Sourdough, I have learned, has its own personality and temperament.
Time, temperature, the weather, my mood – it all affects how a loaf of bread will turn out.
I wrote about sourdough starter and the care and keeping of it, on my Green Palette Kitchen website, and you can learn all about that HERE.
During the Corona catastrophe, there has been an uptick in baking. We’re home more and homesteading. All our new found time allows for that.
There are many sourdough bread recipes out on the internet, and I encourage you to experiment and try a few. I always seems to fall back on the original recipe I created years ago. It’s easy and does the trick.
Warning: sourdough bread takes patience, time and a whole host of other factors that are at times out of our range of understanding. For example, I have duplicated this recipe a dozen times and come out with a different look and loaf of bread each time. The amount of rise time, how warm it is in your kitchen, how active your starter is can all affect it.
Nonetheless, it is alway good, and if it doesn’t rise too much, I still slice it up and put it in my freezer anyway. It’s always sour, hearty and delicious.
Rustic Sourdough Bread
Makes 1 round loaf of bread
Ingredients
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup lukewarm water
3 cups flour (combination of whole wheat and white flour is good or 3 cups white bread flour), divided
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Directions
- In a large mixing bowl, stir in 1 cup of sour dough starter, 1 cup water and 2 cups bread flour or regular flour. The miix will be like cake batter and will actively bubble. Cover the bowl with a towel, keep on a warm spot on your counter and let it triple in size, about 4-8 hours.
2. Uncover the dough and add in the 2 teaspoons salt. Mix and knead in the last cup of flour, kneading for a few minutes until the dough turns into a ball. Cover again and let rise to double in size, about 4-6 hours.
3. Heat the oven to 475 degrees F and place an oven proof pot with lid in the oven to heat up (I use a le Creuset round pot. Be sure to take the plastic handle off the top since it might get too hot and melt). Once heated, remove the pan and brush the bottom of the pot lightly with oil. Place dough inside and bake covered 30 minutes. Carefully remove the lid and continue baking for another 15 minutes. The bread should be puffy and golden.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and place the bread onto a cookie sheet to cool. And please, cut a slice now and enjoy warm with some Irish butter :).
