Make your own Sourdough Boule

Now that I have an active and healthy Sourdough Starter again, YAY! I have been putting it into good use by baking some bread to go along with supper!

This is a lengthy process, but EASY effort!

Really!

I’ve posted about making the 5 min a day artisan bread, and this is the same basic process, but with sourdough!

You need 16 oz flour.

You can use 12 oz white, 4 oz wheat, 11 & 5… or play with it some and get your own favorite way. I desire a 100% whole wheat (ground by me) bread… but they turn out quite brick-ish… so I am still mixing white with wheat until I get it right.

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup filtered water

1/2 cup of sourdough starter

Mix sourdough starter in with your water

Stir together.

Mix liquid with flour and salt mixture.

Stir til combined, cover tightly with plastic wrap and then rest for 18 hours.

The next day after your bread has rested 18 hours, sprinkle flour onto your counter or your bread board.

Pat it out into a rectangle shape.

You will now fold

First fold in three sections. Left comes over middle.

Right comes over left and middle

Then fold that in half and let it rest for about 15 minutes covered with some loose plastic wrap.

While it is resting 15 minutes, get a clean tea towel. Sprinkle it with cornmeal or in my case, I didn’t have any cornmeal ground, so I used flax meal.

Once your rest is over, shape slightly and plop onto your towel.

Cover with the remainder of your towel and rest for 1 1/2 hours. You will actually rest it for 2 hours total, but you need to remind yourself at 1 1/2 because you will want to heat your oven and your baking pan.

Once your timer sounds and you have 30 more minutes to rest, turn your oven on 500*

You need something to bake your bread in that can withstand those high temps!

I have this old pampered chef baker. They have changed shapes and now come in enameled and are pretty… but I sure do like mine!

You can use a dutch oven, which is something else I use often. Today I am going to use this though.

It comes in two pieces, so once my bread has baked for 30 minutes, I can remove the top and let it finish baking at a lower temp for 15 minutes.

You need to heat your oven and your baker for 30 minutes while you let your bread finish resting. Once that time is up, gently open your baker, BEWARE OF THE STEAM!

And PLOP your bread in the hot pan and cover.

Bake for 30 minutes at 500*

After 30 minutes, lower the temp to 400* (on my oven, yours may be able to go to 450*)

bake UNCOVERED for 15 more minutes before removing completely and placing on a cooling rack.