Makes 2 loaves
Building your dough
Into a large bowl or bucket add:
590g water
270g leaven
Make sure at this point your leaven is floating on top of your liquid. Then add
900g flour
Stir this all together to combine, making sure there is no liquid or flour left on the bottom of the bucket.
You will let this mixture sit on the counter (covered) for 30mins to 3 hours total. This is the time it will ferment the most, breaking down the proteins in the gluten.
Within this time frame, you will Add salt, and do a series of stretches + folds.
At the 30-40min mark, add 20g salt
I like to put a bit of water in the dish to dissolve the salt before adding it. Pour in and incorporate evenly into your dough.
Counter ferment/stretch and folding:
Leave your bucket on the counter for approx 45 mins and then stretch and fold your dough a few times. Leave another 45 mins and do this again.
I will note that this timeframe is very loose. It’s important to keep an on your dough, rather than the clock. You can leave it for an hour if you’d like and you can do more than two rounds of your folding.
At this point, put your bucket in the fridge. I like to leave mine in there overnight.
Shaping your loaves:
Bring the dough back to room temp before working with it. Divide the dough into two 870g (ish) loaves. At this time you will do your folding and tension building in the dough. You will do two rounds of this letting it rest on the counter for ten minutes in between.
Proofing:
Now into the bannetons (or bowls) they go! Let them proof on the counter until you can poke your finger into the loaves and they don’t spring back up (usually about 1.5 – 3 hours depending how warm your house is). Once it is finished proofing you can technically bake it but I like to bake from cold so I usually put it back in the fridge at this time.
Baking:
Preheat your cast iron dutch oven IN your oven at 500F for at least a half hour. Place your loaves on parchment paper, score them, and slide them into the dutch oven (don’t remove the dutch from the actual oven if you can help it – you need it to be hot hot hot). Reduce temp to 450F, bake for 20 mins with the cover on. Remove the lid, reduce temp to 425F and bake another 15 mins (this second part can vary depending on how dark you want your crust).
Let your loaves cool for 30 mins before cutting, if you can help it!!
**recipe adapted from Sourdough Schoolhouse, Pain au Belle Recipe***
