Ingredients
1/4 cup (50 g) active sourdough starter
1 & 1/3 cups + 2 Tablespoons (350 g) Water
2 teaspoons (10 g) fine sea salt
4 cups + 2 tablespoons (500 g) all purpose flour
Making the Dough:
- In a bowl, mix 50 g of active starter and 350 g water. Stir to distribute the starter evenly. Add 500 g all purpose flour and 10 g sea salt to the bowl. Mix until is forms a shaggy mass and there are no dry bits of flour left in the bowl.
2) Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for one hour at room temp.
3) Wet your hand with a little water to prevent sticking. Pick up the dough on one side and stretch it up and over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat this step until you have turned the bowl a full circle.
4) Cover the bowl and let dough rest for 30 minutes and then repeat the folding process one more time!
5) Bulk Fermentation: Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 7-10 hours.
6) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape the dough into a ball by pulling 4 sides of the dough into the middle of itself. Turn the dough over so that it is seam-side down. Use your hands and gently cup the dough, pulling and twisting towards yourself until it forms a tight skin on the outside.
7) Center the dough onto a piece of parchment paper, seam side down. Place the parchment paper and dough into a medium sized bowl. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let the dough rest at room temperature for 1-2 hours
8) 30 minutes before you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven with a dutch oven inside to 450 degrees. Once the dough is ready, score the top. Pull out the dutch oven and place parchment paper and dough into the dutch oven. Place dutch oven lid on top and place in the oven.
9) Bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes. You want to look for a golden brown color to the crust.
10) Transfer the bread to a cooling rack for 1-2 hours before slicing.
If you prefer to use bread flour, you are more than welcome to do so with this recipe. It actually is the type that is typically used during this recipe but our family loves using all purpose flour. We also do not make enough sourdough to use bread flour up in a timely manner. I would rather not risk bugs getting into the bag with how long it takes for us to use up the bread flour. So we stick to all purpose flour since this is a flour we use often!
We have found that the dough is light and fluffy with a nice crust added to it. My absolute favorite thing to do is cut a slice off, slap on some avocado and top with some scrambled eggs. That is the recipe to fly through 5 loaves a bread in a week. Ok maybe not 5 but there is way too many loaves being used!
We have also used the sourdough to make our own bread crumbs and croutons. My family loves to just have a slice and add some homemade jam or jelly on top. We are simple folks when it comes to how we eat our sourdough. Haha! But another favorite of mine, throw on some unsalted butter and top with garlic salt. Y’all, I can’t get enough!!!
Also with how easy this recipe is, I think you can see how I made 5 loaves in one day. I had to restock the freezer of course. In reality, I actually fed my starter way more than I realized I was and needed to use it up. I currently have 2 jars full of sourdough discard and didn’t want to add more! OH that reminds me! I should share my sourdough discard monster cookie recipe with you all! I love having these on hand for when we have company coming over! I’ll share our version since we have food allergies to the typical monster cookie.
Oh! One last thing, I stink at scoring the bread and I do not have anything sharp enough to actually do such a task. So we actually leave the bread how it is and don’t score the top. We have not had any issues at all with this method. So incase you’re like me, it will be just fine! Ok now I go! Gotta go make that Monster Cookie recipe!