Temperatures have dropped so I am much more willing to turn on my oven to blasting 400F+ temps. My sourdough starter has been revived from the depth of my freezer where it has been hibernating in the summer. When it gets cold, I bake sourdough (almost) every day. The oven just helps warm up the kitchen! With holiday parties coming, I find a loaf of sourdough with (don’t you dare think butter board) some flavored olive oil, a balsamic glaze, aioli and maybe a little pate is perfect to bring with a bottle of wine. I’ll share my sourdough feeding schedule, daily prep, and baking that has resulted in some fluffy loaves with a crispy crunchy crust that’s so yummy to snack on.
Ingredients:
All-purpose flour – This is a purposely very simple bread recipe that uses AP flour. If you are going to use a different type of flour, I would NOT recommend this recipe as the feeding schedule may differ and steps might be rearranged (such as autolyzing). Basically, only use this method if you are making loaves with AP flour. 🙂
Schedule:
Once I’ve started on my sourdough schedule, I end up consolidating all the steps into one day so that I can continuously have fresh starter and be able to bake a loaf of sourdough each day.
Day 1
Evening before, 7-9 PM: feed sourdough start with 35 g bread flour & 35 g room temp water
Day 2
Next morning, 6-9 AM: make dough, recipe below, allow to rest at room temp in the same mixing bowl throughout the day
Throughout the day: give the dough a couple folds here and there when you have chance, no big deal if you can’t
Evening, 7-9 PM: move dough into banneton or towel lined bowl & leave in refrigerator
Day 3
Next day, one hour before baking: Remove from refrigerator and allow to come back to room temp
Bake!
Sourdough
Equipment
- 1 dutch oven
Ingredients
- 330 grams water
- 70 grams sourdough starter bubbly
- 12 grams salt
- 500 grams all-purpose flour
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix together water and sourdough starter. Starter should be floating in the water, indicating it is the most active and will give you the most lift for your bread.
- After mixed, add salt and mix again.
- Add flour and mix until combined.
- Cover with a dish towel and give it a few folds throughout the day if possible.
- Transfer to banneton or towel-lined bowl.
- When ready to bake, transfer to a parchment lined dutch oven.
- Preheat oven to 425F. When ready, put loaf in dutch oven with lid on for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove lid and bake for an additional 40 minutes, until golden brown on the top.
- Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting into the loaf.
Leftover sourdough? Use it in Bread Pudding or Cheesy Egg Strata.