- Add 100g flour and 100g water to sourdough starter to form the leaven. Leave until a spoonful of leaven floats in water (~12 hours).
- Put 200g leaven into a large bowl. Set aside the rest of the leaven to make more bread another day (feed it a little before putting it away). Add 300g water to the bowl, and stir until leaven mostly dissolves. Then add 500g flour. Mix to form a dry, shaggy dough. Let it sit for 30 minutes - 4 hours. This is the autolyse stage.
- Mix the remaining 50g water with the 2 tsp salt. Add to the dough. Let the dough sit for 30 minutes.
- Fold dough in half a few times. Then let it rest for half an hour. Repeat 5x.
- After the 5th time you fold the dough, let it rise until it's doubled in size (2-5h at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge).
- Heat oven to 450F.
- Put dough in a dutch oven over a sprinking of oats. Slice a slit in the top. Bake covered for 20 minutes.
- Bake uncovered for 20 minutes.
- Let cool to room temperature.
Notes
Dec 1 2021
- Had to leave leaven for about 2 days until it started floating (It had been inactive for months)
- Used 250g leaven (this was probably too much - the result tasted very yeasty), 130g + 25g water, 250g flour plus a few spoonfuls after the dough seemed too wet. It was still very sticky. Use less water next time
- Let rise for 2.5 hours. This was probably too long. Try 2 hours next time (preheating the oven ~1.5 hours in)
- Baked for 20m covered + 20m uncovered + and additional 5m uncovered
Nov 28 2021
- total disaster
- Left leaven for 12 hours after not feeding the starter in months. This was too short
- This time I used 250g leaven, 150g + 50g (in the next step) water, 250g flour, plus another sprinkle of flour since the dough seemed pretty wet. Maybe use 120g water next time.
- I let it rise for about 3 hours, and then another half hour while preheating the oven. It seems like this might have been a bit too long (I forgot to preheat the oven during the first 3 hours)
Making the Starter
Follow these instructions
Mix raisins with 2-3 tablespoons of water and an equal amount of flour to make a loose, wet dough. Keep the mixture warm. 12 hours later, bubbles should start to form. After 24 hours, the mixture should start to loosen. At that point, add 2-3 tablespoons more water and flour to the mixture, and after a few hours it should start producing bubbles faster.