The best thing I’ve ever done for myself

In the fall of 2023, I was in a weird slump. Life was just…fine. I started having a reoccurring dream in which I baked sourdough. Who knows where my subconscious got the idea, but when I found a basically new $2 copy of Tartine Bread at a yard sale, I decided I had to take the idea seriously. I made my own starter, read Chad Robertson’s bread journey and thorough instructions a million times, and taught myself how to sourdough. It was a revelation! I went hard in the beginning, determined to master it. I baked enough bread to be my apartment complex’s favorite neighbor. But at the end of the day, I live by myself. The big, earfull loaves are lovely, but quite impractical for a single gal with limited freezer space. And I missed sandwich bread haha. So I switched gears. I figured out how much I could eat before the bread went stale, adjusted my recipe to bake my lil loaf, and have not bought a bland as commercial bread in a year and a half! I bake about every 3 or 4 days. Learning how to make sourdough is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. Not just for the taste and simple magic of homemade sourdough, but also for the discipline and wholesome meditation of the process.

350g total flour, 75% hydration
– 60g whole wheat flour
– 290g Bread flour
– 266g + 20g Water
– 70g starter
– 8g salt
– 1 tbs butter

Mix starter and 266g water, pour into a well in the middle of the combined flours. Mix until it just starts to come together. Cover and let rest 30 minutes. Smear the top of the dough with a tblsp or so of butter, add salt and 20g water, on the first stretch and fold. Transfer to a straight sided plastic container with the silicone top from a microwave popcorn popper.

Stretch and folds every 30 minutes for the first two hours, then every hour until the end of (would be) bulk fermentation. I look for big bubbles and optimum jiggly-ness.

Turn on to the counter and pre shape. Dust with 50/50 rice/wheat flour, cover, and bench rest for 30 minutes. Flip the pancake and final shape with tight, sealed envelope fold (an envelope fold but I also pinch all the openings together like in the caddy clasp shaping, to minimize big holes in the final bake) place it into a parchment lined 5×5 loaf pan. Cover with plastic and overnight rest in the fridge.

Take the loaf out of the fridge while the oven preheats. Take off the plastic, dust again with 50/50 rice/wheat flour, and cover with a flour sack towel to let the top dry out a bit to make it easier to score. Into a preheated 500° Dutch oven, on top of cookie cutter so the bottom crust doesn’t get so hard, throw in two ice cubes, cover, and close the oven. Immediately turn the oven down to 450° and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 more minutes.

Bask in the smells and bread song 🙂