I am somewhat new to sourdough baking and spent the first month or so working on my starter. When I eventually felt that my starter had become active enough to start baking I perused recipes and watched videos and filled my head with everyone else's sourdough expertise. I have made many breads which were okay and tasted good but I felt my dough was too wet as it didn't hold its shape and the crumb was a little gummy. So I started reading through many sourdough blog posts and decided to tweak the recipe I have been using.
Recipe:
Starter:
50/50 blend of AP white flour/rye flour with 100% hydration.
Bread:
100 g active sourdough starter
450 g all purpose white flour
50 g whole wheat flour
300 g warm filtered water
10 g kosher salt
25 g warm filtered water
Mix 100 grams starter with 300 grams warm filtered water until starter is thoroughly incorporated into the water. Add 450 grams AP white flour and 50 grams whole wheat flour into the bowl. Mix ingredients together with hands until you have a uniform but ragged blob. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and let rest for up to 60 minutes (autolyse).
Mix 10 grams of salt with 25 grams of warm filtered water and pour into the bowl. Mix everything together with your hands by squeezing and folding until the dough is smooth and uniform.
Cover the bowl again and let sit for 30-60 minutes. Then wet your hand and turn the dough by pulling from bottom and stretching and then folding on top of itself. Do this in a 4-quadrant manner once. Let rest 30-60 minutes and repeat process 6 times. It takes about 4-5 hours (bulk fermentation).
Carefully pull out the dough onto a lightly floured surface (AP white flour) being careful not to break strands of gluten. Flour your hands and shape dough into a mound and cover for 20 minutes (bench rest).
Fold the dough over itself by stretching and folding in 4 quadrants and pull along table to tighten folds and create a smooth dome. Do this several times and each time smooth a little flour over the surface.
Flour a banneton with or without a linen liner with mix of rice flour and AP white and place dough in the basket and cover for final proofing. Proof for 1 hour.
Heat oven to 500 degrees with cast iron pot and lid in the oven. Then remove pot and place dough in and score the surface with sharp knife or razor. Reduce heat to 450 degrees. Place pot with lid on into over and bake for 30-45 minutes. Remove lid and bake for further 10-20 minutes until crust is a nice deep brown color.
Remove from pot and cool on wire rack. Do not cut into it until totally cooled down as baking process still continues.
