Country Sourdough Recipe
Servings 2 loaves
Calories
Ingredients
Levain / Starter
- 80 g Sourdough starter mature
- 120 g Water warmed to 80-90F
- 60 g All purpose flour bread flour works too
- 60 g Whole wheat flour
Dough
- 200 g Sourdough levain / starter you made the night before
- 650 g Water warmed to 80-90F
- 900 g Bread Flour organic preferred
- 100 g Whole Wheat Flour organic preferred
- 25 g Salt
- White rice flour optional to reduce sticking
Instructions
- Make your levain. The night before, mix 120g water (80-90F), 60g all purpose flour and 60g whole wheat flour with 80g of your mature starter in a jar. Cover and leave in a warm area – this should more than double in size in about 8 hours.TIP: Make sure water is lukewarm - a thermometer helps. Place jar in a warm area in your kitchen - proving oven, Goldie, or turn oven on briefly and turn off. It's super important your starter is mature for this to work correctly (mine smells like fresh sour apples).
- Make the dough. At 8AM the morning you want to bake. Mix the mature levain and warm water in a large mixing bowl until levain is incorporated into the water. Then add the flour and salt. Mix with a spoon, and then use your hands to make sure everything is incorporated together.
- Rest the dough. Let dough sit covered in a warm environment for about 40 mins. You can keep it in the same bowl or transfer to a new container - just leave enough space for the dough to grow in size. I like a clear bowl or container so I can see what’s happening with the dough easily. TIP: temperature is really important throughout the process. If you have a proof setting on your oven, or a separate proofing drawer, use it. Your bulk fermentation times will vary depending on temperature. Goal is to keep dough at 78F throughout this process.
- Stretch & Laminate. This step helps evenly incorporate the levain into the dough and helps to create structure. After 40 mins, the water will have absorbed more fully into the dough and should be a little pliable. Rinse your hands lightly, and take the dough out of the container and stretch it out into a large thin rectangle. Try pulling gently from the edges and work it outwards. If it tears slightly, that’s ok, but avoid large tears. Once it’s spread out relatively evenly, start folding the dough over on to itself 5 inches or so at a time until it's one long strip of dough. Then roll it all up from the bottom and place back into the bowl/container.
- Proof. Bulk ferment the dough covered for 5 hours 15 minutes in a warm environment. The time here will vary based on temperature. This is something you will have to practice and test yourself to get the desired result. The dough should have some air bubbles throughout, and be soft and aerated to the touch
- Pre-shape the dough. Carefully without knocking a lot of air out of the dough, remove the dough from the container onto your countertop or work surface. Using a bench scraper, cut the dough into two equal parts (it doesn't have to be exact). Rinse your hands lightly, and work the dough gently into a round shape by cupping your hands behind the dough and pulling towards you on the countertop. Keep going a few times slightly spinning the dough to keep tucking itself under itself - don't overdo it. You can also use your bench scraper for this. Let the loaves rest on the work surface for about 30 minutes covered with a bowl/container. Otherwise the surface will start to firm up from the surrounding air making shaping a bit more difficult. TIP: Don’t add flour to your countertop otherwise the dough will just slide around rather than build tension.
- Final shaping. The goal of shaping is to give the loaf its classic round shape (boule) and build tension so it doesn’t flatten like a pancake. Sprinkle a tiny bit of flour on the top of the pre-shaped loaf. Use the bench scraper and scrape under the dough and flip it over on its back. Gently stretch the sides of the dough outward. For the first fold, take the right side, stretch it outwards slightly and then fold back into the middle. Do the same with the left side and overlaps the folds slightly. Now, take the top, stretch it out slightly, and bring it back towards you a little more than the center. Lastly, bring the bottom up over the top fold and then roll the entire loaf over so now you are seeing the top of the loaf. Use your hands in a cupping position to draw the loaf towards yourself. As you do this more tension will start to build around the sides and the folds you just made underneath will smoothen out and seal. Make sure your work surface doesn’t have too much flour otherwise there won’t be enough resistance to grip the dough. Repeat and turn until you have a well rounded shape with some height to it.Repeat for loaf number two.
- Final Proof. Using a small sieve, sprinkle the dough with white rice flour (or regular flour), which helps the dough to remove cleanly from the banneton proofing basket. Sprinkle a little bit in the banneton as well around the edges. Take your bench scraper, and lift the shaped loaf from underneath and flip carefully upside down into your banneton so that the top of the loaf is facing down. If you are baking the same day, cover the banneton baskets and keep in a warm area for 1.5-2 hours. Note: If you are baking the following day, leave out for another 30 mins (covered), and then wrap the bannetons with a tight plastic bag and place in the refrigerator to ferment overnight.
- Prepare to bake. I usually like baking the same day–who doesn’t like warm bread for dinner! 30 minutes before the end of your final proof, preheat your oven to 450F with a Dutch oven or combo cooker on the middle rack with the lid on. Cut a large piece of parchment paper and place on a flat board such as a cutting board. Flip the board over so the parchment is underneath and place on top of the banneton basket. Holding the board and the basket together, flip it over gently so the dough is now out of the basket and on the parchment. Using a flat razor blade or bread lame, cut four lines into a square shape along the top outer edges of the loaf. Try not to cut too deep, should be about ⅛ - ¼ inch deep. This will help the loaf properly expand up and outwards during the bake. Take the preheated dutch oven out of the oven with oven mitts and take the lid off. Sprinkle a light dusting of flour on the bottom (to reduce charring on the bottom). Lift the loaf using the parchment paper and place carefully inside of the dutch oven. Caution: the dutch oven is super hot so be careful not to touch it.
- Bake. Put the lid back on, and place in the oven. Bake for 25 minutes covered, and then another 20-25 minutes uncovered until the crust is a golden brown color and firm when you tap on it.
- Cool and serve. Remove from the oven and carefully lift the loaf out of the Dutch oven using the edges of the parchment paper and place immediately on a cooling rack. Repeat Step 11 to bake your second loaf. For best results, wait about 30-60 minutes before cutting into it so the loaf has time to rest, although I’m not going to judge you if you want to dig in early :D. Your whole house is going to smell amazing. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- If baking with a cast iron combo cooker, reduce your bake time slightly - I find it bakes faster and can scorch the bottom if left too long.
- Store leftovers in a sealed container