Sourdough Bread

To celebrate being able to eat bread again, I thought I would share this sourdough recipe. This is a higher hydration version of The Clever Carrot’s Sourdough. I’ve been working on perfecting this for the last few months and each time I make it, its slightly different. There are many youtube videos that describe the shaping and stretch and fold techniques. Making the winter version requires about 12 hours to rise, but in the summer it can be done in half the time. I usually prepare my dough in the evening (Saturday night) and then bake it in the morning (Sunday morning).

As for the starter – there are instructions on The Clever Carrot to make your own starter however I got some from a local bakery and have been keeping it alive and feeding it once a week. I feed it the day before I make bread by pouring off 3/4 of the starter and adding 1 cup flour, 1 cup water. I also feed it anytime I notice a liquid build up or it starts to smell a little vinegary.

I also used a scale to make this because it made the process more accurate.

Ingredients:

150 g bubbly, active starter
350 g warm water
25 g olive oil
500 g Best for Bread Flour
10 g sea salt or kosher salt
Flour for dusting

Directions:

Whisk the starter, water, olive oil in large bowl.

Add flour and salt and squish together. Allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Once rested work dough into a ball, leave in bowl and cover.

Perform stretch and folds at 1 hour intervals 2-3 times. Pinch a side of the dough, pull up and fold over itself. Turn bowl and perform on another side until you have moved the bowl 360˚.

Allow to rise for 6-12 hours.

To shape the dough use a bench scraper to fold the dough over to the centre moving around the dough in a full circle. Flip the dough and cup the sides of the dough rotating in a circular motion.