A tangy sourdough boule with light texture, amazing flavor, and a beautifully crisp crust. 

So today is my first PTO day I’ve taken since starting work in September. I thought I’d be spending my first vacation on a kayak in a fjord in Norway but baking sourdough is alright too! While this wasn’t the way I envisioned my vacation being used, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for and on that list is a fresh loaf of bread.

So you may be asking “What is sourdough really?” Sourdough is wild yeast. So instead of using that little packet of yeast from the grocery store, you grow your own using the yeast naturally found in flour. It creates a tangier flavor then what you’d get out of a packet of yeast. All you need to create a sourdough starter is flour, water, and a couple of weeks of patience. To get it rising properly, you have to feed it twice a day with flour and water for about 2 to 3 weeks. After your starter is rising properly, you can store it in the fridge and reduce the feedings to once every couple of weeks.

So by now you probably think anyone who bothers with a sourdough starter is insane but if you’re still here, I’d highly recommend checking out King Arthur’s guide to making a sourdough starter… they even have a chat line if you have a baking question. Once you’ve gotten your starter rising, you can use your starter for breads, pizza, crackers, pancakes, waffles, and other stuff. I mostly use mine for this bread recipe and pancakes.
I’ve typed out the recipe as a schedule but feel free to shift the times forwards or backwards. This bread is forgiving if you aren’t right on schedule except for the levain step through the stretch and fold step. Try to not mess with the spacing of those steps unless it’s because your levain is being slower to rise or didn’t pass the float test.

The Schedule:

Day 1

Feed your sourdough starter twice. Leave the starter in a warm spot, like your microwave or oven (turned off), to help it along. I usually feed it once in the morning or early afternoon if I forgot to in the morning. And then again at night before going to sleep. Feeding it twice, or even three times if it’s been in the fridge for a few weeks, ensures that your starter is nice and awake to get your bread rising.

Day 2

8:00 am – Levain 

25g mature sourdough starter (has at least doubled in size overnight and is nice and bubbly)

50g flour blend (I like to use 25g all purpose + 25g whole wheat. The whole wheat gives it nice flavor but if you don’t have it on hand 50g of all purpose works fine too!)

50g lukewarm water

In a glass jar or pyrex measuring cup, mix the starter, flour, and water together. This is called a levain. It’s very similar to feeding your starter, but the ratio of starter : flour : water is different.

Make note of where the levain is starting by putting a rubber band around the container. I always forget where it started if I don’t mark it. Cover the container and place it in your oven with the light turned on or the turned off microwave.

You need the levain to double in size before you can use it. Everyone’s levain will rise at different rates. My starter is pretty active since Stella’s a year old at this point (yes, I named my starter), and I feed her regularly so mine more than doubles in the allotted time. Don’t use the levain before it’s doubled but also don’t let it go so long that it starts to shrink back down.

Remember to feed your starter again since you removed some.

11:00 am – Autolyse

450g bread flour

50g spelt flour

350g lukewarm water

About 1-2 hours before your levain is done rising, mix the bread flour, spelt flour, and water together in a bowl. I mix it with my hands until it’s consistent. Use a bowl scraper to clean off your hands and to scrape down any dough bits stuck to the sides of the bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the oven with the light turned off alongside your levain.

This process is called autolyse. It allows the flour to start absorbing the water.

12:00 pm – Float Test and Combine

Your levain should be bubbly and at least doubled in size by about 12:00 or 1:00 pm.

Once your levain has doubled in size, you can do a float test. Take a teaspoon of the levain and drop it into a bowl of water. Do not to stir the levain before the float test because that will knock air out of the levain, making it sink, and giving you a false negative. If it floats, that means it’s full of air and has the ability to make your bread rise. It it sinks, it’s not ready yet or has gone past its peak.

If you’ve passed the float test, pour 100g of the levain on top of your autolyse dough. You made 125g of the levain to leave you some extra for the float test.

Work the levain into the dough with your hands until you have a consistent dough. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes.

12:30 pm – Salt

10g table salt

25g lukewarm water

After letting the dough rest for 15 minutes, sprinkle the table salt on top of the dough and then pour the lukewarm water on top to dissolve the salt. Work the water and salt into the dough with your hands. The dough will have separated with the addition of the water but keep squishing it around until it doesn’t feel slimy anymore and is back to being a bit sticky. It’s probably about 1:00 pm by now. Cover the bowl and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes.

