Basic Sourdough Bread Recipe
This is a great basic sourdough recipe. It's mostly white flour, with just enough whole wheat to make it a bit more interesting. It’s a full sized recipe that will make a loaf that’s big enough to share with the whole family!
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- Lame for scoring the dough
Ingredients
Levain
- 25 g starter
- 25 g whole wheat flour
- 25 g rye flour
- 50 g water
Initial Mix
- 400 g bread flour
- 65 g whole wheat flour
- 35 g rye flour
- 325 g water
Second Mix
- 1.5 tsp fine sea salt or table salt
- 15 ml water
Instructions
Mix Levain (8 AM - Day 1)
- Combine all the ingredients for the levain in a small bowl and mix until roughly combined. Cover the container and set aside for 4 hours, or until the levain is bubbly and doubled in size.
Mix Dough (Noon - Day 1)
- Combine all the dough ingredients listed under initial mix as well as the levain in a large bowl. Ideally, use a glass bowl so that you can see the dough. The mixture will be rough and shaggy at this point, which is fine - it’ll smooth out later on. Cover the bowl and set it aside for an hour.
- After an hour (1 pm) add the ingredients for the second mix (salt and water) and mix using your hands until the water and salt are more or less incorporated. Cover the bowl again and set it aside for half an hour (until 1:30).
Stretch and Fold (1:30 PM - Day 1)
- Every half an hour for two hours, stretch and fold the dough (i.e. 4 sets). To do so, grab the edge of the dough and gently but firmly pull the dough up and out of the bowl so it stretches. Fold the dough over itself, rotate the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat 3 more times.
Bulk Ferment (3:30 PM - Day 1)
- Leave the covered dough to bulk ferment for 2 - 3 hours, or until the dough has risen by about 50% and there are a few visible bubbles. If the dough hasn’t risen enough, give it an extra 30 minutes or so.
Shape (5:30 PM - Day 1)
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and carefully pre-shape it into a round. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before shaping into a boule or a batard. For more details on shaping, refer to the video in this post.
- Generously flour a banneton or a loaf pan lined with a kitchen towel and place your loaf, seam side up, in the floured container.
- Cover the dough with a reusable plastic bag and let it sit on the counter for half an hour.
Final Proof (6 PM - Day 1)
- Place the loaf in the fridge overnight until at least 7 am.
Bake (After 7 AM but Before 6 PM - Day 2)
- Preheat your oven to 450°F with your Dutch oven inside it.
- Once the oven is hot turn your loaf out onto a piece of parchment paper and working quickly score the surface of the dough using a sharp blade. To do so, simply slash the surface of your dough in a straight line about 1/4 inch deep. You can find loads of videos and tutorials for fancy scoring patterns online if you wish!
- Load the dough into your preheated Dutch oven and bake covered for 20 minutes before uncovering and baking for a further 25-30 minutes or until the crust is browned and the internal temperature of the bread reads 208°F
Notes
Sourdough is best eaten on the day it’s made, but it’ll keep for an extra day or two after that. If you won’t be able to consume it all in that time, I recommend cutting the loaf in half and wrapping one half tightly in reusable plastic or beeswax wrappers. You can then freeze the loaf for up to 2 months. To defrost, simply leave at room temperature overnight.