🔪 Preparation
Step 1: Creating Your Sourdough Starter
Before you can bake sourdough bread, you’ll need a starter. This is the natural culture of wild yeast and bacteria that will leaven your bread. It’s a living organism, and it requires daily attention to ensure it’s healthy and active.
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Day 1: In a clean glass jar, combine 100g whole wheat flour, 100g all-purpose flour, and 200g water. Stir until well combined, cover loosely with a cloth, and let it sit at room temperature (ideally 70°F/21°C) for 24 hours.
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Day 2: Check the mixture. You might see a few bubbles forming. Discard half of the starter (about 100g), and feed it with 50g all-purpose flour and 50g water. Stir, cover loosely, and let sit for another 24 hours.
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Day 3: Repeat the process of discarding half and feeding with equal parts flour and water. By the third or fourth day, you should see significant bubbling and activity, and the starter will smell mildly sour.
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Day 5 (or later): When your starter is bubbling vigorously and has a pleasantly tangy aroma, it’s ready to use! It should double in size within 4-6 hours of feeding. If it doesn’t rise well, continue feeding it daily for a few more days.
Step 2: Mixing the Dough
Now that you have an active starter, it’s time to make the dough.
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Combine the Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, combine 500g bread flour with 350g water. Mix until the water is absorbed, then let the dough rest for 30 minutes (this is called autolyse). The rest period helps hydrate the flour and improves gluten development.
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Add the Starter and Salt: After the autolyse, add 100g active sourdough starter and 10g salt to the dough. Mix well to incorporate the starter and salt into the dough. The dough will be sticky, but this is normal.
Step 3: Kneading and Folding
Instead of traditional kneading, sourdough dough benefits from a series of stretch and fold techniques.
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Stretch and Fold: Wet your hands to prevent sticking, and then stretch one side of the dough and fold it over the center. Rotate the bowl and repeat the process until all sides have been folded (about 4-6 folds). Do this every 30 minutes for 4 hours. This strengthens the dough without overworking it.
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Bulk Fermentation: After the final fold, cover the dough and let it rest at room temperature for 4-6 hours. During this time, the dough should rise and become airy. It’s ready for the next step when it’s puffy and shows bubbles on the surface.
Step 4: Shaping the Dough
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