12/16/2023
Sourdough Instructions
Feed starter every day or every other day to keep it alive. If you won’t be using it for a while, put it in the fridge and it should last a while, it will just need a couple feeds after being in the fridge to get active again.
To feed, add equal parts flour (UNBLEACHED) and water and let activate 5+ hours or until doubled in size. I typically feed my starter before bed and then use it in the morning, giving it a good 8-12 hours, but you can do less. Once active, you can use the starter in a recipe.
A general feed would be 50 g starter, 50 g flour, 50 g warm water, but feel free to mess around with it. Some people do a 1:2:2 recipe or 1:3:3 recipe.
Keep lid loosely on, not tightened
Use leftover starter (discard) for another starter, for discard recipe (pancakes, cookies, etc…) or toss.
Recipe
500 g unbleached all-purpose flour/bread flour
360 g water
10 g salt
100 g starter
I combine flour and warm water and let sit for 30-60 minutes to autolyze, covered with a damp cloth. Then I add the activated starter and mix with my hands. Then add the salt and lightly punch salt down in dough a little. Cover with damp cloth and let rest at room temp. After 30 minutes, stretch and fold dough. To stretch and fold the dough, use your hands to lift the edge of the dough up and then over. Turn bowl 90 degree and repeat 4-5 times (I would look up video on how to stretch and fold for a better understanding). Stretch and fold the dough again every 30 minutes for the first two hours of proofing. Then let sit an additional 2-4 hours without stretching or folding. The total hours of proofing should be anywhere from 3-7 hours. I’ve found lately based off of my own home environment (temp./altitude/humidity) that 4-5 hours has been the sweet spot. You can tell if it is ready to shape if the dough has increased by about 30% in size and has the start of some bubbles at the top. Once the proof is done, I usually do one more stretch and fold to shape it a bit, then dump it on a floured surface. I loosely shape it into a ball by folding two sides towards the center then folding the dough times inward, then I let rest a few minutes, then shape again into a tighter ball (or boule) by pulling the seems center as much as you can, being sure to build lots of tension. I would look up a video on how this should look, or I can send you one of myself shaping it. Once shaped, put dough seam-side up in a floured banneton (I highly recommend using rice flour for this), then continue to build boule tension by pulling the sides of dough towards the center to make it an even tighter boule. Next, put damp cloth over the banneton, and I secure it with a rubber band (you can use what you have) and let sit overnight in the fridge to ferment.
Baking instructions:
Before baking, make sure to lightly flour top of bread and score your dough with razor or sharp knife of some sort.
Set oven to 450 F with Dutch oven and lid inside the oven as it preheats. Once preheated put dough on parchment paper and place in Dutch oven with lid on. Bake for 20 minutes with lid on and then 20-23 min with lid off. Once done, put bread on cooling rack and let sit for 1 hour. Then enjoy! Happy baking ☺! Let me know if you have any questions!
Tips:
Your dough will be sticky, so rinse hand with water before stretch and folds to help prevent dough from sticking to fingers
Use rice flour when flouring your banneton to prevent the dough from sticking to the banneton
Smaller size bannetons and dutch ovens will help bread to rise up instead of growing wide/flat
When preheating oven for your bake, transfer banneton from fridge to freezer before scoring. This will make bread easier to score. Once oven is ready or after 15-30 minutes of the dough being in freezer, take out and place on parchment to score and bake as usual
If you’re in a rush, you can skip the overnight fridge ferment and bake right away. Your bread will be less flavorful and less healthy for your gut, but I’m sure still plenty delicious!
Using a dough scraper to help shape your dough into a nice boule is helpful, not necessary but helpful
You can keep your dough in the fridge for many days to develop a more sour flavor, and a healthier bread
