Beginner Sourdough Bread

We are making sourdough bread! This is my favorite beginner sourdough bread recipe. We are going to be using the basic recipe, but you can also put variations you can do with the original recipe. The ingredients are also in grams as well as cups, so you can do whichever you preferred. 

Ingredients

475 g or 3 1/2 cups All-purpose flour

100 g or 1/2 cup Starter, active and bubbly 

325 g or 1 1/3 cups Water 

10 g or 2 teaspoons Salt

Instructions

1. Feed a sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting the dough, ensuring it is active and bubbly.                     

1. Combine warm water, active starter, salt, and flour with a wooden spoon or even just your hands in a large mixing bowl. 
2. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and allow to rest for 30 minutes for the water to hydrate the flour. 

Stretch And Fold

1. Grab the edge of the dough and pull up stretching it out as you pull upwards. This may be difficult and you may need to kind of bounce the dough to get it to stretch. Place dough that is in your hands back into the center. Turn the bowl about a quarter turn and complete another stretch and fold. Repeat two more times. This is considered one round.
2. Thirty minutes later, complete another round of stretch and folds. Cover and allow the dough to rest another 30 minutes.
3. Complete one last stretch and fold round.
4. Cover with a lid, damp towel, or plastic wrap. Let the dough bulk ferment in a warm place until it has doubled in size. This could be anywhere from 6-12 hours (or longer) depending on the temperature of your kitchen, maturity of your starter, etc. Be careful not to let it over ferment. 

Shape

1. Place the dough on a clean work surface that has been lightly dusted with flour. Fold the dough onto itself and roll up. Then shape into a ball by gently spinning it toward you.
2. Optional - Let the dough sit out for 15-20 minutes uncovered. This prevents the dough from sticking to the tea towel during the overnight rise. 
3. Turn over and shape. I do this by folding the two sides over to meet in the middle, pinch together and then repeat on the other two sides. This creates surface tension which helps give it more oven spring (a good rise).
4. Transfer to a floured banneton or bowl with a floured tea towel (typically floured with rice flour, this is not necessary and all-purpose will work just fine) seam side up. 
5. Cover with plastic or place in a plastic bag and tie the ends. Let the dough rest for 12-15 hours in the refrigerator. You can also let the bread rise at room temperature for 3-4 hours. I like using the longer rise time in the refrigerator because it is easier to score and feel like the oven spring is better.

Bake

1. Preheat Dutch oven at 500 degrees 
2. Remove dough from fridge and place on parchment paper 
3. Dust with flour and score 
4. Place dough into Dutch oven and put the lid on. Bake for 20 minutes with lid on. 
5. Remove lid with oven mitts and bake for another 15-20 minuets until golden brown. 

Notes: 

Make sure you feed you sourdough starter 6-8 hours at least for good results. I will normally just feed my starter the night before in making the bread to give it lots of time. 

Wait to serve until cooled enough so it is not gummy. 

That’s my favorite recipe for making bread, simple but also delicious. If you want to learn more about sourdough and what it does, CLICK HERE