There is nothing more cozy and satisfying than biting into a freshly baked piece of sourdough ripped from a warm loaf and smeared in salty butter. For this recipe you will need a live sourdough starter AND dutch oven. Here's a summarized process YouTube video in case it is helpful: My Sourdough Process.
Ingredients:
90 g active sourdough starter (here’s the first one I bought)
395 g bottled water (do not used tap water, which contains yeast-killing chlorine)
500 g bread flour
2 tsp salt
Dutch oven (here's a great one on Amazon)
In a large glass bowl, whisk together bread flour and salt. In a separate bowl, dissolve sourdough starter in the water. Pour the sourdough starter water into the flour mixture and mix well until a coherent dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and rest dough for 30 minutes at room temperature.
First Stretch
After 30 min, stretch dough for about 1 minute. With damp fingers (to minimize dough sticking to hands), pull one edge of dough up and fold dough in half. Turn bowl 90 degrees and repeat with the next edge. Turn bowl another 90 degrees and repeat again. Turn one last time and repeat. Cover with plastic wrap and rest 15 minutes. After 15 minutes repeat the above stretch. You can repeat one more time after another 15 min if you’d like, but it’s not required.
Proof / Rise
Cover dough with plastic wrap and a towel and let sit for 6-12 hours in a warm place (I use the top of my oven with oven turned on to 300 degrees F; it makes the top stove area around 78 degrees F). Check after 6 hours: you'll want dough to nearly double in size (at least 1.5X). The warmer the temp, the faster it will rise so a cool counter might take a full 12 hours.
Second Stretch
When dough has finished proving (rising), grab the full ball of dough with wet fingers (to minimize dough sticking to you) and stretch it straight up like a giant piece of taffy, 1-2 feet (30-60 cm), and then place the stretched dough back into the bowl to absorb into itself for 30 seconds. Turn the bowl and repeat. Turn bowl and repeat one last time, except place dough into the parchment paper bowl. Place in fridge for at least 1 hour for a cold rest before baking. If you plan to bake in an hour, turn oven on now.
Bake
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F for at least 1 hour before baking. Make sure your dutch oven is preheating this whole time inside the oven too. Remove dough from fridge and score the top with scissors (snip down directly into the dough surface, about 1/2 inch deep and a few inches across, doesn't have to be exact).
Moving quickly so heat is retained, remove dutch oven from oven and place dough inside along with it's surrounding parchment paper. Replace lid and return to oven. Bake 20 min. After 20 min, remove dutch oven lid, reduce heat to 450 degrees F, and bake another 20 min.
Cool bread on it's side on the counter for at least an hour before cutting. If you can't wait an hour, go ahead and cut - it will still be delicious, just a little more gummy than if you wait.
Note:
A dutch oven is just a cast iron container with a lid. This regulates the heat and moisture in your loaf and ensures a textured, crispy crust. I got my first dutch oven at Goodwill for under $10 so you truly do not have to spend a lot of money to start baking sourdough.
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