Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Day 1
- Approximately 8-12 hours before you plan to make your dough, feed 10 grams of sourdough starter with 100 grams of filtered water and 110 grams of all-purpose or freshly milled flour.
Day 2
- Once your starter has peaked, prepare to mix your dough by first grinding your wheat berries. I personally like to weigh out my wheat berries before putting them through the grain mill to save myself a step. For this recipe you will need 250 grams soft white wheat and 750 grams hard red wheat.
- To your freshly milled flour add your filtered water (700 grams) and active sourdough starter (150 grams). Mix well until there are no dry lumps of flour remaining. Cover and allow your dough to rest for at least 30 minutes up to 1 hour (my preference).
- Once the dough has rested, add your salt (20 grams) and mix well. I like to wet my hands before mixing the salt in to help it incorporate more easily.
- After the salt is incorporated, perform your first set of stretch and folds. The dough will not stretch easily and will likely tear, that's okay. Just stretch it about 4-5 times, turning the bowl as you go. Cover and rest the dough. Repeat the stretch and fold process every 30 minutes 3 more times.
- Once the stretch and folds are complete, cover the dough with plastic wrap or a dampened bowl cover/tea towel and allow it to rise until it has about doubled in size. If your dough is rising quickly, cut off the first rise slightly before the dough has doubled.
- Transfer your dough onto the countertop and divide in half. Use a bench scraper (or your hands if you don't have one, though they are very helpful) to form each piece of dough into a tight ball. Allow the formed dough to rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
- After the rest time is complete, flip the dough balls over and stretch them out into a flattened rectangle. At this point you can shape them however you'd like. In the photos below I am using a cross and stitch method to shape my dough into a batard shape.
- Transfer shaped dough seam side up into your proofing baskets. Cover with a plastic cover or wrap inside a grocery bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
Day 3
- About an hour before baking, preheat your oven with the dutch oven inside at 500°F for at least 45 minutes. This allows the dutch oven to get nice and hot which is essential for developing crusty bread with a soft crumb.
- When your preheat time is complete, remove your proofing basket from the fridge (if you have two dutch ovens you can bake both at the same time). Using either a bread sling or parchment paper, flip your dough out of the basket so that the side that was facing down is now facing up.
- Using your bread lame or a razor blade, score your dough. You can choose your decorative scoring pattern, however you will want to form a large, deeper score. This allows the steam to escape and prevents cracking.
- Transfer your dough to your hot dutch oven. Quickly cover the dutch oven and place it back inside your oven. Drop the oven temperature to 425°F and set a timer for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes has passed, raise the oven temperature to 450°F, leaving the oven closed.
- Once the 15 minutes has passed, open the oven and remove the lids from the dutch oven. I like to place a pan under the dutch oven at this point to prevent the bottom of the loaves from getting overdone. Bake for another 15 minutes at 450°F.
- Remove baked bread from oven and place it on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
- Slice your bread and enjoy warm with butter and jam, for sandwiches or any way you please and enjoy!
Notes
- Don't skip the step of letting the flour, starter and water rest before adding your salt. This helps the grains well absorb in the flour.
- Put some dry rice or wheat berries in the bottom of your dutch oven or place an aluminum baking sheet on the rack below to prevent burning on the bottom of your loaf.