How to Make Sourdough Bread

My Sourdough Bread Recipe (a culmination):

A true sourdough loaf of bread does not use those little yeast packets!

What to buy/use:

4 qt Dutch Oven (Costco had a great two pack)
Kitchen scale (purchased mine off ebay for $10.00)
Bread Flour (Costco mega bag)
Pint Glass (to make initial starter)
One Chopstick (to mix starter)
Mason Jar with glass lid to store (remove rubber sealer ring)
Cooling rack

Step 1:

Create your own Starter

This will take a few weeks but is really easy and worth doing yourself instead of buying someone else’s. Here’s a good video on how to create your starter:

Step 2:

Mix your first loaf of Bread:

Start this in the evening
Get a big bowl and measure out 113 grams of starter
Add 340 grams of water and mix the two together with a whisk.
Add 567 grams of flour on top of the water/starter mixture
Make a little well in the flour and add 13 grams of kosher salt (not the regular table salt)
Take a spatula and mix together until all of the dry flour is gone
Knead with your hands for a few minutes to great a dough ball in the bowl
Cover bowl with a couple sheets of saran wrap, put a dishtowel over the bowl and set on your counter overnight.
Super helpful video with recipe:

Step 3:

Create Loaf for Baking:

In the morning the dough ball should have grown! Gingerly take out of the bowl and place on counter and do a bit of light kneading (push away and pull towards technique)
Use a bit of flour on the counter if too sticky.
Once you shape into a nice round ball, dust with flour and place into a lightly floured Dutch Oven, cover… and place inside your oven with the oven light on.
Come back 4 hours later and see if it’s doubled in size. If it has then we can start baking it! If not, let it sit for another couple hours in the oven and check again.

Step 3:

Baking your Loaf:

Take the Dutch Oven out of the oven and use a pair of scissors to make three cuts into the top of the dough ball. This will help the steam escape while baking.
Cover with the lid and place back into the cold oven.
Turn oven on to 425 degrees and set timer for 60 min. Do not pre-heat!!
Once timer dings, open the oven and take the lid off of the Dutch Oven. Let bake for another 10 min or until golden brown
- This is like the big reveal and it’s surprising each time!!
Take out of the oven when beautiful and use a spatula or a flat knife to help release the bread from the Dutch Oven. It may be little tricky but it will release.
Put onto cooling rack and let sit for an hour.
Here are some of my loafs so far 🙂