crumb.
-Whey is not necessary but will add protein, lowering the glycemic load, adding to the bulk fermentation process to the dough. It also will bring out a more intense flavor sourdough is known for.
-Begin this bread a day and half before you’re ready to bake it. During warmer months, I like to start mid day and after it’s final fold and shape, will park it in the fridge overnight. The cold ferment will keep the process going but slow it way down. The dough firms up, helping it to keep a nice tight shape and protecting the air bubbles from collapsing. This also ensures it won’t overproof, and buys me time the next day. In the winter months, leaving it on the counter overnight instead of the fridge works better. The air is more dry, making the fermentation process slower. I pop the dough in the fridge the next day, to let it firm up until I am ready to bake it. Everyone’s kitchen and conditions are different.
-Start with a screaming hot oven. You want the oven as high as it will go for the first 20-25minutes and then you will drop it down by 25-50 degrees depending on your oven. The intense heat will give the bread the boost it needs for a really high rise.
-To prevent a hard or even blackened bottom on your boule of sourdough, you can place your Dutch oven on top of a cookie sheet while the bread is baking.
- Remove loaf from dutch oven immediately to cool on a flat surface, uncovered. Allow to cool for a full hour or more before cutting.
THIS IS A GUIDE. Sourdough recipes are the only category of baking where the recipes are not black and white due to the many variables in everyone’s kitchen and climate. Baking sourdough is a discovery process for what works for you. Even “botched” bread is edible if not delicious. I store stale or imperfect bread in the freezer and use for French toast, bread crumbs, and croutons.