Reliably Amazing Sourdough Bread
This recipe is my tried and true for crusty, tasty sourdough bread with an open crumb.
Servings: 4
Cost: 5
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 1000 grams Flour (approx 8 cups) Bread Flour Preferred
- 750 grams Water (approx. 3 cups) lukewarm
- 150 grams established Starter (approx 2/3 cup)
- 40 grams salt (approx 2 tbsp)
Instructions
- Feed Starter equal portions starter, flour, water (approximately a half cup each or 50 grams)
- Repeat feeding 3 times every 12 hours until the starter is bubbly, doubles in size, and floats in water
- When the starter is ready, place water into a large bowl and mix starter into the water to mostly dissolve.
- Add salt to the starter water and stir.
- Add flour to the water and stir until fully incorporated. The dough should be wet.
- Let dough sit covered with clean dish cloth for 30 minutes.
- Stretch and fold the dough every 30 minutes for about 2 hours.
- Place the dough, covered with saran wrap, into fridge for 12-24 hours.
- Remove dough from fridge and allow to come to room temperature for 2 hours.
- Remove the dough from the bowl onto clean counter top and split dough in half using bench scraper.
- Form rounds with each half of dough and cover with clean dish cloth for another 30 minutes.
- Create tension in the dough by shaping each round into a ball and placing into a floured proofing basket or bowl, seam side up.
- Cover dough with clean dish towels and return to refrigerator for 2 hours until ready to bake.
- Preheat the oven to 450 45 minutes prior to baking, with dutch oven and cover inside.
- When oven is ready, remove one dough bowl from the refrigerator. Cover with parchment, and flip the dough onto the parchment paper.
- Score the dough using a sharp knife. Salt the bread with coarse Kosher salt.
- Transfer the dough using the parchment paper to the dutch oven and cover the dutch oven.
- Place dutch oven, covered, into the oven. Bake at 450 for 35 minutes.
- Remove the cover off the dutch oven at 35 minutes, and bake uncovered another 20 minutes.
- Check the color of the bread to be sure it's browning well. Then turn the oven off, and open the oven door a crack for 20 more minutes before removing from the oven.
- Wait one hour before cutting into bread.
