by Leda Norris
Follow this simple recipe with only 4 ingredients to create the most delicious restaurant quality sourdough that’s good for the soul, and the gut!
All you will need in order to make this delicious fresh sourdough:
- 800g water
- 300g starter (Fermented starter – Ask your local bakery if they sell theirs!)
- 1100g flour
- 4 teaspoons of salt (Himalayan works the best)
- Bowl
- Glad wrap
Optional:
- Dough scraper
- Bannetons (the baskets that create the pattern on the sides of the bread/ or you can use a colander with a tea towel laid inside of it)
- Sharp knife (for splitting the engravings on the top of the bread)
- Pizza stone
Measure out 800g water.
Measure out your 300g of starter – A sourdough starter is simply fermented flour and water, and this is what allows the sourdough to rise through living bacteria (the best kind!) without the use of generic yeast. This is what makes it easier on your body to digest, and has more nutrients than conventional bread (and makes it extra yummy!).
Mix together the starter and the water.
Add in and mix your 1100g of flour. Any grain base flour will work in making a delicious sourdough but gluten rich flours such as spelt or rye tend to work the best!
Mix these together by repeatedly folding the dough over with your trusty dough scraper (or a spatula) which you can buy for as little as $3!
Keep mixing the dough over until it looks like this
Cover your dough with a tea towel or glad wrap and leave it to rest for 45 minutes until it looks as though it has risen.
Add the 4 teaspoons of salt and then stretch and fold it until the salt has totally combined with the dough.
Cover the dough again and let it rest for another 45 minutes.
Repeat the step of stretching and folding, and then covering the dough for 45 minutes. Repeat this about 5/6 times until the dough resembles a large ball. This will usually take around 5 hours of repeating this step every 45 minutes – but it’s worth the wait!
*Hot tip* This stretching and folding technique (instead of kneading) activates the gluten whilst incorporating air into the dough making the crust crunchy but the inside soft and fluffy!
Once the dough has risen beautifully, separate it into thirds.
Roll the dough into balls and leave them for 20 minutes to rest.
Place a sprinkle of flour into the baskets.
Shape the dough appropriately to fit perfectly in the basket that you’re using.
Sprinkle a little bit of flower on top of the dough.
Cover the dough with glad wrap for another 3 hours.
Heat up the oven to 220° and let the pizza stone (or oven tray with baking paper if you don’t have a stone) heat up for around 20 minutes until hot.
Flip the dough out of their baskets onto a baking tray and slash the top of the dough with a sharp knife (this will make the beautiful patterns on the top).
Then carefully slide the doughs onto the hot stone/ tray in the oven.
*hot tip* Putting a tray of water at the bottom of the oven at this point will help the bread rise.
There are two stages to the baking process; Bake the bread for 20 minutes at 220°, then give the bread a twist around and turn down your oven to 200°, and bake for a further 20 minutes.
The result… Delicious restaurant quality sourdough! Beautifully crunchy crust on the outside with a puffy, light soft bread on the inside! YUM!
