sourdough bread

Cooking Log

this is an adaption of recipe https://amybakesbread.com/stand-mixer-sourdough/#wprm-recipe-container-43597

Ingredients

Levain (1:10:10, overnight 10-12 hours at 78ºF) - 5 g sourdough starter - 50g bread flour - 50g water Sourdough Bread in a Mixer, 70% hydration - 100g levain, ripe and active - 325g water - 450g bread flour - 50g rye flour - 25g water + 10g salt

Steps

Day 1: Make Levain

1. Mix together ripe sourdough starter, bread flour and water. Set aside to ripen for 10-12 hours.

Day 2: Make Dough

2. Mix: Mix 100 grams levain with 325 grams of water in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook. Then add flour to bowl and mix until just incorporated (stir speed). 3. Fermentolyse: Cover and let dough rest for 30 minutes. 4. Knead: Add saltwater to dough. Set stand mixer to speed 2 to let knead dough for ~10 minutes. Dough should look ??? at the end. 5. Bulk Fermentation Pt. 1: Cover and let dough rest 30 minutes, and then do 8 or so (I THINK???) stretch and folds. Do this 4 times for a total of 2 hours. 6. Bulk Fermentation Pt. 2: Cover and let dough rest for 2 hours. Dough should puff up by ~30%, have some bubbles, and pull away from the surface. If not there yet, let ferment for longer. 7. Pre-shape: Pour the dough onto the counter. Wet your hands and bench knife. Push knife under the dough and use your free hand to tuck the dough under yourself. Do this until you get a tight ball of tough. 8. Bench Rest: Cover and let dough rest for 30 minutes. 9. Prepare bowl: Get a small bowl, place a towel in it, and then dust the towel with flour. 10. Shape: Sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Flip the dough so the flour side is down. Now, pull the dough sideways and fold up to the top of the round. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat for 1 full rotation, or more until the dough is a round loaf shape. You will need to increase tension with each pull. Use the bench knife to place your dough into the prepared bowl. 11. Proofing: Leave the dough outside of the fridge for 2 or so hours until the dough increased by 50-100% in size. Once it has reached nearly the desired size, cover it in cling wrap and place in fridge overnight.

Day 3: Bake

12. Pre-heat Oven: Put a dutch oven (top and all) into the oven and preheat to 450ºF for 30 minutes.

- I have to place a backing sheet in the rack below my dutch oven in order to deflect enough heat to keep the bottom from burning.

13. Prep dough: Once preheated, take loaf our of the fridge. Remove the cover and place parchment paper on top of the dough. Flip the dough carefully onto the parchment paper and place on counter. 14. Score: Smooth flour on top of the dough (adding more if desired). Use a knife or bread lame to score the dough.

- I tend to do 2 big scores in an X across the entire top to the dough all the way to the sides. But you do you.

15. Covered bake: Remove the dutch oven from the hot oven using oven mitts. USING OVEN MITTS, remove the lid. Then, place loaf into the dutch oven (parchment paper and all). USING OVEN MITTS, place the lid back onto the dutch oven. Place the dutch oven back into the oven and bake for 25 minutes. 16. Uncovered Bake:

Explanation of Steps

Making sourdough is more of a technique than a recipe. The above steps are just a guide for what I do, but a lot of it depends on your sourdough starter, the environment you live in (temperature, humidity, and altitude), your flour, your oven, and your dutch oven. So it helps to understand why we do these steps so you can make modifications as you need or desire.

Covered vs Uncovered Bake

The covered bake causes the dough to bake without forming a thick, dark crust (because of the humidity in the dutch oven). The uncovered bake lets the dough form a thick, dark crust while baking (because of the lower humidity). You can adjust the covered/uncovered time to your liking, but keep the overall bake time to ~55 minutes for this dough.