Sourdough Bread

Published: Tue Mar 26 2024
Sourdough Bread

This recipe heavily is heavily based off Chef John's sourdough bread. The man is a delight and if you somehow happen accross this recipe before hearing about him you can find the original video recipe and many more on foodwishes.com


This is a no banneton, no towel, no rice flour, utilitarian version of the recipe. Chef John's version is easier to execute.


Ingredients

  • 100 grams active sourdough starter

  • 394 grams of bread flour

  • 250 grams of water (lukewarm, not hot)

  • 8 grams of kosher salt

  • Additional white flour for crust

Directions

  1. In a bowl mix your water, salt, and starter together to form a liquid base

  2. Add your flour to the liquid mixture and stir until all the flour is incorporated into the liquid. A stainless steel butter knife is one of the better tools for this.

  3. Cover for an hour

  4. Uncover and with slightly damp fingers fold the dough over itself four times

  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 three more times (4 hours and 16 folds total)

  6. Throw the dough in the fridge over night (ideally in a stainless steel bowl)

  7. The next day scrape around the edges of the dough and plop it out onto a well floured surface.

  8. Pinch the rough edges of the dough together until a smooth ball is formed, minimizing folds or other manipulation to the dough. Fully cover exterior in additinal flour

  9. Let sit in a bowl to proof for abour 3 - 5 hours. When it's ready the dough should hold an indent and not spring back too quickly when poked

  10. Preheat oven to 450F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

  11. Place one hand on the top of your dough then quickly invert the proofing bowl to dump the dough into your hand in one swift motion. Quickly place onto your lined baking sheet

  12. Score the the dough with a very sharp knife or razor and mist the surface very lightly with water

  13. Place into the preheated oven

  14. After about 5 minutes an initial crust will have formed. Very quickly you can open the oven and rescore where you made the initial cut. This helps steam escape better and lowers the chances of a blow out.