Homemade Sourdough

Ingredients

• 1kg flour

• 800ml water

• 150g sourdough starter

  (find someone to donate you one or see my recipe on how to make your own)

• 20g salt

Instructions

Stage 1 - Mixing and Resting

1. Add flour and water together in a large bowl, mix well. Rest for 45 minutes.

2. Add the starter and salt to the bowl, stir to combine well. Rest for 30 minutes.

3. With wet hands, lift and stretch one side of the dough and fold it back over the rest of the dough. Repeat this three times moving the bowl a 1/4 turn each time. Rest for 30 minutes.

4. Repeat step 3 every 30 minutes for 2 hours (doing step 3 a total of four times). Rest for 4 hours or covered overnight in the fridge.

Stage 2 - Shaping

1. Flour the bench. Cut the dough in half. Stretch the dough out and loosely plait, then fold back over itself 3-4 times to form a ball. Rest for 30 minutes.

2. Lightly flour the top of the dough, then flip over. Pull the outside edges into the centre of the dough and push down, turning the dough slightly each time, until you form a ball. Place each ball in a bowl, around 15cm in diameter, lined with baking paper. Cover and rest for 3 hours or in the fridge overnight.

Stage 3 - Baking

1. Score the dough with a very sharp knife.

2. Place a dutch oven on a baking tray in the oven and preheat to 250°C fan bake.

3. Transfer the baking paper and dough into the dutch oven and bake with the lid on for 20 minutes.

4. Remove the lid of the dutch oven, place on a new (cool) oven tray, reduce the heat to 220°C and bake for another 10-20 minutes, until the crust is medium-dark golden.

5. When done, turn the oven off and leave the bread in with the door ajar for a further 20 minutes.

6. Repeat steps 1-5 for the second loaf.