I've been baking sourdough bread for almost a month and I love it! It takes time and patience but it's such a rewarding and relaxing process that I just want to keep baking and baking!
This is one of my favourite sourdough bread recipes. I've tried quite a few already but the texture and the flavour that this flour mix developes is one of my favs! If you don't have these type of flours at home you can always replace them for plain flour and common wholemeal flour, not a problem! 😉
Recipe
How much time you need?
Preparation time: 2 hrs
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 23 hrs
Resting/Proofing time: 20hrs
Material:
Big bowl (3Lts)
Small bowls and spoons
Spatula (or a dough mixer)
Bench scraper
Baking paper
Sharp knife (or a bread scorer)
Brush (to brush off excess of flour)
Kitchen scale
Cooling rack
Kitchen towel
Proofing basket (or a bowl & soft kitchen napkin)
Dutch oven / cast iron pan (or a pizza stone & an easy home-kitchen solution to create steam in the oven)
2 thick oven gloves (or thick dry kitchen towels)
Ingedients:
1000grs flour (700gr plain flour or bread flour, 200gr whole wheat flour, 50gr white spelt flour, 50gr rye flour)
770gr water (77% hydration) I prefer to use room temperature filtered water in benefit of the yeast.
150gr sourdough starter (15%) You could go up to 160grs.
20gr salt (2%)
Method:
Feed your sourdough stater and let it develope for 4hrs until doubles in size. It should be thorsty and bubly. Mine was made of wholemeal flour and it forms big bubbles and holes. It almost looks like a sponge when it's active! If you keep your starter in the fridge, let it reach room temperature for around 1-2 hours before feeding it.
When your starter has been feed and growing for around two to three hours, it's time to start the autolysis (flour and water mix to allow the flour to hydrate). Bring together flour and water until you obtain a shaggy mixture (see pictures below). Do not knead. Let it rest and autolyse between 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.
When the autolyse is complete, add the sourdough starter and salt. Fold gently to bring all ingredients together for 2-3 minutes. Do not mix, do not knead. Let it rest for 30min.
Gently strech and fold for 1.50-2 minutes or until de dough starts loosing eslasticity. Let it rest and repeat until 4 strech & folds are complete with restings of 30min in between. See video of the strech and fold tecnique below.
Let the dough rest for an additional 20 minutes, cover the bowl with a plastic bag and place in the fridge to prove overnight. This will slow the fermentation process and will let the bread develope more flavour.
The following day in the morning, take the dough out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature, at 24°C it will take approximately 2hrs.
Slightly flour the bench top and divide the dough in two small balls, fold 6 times each ball dough and let rest 30min at room temperature.
Generously dust with flour 2 proofing baskets.
There insn't a worse thing than a sticky dough sticking to the linen of your proofing basket! 😫
Strech the dough to a 30x20cm rectangule, very gently so the air inside the dough doesn't escape. Shape the bread loafs by gently folding it, use the stickiness to your advantage here and create some tension when folding it. Place the loaf in the proofing basket and let it proof for 4-5hrs or until has risen ~50%. Use the poke test to check if it's ready to go into the oven. When you poke it, the rebound should be ~70-80%. If it springs back too quickly, let it proof more time. If doesn't rebound, it's overproofed. The best way to fix an overproofed batard is to knead it a few minutes so the yeast can find new clusters with food. Place it in the proofing basket and let it proof 2-3 hrs. Make sure you proof it less time than the last time :-)
Preheat the oven to 250°C with the cast iron pan (Dutch oven) inside the oven.
Take the loaf out of the proofing basket by inverting it. Use baking paper. Dust extra flour and brush it to make it even. Score the dough by making some cuts. Put it straight into the dutch oven by using the baking paper to hold the loaf.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 20min at 230°C.
Turn off the oven, let it cool inside the oven (this process is for curing the crust) for 15 to 20 minutes with oven door slightly open.
Let the bread rest at room temperature for about 1 hour before slicing it...
Please wait!! 🤣 If you cut it while it's still warm you risk ruining the texture of the crumb that will result in a sticky and gummy crumb.
If you don't have a dutch oven, don't worry. You can use a pizza stone and pour some water in a pan in the bottom of the oven to create steam. If you don't have a pizza stone, use a regular pan or baking tin and don't forge to add a pan with a cup of water in the bottom of the oven. The steam helps with the bread rise and creates a crackly crust. It will complety change the texture and appearance of your sourdough so it's worth the effort!
Tip: Do you have an oven with steam function? Bake the first 20 minutes at about 235 degrees C on steam level 2 to 3 to get a nice oven spring. Then reduce temperature to 210 degrees C for an additional 20 minutes to get a nice golden crunchy crust.
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