1:30 pm – 3:00 – 4 Stretch and Folds

Now that the dough is fully formed, we need to build some gluten by doing 4 sets of stretch and folds with 30 minute rests in the oven in between.

To stretch and fold, you will rinse your hand with water so that it is a bit damp but not profusely dripping. This helps the dough to not stick to your fingers. Take one corner of the dough, pull it up to stretch it until you feel just a bit of resistance, and then fold it over to the other side. Repeat with other three sides of the dough. Don’t stretch the dough to the point that the entire dough ball is lifting out of the bowl … that’s too much of a work out for the dough! You just want some gentle stretches to build gluten.

You will do 4 sets of these stretch and folds at 1:30 pm, 2:00 pm, 2:30 pm, and 3:00 pm. Between the sets, cover the bowl and put it in the oven to rest.

3:00 pm – Post Stretch Rest

After the last set of stretch and folds at 3:00 pm, put the bowl back in the oven for a long rest of about 2-3 hours. At the end of this rest, the dough should have some large bubbles around the edges and have some slight jiggle to it.

5:00 or 6:00 pm – Shape it Up

So once the dough has some bubbles around the edges after 2-3 hours of rest, you’re ready to shape it.

First you will do a preshape. Dump the dough out onto a clean and well floured counter. Working around the edges gently fold the edges into the center and then turn it over so that the seam is face down. If the dough has absorbed the flour on the counter give it a quick dusting. Dust the top of the dough and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Leave to rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, decide what you will prove the bread in. You have two choices: 1) A proving basket dusted with flour, or 2) A bowl lined with a flour dusted kitchen towel. I use option 2) because I don’t own a proving basket, and I find that a bowl lined with a towel works fine. The only downside is that you don’t get pretty ridge lines line you would with proving baskets and you have an extra towel to wash. I use the towel that is currently covering the bread while it’s resting.

After the dough has rested, you’re ready for the real shaping. Flip the dough back over onto the lightly dusted counter top so the seam side is facing up again. Even though it’s round, think of the dough as having 4 points on the edges. Fold the left corner over just past the center and the right corner over just past the center. Repeat with the top and bottom edges. Flip the ball over so that it is seam side down.

Now tighten up the dough ball by cupping the top edge with both hands with your pinky fingers on the counter. Gently drag the dough ball towards yourself a few inches working the dough under itself and tightening up the top of the dough ball. Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat the dragging motion on all 4 edges.

Flip the dough into your proving basket or bowl lined with a floured cloth. The seams should be facing up. Cover with a second towel or plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.

Day 3

Morning (Start between 8:00 – 11:00 am) – Baking

Place a round dutch oven or a cast iron pot with a lid in your oven and preheat your oven to 475°F. You need the pot to preheat with the oven so that the pot is already hot when you put the bread in. The oven needs to be crazy hot, so I usually let the oven keep preheating for 15-20 minutes after it has beeped to tell me it’s preheated.

Take your dough out of the bowl and flip the seam side down onto a piece of parchment paper. Beware that some parchment papers are only oven safe to 425°F. I usually risk it and nothing bad has happened yet, but you could also just skip the parchment paper … it just makes maneuvering the dough easier.

Lightly dust the top of the dough with all-purpose flour and sort of rub it around so that it has an even coat of flour. Using a bread lame or a serrated knife, make one semi-deep slash. You don’t want it to be super deep, but you need it deep enough that the dough sort of splits and you can see a bit of the fresh, unfloured dough underneath. You need this slash because it controls where the dough splits as it bakes and steam tries to escape. It will split wherever it feels like if you don’t tell it where to split. After making the main slash, you can go back and make some smaller and less deep slashes for design.

Remove the dutch oven from the preheated oven and drop the dough down in it. Cover the pot with the lid and bake for 25 minutes at 475°F. Drop the temperature to 425°F and remove the lid from the dutch oven. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until it you are happy with the color. If you’re worried that it’s not cooked in the middle, use a thermometer to check that the internal temperature is between 195-210°F.

Using two wooden spoons take the bread out of the dutch oven and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack. I know it’s tempting but wait at least 1-2 hours before cutting into it. If you cut into it while it’s still hot, the texture will turn gummy.

Enjoy with a meal or as toast in the morning. I find that this bread lasts 3 days and then starts going a bit stale. We usually devour it by then though anyways!