Sourdough Baking Guide

Required equipment

• Bench scraper (essential for working with high-hydration dough)

• Proving basket

• Lame

• Heavy pot with lid

• Kitchen scales

• High-quality flour (don’t skimp here! - I like Demeter Mill, Kialla & Provenance)

Sourdough Baking Method

Create leaven - 8 am
Into a new jar, stir, and loosely cover.

30g sourdough starter
30-45g water (depending on the flour used, wholemeal flour will take more water, you are going for thick paint here)
30g flour (I prefer wholemeal stoneground)

Autolyse 11:30am-12pm
Add 400g of flour, 280g of water & 8g salt into a bowl - cover with a lid and leave.

Combine Dough 12 pm
Add 80g of leaven to the autolyze mix.  With a wet hand perform the Rubaud method for around 5 minutes.  This is great for building those shoulders and forearms!  You could also use a dough hook in a mixer if you find it easier.  Once complete, cover the dough with a bag and keep covered after each subsequent step.  Leave for 15 minutes.

Bulk rise 12:15pm-6pm
With a wet hand perform three ‘stretch and folds’ 15 minutes apart then another three ‘stretch and folds’ 30 minutes apart. While leaving the dough in the bowl, take one corner lift it up and fold it on top of the dough, do this from each of the four sides.  Each one takes less than 30 seconds and is the ideal way to build gluten.

After all stretch and folds are complete you want to let the dough rest for the remainder of the bulk rise.  This is temperature dependent and I find that doing so with the oven light on and the door ajar it will take until around 7 pm until the dough is ready.  

Boule Shaping 7 pm
Pour the dough out on the countertop and using a damp hand and damp bench scraper form into a loose boule by scraping and rotating the dough.

Dust the top of the boule lightly with flour and using a dry hand and dry bench scraper flip the dough over so it is sticky side up and transfer it upside down into a well-floured proving basket.  If you notice any runaway bubbles here pierce them with the dough scraper.  

Retard 7:15pm
Put the banneton into the fridge in a sealed bag overnight to retard, I like to leave this for at least 12 hours for flavour to develop and the dough to rise again.

Baking (next morning)
Preheat the oven with your pot to 250°C.  

Flour the bottom of the loaf (I use 50/50 wheat/rice flour) and carefully tip the bread into the pot and slash the top at least 1cm deep to allow the loaf to spring in the oven.  Put the lid on and cook for 20 minutes then uncover and cook for an additional 20 minutes at ~225°C.  (temps/times will vary on each oven). 

When the loaf is nice and dark it’s done - let it cool on a rack before slicing.  This is very important as the bread will continue to cook while it cools.  Leave it for at least 60 minutes.