The Common Sourdough Bread

As the name suggests, this is really just a basic recipe. This is not “Artisan Bread”, but nutritious daily sustenance.

When baking bread, regardless of what blogs want to tell you, there are not many points where you could fail. Required for this recipe is a ripe sourdough starter, preferably rye as it is easier to incorporate into the dough. When baking with sourdough, a long fermentation time is super important. But other than that, feel free to adjust to your needs.

400 g white/AP flour

200 g whole wheat flour

450 g water

2 tbsp dry flax seed

Mix.

Leave for autolyse, 30 minutes.

Add 227 g rye sourdough starter (ripe; 100 % hydration) and 18 g salt.

Mix well.

Do stretch and fold, coil fold and/or kneading for a minute or two over the course of the next 2 to 4 hours, leave 15 to 45 minutes in-between.

Leave undisturbed for bulk ferment, about 5 hours depending on room temperature. The dough should become extremely gentle and rise significantly.

Fridge overnight or for two days.

Pre-heat oven to over at least 450 F. Add baking stone or cast iron pan to keep heat better. When oven is at temperature, act fast:

• boil water and pour a bit onto a spare hot baking sheet/casserole dish,

• let dough flop onto baking sheet (covered with fat or parchement paper) right from the fridge,

• cover dough with a little water.

Bake for 15 minutes, let steam escape (very short to not loose heat). Turn temperature to 450 F and bake another 30 to 40 minutes.

Turn bread front to back as needed.

Variations:

• Add sourdough starter right in the beginning and only salt later. Or Add everything at the same time (different texture, still good bread).

• Shape dough before placing into fridge.

• Leave dough on the counter for 30 minutes before baking, without cover.

• Score dough right before(!) baking.

• Use a dutch oven.