Sourdough

Ingredients:

125 g active starter at peak
375 g warm water
500 g bread flour (plus more for dusting counter/bannaton)
15 g sea salt
Rice flour (to dust bannaton and top)

Directions:

Whisk starter and water. Add flour and salt and combine with a dough whisk or your hands.
Cover with damp towel and rest for 30 minutes.
Perform 4 sets of coil folds or stretch and folds over 2 hours.
Cover and let rise (room temp) 50-75% ~ 4-8 hours.
Shape dough depending on shape of bannaton.
Rest 30 minutes.
Dust bannaton with rice flour (or regular/bread flour). Shape dough again and place in bannaton.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours.
Preheat Dutch Oven at 550 for 15 minutes.
Invert dough onto a silpat bread mat or parchment paper.
Dust the top of the loaf with rice or bread flour and score the loaf.
Transfer to Dutch Oven and add about 2 ice cubes to create more steam inside the Dutch Oven (this will help get a beautiful rise).
Lower oven to 450.
Bake 30 minutes covered then lower oven to 400 and bake for 10-15 minutes more uncovered. (If your loaf gets too dark on the bottom, place a baking sheet on a rack under the Dutch Oven – this will depend on your oven and Dutch Oven).
Cool for at least 1 hour before cutting to ensure the protein structures are strong.

Notes:

Sourdough does not have to be difficult, I do not measure anything while feeding my starter and sometimes I forget a stretch and fold (or 2). This is a relatively high moisture sourdough which works well in my very hot and humid climate. Once you find what works for you, sourdough can be a super easy process that is honestly really forgiving, despite what people say online. Sourdough can seem daunting and a long process, but it really does not have much hands on time – almost the whole process is just letting it sit to do its thing. (You can also buy dehydrated starter online and make the starter process much quicker, easier, and possibly tastier results as it came from a well established starter with lots of flavor and fermentation!)