I have been on a sourdough journey for about 2 months (with my niece, my girlie) and that is how long it has taken to truly perfect a sourdough loaf of bread! If you have an active starter I will share the feeding that worked best for me after a lot of trial and error. I will also share the recipe I used but times for bulk fermenting may vary greatly from kitchen to kitchen. I suggest watching videos by Grant Bakes! He has been my go-to!
Here are links to my FAVORITE bread tools that I have recently bought and love!
Cambro containers-best for watching bulk fermentation!
Food Safe Gloves so you won’t get too messy!
3 quart pink dutch oven-perfect size!
Sourdough Bread
Ingredients
Sourdough Starter Feeding
- 20 grams starter
- 30 grams medium rye flour
- 70 grams bread flour
- 100 grams room temp, Poland spring water
Sourdough Bread
- 300 grams room temp water
- 100 grams active starter
- 450 grams bread flour
- 10 grams kosher salt
Instructions
Starter
- Mix all and keep in a warm spot. For me that was inside my microwave with a cup of boiling water next to it.
- Time how long it takes to double so you know. Mine had been taking 12 hours but as it got stronger it became more like 8 hours.
Sourdough Bread
- Mix starter with water. Add flour and salt. Combine into a shaggy dough and cover 30 mins.
- Do 20 slap and folds. Rest 1 hour.
- Do stretch and folds. Rest 1 hour.
- Do final stretch and folds. Transfer to an oiled cambro container and use a rubberband to mark where it begins. Let it bulk ferment until almost doubled but not quite! (About 9 hours total for me in a microwave next to a cup of hot water-75-80° Remember bulk ferment begins when you mix the starter!)
- Do first shaping by releasing dough onto a floured surface. Pull edges in (like a stretch and fold) to form a ball. Cup and fold to build tension. Flip over and let rest uncovered 30 mins.
- Flip over and fold like a letter into center. Do a tension roll and fold side edges over. Cup/fold and lay seam side up into a banneton coated with rice flour. Place in fridge covered until the next day. 24 hours is great but 34-36 will have even more sour flavor.
- Flip out onto parchment and rub top with rice flour. Score with a bread lame. Bake in a 3 quart dutch oven at 475 for 20 minutes with lid on. Remove lid and bake 20 mins more until 208-210℉ internally.
- Cool at least an hour before slicing or it may be gummy.
Adapted from Grant Bakes Starter adapted from the Perfect Loaf and Suzanne in the office!
The loaf below has a smaller ear but makes a slightly larger loaf. Same method (just about 5-7 minutes baking time at the end) but the bread proportions are as follows-thanks to chat gpt!
333 g. water
111 g. starter
500 g. bread flour
11 g. salt
Both had a beautiful interior!
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