Finding sourdough magic at home with help from Lost Breads Alex Bois | Craig LaBan – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Lost Bread Co. Basic Sourdough Makes one loaf

3 cups/ 450g Lost Bread flour (3 1/3 cups/360 g winter wheat plus cup/ 90g spring wheat); King Arthur all-purpose flour is also fine

2 tablespoons/60g of Lost Breads stiff sourdough starter; or cup/ 80g standard wet sourdough starter

1 cups/ 315g water (plus extra if needed); 1 cup/300 g water if using wet starter

2 teaspoons/ 10g fine sea salt

Semolina flour, bran, seeds or corn meal for dusting cooking vessel

Combine all the ingredients and mix together until well-incorporated, preferably with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, on slow speed for about 5 minutes. This can also be done by hand in a steel bowl, turning the bowl clockwise with a clean left hand, while mixing counterclockwise with the right, folding up from under the dough and squeezing to finish each motion. Stop when dough comes together in a shaggy sticky mess, making sure there are no dry clumps. Leave in steel bowl covered with a kitchen towel for 30 minutes. Remove from bowl onto a lightly moistened surface and with wet hands, give a light knead for a minute until dough becomes smooth. Place into a lightly oiled two-quart plastic tub with square sides. Let it rest for 30 minutes covered with a lid.

Return to dough after 30 minutes, remove from container and, holding it in the middle, let the sides sag over. Tug them gently and fold the ends under each other in a three-part letter fold. Give dough a quarter turn and repeat the letter fold one more time. Return to container and let rest another 30 minutes. Repeat one more time.

Return dough to oiled container, loosely cover and let rest and rise for 8 to 10 hours in a room with cool ambient temperature, until doughs volume nearly doubles. (A warm 80F room will take less time, about five hours). Either way, dont expect much to happen for first few hours.

When the dough is ready for shaping, prepare a basket or bowl lined with a well-floured kitchen towel. Dump the dough onto a lightly-floured surface and give a gentle knead. Avoid too much flour. Shape the dough by stretching the four corners and folding them up and over into a square package. If you have a bakers blade for scoring, place dough into the basket with the seam side up. If not, place dough in basket seam side down. Cover with a towel and let it rise for about three hours. If not ready to bake that day, let it rise just an hour, then cover with plastic and refrigerate up to 36 hours.

Prepare your baking setup, preferably a cast-iron combo cooker, or a Dutch oven, or a pizza stone with a steel mixing bowl that can be inverted to fit tightly over the stone. Preheat oven to 500F and warm the cooking vessel inside for up to an hour before baking. When ready to bake, remove vessel from oven and uncover. Gently invert basket and let dough drop in, careful not to burn your fingers. If scoring dough, carefully slash a square shape into the top. If seam side of dough is facing up, no scoring is necessary. Cover tightly and return to oven for 20 minutes. At this point, carefully remove lid, lower heat to 475F and return to oven for another 15-20 minutes, or until desired color. It is done when underside gives a hollow thunk when tapped.

1 tablespoon/ 30g stiff Lost Bread starter

1 cup/ 120g Lost Bread bolted wheat flour (spring or winter) or King Arthur all-purpose flour

cup/ 60g water

Mix starter with flour and water until its well incorporated, with no dry spots, which takes a light kneading. Put it in a plastic tub or Mason jar with a lid and let it increase in volume by more than double, about 10 to 12 hours. Its ready to use now. To preserve, cover tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to a month. When you get down to a tablespoon, make more.

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Finding sourdough magic at home with help from Lost Breads Alex Bois | Craig LaBan - The Philadelphia Inquirer