Okay, babes, so... How long has this picture been like... the "thing" for mixed? From the beginning; that's the answer. I figured it was finally time to take a crack at sharing this recipe, after having been asked by numerous people both online and in real life. Please do note that this recipe tasks a while, and that's only after you have a solid sourdough starter going! Additionally, this recipe, unlike many others you will find online, only makes one loaf. I find that it's not necessary for me and my partner to have two, and only focusing on one really improves the results (plus, I only have one banneton and one earthen pot, so there's that). This recipe comes from several years of trying different things and, in many cases, falling flat (like pita-bread flat, and I wish I were kidding. Some loaves absolutely did not rise). I encourage anyone who wants to nail making sourdough to try different things, read over different recipes, and settle on what they think will work best for them.

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A note on sourdough starter

I was inspired into this delicious practice of self-flagilation by my father who is a bread master and a purist to the bone. This man never takes the easy way out, so obviously I didn't either. I did the whole rigamarole and started from scratch with water and flour. Personally, I think it was worth it - however, I wouldn't judge anyone who decided to buy a starter to work from. I don't know how they work and have never done this, but I know other home-bakers who have had miraculous results.

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I wish I could give a special step-by-step on how to begin a starter, however, I did this for the first time about 6 years before writing this post, and have been meticulous about keeping up my starter, John Doe, ever since, so I am not a good person to provide this advice. Searching for how to's online is always an option, but I can also reccomoned this article by The Kitchen. It's the one I used, and it worked well enough that I never had to do it again.

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The Method

Yield: 1 loaf / about 16 slices, depending on thickness

Total Time: Between 25 and 50 hours

Prep Time:Between 24 and 48 hours (mostly waiting and proofing)

Active Time: Collectively, about an hour

Baking Time: 45-50 minutes

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Special Tools

• Kitchen Scale

• Pastry scraper

• Banneton (proofing basket) or a large colander or bowl lined with a clean dishcloth

• Dutch Oven or something similar (I use a Chinese earthen pot, similar to this one)

• Sharp serrated knife or lame.

• Cooling Rack

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Ingredients for the Leaven

• 0.5 tablespoon active sourdough starter

• 37-38 grams all-purpose flour or bread flour (1/4 cup)

• 37-38 grams water (2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp)

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Ingredients for the Dough

• 262-263 grams water (1 1/4 cups), divided

• 0.5 tablespoon salt

• 350 grams flour (2 3/4 cups)

  • I use 25% (~87-88 g) whole grain and 75% (~262-263g ) all-purpose flour in order to easily incorporate more whole grains into my diet.​

  • You can also use 100% all-purpose or bread flour, which I have had resounding success with in the past.

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Instructions

• Ensure your sourdough culture/starter is active. If your starter has been in the fridge, make sure you take it out 2 -5 days before you plan to bake, and start feeding it regularly every day. Over time, you'll be able to tell based on the bubble matrix in your starter if it is read, as they are all different, and this might change with temperature and seasonality, but generally it should be very pungent (that's why it's called sourdough) and have a good set of air bubbles.

• Make the leaven 12 hours before you plan to bake. Place all of the leaven ingredients into a large bowl (this will ideally be the bowl you plan to use for making the dough - it might seem a little absurd to go big at this stage, but trust). Mix the ingredients thoroughly to form a thick, sticky batter, then place it in a safe, room-temperature place, covered, overnight.

  • Note: I cannot stress enough how important it is to give this leaven 12 hours to do its thing. Leaven is the life blood of this recipe - it activates your yeast even more, gives the loaf it's tangy flavor, and - importantly - is what will help it rise. One of the biggest issues I had in the past was jumping the gun at around 9 or 10 hours, and the results were literally flat bread loaves. Plan ahead, and realize that there are times later in the process where you can give yourself some time back so that you're not making bread until the wee hours of the morning.

• Test that the leaven is ready. If the surface of the leaven is very bubbly, you're probably good to go. These bubbles come from the yeast digesting the flour and letting off gas (yeast farts!!), and will give your bread that nice crumb we all want later on. If you're not sure, you can drop a bit of the leaven in some water (reserve this for two steps down), and if it floats, it's ready.

• Dissolve the salt. Pour 25 grams (about 2 Tbsp) of the water into a small bowl and add in the dough salt. Mix well, and set aside, stirring occasionally to make sure all of the salt dissolves.

• Mix the leaven and water. Pour the remaining water (237-238 grams, or about 1 cup) into the bowl of leaven and stir. You can use a spatula, but I have always found this step is easier if you use your hands  - you're gonna get really familiar with this dough, so why not start early? Break up and dissolve the leaven into the water, but don't be too worried if the leaven doesn't completely dissolve and you still have some clumps.

• Add the flour. Once the leaven is more or less dissolved, add your flour(s) and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until all of the flour has been incorporated. You may, once again, need to go in with your hands to get all of the flour, as it tends to protest this step. The dough will be very wet and shaggy at this phase.

• Ignore the dough for a while. Let your dough sit, covered with plastic wrap or a reusable food wrap for 30 minutes to 4 hours. This is one of those steps that give this recipe such a wide range, but also means you can go about your day if you need to. Honestly, the longer you can wait, the better here. This is called the "autolyse stage" (read more from experts here), that is basically when the flour is fully absorbing the water and the flour's enzymes begin to break down the resulting starches and proteins.

