Traditional Sourdough Bread

This advanced recipe assumes you have a healthy, active sourdough starter already.

Traditional Sourdough Bread

Equipment

Pre-heat Oven to 500°F

Ingredients

Levain

  • 50 grams Sourdough Starter
  • 80 grams Bread Flour
  • 80 grams Water

Dough

  • 740 grams Bread Flour
  • 395 grams Water
  • 15 grams Honey
  • 8 grams Salt

Procedure

Prepare The Levain

  1. One day before baking, combine Starter, Water and some Bread Flour (see ingredients under Levain)
  2. Allow this mixture to sit at room temperature

Autolyse

  1. Dissolve entire levain in 370g Warm Water
  2. Add 500g of bread flour and combine thoroughly
  3. Allow this mixture to sit and autolyse for 60 minutes

Kneading

  1. Dissolve honey and salt in 25g Warm Water
  2. Add this mixture along with 240g of additional Bread Flour
  3. Knead for approximately 8 minutes, or until dough starts to tighten
  4. Place the dough in a container or mixing bowl

Folding and Shaping

  1. Fold the dough Six times in total over 3 hours. That is, each 30 minutes, take each corner of dough, lift it up without tearing and fold it over to the opposite corner. You'll be making 5-7 folds each time.
  2. After folding the dough, shape it into a taught ball and allow to bulk rise for 2-3 hours in a warm environment
  3. During the last 30 minutes of rise, preheat the oven to 500°F with a cast iron dutch oven inside

Baking

  1. When ready to bake, turn dough out onto parchment paper and score the top with a razor blade
  2. Place the dough and parchment paper into the cast iron dutch oven. Place the lid on the dutch oven and bake for 20-23 minutes
  3. Remove the dutch oven and place the partially-cooked bread onto an open oven rack. Lower temperature to 400°F and allow the bread to finish cooking (to a medium-dark brown color)
  4. Turn off oven and crack open door to allow the dough to cure
  5. Cool fully on a drying rack before cutting