Backstory:
The year was 2021. Covid-19 was rampant, the government was just starting vaccine distribution, it was winter time, and Trump was no longer disgracing the seat of the President of the United States.
We met a local woman who is gluten sensitive, and who found that if she made sourdough and fermented it for an extra day or two, she could eat it and not feel uncomfortable. So we decided to try making long-fermented sourdough bread.
Turns out making sourdough is awesome. You can feel the dough come alive. You can try new things, put things in the dough to make it sweet, or savory. You can make cinnamon buns, focaccia, pizza dough, boules, english muffins… all kinds of stuff!
It’s also really frustrating and takes time and planning.
But if you have time, and can plan, it’s pretty awesome.
After about 4 months of making long-fermented sourdough things, I settled on this as my regular sourdough boule recipe.
I also included a variation for a cinnamon raisin loaf we call the Breakfast Loaf. Because we eat it for breakfast.
Note, after 3-4 days unrefrigerated, the bread will mold. It’s gross, disappointing, and sad. We tend to eat it in a day or two, but if you want to extend the life, put it in a freezer bag and stick it in the fridge.
Equipment:
Dutch Oven
Scale
Proofing Baskets and Lame (for cutting lines)
Storage Container for dough in fridge
Ingredients:
Base:
- 150g sourdough starter (ask a friend for some, or make it!)
- 710g water
- 800g bread flour
- 200g whole wheat flour
- 20g salt
If breakfast loaf:
- 1-2 Cups raisins
- 4 Tablespoons Cinnamon
Directions:
Day 0
Night Before, before you go to bed
- Feed the starter, so that there will be about 200g of vibrant, bubbly, happy starter in the morning
Day 1 - Mix
Morning (2.5 hrs active)
- Mix 150g starter into water, reserve 50 of the 200g starter for the next starter
- Add flours and salt
- Mix it up, will be kinda shaggy… do your best to incorporate all the dry flour (5 mins)
- Cover with a towel and let sit for 30 mins (Autolyse?)
- Move it to the Storage Container
- Stretch & fold every 30 mins, 4 times
FYI - I’ve changed to only doing 1-2 stretch folds, and the final product seems a little lighter and crust is less tough… so feel free to experiment!
- Cover and let rise for 2-4 hours at room temp, if it’s winter in New England, run the oven on low for 1-2 minutes until it’s like 85 in there, and then shut it off (VERY IMPORTANT) and stick the storage container in there. It helps to leave the light on for a little more ambient heat.
- Stick in the fridge
Day 2 - Shape
Next Morning-ish (15mins)
- Pull out the dough, it should be about 2x what it was yesterday
- Cut it in half, use a scale if you’re anal, or eyeball it like a pro
- If you want to make a breakfast loaf:
- Lightly stretch each boule into a flat sheet of dough (one at a time), kinda like pizza
- Sprinkle raisins and cinnamon to cover the dough
- Roll it up from side to side
- Roll up that roll from top down
- Use your bread knife to shape the dough back into a boule
- Place into proofing baskets that have been dusted with rice flour
- Cover with plastic wrap and stick back in the fridge
Day 3 - Bake
Next Morning (1.5-2 hrs active)
- Put dutch oven in the oven
- Preheat oven to 425
- Cut a square piece of parchment paper
- Put some rice flour on the paper
- Dump the boule on the paper
- Cut some lines into the boule, make it look cool. Cut deep, like 0.5-0.75”
- Pull HOT dutch oven out of oven
- Lower parchment paper down into dutch oven and don’t burn your fingers because it $%&@ing hurts, and once I had a blister from the $%&@ing dutch oven that lasted 2 days until the heel of my right foot scraped it off while I was putting my shoes on and I said $%& really loud right into Olson’s face.
- Drop a couple ice cubes between the parchment paper and the dutch oven to get some steam in there
- Put lid on
- Put back in oven
- Cook for 25 mins
- Take top off
Cook for 20 mins, or until you like the color. I like ‘em a little tan. Freckles don’t hurt.
Repeat with 2nd.
Let them sit for 2-3 hours.
Slice, cover in butter, drizzle honey.
Eat.