Classic Sourdough Bread
This bread recipe works every single time and always tastes amazing!
Sourdough bread does not have to be as complicated as others make it out to be. I almost never use my starter at the “perfect” time and I still get bread every time. Sometimes I forget about it on the counter when its proofing between stretch and folds LOL. The only thing you need to be precise about is your measurements, so make sure you use a kitchen scale!
Items you’ll need besides ingredients:
Kitchen scale, dutch oven pot or oven safe pot with lid, parchment paper, plastic wrap or bowl covers, banneton basket or bowl with kitchen towel, sharp knife or razor for scoring, and bread whisk or spatula/wooden spoon.
Here’s an awesome banneton and sourdough accessories set I have that I started with!
TIME STAMPS:
I feed my starter in the evening with a 1:2:2 ratio if I want to bake early in the morning, or feed it with 1:1:1 ratio early in the morning if I forgot or dont mind starting later that day. 1:2:2 ratio will grow and activate slower than a 1:1:1 ratio of feeding.
example schedule:
10:00pm - feed starter (example: start with 50g starter, feed 100g water, 100g ap flour)
7:00 am next day mix dough
730-930 stretch and folds
930-3/4:00 pm shape and put in fridge overnight
Bake anytime during next day.
(my starter when it is active and has doubled in size!)
Sourdough Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
100g active and bubbly sourdough starter
500g bread flour
350g lukewarm water
10g honey
10g salt
Directions:
Make sure your sourdough starter is at a nice and bubbly stage of activity. Mix all of your ingredients in a large glass bowl until it forms a shaggy dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a lid and Let it rest for 30 mins.
After 30 minutes, start your stretch and folds. Grab the top section of the dough, stretch it up gently and pull to fold it over the bottom. Rotate the bowl clockwise and repeat on all 4 sides. Let it rest again for 30 minutes.
Repeat this process 3 more times every 30 minutes. (From mixing dough to final stretch and folds, this should take 2.5-3 hours. It’s okay if this isn’t perfect, sometimes this runs into my time where I pick up the kids from school and it goes longer between folds.)
After last stretch and fold we will cover the dough and let it rest for 6-8 hours (until it doubles in size) on the counter in a warmer place of your kitchen. Sometimes I put the bowl in the oven (OVEN IS OFF) or microwave and let it rest there with the oven light on. After it’s doubled in size you should see lots of bubbles through the bottom of the bowl and that’s exactly what you want!
The next step will be shaping. Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and begin your shaping. I do this by gently pulling the dough into a rectangle-ish shape, and folding the top half of the dough to the middle horizontally, and then the bottom Half over to the top like an envelope. Then I roll the dough long ways into a tight cinnamon roll like ball. This is where I will start rolling the dough forward and with my pinky’s on the counter-pull it back towards me creating tension in the dough and creating a smooth ball shape, sometimes using a C type motion.
After the dough is shaped and has nice tension (be careful not to pop any bubbles), place the dough into a lightly floured banneton basket, smooth side down. The side you will see on top will be the messier side and not as pretty and that’s what we want. COVER and Let the dough rest in the banneton another 30min-1 hour. Refrigerate the dough overnight after the last rest (still covered).
After the dough has refrigerated at least 12 hours is when I bake ( but can be refrigerated up to 24 hours). Preheat your oven with a large dutch oven pot inside to 450 degrees F.
Gather a large piece of parchment paper and gently turn your dough out onto the parchment. Score your dough with at least one deep scoring line. Take dutch oven pot out to put the dough in right when you’re ready. Grabbing the dough by the sides of the parchment paper, place the bread carefully into the dutch oven pot and cover again. Bake for 30 minutes covered. Remove lid at 30 minute mark, reduce heat to 400F, and bake another 15 minutes. At this time your crust should be nice and browned, if you want to confirm done-ness of the bread, you can use a meat thermometer and test the inside of the dough, it needs to be 200 degrees F or more to be considered fully baked.
Remove bread from pot and let it cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it to let the crumb set. Store bread in an airtight container for up to 3 days! Sourdough bread freezes very well too!'
