Sam’s Rustic Sourdough Loaf
This is Sam! A few years ago, Lesley gifted me with a beautiful beginner sourdough kit. I grew up in a town called Pascagoula which is named after the small native tribe who lived along the nearby river. The name of the tribe means “bread people” so it’s only fitting to carry on the local traditions!
This recipe is called rustic since it only uses flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter with no inclusions such as cheese, berries, jalapeños, etc. At times, I’ll add rosemary, but other than that, this is a pretty streamlined loaf of bread. Your end result will be TWO mostly rounded loaves with a golden brown top and a medium browned, crispy bottom. I only do a basic scoring on the top of this loaf, but if you’re feeling artsy and want to go all out- fill your boots! This is the perfect loaf for it!
Quick note - you have to start this recipe the day BEFORE you want to eat the bread. As an example, If I want to have this bread for dinner on Tuesday, I’ve got to start the process on Monday morning. I’ll add a note about timing at the end of the recipe that will give you examples of where you can slow the process down or speed it up if needed.
Let’s get started. First, you’ll need:
Equipment:
Ingredients:
Levain
30g healthy / active / fed sourdough starter
140g all purpose flour
125g filtered water
Bread
500g all purpose flour
200g whole wheat flour
250g bread flour
650g filtered water
200g fed starter
20g salt
Optional 3-5 sprigs finely diced fresh rosemary
Method + (my) timing
8AM Day 1 - start your levain
Combine 30g starter, 140g flour, and 125g filtered water in a NOT airtight glass jar. If you’re using the one linked above, take the rubber gasket out of the lid. Let sit at room temp for 8-10 hours or until bubbly and almost fully risen.
6ish PM Day 1 - start your dough
Combine 500g all purpose flour, 200g whole wheat flour, and 250g bread flour in a large bread bowl. If you are adding any dry flavors (such as rosemary) add them now. Make a well in the center of the flour and mix in 650g filtered water. Mix together with your Dutch whisk. The dough will form a shaggy ball when mixed well. Cover with a kitchen towel, and let autolyse (fancy word for let the water permeate all of the flour) for at least 30 minutes.
630PM - 8:15PM (ish) Day 1
Take 200g - 230g (more starter = slightly tangier flavor) of your bubbly and risen sourdough starter along with 20g salt and add to the autolysed dough mix. With wet hands, mix sourdough starter into the dough for 2-5 minutes. If you’ve ever seen a video of a cat “kneading dough” on something soft, that’s the idea here, except use a bit of oomph. Once your forearms start getting tired, you’re about halfway done. When you can no longer see or feel any clumps of flour you’re good. Try and get as much of the dough off your fingers as possible, cover the dough, and set a timer for 15 minutes.
Stretch and fold 2 (mixing in the starter was stretch and fold 1)
With wet hands, scoop the dough from the bottom of the bread bowl. It will try and stick to the bottom, and that’s good. Use that resistance to pull the dough from the bottom and stretch it as wide as it will go without tearing it. At some point before tearing it will most likely release from the bowl. Once it’s completely released, rotate the dough 90 degrees and stretch again. Shake it. Pull it. Wiggle it. You want to stretch this thing out as much as possible in all directions, but stop short of tearing it (although if you do tear it, it’ll be ok).
Put the dough back into the bowl. Now imagine the bowl is a clock. At the 12:00 position, pull the dough up and into the middle of the dough. This is a fold. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn. At the 12:00 position, pull the dough up and into the middle of the dough. Do this at least one full turn, but don’t overdo it. You will start to feel the dough get more resistant. If you feel like the dough is getting too resistant you’ve done enough. Flip the dough over so that the folds are on the bottom of the bread bowl.
TEST - poke the dough. At this point your finger should leave a small indention in the bread, but it will spring back a little bit. The dough will still be a little wet looking but nearly as wet as it was before the stretch and fold. Cover with a kitchen towel and set a timer for 15 minutes.
