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Sourdough Loaf

Print Recipe
Prep Time 12 hours
Cook Time 37 minutes
Servings 1 boule

Equipment

  • Kitchen Scale
  • large mixing bowl
  • Dutch Whisk
  • Kitchen towel
  • Banneton Basket

Ingredients

  • 115 grams active starter
  • 300 grams warm water
  • 12 grams salt
  • 500 grams bread flour

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, weigh your starter, add water. Mix well. Then add your bread flour. Mix as well as you can, dough will be quite shaggy, but it's fine. Cover bowl with a damp kitchen towel, and allow to rest for 30-60 minutes.
  • Add salt, and with wet hands, mix well and shape your dough. Allow to rest for another 30 minutes or so. Come back, and do 1-3 rounds of stretch and folds, with 30 minutes of resting time, under a damp towel, in between rounds.
  • Allow to bulk ferment for 4-12 hours (depends on time of year, elevation, how warm your kitchen is, etc.). Once it's ready, remove dough from bowl, fold, shape, and place into a banneton basket. Allow to cold proof in the fridge for at least 1 hour, but if you're not ready to bake, you can allow it to sit in the fridge covered for up to 48 hours until you're ready to bake.
  • For the bake, you're going to want to preheat your Dutch oven for 1 hour in a 500 °F oven. Take your dough out of the fridge, final shape, score it, if you'd like, and quickly add it to your super hot Dutch Oven with the lid on, and bake at 500 °F for 25 minutes. See note below about parchment paper vs. ground cornmeal.
  • After 25 minutes, lower your ovens temperature to 450 °F, remove the lid to the Dutch Oven, and bake for another 10-12 minutes.
  • Allow your loaf to cool, and do not cut into it for at least 1 hour. The bread is still cooking, even out of the oven, so it's important not to cut into your loaf right away.

Notes

A. You can you parchment paper, when you bake your loaf, but parchment paper is only safe up to 450-degrees, so. A great alternative is adding a handful of ground cornmeal to the bottom of your Dutch Oven, after the 1 hour preheat, and right before you add your loaf to the pot. Plus, it smells amazing. 
B. You will have to feed your starter again, after you take 115g from it to bake with.