For this recipe, you need a sourdough starter … how to coming soon, assuming you have it already:

Ingredients

• 150g Sourdough starter, ready to go (nicely warmed up and recently fed)
• 500g Flour (sieved)
• 300ml water (hand-warm to get things going quickly, cold is fine too)
• 10g Salt (use nice sea salt or rock salt ideally)

Method

• Sieve the flour into a large bowl, add 10g of salt and combine

(I find using a hand whisk is quite good for keeping things light and airy)

• Add the starter to the water and mix gently until mostly dissolved

not essential, but I feel this helps to distribute the starter throughout the whole mix

• Add the water/starter mix to the bowl of flour and mix together gently until it’s a sticky-ish dough ball

If it’s too dry, add a few drops of water, and try again until all the flour is used

• Cover the bowl with clingfilm and allow to rest for about 1 hour

I like to add a damp tea-towel over the top, so I’m not watching it and to hold the cling film in place. I have the feeling the dough likes to rest in the dark…

• Stretch the dough (4 folds), every 30 minutes for 2 hours (total of 4 session, of 4 folds = 16 folds).

Every half an hour, get a handful of dough from one side of the bowl, and pull it gently so the dough stretches out as long as you can get it, then fold it over itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees, and do the same again, and again, and again. That’s your first “Stretch” session (i.e. do 4 folds every 30 mins). This is not a strict rule, you might find more folds is better - who knows! Experiment!

• Allow the dough to “bulk ferment” for as long as it takes - give it a good 3-4 hours at room temp if it’s winter, give it longer

To know if it’s done, it should be at least double in size, and not “spring back” too quickly - if it’s too springy, leave it longer.

• Laminate the dough - Stretch the dough out thinly with your hands, then fold it back on itself sideways (e.g. thirds) and longways (in half), flip over and make a rough ball

The idea here is to give it one last stretch, and to form a rough loaf shape, it’s worth having plenty of flour down to keep the surface from being sticky

• Turn the ball upside down into a banneton or bowl (lined with a clean tea-towel) with a little flour

Pinch any loose bits together so that it’s all in a bowl, this will end up being the bottom of the loaf.

• Put the banneton in a plastic bag or cover with clingfilm, and place in the fridge for 12-36 hours

This is to keep the moisture in, and allow the dough to “autolyse” (hydrate and strengthen gluten development) - the longer you leave it, more “sour” it will be.

• Pre-heat a dutch oven, or lidded ceramic dish to 220C

This is so the bread gets a good start in an already warm container

• Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface (top side up) and score the bread about 2-3cm deep along most of the longest length using a bread “lame”, a razor blade, or a very sharp knife

You can also add some more decorative cuts that should come out in the bread. the point of the deep score is to allow the bread to expand during cooking.

• Put the dough into the dutch oven or dish, and cook for around 50 minutes, keep the lid on for the first half and take it off for the last

Keeping the lid on makes the bread keep the moisture in the crust, giving the amazing crunchiness, when it comes off, that’s when it browns off nicely.

• Allow to cool for at least 2 hours

This allows any remaining moisture to come out whilst it cools so you don’t have soggy/doughy bread!

Enjoy!