450g strong white bread flour
400g strong brown or wholemeal bread flour
18g salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
60g sourdough starter at 100% hydration
560g COLD water
Optional: Large hanful mixed seeds (linseeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds)
Mix all the ingredients together to form a sticky dough and then leave it to rest at a cool room temperature for 1 hour. This process is the autolyse.
Perform 3 sets of stretch and fold “kneading” at 20 minute intervals.
Prove at 30 C for 5 hours.
Divide the dough in two, shape and place in bannetons sprinkled with flour or poppy seeds, sprinkle flour on the top and leave in the fridge overnight.
Preheat the oven to 240 C and put a baking stone on the middle shelf.
Turn the dough out onto an oiled baking tray and cut a slash along the top to create the “ear”
Place a tray of water on the lower shelf of the oven and the baking tray / loaves on top of the baking stone.
Bake for 20 minutes before lowering the heat to 230 C, remove the tray of water and continue to bake for a further 20 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.
Creating the Sourdough Starter
40g of the flour you intend to bake with.
30g water.
Mix together in a jar and leave at warm room temperature for two days – loosely cover with the lid as air needs to get in.
After 2 days throw away 90% of the mix, add another 30g flour and 30g water and leave for 1 day – this process is called the “feed”
Repeat every day for 5 days.
At this point the starter should double in size within a couple of hours of adding the new flour and water. It is now at 100% hydration.
Maintaining the Sourdough Starter
From now on the starter can be kept in the fridge. Feed it once a week or after each baking session, keeping it at warm room temperature before putting it back in the fridge.
