Rustic Sourdough Bread Recipe

Making the Bread

Here’s how to make the bread if you already have a starter ready:

• Mix all the ingredients to form a dough and keep folding it over itself.
• Let the dough rise three times (over 20-minute intervals) between folding sessions.
• Shape the dough to your liking.
• Let it rise again for an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 430°F (220°C) on a bread-baking setting and bake until the crust hardens.

Making the Sourdough Starter

• If you don’t have a sourdough starter ready, you’ll want to start making it around 6 days in advance.

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

Day 1:

• Mix 2 oz. (60 g or ¼ cup) of water with 2 oz. (60 g or ½ cup) of whole grain flour in a medium-sized bowl.
• Scrape the sides while mixing to get every last bit!
• Cover the starter container with a lid or plastic wrap.

Day 2:

• You might see some spots and signs that the bacteria is activated. But even if you can’t, you’ll want to feed the dough.
• Basically, you need to discard a portion and replace it with fresh water and flour, so the process for day 2 is as follows:
• Mix the 4 oz. (120 g) starter.
• Discard half the amount, so you’re left with 2 oz.
• Add 2 oz. water and 2 oz. flour to the remaining half, creating a 6 oz. (180 g) starter.
• Mix well and cover again.
• Note that if it’s super hot in your house, the smell might be too strong at this point. In this case, we’d recommend storing the starter in the fridge (after day 2).
• You can do a second feeding in the evening, let the dough warm up the next morning, and feed it again.

Day 3:

• By now, you should see bubbles in the container.
• This time, you’ll discard 4 oz. Next, add 2 oz. water and 2 oz. flour to feed the dough and restore its weight to 6 oz.
• That said, our sourdough starter was made in the winter, so it took a while to react. If your house is warm, the process will be much faster, and you can refresh it twice daily starting from day 3.

Days 4–6:

• Continue the same feeding pattern as day 3 (removing 4 oz. from the old dough and refreshing with 2 oz. flour and 2 oz. water).

Bake Day:

• When it’s time to bake the bread, take out the sourdough starter portion needed for the recipe.
• Then, feed the starter to restore its weight, cover the jar, and put it back in the fridge until you need it again.