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When it comes to kitchen skills, there are a couple that I have practiced and developed over hundreds of thousands of hours of practice and I have become an expert in these crafts. Baking is not one of these skills for me. Since I started dabbling with sourdough six years ago I have made a lot of loaves that looked better than they tasted. I’ve had quite a few total failures and I occasionally stumbled upon a damn good loaf. Every success felt like dumb luck though – hard to duplicate. I’ve tried out the methods of Chad Robertson of Tartine Bread and Emilia Raffa of Artisan Sourdough Made Simple, but haven’t committed to any technique or developed one that feels like it is truly mine yet. That is until just recently when I stumbled on a perfect loaf, by accident (forgot about my dough on the counter), and then wrote down exactly what I did and replicated it 3 more times to be certain.
This loaf is light and fluffy with a perfect crust. Aside from being the most perfect loaf I have made (and replicated) to-date, it is an extremely easy recipe. In fact, I stumbled on perfection by forgetting about my dough on the counter and letting it rise longer than I planned. Then, because it was late at night by that time, I shaped it quickly and threw it in the garage (very cold right now!) hoping to slow or stop the fermentation which I feared had already gone too far. I did not knead the dough or turn it at all during bulk fermentation for the first loaf. I did turn it on subsequent batches because I like turning dough, it’s satisfying. There was no noticeable difference between the dough that was completely neglected for a whole day and the dough that I turned several days during bulk fermentation.
This is what I did to make my most perfect loaf:
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My Most Perfect Sourdough Loaf
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 25 hours
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
- Category: Sourdough
- Method: Baking
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This bread has a light and airy crumb and a crust that is not too hard.
Ingredients
80 grams very active sourdough starter
360 grams warm water
500 grams High Protein Bread Flour
15 grams Wheat bran
10 grams salt
Instructions
Mix the starter and warm water together, then stir in all the other ingredients with a wooden spoon until if forms a sticky glob. Use your hands to shape the dough into a rough ball.
Optional Step: Let this sit for about 20 minutes and then give it a quick turn by placing your hand under one quadrant of the dough and folding it up. Rotate the bowl and repeat 3 more times. ( I have omitted this step and still made an excellent loaf).
Cover the dough and let it sit at room temperature (70 degrees) for 10-12 hours until it is very airy.
Turn the dough out on a heavily floured surface and let it rest for about 20 minutes. Then shape the dough and place it seam-side up in a shaping bowl, lined with a floured cloth napkin. Cover this bowl with a clean kitchen towel and place in the fridge (or a cold garage) for 10-12 hours.
Preheat the oven to 425 with your baking vessel in it.
Turn the dough out on a piece of parchment (now seam-side down). Sprinkle the top with flour (optional), score the loaf and transfer it on the parchment to your baking vessel (dutch oven or ceramic cloche). Put the lid on.
Reduce the oven to 400 F and bake for 50 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove the loaf from the baking vessel and let it cool on a wire rack.
Notes
My Baking Time Line:
Morning: Make the dough
Night: Shape and refrigerate the dough
Morning 2: Bake the loaf
Ready to eat: by late breakfast (if you start early) or lunch.
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