Ornlu said:
My brother gave me some of his sourdough starter for Christmas. I've been nurturing it day by day since then. I've made a few things already, but I need to find a good basic sourdough bread recipe. Can ya'll suggest a few?
I started here: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/basic-sourdough-bread-recipe
I want something a little more rustic, and bonus points if it doesn't need extra active yeast.
350g of Bread Flour
100g Whole Wheat Flour
10g Kosher Salt
320g water
Mix all that together in a large bowl, and let it sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours
Blend in 100g sourdough starter (I use my fingers to squish it all together)
Let it sit, covered in a 70-75 degree place (in winter, I use the oven, with the light on until it warms up)
After an hour, reach in with wet fingers, grab the edge of the dough, fold it over, and repeat 4-5 times -- turning the bowl 45 degrees after each fold.
Wait 30 minutes, fold it again. Repeat 3-5 more times.
Turn the dough out on a floured surface, and form a boule by using that fold technique until you get a pretty tight ball.
Rising:
You have different options at this point.
1) The best is to put the floured boule in a cloth-covered basket and rise overnight in the fridge. If you don't have one, you can use a cloth covered bowl or colander, but you need to use a lot of flour to keep the dough from sticking.
2) Place the boule on parchment paper, and put into a pot, slightly bigger around that the dough. Spray with a little water, cover and let rise in the fridge overnight.
3) Use method #2, but let rise at room temperature for two hours, and then bake as below. This will be good, but not as flavorful as the refrigerated rise.
Baking:
Heat a dutch oven to 450 in the oven; turn the boule out onto parchment paper, and brush off excess flour. Place inside hot dutch oven, with the parchment corners hanging out of the dutch oven. Spray with water, and slice the top to relieve steam.
Bake covered at 450 for 30 minutes. Remove the lid, and bake another 20.
Remove loaf from dutch oven (the parchment paper corners hanging outside makes this a lot easier with a hot pot!)
Cool on a rack, then slice. Keeps a couple of days, then freeze.
I tend to double the recipe and make two loaves at once.
Honestly, if your starter is in good shape, it is going to turn out pretty good, even if you skip some of the folder, and don't refrigerate.
