







My good friend Kas Baker from another local Vancouver band called Winter Youth gifted me some starter a few months ago and I vowed not to rest until I mastered sourdough and created an incredible recipe of my own.





I've since learned that it's impossible to master sourdough. You can be really good at sourdough. You can even be the best at sourdough. You will never master it. Which is... kind of what I like about it. There are so many ways that any given loaf can fail, even if it's delicious. I won't list them here in fear that, like me, you will lose sleep trying to calculate a way to avoid all of them in a single bake. You won't. You'll just be, like, really tired.





Anyway, before you start, here are some things I recommend you have:

Dutch oven

kitchen scale

large mixing bowl (or a big salad bowl)

bench scraper (or, at least, a very thin spatula with a wide head)

a lame or fresh razor blade (or a very sharp paring knife)

at least two bannetons (or collanders (or something with great airflow))

clean kitchen cloths









Yield: 2 large or 3 medium loaves.





Ingredients:





900 g white flour

55 g rye flour

33 g whole wheat flour

780 g water

180 g starter

25 g salt

rice flour (for dusting)





Method:





-Feeding The Starter-

For two days prior to baking, feed your starter morning and night to increase activity. Feed the starter an hour prior to starting your autolyse.





-Autolyse-

Mix together all flours plus water. Mix well without kneading. Allow to rest, covered, for 30 minutes to an hour.





-Adding The Starter-

Check that your starter passes the float test . Pour the starter and salt onto your dough and use your thumb and pointer finger to carefully pinch the mixture together. Remember not to knead. Just pinch. Once your starter and salt are about 75% incorporated into the dough, begin slap and folds . Do this until dough starts to become smooth and easier to handle. It's going to be messy. Just deal with it and don't be a baby. Return to bowl, cover, and let rest for 20 minutes.





-Stretch And Folds-

I like to do stretch and folds 5 times, 3 of them with 20 minute intervals and then a final 2 with 30 minute intervals. After the fifth stretch and fold, cover the dough once again and allow to rest at room temperature until doubled. This might take several hours.





-Shaping-

I'm not even going to talk about shaping, because I feel like there are different techniques to

suit different hands, different levels of aggressiveness with handling, etc. Watch some videos online and see what works for you.





Between pre-shaping and shaping, you will have a bench rest. Use this time to line your banneton with a kitchen cloth and then generously coat the cloth with flour.





Once each loaf is shaped, transfer upside-down to your prepared banneton, closing the kitchen cloth like an envelope around it. Refrigerate for a cold final proof. This will take 8-12 hours.





-Baking-

Pre-heat oven to 500° with Dutch oven inside for 1 hour. Take one loaf out of the fridge and gently turn out onto a large piece of parchment paper. Dust with rice flour and score . Remove Dutch oven from the oven and use the parchment paper to lift and place the prepared dough into the Dutch oven. Cover and place back into the oven, reducing the temperature to 450°. Bake covered for 27 minutes, then uncover the Dutch oven and continue baking for 10 minutes. Slightly reduce these times if you have split the dough into 3. The loaf is done when knocking on the bottom produces a hollow sound. Allow to rest for at least an hour before cutting.





You do not need to increase the temperature to re-prep the Dutch oven for the subsequent loaves.



