An easy to make sourdough bread recipe. Well, easy to make, but about a nine hour process. Result is a delicious loaf of bread.
Here's the recipe:
Sourdough Bread
ingredients:
1 cup active sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups water *
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 1/4 cups of bread flour*
directions:
In large bowl, combine starter and lukewarm water. Mix (or whisk) until starter dissolves into a milky like mixture.
Add the flour and salt to the bowl and stir until the dough comes together. The dough will be rough (shaggy) and you might have to use your hands when working in the flour.
Cover bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes. (this allows the ingredients to come together and form a smooth, elastic dough which gives it a better oven spring).
Knead dough for 5 minutes (by hand or mixer with a dough hook) until dough becomes smooth and elastic.
Return dough to bowl, cover with either plastic wrap or damp towel and let it sit for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, begin a series of stretch and folds. You will do this for about 5 minutes every 30 minutes (over a 2 hour span)(a total of 4 stretch and folds in that 2 hours).
After the final set of stretch and folds, cover the bowl and let it rest (about 2-4 hours) until it doubles in size.*
Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and do a set of stretch and folds and bring dough into a round boule shape. Make sure seam side down, can move dough around to tighten the shape.
Place piece of parchment paper inside the bowl.* Place dough onto parchment paper in bowl, towel over top for a final rise (about hour) The dough is ready when slightly puffy.
Preheat oven 425F with dutch oven inside. You want the dutch oven to be in there for about thirty minutes.
Carefully place dough (with parchment paper) into dutch oven. Don't forget to flour/score the loaf).
Bake for 40 minutes with the lid on (important, otherwise loaf will burn). Remove lid and bake for another 10 minutes (or until crust is golden brown).*
Remove loaf from oven and cool on wire rack before slicing.
* * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*I use 1 cup of warm water and it works perfectly for my starter (my starter is a little on the runny side).
*I have used unbleached all purpose flour and have had no problem with this recipe.
*You can do this as a bulk rise over night in the refrigerator. To do this, after the final set of stretch and folds, just cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator. Pull the bowl out in the morning and let it rest for an hour (it needs to be at room temperature). Turn in onto a lightly flours surface and let it rest another 20 minutes. The dough will start to relax. Once it has relaxed, do the final shaping and let rise for another 30 minutes to 1 hour. Then bake.
*The use of parchment paper makes the transfer from bowl to dutch oven go smoothly. Trust me on this one. I have learned from my mistakes. The bowl also helps the dough retain it's shape. Again, learned this lesson the hard way...
*You can bake bread longer than the extra 10 minutes without the lid for a crisper crust
Have you hopped onto the sourdough bread train yet?
Let me know your feelings about sourdough in the comments.
Enjoy!
