Making sourdough in quarantine

OAKLAND, Calif. - SALT AND HONEY'S SOURDOUGH RECIPE

Equipment Needed

Kitchen scale

Digital thermometer

Plastic bench scraper

Dutch oven or combo cooker

Large mixing bowl with lid

Muslin dish towel (do not use a fuzzy towel if you do not have a banetone) or banetone

Plastic bags

Sharp knife or razor blade

Timer

Yield: 2 loaves

Levain:

60g Mature Starter

60g All Purpose Flour

60g Whole Wheat Flour

120g Room Temperature Water

In a tupperware container with a matching lid, start the levian by mixing the starter, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour and room temperature water until well combined.. Cover with a lid and leave levain in the oven with the oven off but with the oven light on. This should generate enough heat to activate the starter. This recipe should make enough levain for the bread with some extra for future recipes. Allow to rest for ferment for 6 hours.

Dough:

273g Bread Flour

500g AP Flour

175g Whole Wheat Flour

660g Water 90-95F

180g Levain

18g Salt

Start autolyse by mixing bread flour, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour and water together in a large mixing bowl using your hands until well combined. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and allow dough to rest and hydrate for 30 minutes.

Once your flour mixture has hydrated, remove the lid from your bowl and add the levain and salt to the dough. Lightly dampen your hands, mix dough by hand until well combined. Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and place into the oven with the oven off but the oven light on. Leave in the oven for a total of 3 - 4 hours taking out 3 times to do stretch and folds.

In the first hour you need to take the dough out of the oven every 20 minutes to perform the stretch and folds. To perform a stretch and fold you will need to take one edge of the dough pull it up in the air to stretch and fold it over to the other side. Then rotate the bowl 15 degrees and stretch dough again. You will continue to stretch the dough and rotate the bowl until you have performed this across the entire dough ball, returning the dough to the oven between each interval. You will stretch and fold the dough 3 times.

Allow dough to bulk ferment for an additional 2 hours. Once the bulk fermentation period is over. Remove the bowl from the oven and turn out onto a floured work surface. Using a bench scraper or metal cleaver, separate the dough evenly

After 3 hours scoop out onto a flour surface. Separate the dough into 2 pieces and form into balls. Allow dough to rest covered (to prevent the dough from forming a skin) for 15 minutes.

Dust banetones or bowls covered with clean muslin dish towels with rice flour. Place the bowl into a ziplock or small small plastic bag and place into the refrigerator and let it ferment overnight.

The following morning preheat the oven with dutch oven inside at 500 degrees for one hour.

When it's time to bake, remove the dutch oven from the oven and remove dough ball from the banetone or bowl, drop into dutch oven seam side down. Score the top of your dough ball down the center of the ball using a sharp knife or razor blade making a  ¼” deep incision down the length of the entire ball. Cover with the lid of the dutch oven and place immediately into your oven. Bake lid on for 20 minutes.

At the end of the 20 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until bread is deep golden brown.

Remove dutch oven from the oven and remove bread from the pot  and knock on the bottom. The bread should sound hollow, indicating that bread is fully cooked. Allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack. Slice and enjoy with a bit of sea salted butter.

**To make your second loaf. Return dutch oven to your hot oven, lid on and allow to preheat for 15 minutes. Then follow the same baking instructions as above.