• Add in the salt. After you're done with the magic of autolyse, pour the salt water over the dough, then begin to work everything together by pinching and squeezing the dough until all of the water is absorbed. At this point, your dough will be rather wet and sticky.

• Fold and wait, fold and wait, fold and wait. The goal here is to work some air and fluffiness into your dough. You will be doing this in stages with varying amounts of time in between. To fold the dough, grab one side of it, stretch it up, and fold it over on top of itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn, and do this again, until you have folded each "corner" over - a total of four times. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes, then do this again. In total, you want to do this six times - wait 15 minutes in between the first three rounds, then wait 30 minutes for the remaining rounds. Too complicated? That's fine - wait 30 minutes in between each folding. Either way, six times total is what you want. In the beginning, you'll notice the dough is a bit shaggy and loose, but during this process, it will become tighter and smoother.

• Ignore the dough again. After your final fold, give the dough a rest for 30 to 60 minutes. The dough should begin to look a little puffy, but do not expect to see the same kind of rise that you'd expect from other kinds of bread; it'll just be a little bit bigger.

• Shape the dough. Carefully turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface, working to not deflate it. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough, then use your pastry scraper to shape it into a very loose round. This isn't the final shaping, just a "pre shape" to get it ready for later on. To shape, slip your pastry scraper under the edge of the dough ball (you may want to flour your scraper a bit to prevent sticking), then drag it around the curve of the dough like you're turning while driving. This really makes more sense once you get to it, so seriously just dive in and do it a couple of times. This step helps to build the surface tension you'll need later, so 3 to 4 turns is usually a solid way to go.

• More ignoring. Once you have shaped the dough, let it sit for 20 to 40 minutes to relax a bit. I like to cover my dough ball with my food wrap (or plastic wrap) to keep it from getting too dry, but that's not 100% necessary. This resting allows the gluten in the dough to chill out a bit before the final shaping.

• Prepare your banneton/proofing basket. If you don't have a proofing basket, you can use a colander or a mixing bowl here. Line it with a clean dishtowel (or don't, I honestly don't most of the time) before proceeding. Generously flour your basket/bowl. If you have chosen to not use a towel, you can moisten the edges of your bowl a bit to make sure the flour sticks but, admittedly, this can be a bit of a craps shoot on whether it will mess up your final product. Either way, you're going to want to use way more flour than you expect. Like, really get in there with it. The whole thing should be covered in a layer of flour.

  • Note: If you plan to make more than a single loaf of sourdough in your life, I highly recommend getting a proofing basket. These things are so incredibly easy to clean and their shape lends a lot to the aesthetics of the finished bread, especially if you're making boules. That's where the nice flour swirl comes from!​

• Make the loaves loaves! Dust the top of your loaf with flour - don't go ham on this, you don't want too much. Flip it over carefully with your pastry scraper so that the floured side is against your lightly floured surface and the sticky side is up. Remember all that folding from before? It's back! Grab the bottom lip of the dough, pull it gently up, then fold it over onto the center. Do this on the left and right sides, as well. Repeat on the top, but once you fold it downward, use your thumb to grab the bottom and gently roll the dough floured-side up. If your loaf isn't quite round or doesn't seem tight, you can cup your hands around the dough and rotate it against the counter to fix that. 

• Proofing basket time! Generously flour the top of the dough then place it in your proofing basket seam-side up (so the floured side is down).

• Ignore it some more. Let the dough sit, covered, at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours. Not enough time? Didn't plan right? No problem. Pop that sucker in a clean plastic bag (like a grocery bag) and toss it (gently) into the fridge to rise overnight for 12 to 15 hours. Either way, it should look billowy and poofy.

• Pre-heat the oven. Towards the end of the last rise, place your dutch oven in the oven and pre-heat it to 500° F (260° C). If you let your loaf rise in the fridge, no need to bring it back to room temperature. You can bake it straight from the fridge.

• Transfer the dough to the dutch oven. Carefully remove the dutch oven and remove the lid. Tip your dough into it (again, carefully), so that it's seam-side down. If your loaf sticks, you can carefully coax it out. Seriously, though, be super careful not to burn yourself - the dutch oven is going to be hot.

• Score the loaf. Again, do this carefully. Use a lame, sharp serrated knife, or another sharp knife to score the top of the loaf. Make sure you get a couple of good slits (I like to do squares because it's aesthetic AF) at least a half-inch deep. This will help the loaf release steam as it cooks, and aids in getting that really nice crust.

• Bake the dough - step 1. Bake the loaf in the 500° oven for 20 minutes.

• Bake the dough - step 2. Reduce the heat to 450° F (about 230° C) and bake for another 10 minutes. Do not disturb the loaf at this stage.

• Bake the dough - step 3. Now you can disturb it a little. Remove the lid from your dutch oven and bake for another 15 - 25 minutes. You'll probably notice at this stage that the loaf has kinda "sprung up" a bit, looks a bit dry, and is beginning to brown. This is all good. You want to let it go until it's very deeply browned, just short of burnt. I know this feels weird, but this is where a lot of the flavor comes from.

• Let it cool all. the. way. Once you're done baking, let the loaf cool down completely. Carefully remove it from the dutch oven and place it on a wire rack. Cutting into bread too early can really cause a lot of damage - there's still a lot going on once you've finished with the oven, and you don't want to get in the way of that.

• Eat it! It's time to goooooo! Slice that sucker, show it off next to some pasta or soup, make a sandwich with it, or just eat it alone because it's that damn good.