Sourdough

TIME12 hours MAKES2 loaves PORTION
0.5x 1x 2x 3x

My go-to sourdough recipe, it is flexible enough to make a loaf of bread on the weekend, or even midweek. Adapted originally from The Perfect Loaf.

INGREDIENTS

  • 600g high-protein bread flour
  • 166g hard red wheat flour (optional, use 766g bread flour otherwise)
  • 161g whole wheat flour
  • 685g water
  • 20g salt
  • 180g mature levain

Day-of levain

This levain will take about 5-6 hours to mature at warmer temperatures (25ºC).

  • 40g mature starter
  • 40g bread flour
  • 40g whole wheat flour
  • 80g water

Night-before levain

This levain will take about 10 hours to mature at room temperatures (22-24ºC).

  • 8g mature starter
  • 40g bread flour
  • 40g whole wheat flour
  • 80g water

STEPS

Levain and autolyse

  1. Make the levain; you can either make this the night before or the day-of, adjust the amount of sourdough starter and the ambient temperature of the levain as needed.

  2. About 1-2 hours before the levain will be ready, prepare your autolyse1. Mix the flour and all but 50g of the water until fully hydrated, and leave in a warm area.

Mix

  1. Add the mature levain to the autolysed dough, and mix until incorporated. Then, add the salt and the reserved 50g of water, and mix until the water has absorbed. Place the dough on the counter and do slap and folds until the dough strengthens and very nearly passes the window pane test. Move dough back to the bulk fermentation bowl, perform some stretch and folds, and cover.

Bulk fermentation

  1. Leave the dough in a warm spot to bulk ferment for 3 hours and 30 minutes. Perform 2 sets of stretch and folds at the beginning, 30 minutes apart.

Divide and shape

  1. Scrape the dough onto your counter. Divide the dough into two, and using a bench scraper preshape each piece of dough into two rounds. Leave for 15-20 minutes for the gluten to relax.

  2. Flip the dough over, and shape it into a batard. Pull the corners into a square, and fold the top down half way. Fold the left and right side into the middle, and the start rolling tightly from the bottom, sealing tightly with your little fingers, until you have a cylinder. Pinch the ends closed, and then flip over into the bannetons, seam side up.

  3. Dust with rice flour, and place in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge overnight.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven with your dutch oven on a rack on the bottom third to 230ºC.

  2. Flip your dough out of the banneton onto two sheets of baking paper or a silicon mat. Brush the top and score. Take your dutch oven out of the oven, and place the dough inside. Spray with some water, put on the lid, and bake for 20 minutes covered.

  3. Remove the lid, and bake for another 30-35 minutes uncovered. The internal temperature of the loaf should be 96-99ºC.

  4. Leave to rest on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before slicing.

sourdough

NOTES

  1. If I am making a same-day levain, I will often make the autolyse at the same time as the levain, and keep them in the same location so that they have similar dough temperatures. ↩︎

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