Sourdough
Before you begin, you will need a healthy starter. There’s plenty of information online on how to start and maintain a starter. I don’t have a particular recommendation for one to follow (and honestly, as far as I’ve noticed, it does not matter too much). The most important part is that you have a fermented mixture of equal parts water and flour, and maintain it with equal parts old starter, flour and water.
Traditionally, sourdough is baked in a dutch oven. I have made this recipe with and without one; both work but with the dutch oven, the result is noticeably better.
If you don’t own one, the main function of the dutch oven is to preserve moisture during the initial bake. You can sort of simulate that by creating steam in your oven, for example by letting water evaporate from a heat-resistant container during preheat and the first 20 minutes.
The ingredients listed make a single loaf, but you can easily make more at once by just multiplying as desired, and shaping multiple loaves at the end.
The recipe below is for a 75% hydration dough.
While the process is long, there isn’t too much actual work. It is, however, important that you follow the schedule, and plan ahead, as the whole thing can span up to three days.
On day zero, it is important that you have enough healthy starter. Make sure it is well-fed and happy.
The schedule for day one can look something like this:
- 09:00 prepare the levain
- 13:45 prepare the dough
- 14:00 start autolysis
- 16:00 mix the levain and the dough
- 16:30 add the salt and water
- 16:45 fold one
- 17:00 fold two
- 17:15 fold three
- 17:45 fold four
- 18:15 fold five
- 18:45 fold six
- 21:00 shape and refrigerate
The whole thing will be ready for baking between 10:00 and 12:00 on day two.
For the levain:
- 40 g white flour
- 40 g whole wheat flour
- 40 g starter
- 80 g water
This will leave you with about 90 g of levain, which I like to use to just continue my starter. If you want to make multiple loaves, add 25/25/25/50 g respectively, for each additional loaf.
For the dough:
- 520 g white flour
- 55 g whole wheat flour
- 375 g water (filtered, ~35 °C)
- 60 g water (filtered, ~35 °C)
- 13 g fine (sea) salt
The numbered steps below correspond to the schedule above.
- Prepare the levain by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl. This will need to rest for 5 to 8 hours, until doubled in size. Use an elastic band around your pot to remember the baseline. Mine usually only needs 5.
- Prepare the dough when you see the levain is almost ready. Mix the flours and the 375 g of water until all the flour is wet and you have something of a shaggy dough. Cover with a moist towel.
- Start the autolysis, let the dough rest for two hours.
- Pour 110 g of the levain over the dough and spread it out. Wet your fingers and gently press the levain into the dough by poking holes. Mix in the rest by pulling up one side of the dough and folding it over the rest. Continue doing this all around until all the levain is incorporated. Cover again and let it rest for 25 minutes. Store the rest of the levain as your next starter.
- Mix the salt with the 60 g of water, and pour it over the dough. Use the slap and fold technique until the dough is smooth and everything is incorporated. This should take about five minutes.
- Fold one; do two coil folds. Wet your hands and lift the dough out of the bowl, drape it back over itself. Turn it 90º and repeat. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Fold two; repeat as in fold one. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Fold three; repeat as in fold one. Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- Fold four; repeat as in fold one. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Fold five; repeat as in fold one. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Fold six; repeat as in fold one. Let it rest for 2 to 3 hours.
- Lift the dough out of the bowl on the countertop. If you made multiple loaves, cut into even pieces without disturbing the dough too much, do a coil fold and let it rest for 5 minutes. Then shape the dough.
That’s most of the things done.
- Put the final result into a banneton, and wrap it loosely in a plastic bag to retain moisture, make sure the bag does not stick to the dough.
- Refrigerate for 12 to 14 hours (probably overnight)
- Preheat the oven to 250 ºC, if using a dutch oven, put it inside to preheat as well. Do this for at least 20 minutes.
- Take out the dutch oven, sprinkle flour on the part where you will bake the bread.
- Flop the dough directly from the banneton into the dutch oven (the top of the bread is the bottom of the banneton); I recommend to skip any parchment paper, I find the bread does not rise well with it.
- Sprinkle with white flour
- Score the dough (you can be creative, but I like a simple cross over a boule)
- Close the dutch oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes (longer means a harder, thicker crust)
- Take off the lid and lower the temperature to 220 ºC
- Bake for 15 more minutes, until the colour is as you desire.
After removing the bread from the oven, let it cool down on a rack for 2 hours. Only cut the bread after it has fully cooled.