Sourdough Bread for Beginners

 

I love bread.  I especially love homemade bread.  I've been doing the rustic no-knead bread for many years and love the simplicity.  Turns out sourdough isn't hard--it just takes good time management (and an active starter).  

Equipment you need

Large mixing bowl (I use a metal or a plastic bowl)

Wooden spoon

Kitchen scale

Cooking pot with lid -between 4-6 quart size (cast iron dutch oven is ideal)

Parchment paper

Ingredients

90 grams (1/3 C) of starter at the peak of activity (info below)

385 grams ( 1 7/8 C) of water

10 grams (1 3/4 tsp) of kosher salt 

520 grams (4 C) of bread flour 

Timing (start one day, finish the next)

3:00-4:00 pm feed your starter

8:00-9:00 pm mix your dough

Overnight-let dough rest on counter

Morning (8:00-10:00 am)-Shape and let rest for about 30-60 minutes

Late morning bake your bread

1. Prep your starter.  Feed your starter the afternoon before you want to bake.  My starter is very active and will go from unfed to peak activity (increased in volume nearly 3x) in about 4 hours in my kitchen--could take longer or less time in your kitchen.  

2.  Use your kitchen scale and use the tare feature (the zero-out feature) so that every time you add an item you can start the gram count over.  Don't forget to zero out the first time when you put the large mixing bowl on it. Add the 90 g of starter, zero out scale.  Add the 385 g water, zero out the scale.  Add the 10 g salt and stir it gently to dissolve salt and starter. 

3. Zero out the scale and add the 520 g of flour.  Remove from the scale and use the wooden spoon to stir everything together until it is all mixed and shaggy (takes about 1-2 minutes).  Dough will not have any dry flour, but it won't be a pretty ball either. 

4.  Set the timer for 15 minutes and cover the bowl.  When the timer goes off, you will do a "mini knead" called the stretch and fold.  This will help develop the dough's gluten and start making the dough look like dough!  Get your fingers a bit wet to keep them from sticking and grab one edge of the dough and pull it up 3-4 inches and then fold it down to the center of the dough.  Turn the bowl a 1/4 turn and do it again until you've gone around the bowl a couple times.  Set the timer for another 15 minutes and then do it again. You'll notice a pretty dramatic difference in the dough over the 2 stretch and folds.  

5.  Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel (my bowl has a lid, perfect!) and leave it on the counter over night.  You want the dough to nearly double in size--in my kitchen that takes about 10 hours.  

6.  Morning!  Time to get the bread ready for baking.  Your dough needs one last set of stretch and folds, but this time, you'll stretch it a lot more.  Get your fingers wet and use a hand on each side of the dough to slide underneath the ball and pull it up and out of the bowl about 12-18 inches.  Let the dough start to just hang down and stretch as far is it will go.  Pile the dough back onto itself into the bowl, turn the bowl a 1/4 turn and do it again (you'll notice it won't want to stretch/dangle quite as far, but keep gently shaking/jiggling to get the dough to stretch out more).  Repeat 2 more times.

7. Prep a medium bowl to hold the shaped loaf while it rests (proofs) before baking.  Put a piece of parchment into the bowl and sprinkle with flour. 

8. Shape the dough--after you've done the stretches, pick it up the same way and tuck the ends under to start making a ball with a smooth top.  Grab a small handful of flour and rub it over the smooth, round top.  Carefully turn it and put some flour on the bottom too.   Now place the dough round into your parchment lined bowl with the bottom of the dough on the bottom of the bowl so that you see the pretty, smooth top.  Note:  If you want to get fancy and have a banneton, you put the dough in upside down--but don't do a banneton your first time.  My banneton took about 2 times to get "seasoned" and not end up with dough sticking to the basket).  

9.  Let the bowl with the shaped dough rest in the fridge for about 45 minutes while the oven preheats (NOTE: If you need to let the dough hang out in the fridge for longer than 45 minutes, no problem...leave it in the banneton all day if you need to and bake when you have time). 

10. Preheat oven to 475 degrees for a full 30-45 minutes.  

11. Take your dough from the fridge and carefully grab the parchment and place the whole thing, parchment and all, into your baking pot.  Slash a relief cut across the dough (use a very sharp knife or a fancy razor called a lame).  Put the lid on and place in the oven (I like to set my pot on a cookie sheet to make sure the bottom doesn't get too browned).  Bake covered for 30 minutes. 

12. Remove the cover on the pot and bake an additional 20-25 minutes until it is very golden and the internal temp is between 202-206 degrees on an instant read thermometer.

Place bread on a rack to cool for about an hour before cutting. 

Alternate:  Baguettes

You can use the same dough and shape it into baguettes!  After step 6 where you do the last stretch and folds, instead of forming one ball to rest, divide the dough into 2 or 3 pieces and lightly flour your counter.  Form a rectangle and roll it up to make the tube. Pinch the seam closed and roll the dough to get a longer loaf.  Its best if you have a baguette pan so that the bread will hold its shape.  Let the baguettes rest on the counter until doubled in size (about 2 hours).  Preheat your oven, but put a pan on the bottom rack with a couple cups of water in it.  The pan of water will provide the steam to get the crusty exterior (with the round loaf you don't do this because the lid on the pot keeps moisture inside and is self-steaming).  My oven happens to have a steam mode, so if yours does, use it!  Bake at 450 for about 30 minutes until nicely golden.