Sourdough bread

Cooking utensils:

Dutch Oven

Banneton basket

Dough scraper

Food processor

Ingredients

Pre-ferment (sourdough)

80 g active sourdough starter

80 g whole wheat flour or dark wheat flour

80 g water, weighed not measured

Main dough

240 g pre-ferment after volume has doubled

400 g wheat flour type 550

210 g cold water

10 g sea salt

Preparation

Pre-ferment (sourdough)

1. Put 80g of your active sourdough starter into a fresh jar and mix with 80g of warm water. Then stir in the whole wheat flour.

2. Place a rubber band around the jar at the height of the dough to see how the dough develops. Cover the jar and let it ferment at approx. 28°C until the sourdough has doubled in size. This should take 2-3 hours.

Prepare the main dough

1. About an hour before the pre-ferment has doubled, I mix 200g of water with the flour, knead it roughly, and then let it rest covered. During autolysis, the flour can swell and the gluten is activated. I dissolve the salt in the remaining 10g of water.

2. Once the pre-ferment is ready, knead it into the main dough. Once the mixture is combined, add the saltwater. After about another 10 minutes of kneading, cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature.

3. In the next 2 hours, stretch and fold the dough twice, i.e., once every hour. This can be seen in the video with my pizza dough and a larger quantity.

Overnight fermentation

1. Place the dough in a tightly sealed box and let it rise in the refrigerator for 20-24 hours. During this time, the bread develops its flavor.

Shaping the sourdough bread

1. Take the dough out of the refrigerator, fold it again, and form it into a ball. Rounding, which you already know from our burger buns or pizza balls, is perfect for this. Then place the dough, with the taut surface facing down, into the floured banneton basket. If you don't have a banneton basket, use a bowl and line it with a well-floured kitchen towel.

2. Preheat the oven with the Dutch oven and its lid to 250°C top and bottom heat for one hour.

3. Cover the bread and let it rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours. I have found that the dough is not fully relaxed after only one hour. The dough is ready for baking when it has slightly increased in volume in the banneton basket and springs back into shape within 3 seconds after you press a dimple into it with a floured finger.

Baking your sourdough bread

1. I bake in my Gusskönig Dutch Oven by placing it upside down on a baking sheet on the middle rack. This means I tip the bread from my banneton basket into the lid. This is much easier than tipping it into the deep and preheated pot.

2. With a very sharp knife or a razor blade, make a deep incision in the sourdough bread where it is supposed to tear open in a controlled manner. Close the lid or pot. Through a gap, add a small splash of water to the pot, which immediately evaporates and spreads as hot steam in the pot. I use a spray bottle for this. Bake the wheat bread for 35 minutes in a closed Dutch Oven.

3. Reduce the temperature to 210°C and let the steam escape from the pot. To achieve a nice crust, bake the bread without the lid until finished. You can also place it directly on the oven rack without the pot. It is ready after 20-30 minutes. It should sound hollow when tapped. Let it cool on a wire rack before slicing.