I have always enjoyed the writings of Michael Pollan. I was reading his book, Cooked and also watched the Netflix docu-series based on the book. In the “Air” section he described the primal tradition of making and enjoying bread. Since then I decided to try to make my own sourdough at home. I purchased a dry sourdough starter from San Francisco and over 10 days fed and divided it, not an easy task in the cold Syracuse March weather. Once I had a vigorous, active starter it was time to try making some bread! I also purchased a digital scale, proofing basket and a bowel scraper from Amazon. The bread recipe I have used is a high humidity boule from Hobbs House Bakery on Youtube. Below are the pictures and the recipe. Homemade bread is now one of my favorite hobbies.

Boule means ball in French, the traditional shape of French bread. It is a rustic loaf made from a variety of flour. I used wild yeast sourdough but it can also be made from commercial yeast or chemical leavening. The French bread baker is a boulanger making a French bread bakery a boulangerie.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

460g of Bread flour

300ml of Sourdough starter

230ml of water

10g of salt

1. The day before feed the starter 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water, keep in a warm place till the next day. I keep it in the oven, temperature around 75 F.
2. Preheat oven to 450F with cast iron skillet or dutch oven.
3. Mix the above ingredients and smack it on the counter a few times before placing in a mixer with the dough blade.
4. In the mixer for 7 min at medium speed.
5. Remove from the bowl and do the first fold, the folding technique can be seen in the video below.
6. Let the dough rest for 30 min- first rise
7. Then do another fold- wait 10 min- fold again- wait 10 min- fold again.
8. Let the dough rest in a well floured proofing basket for 4-6 hours- second rise
9. Flip dough into cast iron skillet or dutch oven.
10. Score the dough with a razor blade.
11. Spray the bottom of the hot oven with water to create steam.
12. Bake the bread for 20 min with aluminum foil or cover, then cook uncovered for 20 min.
13. Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour.
14. Cut and enjoy!
15. I stored the bread in a zip-lock bag to keep fresh for at least 4-5 days.
16. The starter can be stored in a sealed plastic container till the next use.

Digital Scale and Mixing bowl

Sourdough Starter

Second Rise- 4 hours in a proofing basket

Cool on wire rack

Video