Easy Sourdough Bread
Okay take it from a girl that literally can’t even keep a succulent alive — making sourdough bread has turned out to be one of the easiest things I have done. I feel SO accomplished and know that you can do this too. I am no expert but this has been the best recipe for us! I have tweaked it a little here and there, as you can too!
First, you need a starter! There are a lot of great recipes out there like this one. I personally used Ballerina Farm’s ‘Willa’ freeze dried starter to create my sourdough starter, it was very simple!
I keep my starter in this type of jar on my kitchen counter and bake/cook with it almost daily! From bread like in this recipe, to sourdough pancakes and waffles… omg so good! Let me know if you want to see those recipes too!! You can also store your starter in your fridge for those of you that don’t get to bake as often.
In a large bowl add the 1/4 cup of sourdough starter. Mix in 1 2/3 cups of warm, filtered water until dissolved. Add 4 1/4 cups of bread flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons of fine sea salt.
Stir with a wooden spatula until a thick dough forms. Cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
Fold the dough. Grab part of the dough, stretch it out, push it into the center of the dough, then turn the dough 1/4 a turn. Pull, stretch, push and turn in a clockwise rotation. Repeat a few rounds.
Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp clean towel and let rise overnight (at least 8-10 hours). You can put in your fridge if you need more time to bake it.
Lightly flour your counter-top or wood block and shape the dough by folding it again. I usually repeat a few times. Allow the dough rest 10 minutes.
Use a proofing bowl like this one or line a medium bowl with a towel and dust with flour. Let dough rise for 60 minutes or so.
Preheat your oven to 450º. Cover the dough bowl with a long piece of parchment paper and turn it over onto the counter top. Next, slash the top of the sourdough with a razor blade or sharp knife — you can make pretty designs too!
Bake the bread covered for 30 minutes. Then, remove the lid and bake 20 minutes. After that, carefully remove the bread from the pot and bake it directly on the oven each for 10 minutes to crisp the exterior.
Let the sourdough bread cool for at least one hour before cutting otherwise, the loaf of bread will deflate if cut too soon. Sometimes I like to immediately cut into it because I love hot bread with Kerrygold butter! Yum!! Grab yourself one of these to help with cutting the hot bread. Enjoy!!!