If you've fallen in love with sourdough bread but want a lighter & softer bread then this recipe is perfect for you! Unlike the hole-y sourdough breads that are more on the spongy side, this one is soft and has small holes, making it perfect for sandwiches! This bread is a perfect alternative for pickier eaters that are weirded out by normal sourdough bread. It also takes less than 12 hours to make!
799 g loaf, 65% hydration
A demonstration of how this dough is made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FVfJTGpXnU&t=370s
The recipe is here, pictures of the process are below
Ingredients:
Starter:
75 g unfed sourdough starter (not fed in the last 12-24 hours)
75 g water
38 g bread flour
37 g whole wheat flour
Bread:
400 g strong white flour
9 g uniodized salt
230 g or ml water
160 g fed sourdough starter
Directions:
Day 1
10 p.m. 8 hours before making bread, feed the starter by weight, so mix 150 g starter with 75 g water and 75 g flour (38 g bread flour, 37 g whole wheat flour). Mix to combine and rest overnight (8-12 hours) at room temperature (70-80°F).
Day 2
8 a.m. Add 400 g bread flour and 9 g salt to a large mixing bowl. Mix the salt through the flour. Add the water and sourdough starter to the flour. Use your hands to mix and combine all the ingredients together to form a rough dough.
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead for 10-25 minutes. As you knead the dough will become less shaggy and more elastic and ball-shaped. Do not add any flour as you knead! It helps to scrape down the counter and wash your hands periodically to reduce stickiness that accumulates. You can stop kneading when the windowpane effect has been achieved.
8:30 a.m. Shape the dough into a tight ball. Lightly oil a large mixing bowl and add the dough in, moving it around to coat the outside with a light layer of oil. Cover the bowl with cling film and prove for 4 hours at room temperature (70-85°F).
When the bread is almost done proving, prepare a proving basket or 6-7 inch diameter bowl by lightly dusting a fabric kitchen towel with flour and placing it in the bowl. Add more flour to coat the inside towel.
12:30 p.m. After 4 hours, deposit the dough onto a clean work surface. Knead 3-4 times to knock the air out of the dough.
Flour the dough ball lightly. Fold it onto itself in different directions to form a ball. Then use both hands to pull the dough towards you, with the edges of your hands tight against the table, which causes surface tension to build on the top of the dough. Use only a little bit of extra flour during this process as necessary and lightly oil your hands if they get too sticky. Repeat the pulling motion several times in different directions until the dough surface is very taut.
12:40 p.m. Once shaped, deposit the dough upside down (seam side up) into the floured table cloth in the bowl(s). Lightly dust the dough ball with more flour and loosely cover with plastic wrap and prove for another 3 – 3½ hours (until 3:45 p.m. or so) or overnight. You will know it's done proving when you gently poke it and it springs back at you slowly.
Note: I only proved it for 3 hours at room temperature. Using a fridge reduces the temperature of the dough allowing it to prove slower and longer which allows for a greater development of flavour within the dough but also increasing its digestibility.
2:45 p.m. In the last hour of proving time, place a dutch ovens in an oven and preheat your oven to 500°F. Let the dutch ovens heat up for 30 minutes once the oven reaches 500°F.
3:45 p.m. When done proving, take the dough out and flip right side up onto parchment paper. Quickly make 1/2 inch slits (whichever design you like) on the top of the dough. This helps with oven spring (helps the loaf rise as it's baking).
Then take the dutch oven out of the oven and use the parchment paper to place the dough inside, cut side up. Cover the dutch oven and return to the oven.
4:00 p.m. Bake the loaf for 20 minutes at 500°F. Then reduce the oven temperature to 450°F and bake 5 more minutes. Then remove the lid and continue baking 20-25 minutes more, to until the dough it a deep golden brown. If it's baked it will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
5:00 p.m. Immediately remove load from the dutch oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 1-2 hours before cutting into.
Store in an airtight container up to 6 days, or in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer up to 3 months.
Makes 1 loaf, feel free to double the recipe!
The fed starter. It was fed ~10 hours before this picture was shot. Let's see if it passes the water float test!
It passed the water float test, time to make some BREAD!
Before mixing the flour, salt, starter, and water together.
After mixing the flour, salt, starter, and water together. About to dump it on the table and start kneading!
About to start kneading!
About halfway through the kneading process.
When the dough was looking less shaggy and more dough-y I tried the window pane test. These are my mom's hand and she didn't do it quite right, but this is demonstrating the window pane test, where if you stretch the dough out to the point where light comes through and it doesn't tear, the gluten has developed enough and it's good to go!
This is what the dough looked like after 20-25 minutes of kneading.
The dough ball was lightly oiled and placed in a lightly oiled bowl to prove (i.e. rise) for 4 whole hours!
I stuck it in the microwave to prove with plastic wrap on top.
After proving for 4 hours, look how puffy it is!
After you take the dough out you shape it into a tight ball with a taut surface. This is what mine looked like.
The same ball (side view).
Prepare a bowl lined with a fabric kitchen towel. Then sprinkle flour all over it so the dough doesn't stick.
After placing the dough upside down (rough side up) into the floured bowl. I also dusted some flour on top.
I put the covered dough in a closed microwave to prove for 3 hours.
During the last hour of proving, I preheated a cast-iron 5 quart dutch oven to 500*F in an oven.
Dough after proving. My did she grow!
Now it's time to prepare for baking!
Plop your dough out of the bowl and onto parchment paper.
This is a side view of the dough (lovely shape!)
Then cut slits in your dough using a sharp knife, razor blade, scalpel, or lame etc.
Take you're HOT dutch oven from the oven and remove the lid (the white container is a pyrex bowl I have inside to reduce the spread of the dough).
Place your dough into the dutch oven, using the parchment paper as grips. Cover and return to the oven.
While baking (after taking the lid off)
After baking! SHE'S GORGEOUS!!!!!
Look at dat bottom! Golden but not too dark!
SO PERFECT!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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