2 cups of active starter (fed 4-12 hours prior to starting dough)
3 cups of water
6.5 cups of organic flour (any kind will work – I use organic all purpose usually)
1 tbsp sea salt
Knead until smooth and elastic (Kitchenaid with a dough hook, bread machine on pizza dough setting or by hand) about 7-8 Mins.
Oil a large bowl at least double the size or your dough (glass preferred). Pop dough in the oiled bowl cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-5 days depending on how sour you like it. Three days is usually enough for us.
Heat oven to 500 degrees, turn dough into a stone or cast iron and dust with flour. Smooth flour to absorb oils and bubbles on top of the dough, and cut a couple relief slits!
Turn oven down to 450 degrees and bake until the loaf sounds hallow- usually half hour or so. For the perfect crust, toss a cup of ice cubes in the oven a few times while it bakes.
We go through the loaf in about three days, so I tend to make a new batch of dough on the day I bake the loaf that has been fermenting.
Want to know why you should be fermenting your grains? Check our Weed’Em and Reap’s great articles on grains, why you’re probably not actually gluten intolerant, and how to fix the issue here.
Don’t have a sourdough starter? Cultures for Health has them available for purchase here, or you can email me and I’m happy to share!
To feed your sourdough starter, put it in a bowl on the counter, feed it equal parts flour and water every day or so. I usually feed ours one cup flour, one cup water everyday… or two. You want to make sure you have enough for your recipe and at least a cup left over to continue the culture.
The recipe as written makes a very big loaf! The quantity of dough was too big for my Kitchen Aid and I had to knead it in two batches. If you have a standard size mixer, I’d recommend having the recipe.
Also, since the ingredients are by volume rather than weight, I found that I needed a lot more flour than the the recipe called for.
Despite the problems I ran into, the bread turned out well for my first loaf of sourdough!
Hi! Yes in our class we teach everyone to make this recipe, divide it into 2 bowls after mixing and place one to rise on the counter and one in the fridge to bake a few days later. This allows you to have fresh bread all week and only make the dough once a week!
However we do place all of this in our kitchen aid so I’m surprised by that trouble! Glad it worked out!