Sourdough doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s my tried and true recipe that I think anyone can nail down!

Ingredients:

125g Ripe Starter

350g Water

500g Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

12g Salt

Instructions:

1. Combine the starter and the water until you get a milky texture.
2. Add the flour and mix thoroughly by hand for about 2-3 minutes. You could also use a stand mixer with a dough hook.
3. Cover with a towel and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
4. Add the salt and pinch it in.
5. Now you’ll do 3 sets of ‘stretch and folds’ every 30 minutes, starting with the first right after you pinch in the salt. Cover and let rest at room temperature between sets.
   • How-to: take one side of the dough and gently stretch it up and fold it over. Do this with the remaining three sides as you work your way around the bowl. This is one set of stretch and folds. It helps to wet your hands a little beforehand so the dough doesn’t stick to them!
6. After your last set of stretch and folds, cover and let rest at room temperature for another 1-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size. You may also see some larger bubbles on the top as a sign that it has risen properly.
7. Dump the dough out onto a clean surface and shape it into a ball.
   • I do this by stretching the dough out on the surface into a square/rectangle. I take two of the sides and fold them into each other, then roll it up. Then I build tension in the dough by pushing the ball away from me and pulling it back toward me as I slightly rotate the ball.
8. Once you’ve got the ball nice and tight, cover with a towel and let rest on the counter for 20-30 minutes.
9. Flip the dough over (I like to use a bench knife for this but you can also use your hands, just scoop from underneath and quickly flip). Repeat step 7, but you’ll notice that the dough is a little tighter so you’ll want to work gently. If shaping into an oval, you can stop after you roll it up. If shaping into a round, complete the process of pushing/pulling and rotating until it forms a ball.
10. Place the dough into a floured proofing basket, or use a bowl with a floured towel, seam side up.
11. Place inside a large plastic bag and tie it up, or you can use a plastic reusable food cover, or even a shower cap! Whatever you use, you can reuse these every time you make sourdough.
12. Proof in the fridge 12 hours/overnight. I usually make the dough in the evening and then proof overnight and bake the next day.
13. When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 450° with a Dutch oven inside.
14. Take the dough out of the fridge and flip it out onto a piece of parchment paper.
15. Score with a bread lame/scoring blade or sharp serrated knife. For an oval loaf, I like to do one large score in the center down the long side. For a round loaf, I do 2 in the shape of a cross.
16. Place parchment & dough inside your Dutch oven and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on, remove the lid, and bake for another 25.
17. Let the bread cool for at least 1 hour! If you cut into it while it’s still warm, there’s a good chance your bread will be gummy instead of fluffy. But no judgment if you cut it while it’s warm 🙂 It’s still going to taste great!