The Bakery · Bread
Country Sourdough Loaf
- Advanced
- 5 h
- roughly 1 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with ferment tang with real depth behind it.
Ingredients
- 500g bread flour (450g white + 50g whole wheat for flavor)
- 375ml water (75% hydration, honest but manageable)
- 100g active sourdough starter, bubbly and doubled after feeding
- 10g salt
- A dutch oven, the home baker's steam engine
Equipment
Dutch oven
The skills inside
Sourdough starterFermentationSteaming: basket, leaf and lidResting dough: the pause that does the work
The words inside
Dehydrator, Ferment Station & the Pantry MachinesWhy Restaurants Fail: The Honest List
Allergen screen
Found: gluten
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Mix flour and water; rest 1 h (autolyse). Add starter and salt; squeeze through. 60 min
- Bulk ferment 4–6 h at room temperature, folding the dough over itself every 45 min: four folds replace all kneading. 360 min
- Shape a tight round; seam-up in a floured, cloth-lined bowl; refrigerate overnight: the cold builds the sour and the schedule builds your sleep.
- Score decisively; bake in a preheated covered dutch oven at 240°C, 20 min lidded, 20–25 uncovered to deep mahogany. Wait an hour before cutting: the crumb is still cooking. 20 min
How it should come out
- The score has opened and lifted a raised ear, and the loaf has burst nowhere else: no blowout at the side, no split creeping around the base. It went up where it was told, not out.
- The crust is deep mahogany over the whole dome and down the sides with no pale, soft band around the foot; the opened cut face may read lighter but must be dry and set, never doughy. Cooled, the crust is rigid under a press and the base sounds hollow under a knock.
- On the board the loaf stands at least half as tall as it is wide, shoulders rounded, not spread to a disc.
- The crumb is irregular with glossy hole walls from top to bottom and no dense stripe along the base; a finger press springs back and leaves no dent or tack.
- It tastes of wheat first with a clean, faint sourness behind it and the salt clearly present. A sharp vinegar bite, or no acidity at all under a bland crumb, means the retard was mistimed rather than the bake.
Where it goes wrong Bulk runs long in a warm kitchen and the dough is already spent by shaping: it will not hold tension, flows out flat when turned from the banneton, the score stays shut instead of lifting, and the loaf bakes wide and pale-footed with a fine, even crumb and a tacky base.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Grüner Veltliner
- Also Right
- Vermentino or dry Chenin
- From the Taps
- Saison
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water with citrus & herbs
The vegetable whisperers: peppery, high-acid whites that flatter greens, roots, and grains without bullying them.
Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.