The sourdough bread baking process can be boiled down into 7 Steps:
Step 1 – FEED STARTER:
- Feed your sourdough starter and use when it’s at peak –basically when it can no longer rise and it starts to crater a little
Step 2 – MIXING:
- In a bowl, mix ingredients together thoroughly until there are no dry clumps
Step 3 – FOLDING DURING ROOM TEMP FERMENTATION:
- For this particular recipe, our room temp (70F) fermentation will be 8hrs long
- during this time window, fold your dough until it starts to resist, and
- then let it rest until you see it start to lose its shape,
- then fold your dough again until it starts to resist,
- then let it rest until you see it start to lose its shape,
- Repeat this until room temp proofing is over (again, 8hrs for this particular recipe)
- you will prob be able to do 4-6 sets of folding sessions during this time window
Step 4 – SHAPING:
- After 8hrs, your sourdough dough should’ve risen 1.5x its size and should hold its shape after folding.
- Shape your sourdough dough and then place into your proofing basket
Step 5 – COLD PROOFING:
- Cover your dough and cold proof your dough in your fridge at 36F for min 12hrs, max 24hrs
Step 6 – SCORING:
- When your oven is done preheating at 485-500F,
- take our your dough out from the fridge,
- flip it onto parchment paper and score it
Step 7 – BAKING:
- Immediately bake in a Dutch Oven with the lid on for 20 min at 485-500F;
- then lower the temp to 450F and bake with the Dutch Oven lid off
- wait 1-2hrs before cutting into it
- enjoy!