How I Make My Sourdough

Anyone that is connected with me on Facebook or Instagram has likely seen the pictures of Sourdough bread that I post a couple times a week. I’ll go into the gear that I use for baking bread in a future post and how to get started with Sourdough bread.

You will need:

• Sourdough starter
• Kitchen scale
• Covered baking vessel (I use cast iron dutch oven)
• A dough knife
• Proofing bucket or larger container (I use a 10L foodgrade container)
• A forming basket (optional)
• Rice flour or corn meal (optional)
• A bread lahm, or razor, or very sharp knife
• A cooling rack
• Flour, Water, Salt

The best flour I have found for making Sourdough is King Arthur’s unbleached bread flour. There is a high gluten content in this flour that allows for the bread to hold together as it is fermenting and then formed, the higher protein content also translates into a more controlled fermentation of the sourdough, as some of the lower end flours (ultragrain) seem to have a carbohydrate composition that causes the fermentation to go too rapid and produce too much hooch, compared to nice flavor you get from a natural balance of the acetic acid (vinegar taste) and lactic acid (yogurt taste).

The following is my base methodology and was derived from the book Tartine bread by Chad Robertson.

1. Take 650g of water and put it into a mixing bowl
   • Also, take about 50g of sourdough starter
   • 20g of salt
2. Mix the starter and salt into the water, mix until mostly a consistent liquid with few pockets of starter
3. Progressively add 1000g of flour to to the mix until totally consistent
   • Depending on the starter and temperature of the house, additional flour may be needed. As a guideline too much hydration and you will not be able to form your bread, too little hydration and the bread will not develop a nice air pockets and a crispy crust on the outside. Chad Robertson suggests 75% hydration or 750g of water to 1000g of flour.
4. Ferment in a large container for 12 to 24 hours (I usually do this on top of the refrigerator, in a 10L bucket)
5. Form the loaf my rolling the outside of the bread under while scraping under the dough to create surface tension (see this video starting at 2:35)
6. Flour the basket’s linen liner and place the bread top down
   • If you do not have a basket allow the bread to rest covered with a towel on the work surface
7. Preheat the over to 550f with the dutch oven in the oven, allow this to heat for 30mins (at least)
8. Once preheated carefully remove the dutch oven from the oven sprinkle rice flour (or regular flour, or corn meal) on the bottom of the pan
9. Dump the the dough out of the proofing into the dutch oven, return the cover and place in the oven
10. Score the top of the bread with the lahm (or razor, or sharp knife)
11. Bake for 30 minutes covered at 550f, remove cover
12. Bake for 20 minutes uncovered at 450f
13. Once complete baking is complete remove the bread from the dutch oven and onto a cooling rack