there are so many recipes out there on Pinterest with such complicated instructions and vocabulary. I feel that this scares away a ton of people from trying sourdough.
don’t get me wrong, the in depth recipes are great. But someone starting sourdough for the first time needs a simple recipe.
I was given a starter a few years back, so I don’t have advice on starting a starter. Here is a link to purchase a sourdough starter.
Many recipes say you need to feed your starter and then let it peak. I feed mine after I’m done using it, and store it in the fridge. When I’m ready to bake, I just pull it out and let it sit a room temperature until it rises to peak and is bubbly.
DO NOT USE CITY WATER- you need filtered or spring water. Chemicals in tap water could kill your starter.
ingredients
-100 g starter
-325 g warm/room temp water
Mix together then add
-475 g bread flour
-10 g salt
Stir together, will be dry and stringy
Stretch and fold after resting 1 hour, then after more 30 minutes, and once more after 30 more minutes. (You can do more stretch and folds if you would like)
Bulk rise- covered with damp towel for 8-12 hrs or overnight (depending on temp of your house)
You want it to be at least doubled
Shape dough into tight ball by placing on floured counter, pulling all the sides up to the center and pinching together. Flip so seam side is down and spin/pull toward you to get dough tight and round.
place on parchment (I like this unbleached one) and into bowl and cover with damp towel 2-3 hours on your counter, or 24+ hrs in the fridge. If leaving on the counter, make sure it at least doubled
Preheat oven 450 with Dutch oven in while preheating
this is the Dutch oven I use.
Score your bread using a lame, and place in Dutch oven while still on parchment. Sprinkle flour on before scoring if you want design to show up more.
Bake 20 minutes with the lid on, remove lid and bake 25 more minutes.
Cool on a rack so the bottom doesn’t get soggy
Feed starter: I typically do 1:1:1 flour, water, starter.
Store starter in fridge and feed at least once a week.
Discard lasts a long time in the fridge also, and I just pull out of the fridge at let it get bubbly before I use for discard recipes