My Go-To Sourdough
Posted On 28 October 2021
Once your starter is well established, this may also be your go-to. Some of your own interpretation may be necessary because you know how long it’ll take your starter to be bubbly after being fed.
My Go-To Sourdough
A low-mix, high tang sourdough.
Servings: 15
Ingredients
- 70 grams fed and bubbly starter
- 370 grams good warm water
- 30 grams vital wheat gluten
- 30 grams white whole wheat
- 440 grams all purpose flour (see notes)
- 9-11 grams fine sea salt (not iodized)
- Olive oil for coating
- Flavorings (optional)
Instructions
Feeding Your Starter
- Take about 50 grams of your starter and feed it 50 grams of warm water and 50 grams of the flour of your choice (I do 7-10 grams of rye and the rest as all purpose). Stir. Time this so that it'll be bubbly and really active in the morning. For me this means I do it about 8pm or 9pm the night before depending on how warm the weather is.
The Dough
- In a large-ish bowl add 70 grams of your fed starter and add the rest back into your starter container.
- Add warm water (370 grams) and mix.
- Add the 500 grams of flours (gluten, white whole wheat, and all purpose) and mix just until combined. There will be dry bits.
- Cover (I use a shower cap from the dollar store) and let rest for 30-60 minutes.
- Add the salt (9 grams) and flavorings (optional) and stir by hand until well combined. (Because some might be sticking to the side of the bowl, I often only add 360 grams of water above and use a spray bottle to spray down the hardened flour in this step.)
- Add a little olive oil to coat.
- Cover and let rest 30 minutes.
- Do 3-4 sets of stretch and folds — by hand or with a curved bowl scraper — stretching from the far side, up over the top, turn the bowl, repeat — every 30 minutes.
Forming And Refrigerating
- Late in the day you should see a well-risen dough that rises back again when tucked down. 50% increase in volume is great.
- Remove to a floured surface.
- Flour your banneton with rice flour liberally and form the dough as your banneton requires. A log for an oval, a round for a round.
- Liberally flour the top of your loaf and flip that top to being down in your banneton.
- Cover with a shower cap.
- As soon as any part of the dough is to the upper edge of your banneton — if even it's just a bit of a dome in the middle — put into the refrigerator.
Baking
- In the morning, put your cast iron Dutch oven in the oven. Add a pan of ice cubes or water, too. Heat to 500°F / 260°C.
- When the oven is up to temp, remove the dough from the refrigerator. Remove the shower cap. If needed, gently pull the top of the edges away from the banneton. (I find it never gets floured enough right at that top rim.)
- Put a piece of parchment over the dough. Then put a cutting board over that. Flip the whole thing and coax the dough out of the banneton.
- Cut the parchment (if needed to fit better in your Dutch oven).
- Dust the top of the loaf with flour and slash with a sharp knife or lame. If you're fancy, make a decoration. (Mine suck. I can do slashes. Period.)
- Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and put the loaf in. Cover and return to the oven.
- After about five minutes reduce the temperature of the oven to 425°F / 220°C.
- Bake covered for 18-20 minutes.
- Remove the lid of the Dutch oven, turn the Dutch oven around, and bake for another 20-25 minutes until internal temperature reaches 200°F / 93°C.
- Turn the oven off.
- Remove the loaf from the Dutch oven, discard the parchment, and return the loaf to the cooling oven with the door propped open a bit with a wooden spoon.
- Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
- The goal is to have 500 grams of about 12-13% protein flour. Most all-purpose flour is 9-10% protein. Vital wheat gluten is 70-80% protein. Here’s a calculator to figure out how much vital wheat gluten to add to all purpose flour to get the right percentage.
- As for flavorings: This takes some trial-and-error. You could add 2 tablespoons of dried Italian Seasoning or a couple of tablespoons of fresh, chopped rosemary. Other ideas are peppers (about 100 grams and well-drained) and cheese (150 grams shredded). But might want to get used to just making this plain first.
- The longer this sets the more flavor it has, which is why it’s refrigerated. You could bake it at the end of the day and it’d be good, but sitting in the refrigerator overnight develops the flavor without much rise.