Stretch and Fold 3
Repeat the same process as outlined above. TEST - the dough will now spring back much more after being poked. We’re going to complete 3 more stretch and folds, but at 30 minute intervals. Cover the bread with a kitchen towel and set a timer for 30 minutes.
Stretch and Fold 4, 5, 6
Repeat the same as above with 30 minute intervals between. At the end of each stretch and fold, your “poke test” should yield a much springier dough such that by the end of stretch and fold 6 the dough pretty much springs back and you can’t tell you poked the dough.
Bulk Ferment 815PM Day 1 - 7AM ish Day 2
After stretch and fold 6, you should be ready to begin the bulk ferment. Nothing much to do here other than cover the bread bowl with Saran Wrap. No, towels will not work. Not even several towels one on top of the other. Your bowl at this point must be air tight. If air gets in, it will create a “skin” on the surface of the dough. Put your bread bowl in a location that is room temperature (70-75 degrees F), and let it sit overnight.
7AM ish Day 2 Divide and Second Proof
Your bread has been rising overnight. It should have slightly more than doubled overnight and there will likely be large bubbles on the surface and it will feel loose and airy.
Here’s where practice and repetition comes in. If the dough hasn’t doubled, you need to let it proof a while longer. If the dough is overflowing, it’s probably over proofed (unless you used a tiny bowl. Don’t do that.) If you’ve over proofed it, divide it and get it in the fridge asap. Make the recipe a few times, and you truly will get a feel for this part.
Take your bread bowl to a nice big countertop and dump the dough onto the lightly floured surface. Divide the bread as best you can into 2 equal portions. If you don’t get them equal no worries. I NEVER do this right, there’s always one dough ball way bigger than the other!
Remember the fold motion we did last night where we take a corner of the bread and fold it into the middle? Do that again here. Make sure you do at least 4 corners but you can do more if needed. You want to get the dough shaped into a ball as good as possible.
Once you get both balls folded, flip them over. You want to spin the dough balls around picking them up loosely and lightly by the bottom and spinning them counter clockwise. This is hard to describe. Watch some videos on YouTube on this, or maybe I’ll make one. Anyways do this several times, until the dough balls are nice and spherical.
Grab your banneton baskets, put a kitchen towel on the basket, and lightly flour the towel. Put your dough balls FACE DOWN on the kitchen towel and cover the dough balls with the exposed corners of the kitchen towel. Please in the fridge.
Day two~2PM - 4PM
It’s time to bake! Take your banneton baskets out of the fridge and leave them on the countertop. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees and place your Dutch ovens inside, leaving the lids off. The preheated dutch ovens will give the bottoms of your bread a nice and crispy texture.
Once your oven is preheated you need to score your bread. One time I forgot to score the bread and the middle of the bread busted out. There are pockets of air inside your bread and they’re coming out one way or another! Scoring the bread puts you in charge of where the air gets released.
Take 2 sheets of parchment paper and lightly flour them. Please your dough with the “folded sides” down and let’s get to scoring.
You can be as artistic here as you want to be. For me, I do two simple arches or half circles on either side of the surface of the bread (think like parenthesis) and between the half circles I do a long line in the middle with a shorter line on either side. I like to think of it as a version of the crucifixion scene with Christ in the middle and the 2 thieves on either side.
First bake
Once the oven has pre-heated to 500 degrees, remove your dutch ovens. Pick up your dough by the corners of the parchment paper and place them inside the dutch oven. With the LID ON, put your dutch ovens in the oven and bake for 22 minutes.
Second bake
After 22 minutes, turn your oven off and open the door. Remove the lids from your dutch oven and lower the temperature on your oven to 465 degrees. If the oven is above that temperature, leave the door open until it comes down to 465. Once you hit the right temp close the door and bake for 22 more minutes.
This is a good time for you to take out some salted butter and let it soften up. Trust.
Once your timer goes off pull the bread out and place the loaves onto a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.
Take your bread knife and carefully cut a couple slices of bread. Spread your softened butter on the slice, sprinkle on some Maldon salt and enjoy! You deserve it!