Sourdough Bread
Make one loaf of sourdough bread with this step-by-step tutorial.
Equipment
- Dutch oven
- Kitchen scale
- Bread banneton
Ingredients
- 200 grams whole wheat flour
- 300 grams unbleached all-purpose flour
- 325 grams water
- 75 grams sourdough starter fed, at its peak
- 10 grams salt
Instructions
Day before baking
- Mix together the whole wheat flour, unbleached all-purpose flour, and water in a large bowl until combined. Cover with a clean dish towel and let it sit for 45 minutes.
- Pour in the sourdough starter and salt into the bowl.
- Using a clean, wet hand, fold the mixture in on itself by grabbing the sides of the dough and stretching it vertically then pressing it into the middle.
- Stretch and fold all sides of the dough, doing this about 8 times. Cover with the dish towel and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Repeat the same strech-and-fold process three more times, separating each folding session every 30 minutes. So after two hours, you should have stretched the dough four times since adding the starter.
- Generously flour a bread banneton. If you don't have one, cover a kitchen colander with a clean dish towel and flour that instead.
- Move the dough to a generously floured surface. Shape it into a loaf by pinching the four corners of the dough and bringing them together in the center.
- Place the dough (pinched side down) into the banneton. Cover with the kitchen towel and place in the fridge for a bulk rise. Leave it for 12 to 16 hours.
Day of baking
- Cover your dutch oven with the lid and place it in the oven. Preheat the oven at 500 degrees, and let the dutch oven sit there for 30 minutes.
- When the 30 minutes is up, gently flip the dough onto a floured piece of parchment paper.
- Score it with a razor blade or a sharp knife to control the "open spring" process of the baking.
- Place the loaf with the parchment paper in the dutch oven, then cover. Make sure to use oven mitts—the dutch oven will be hot!
- Bake in the oven with the lid on for 20 minutes.
- Remove the lid and lower the oven heat to 450 degrees. Bake with the lid off for another 20 minutes.
- Let the loaf sit on a cooling rack for one hour before digging in—this enhances the sourdough flavor.
- Store in a bread bin at room temperature (not the fridge!) for up to 5 days.
Notes
The type of flour you use is honestly up to you. If you prefer a 100% whole wheat loaf or 100% white, then just use that type of flour. This is just the blend I prefer when I make my loaf.