Macy's Take on a Sourdough Bread Recipe

Ingredients: 

• 600g bread flour 

• 100g whole wheat flour

• 500g water 

• 140g starter 1:2:2 hydration 

• 14g salt 

Prep starter + autolyse: 

1. Feed starter in a 1:2:2 ratio (I do 40g starter, 80g AP flour, 80g warm water).

2. Mix together 600g bread flour, 100g whole wheat flour, and 500g warm water. Cover and let both sit on countertop. 

Make the dough: 

1. Once starter has doubled (~6 hrs), add 140g to flour mixture. Mix for about 2-3 minutes (I do this by hand). Cover & wait 30 min. 

2. Add 14g salt. Mix for ~2 min (again, I do this by hand), cover, and wait 30 min. 

3. Perform stretch and folds ~10x (stretch the dough up & fold over itself then rotate bowl 90 deg, pick up dough, stretch it then fold over again. Repeat ~10x). Cover and wait 30 min. 

4. Perform coil folds (Grab the middle of dough & lift up so that the top portion of dough folds under. Do this for the bottom portion as well so that the dough has folded under itself. Rotate 90 deg and perform again. Do this 4-5 times. Cover and wait 45 min. You’ll repeat this process for a total of 3 rounds.

Bulk Fermentation:

1. Let sit on countertop for ‘bulk fermentation’. This will occur ~6 hours once you’ve added the starter in step 4 (in warmer temps like AZ it’ll be ~5-6 hrs, in colder temps it might be closer to 7-8 hrs depending on house temp). Basically, you want your dough to double in size. If you go for too long then the dough will be really sticky and you’ll have a flatter bread–still delicious but just not as much oven spring. If you don’t go for long enough then you might have tunneling in your bubbles/air pockets. Again, still edible and delicious but just not quite as good. 

Shape dough:

1. After bulk fermentation, place dough on lightly floured surface and cut in half (recipe makes 2 loaves). 

2. Stretch into a rectangle then letter fold (trifold). Roll it up like a sleeping bag and pinch the sides to close the dough. Let rest under a towel for 15 min. 

3. Uncover dough and build tension by rotating the dough and pulling toward you. Rotate and pull, rotate and pull. As you increase tension air bubbles will pop and that’s totally fine. Keep the dough in a ball shape. Do this several times until it is compact; should be bouncy. 

4. Flip the dough ball into a generously floured basket (seam side up) and perform stitching by pinching together at the top. 

5. Cover dough & place in fridge overnight (Whenever you plant to bake, make sure it’s been in the fridge for at least 6+ hours. You can keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days prior to baking). I find that baking the loaf the next morning has much better oven spring and rise than when I bake the 2nd loaf a few days later. They both taste and look amazing though! 

Bake time!

1. Set oven to 500 deg & place dutch oven in during preheat.

2. Once oven is ready, take dough out of fridge. Flip onto parchment paper and generously flour the top. Score the dough however you would like (make sure you have one deep score). 

3. Place into the Dutch oven with a few ice cubes under the parchment paper (I do 4 ice cubes). Cover with lid and place in oven. Bake for 20 min. 

4. Lower temp to 450 deg, take lid off, and bake uncovered for 20 min. 

5. Take out and place on rack, let cool for 1 hour before cutting into!

NOTES: 

*I’ve tried with bread flour only and it still yields a good sourdough loaf but I prefer adding in the whole wheat flour because it adds a little more flavor and more protein content 

*1:1:1 hydration also works but I found that my dough was much stickier and harder to work with

*House temp matters: If you’re making sourdough in the summer, bulk fermentation will take much less time. We live in Arizona and during the summer keep our house at 76 deg so bulk fermentation happens ~5-6 hrs. However, if you are in a cooler climate or your house is colder then bulk fermentation might take closer to 7-8 hours.