Normally I really love my food scale but following this method by @theventuringhomestead on TikTok has produced a couple delicious loaves and totally taken the stress out of it all. Please don’t cancel me for this, but it worked:
Method: (started at 2 p.m. on a Saturday) 1 cup hungry starter (mine hadn’t been fed in 12ish hours) 1 cup room temp bottled water 3 cups King Arthur bread flour + a bit more water to get a shaggy dough
Mix, mostly by hand, squeezing together until combined into a shaggy dough.
Let it sit in the same bowl on the counter in a shag for an hour. I covered with a plastic shower cap.
Do ONE set of stretch and folds. I probably did 10 stretches/rotations.
Let it sit again on the counter for 6-7 hours. Dough should about double in size.
Sprinkle 1 tsp salt over the top of the risen dough. Dust a little more flour on top of that. Fold this into the dough (which will deflate it a bit).
Pour onto lightly floured surface.
Stretch it into a rectangle. Tri-fold the sides, then roll up length wise. Pulling a bit, but not too tightly. Shape into a round ball. Didn’t worry too much about pinching the seams.
Place upside down into a bowl lined with a kitchen tea towel.
Covered with shower cap and placed in fridge around 10 p.m.
Next day (Sunday morning around 10 a.m.):
Preheat oven to 450 (I did NOT preheat my Dutch oven, but I did put a layer of rice in the bottom of my Dutch oven, to keep the bottom of the bread from browning too much.)
Remove dough from fridge and place dough upside down (which is now right side up) on parchment paper.
Score it.
Place dough on parchment paper into the cold Dutch oven, on top of the layer of rice.
One oven is preheated, cover and bake for 30 min with the lid on. After 30 min, take lid off and keep baking for another 25-30. I used a thermometer to check that the inside had reached 200 degrees F.
Take out of oven and cool.
That’s it.
sarahsoprano
I should also mention this recipe is for one loaf. I doubled it, which is why there are two loaves in the picture.
little_md
This is awesome! I did something similar by accident a couple years ago because I forgot about my dough and it made me rethink everything. Great job getting it down to the basics!
digit6lgrl
This seems a little TOO easy.. I’ll have to try it out 🤣. I swear sourdough can be so stressful, and pretty intimidating to people who are just starting out! Thanks for sharing this
drunkenflonuts
did you use a cast iron or enamel coated d.o. because i would think the enamel might crack going from cold to hot
cdigir13
So I have a general knowledge that sourdough bread takes a lot of work. The fact that this is the “Easiest Method Ever” makes me scared to know what the normal method is. This sounds hard as hell! I’m happy you found this OP! ☺️
Bright_Coyote6045
I had no idea you could use a hungry starter! 😱
karabartelle
What about high altitude? How do I adjust it?
bty3
do you know if there’s any specific reason to not add salt until later on?
Competitive_Fox1148
You got a great rise! Do you think the crumb ends up different like this because the starter was hungry ?
11 Comments
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Normally I really love my food scale but following this method by @theventuringhomestead on TikTok has produced a couple delicious loaves and totally taken the stress out of it all. Please don’t cancel me for this, but it worked:
Method: (started at 2 p.m. on a Saturday)
1 cup hungry starter (mine hadn’t been fed in 12ish hours)
1 cup room temp bottled water
3 cups King Arthur bread flour
+ a bit more water to get a shaggy dough
Mix, mostly by hand, squeezing together until combined into a shaggy dough.
Let it sit in the same bowl on the counter in a shag for an hour. I covered with a plastic shower cap.
Do ONE set of stretch and folds. I probably did 10 stretches/rotations.
Let it sit again on the counter for 6-7 hours. Dough should about double in size.
Sprinkle 1 tsp salt over the top of the risen dough. Dust a little more flour on top of that. Fold this into the dough (which will deflate it a bit).
Pour onto lightly floured surface.
Stretch it into a rectangle. Tri-fold the sides, then roll up length wise. Pulling a bit, but not too tightly. Shape into a round ball. Didn’t worry too much about pinching the seams.
Place upside down into a bowl lined with a kitchen tea towel.
Covered with shower cap and placed in fridge around 10 p.m.
Next day (Sunday morning around 10 a.m.):
Preheat oven to 450 (I did NOT preheat my Dutch oven, but I did put a layer of rice in the bottom of my Dutch oven, to keep the bottom of the bread from browning too much.)
Remove dough from fridge and place dough upside down (which is now right side up) on parchment paper.
Score it.
Place dough on parchment paper into the cold Dutch oven, on top of the layer of rice.
One oven is preheated, cover and bake for 30 min with the lid on. After 30 min, take lid off and keep baking for another 25-30. I used a thermometer to check that the inside had reached 200 degrees F.
Take out of oven and cool.
That’s it.
I should also mention this recipe is for one loaf. I doubled it, which is why there are two loaves in the picture.
This is awesome! I did something similar by accident a couple years ago because I forgot about my dough and it made me rethink everything. Great job getting it down to the basics!
This seems a little TOO easy.. I’ll have to try it out 🤣. I swear sourdough can be so stressful, and pretty intimidating to people who are just starting out! Thanks for sharing this
did you use a cast iron or enamel coated d.o. because i would think the enamel might crack going from cold to hot
So I have a general knowledge that sourdough bread takes a lot of work. The fact that this is the “Easiest Method Ever” makes me scared to know what the normal method is. This sounds hard as hell! I’m happy you found this OP! ☺️
I had no idea you could use a hungry starter! 😱
What about high altitude? How do I adjust it?
do you know if there’s any specific reason to not add salt until later on?
You got a great rise! Do you think the crumb ends up different like this because the starter was hungry ?