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I know... its been a long time coming. I've had SO many of you guys request my sourdough method. But i'm going to make you wait a few more minutes before I FINALLY share it with you guys (that is - if you actually read this before scrolling down to the recipe).
Let me tell you a bit about my sourdough journey and how I got to this exact method. I was first introduced to the art of sourdough back in 2018, when Ms. Pamela Beasley (AKA Jenna Fischer) shared her own sourdough journey using Bonnie Ohara's life-changing book, Bread Baking for Beginners. I was watching her stories in complete awe, and decided to finally purchase the book for myself. I worked my way through all of the recipes, with exception of the sourdough ones, as I was SO nervous! I eventually decided to start my own starter and just rip off the bandaid, and let me tell ya, the journey was not a fun one at first. I started by using a generic, bleached all purpose flour from my local grocery store (my first mistake), and I started it in a plastic container (my second mistake). When my starter wasn't activating like I read it was supposed to, I decided to listen to ALL the advices I ignored at first and switched to King Arthur Bread Flour with a small amount of whole wheat flour, and BOOM. Wilma was born. This is also when I switched her to a glass mason jar and she definitely flourished from there.
Now this leads us to my first attempt at baking a sourdough loaf. I used Bonnie's beginner's sourdough recipe, and although I waited two weeks for my starter to be completely active, it was WAY too soon, and I ended up with two frisbees. I was so upset that I swore to myself I would nail it, so I tried again, and I did! After nailing the beginner's sourdough, I moved onto intermediate, and then when I got that one, I completely skipped the Alchemy sourdough recipe and began to experiment using my own research and intuition. It was a rough ride, i'll say that for sure. And i'll spare you all the details, but yeah. It led me to where I am now!
My method isn't exactly the one I would recommend for beginners, but if you ARE a beginner and dead set on trying my method, I think you'll do just fine. There are a couple of steps that I find to be vital in producing a great product, but feel free to use my method and make it your own.
Let me include this little tidbit as well - I feed my start on a once a day basis, usually in the morning around 9 AM. My amounts are 15 g starter, 75 g water and 75 g flour (I use 65 g Castle Valley Mill's Bolted Hard Wheat Flour and 10 g rye flour). It peaks at about the 12 hour mark and I store it in the fridge during lapses between bakes.
Now, let me define a few terms before we get started, so that you won't be lost in case you are a beginner. I will define them in my own words as to avoid any confusions and to avoid having to google the correct definitions for myself - I feel like it'll be more fun with my own definitions anyway.
Autolyse - Mixing of the flour and water from the recipe ingredients prior to adding in your salt and levain. This is done to help thoroughly hydrate the flour and provide better elasticity.
Levain - The activated starter prepared 12 hours prior to mixing your bread.
Stretch and folds - When your dough is in your bowl after resting, this is when you will first take the top and fold it into the center, and work your way around the perimeter of the bowl until your dough has gained some tension.
Lamination - This is when you stretch your dough as thin as it goes on a lightly wet surface. This helps to gain extensibility.
Coil folds - Usually done after lamination. This is when you lift the dough up gently at the sides and let it fold onto itself. This helps gain some tension in the final steps of the process.
Proofing - After shaping your loaf, this is the overnight process of letting it sit in the fridge to finish the fermentation process and develop the flavor for baking.
Lame - A razor blade attached to a stick/thing used for scoring the top of your bread. (Do you like this definition? I do. Very concise, right?) My lame of choice is a Wiremonkey Lame - Here is a link to get your own!
Scoring - The act of using the lame to slice the top of your bread to help control the split and produce oven spring
If I forgot anything, sorry! A quick google search should help with anything I missed.
Now that we've gotten through all of that, onward to the method!
Allison Bread Sourdough Method
(For 1 loaf - can be doubled, tripled, etc.)
500 g Flour (I use a combo of 30% High Gluten Flour, 60% Castle Valley Mill Bolted Hard Wheat and 10% Castle Valley Mill Hard Whole Wheat Flour)
365 g Water
8 g Salt
175 g Levain (75 g water, 75 g flour, 25 g active starter prepped the 12 hours before)
***The evening before you begin mixing your dough, you must create your levain. For this, you will mix 25 g of active starter, 75 g of water and 75 g of flour together and let it sit overnight. It should be ready to use by the next morning.***
In the morning, mix flour and water together to create autolyse. Let sit for 2 hours.
With wet hands, dimple the top of your dough and add your levain. Mix well to combine. Let sit 20 minutes.
Add salt, mix well again. Rest for 30 minutes.
Begin stretch and folds. You’ll complete 5 in total, every 30 minutes for about 2 and a half hours.
After the last stretch and fold, dough should be extensible and smooth. If not, do one more stretch and fold. Let rest for 30-45 minutes.
Laminate dough by stretching on a wet surface to as thin as it can get. This is where you’ll add in your add-ins if using. Gently fold back up and place into a rectangular container (a 9x13 glass baking dish is perfect). Let rest for about 30 minutes.
Now you will do coil folds once every 40 minutes, until the dough is becoming smooth, soft, and has some visible bubbles on the surface (about 1-2 hours, depends on the temperature/rate of fermentation)
Once dough is ready (smooth, slightly airy but not too much, a few visible surface bubbles), turn over onto a lightly floured surface. Preshape by gently tucking the dough under itself into a smooth circle shape. Dust top with flour and let rest for 10 minutes.
While preshaped dough is resting, prepare banneton by dusting with flour. Now we will shape our loaf into a boule (can also do a batard if desired). For this, take your dough, and lightly stretch out the top, bottom, left and right a bit to form almost a square-like shape. You will then take the top and fold it into the center, repeating with the left, then the bottom, and the right. Gently flip the dough so that the seam you created is now facing down, with the smooth side facing up. We will now tighten the loaf up. For this - with both hands, you will tuck and drag the dough towards your body to create tension on the outside of the dough. As you drag, you will spin the dough on the work surface and continue dragging until the dough is uniform in shape and smooth with no tears. When the loaf is shaped, gently lift your loaf and place it seam side up into the banneton. Pinch the seams to tighten up the loaf, and cover with a kitchen towel to let rest overnight in the fridge for about 12 hours.
Next morning, preheat oven to 500 degrees F with a Dutch oven inside. When oven is almost heated, remove your dough from the fridge and flip loaf onto a piece parchment paper. Score as desired (I usually do a simple angled score down the side to promote a nice oven spring, as well as a little floral pattern for some fun, but its up to you how you want to score!)
Once oven is heated, take Dutch oven out of oven and carefully take off lid and transport dough inside of dutch oven with parchment paper. Spray sides of dutch oven with water or place an ice cube on the bottom of the dutch oven (to create some steam for a crispy, blistery crust) and cover with lid. Put in oven, drop oven temperature to 475 degrees F, and bake for 25 minutes. (I recommend putting an inverted cookie sheet on bottom rack of oven to prevent bottom from burning).
After 25 minutes, Remove lid and bake another 15-20 minutes until brown and caramelized.
Place finished loaf on cooling rack and let cool for at least an hour before slicing.
If you try out my recipe, let me know! Make sure to tag me on Instagram @Allisonbread
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