My Favourite Sourdough Recipe

Much like everyone else, I entered my baking era in 2020 when the world went into lockdown and we were all in search of something to do. However, more recently I've been working on mastering the art of sourdough bread - and trust me, there has been some disasters along the way. So for anyone else also trying to work on their bread making skills, I thought I'd share with you my recipe and some tips for a successful loaf. 

First things first, if you want to start baking sourdough bread, you'll need a starter. If you have two weeks to make this yourself then that's great, but I really would recommend buying a more mature starter online which you can feed and make your own over time. I got mine from Sous Chef here, and because it's unlike me to just buy one thing, I also purchased this starter jar which I have really liked (it's super easy to clean). 

There's also a few other things that you'll need for this recipe, some of them essential and some just handy to have - so really your level of investment depends on how into this you're going to get! To actually bake the bread, you'll need a dutch oven with a lid. I have this one from Le Creuset which I love, but I also use it all the time for other cooking making it worth the cost, but if you're not going to use it so often, Sainsburys does a great dupe which I used for a year before getting my Le Creuset! 

Another thing which has made my bread baking journey easier is a bread sling and a banneton. The bread sling makes scoring and putting your bread into your dutch oven SO much easier, and the banneton is needed for proofing your dough - it's completely up to you whether you get a round banneton or a longer one, this is down to preference, but this set from Amazon pretty much has all of the tools you'll need including a scoring tool (although you can use a knife for this to get you started!). 

But without further ado, here's my favourite sourdough recipe: 

Ingredients

Levian (Day 1): 

30g Sourdough Starter 

60g White Bread Flour 

60g Water 

Dough (Day 2): 

Levian (150g total weight) 

500g Strong white bread flour 

320ml Warm water 

10g Salt 

Method

Day 1 - Evening: 

Mix together all of the ingredients for the Levian and cover with cling film. Leave for 6-8 hours or until it's doubled in size. I usually make this before going to bed so it's ready for me to use in the morning. 

Day 2 - Morning: 

Pour the water into a large bowl, and then add in your risen Levian. It should float! Dissolve the levian into the water with a dough hook, or you can just use your hands (I use my hands!)

Add in your flour and salt and mix thoroughly, cover with cling film and leave to rest for 30 mins. The dough will probably look a bit shaggy at this state but not to worry, it will soon be a lovely smooth dough.

After 30 mins you can begin your first out of four sets of stretch and folds, and repeat this every 30 mins - so 2 hours in total. There are loads of tutorial stretch and folds on TikTok so I'd recommend watching a few before starting. 

Cover the dough in cling film again and leave to prove in a warm place for 3 hours.

Shape the dough (again there's lots of tutorials on TikTok for this and it helps to add structure to the dough!) and turn into a banneton coated in rice flour. Rice flour is important here as it doesn't get absorbed into the bread the same way regular flour does, so it will mean your dough won't stick to the banneton. Cover and place into the fridge overnight for the final prove. 

Day 3 - Morning: 

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees with your dutch oven inside. Meanwhile, turn out your dough onto your bread sling or parchment paper and score deep cuts along the dough with a razor blade or knife. This is your expansion score, so it needs to be deep enough for the bread to expand in this place. If you want to add a design onto your dough, you can do this by scoring more shallow cuts into the dough, and as long as your expansion score is deep enough, they wont expand too much and ruin the design!

Carefully place your dough into the dutch oven and bake for 30 mins with the lid on. 

Then remove your dutch oven from the oven, take off the lid and place back inside the oven to bake for a further 15 mins with the lid off. 

Leave the bread to cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before cutting into it, and then enjoy!