Beginners Bread Baking Recipe- Autolyse Method

 

Sourdough baking: Le bread

Sourdough bread is known for its delicious taste and healthier attributes compared to store-bought bread has a few essential elements that contribute to its iconic status. The equipment required to bake this bread is non-negotiable, with a Dutch oven being a key tool in the process. Of course, the heart of sourdough bread lies in the sourdough starter, a crucial rising agent that forms the wild yeast we have in sourdough. For those new to the world of sourdough baking, I'll be sharing a beginner-friendly recipe and a comprehensive list of all the necessary equipment to help you start your sourdough journey!

Equipment needed:

I recommend my sourdough baking set that includes bannetons, a bread lame, and a dough scraper. -

An enamel Dutch oven for baking

A scale 

Mixing bowl 

Thermometer 

Ingredients:

Mature sourdough starter

700 g Bread flour 

300 g high protein flour, you can use whole wheat or rye. I use a combination of half wheat and half rye.

15 grams of salt

Dusting flour like corn flour, rice flour, or semolina flour. 

I’ve found that the best sourdough bread recipes use a process called autolyse, where you mix the flour you're baking with water and let it develop gluten before you bake with it.

Here’s a basic sourdough recipe:

Step 1: The morning before 

feed your starter and let it rise.

Mix 20 g of starter in a clean jar with 100 grams of room-temperature water and 100 g of white flour until you have a paste texture. Warmth accelerates your starter so you’ll cover that container and let it sit in a warm place for 8-12 hours or until it has doubled. You can repeat this process once more for a more flavorful bread, but it's not necessary. I like to feed my starter the night before I want to use it so I can have it ready to use in the morning. 

Step 2: Start the autolyse process and get your dough ready.

The autolyse process is when you mix flour and water and wait for gluten to develop. 

It doesn't take long so you can do this while your starter is developing on day one or before you use it on day two. Autolyse just needs at least 30 minutes to be effective. 

You’ll take your 700 g of bread flour and mix it with 300 g of your protein flour (wheat, rye, etc…)  in a large bowl. The total should be 1000 grams which will make 2 loaves. You’ll hydrate this flour at 75% hydration, so we're adding in our 750 g of lukewarm water. Now you’ll mix that with your dough scraper or a wooden spoon. I don't like using my hands unless they’re very wet due to the stickiness. You’ll use all the flour and make sure there aren't any dry spots so it remains at 75% hydration. If you’re doing this the night before, cover it with a very damp towel and set it somewhere like in a microwave or your oven. 

If you’re doing this step the next morning, cover it with a damp towel and wait an hour. The longer you wait the more gluten will bond to each other and save you time down the road. 

After you’ve waited, you'll add in your starter and combine it with the autolyse with your hand. You’ll be combining about 200 g of your ripe starter. 

Make sure your starter is completely incorporated and combined with the dough, this might take a while and you might use your hands to help the process. I like to use a pinching and dragging method where I fold everything into the middle. 

Now you'll add in your salt, depending on how much you feel comfortable using you can add 10g to 20g of salt, I like a conservative 15 g, after adding the salt you’ll add 20 g of water and continue to incorporate everything together until thoroughly combined.

Use a wet hand to mix the dough.

 

You’re going to use a very popular method called stretch and fold where you grab a handful of your dough and stretch it upwards until you feel some resistance, then you’ll fold it back towards the middle, then rotate your bowl 90 degrees and repeat the stretch and fold process. Do this for 10 minutes until you can take some of the down and stretch it out enough to see through in the light, without your dough breaking. 

This is called the windowpane test and it just tells us that there’s enough gluten to help it hold its shape when we bake and not look like a UFO. I'd know because I’ve made plenty of UFOs. 

Now it's time to let the dough rise or go through bulk fermentation. Bulk fermentation happens after the starter is added to the dough, you’ll place your dough in a warm place and let it rise for at least an hour, or until it rises noticeably. We will have several sessions of bulk fermentation but are going to repeat a gentler stretch and fold process in between to avoid releasing any gas bubbles in the dough. 

You’ll get your hand wet and do 4 gentle stretches and fold while rotating the bowl 90 degrees. After doing this you’ll cover your bowl with a damp towel again and wait about an hour, and you’ll repeat this process two more times. You’ll notice the dough will have almost doubled in size and developed a lot of air bubbles on the smooth surface. Now you’ll shape the dough, you want a smooth surface so you can use a bread lame to make slits into the bread so it releases air and rises strategically. Before you shape the dough add your dusting powder to your Banneton. I used a mixture of bread flour and corn flour in a little jar with holes on the top to sprinkle with. 

I like to shape the dough by just using my hands bringing all the sides into the middle and putting it directly into a shaping basket. Let rest covered for one to two hours. After one to two hours you’ll test the dough by touching it with a floured finger. If the dough springs back slowly it's ready, if not you can just check back every 30 minutes. Your dough will be ready to refrigerate. After this long process, you’ll be happy to know you can refrigerate the dough for up to two days or freeze it for a month. The longer it spends in the fridge the tangier it will be.

I like to bake bread in the morning so my home smells fresh when we all wake up. 

When you are ready to bake, put your Dutch oven without the lid inside your oven and preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Meanwhile, move the dough to your baking sheet or parchment paper,  then dust the bread with your dusting flour mix. Now you can bring in your bread lame and slash your dough about ¼ in deep, here are sourdough slashes you can copy:

After your Dutch ovens are ready carefully and with the right gear, take them out of the oven and set them on top of your stove. You can now move your dough with your baking sheet or parchment paper.  Another method I like to use is dusting my bread while it's in the shaping basket, and when my Dutch ovens are ready I sprinkle more flour mixture inside the hot Dutch oven and plop my dough in there, when it's ready I can just take it out with big tongs or a spatula.

Bake your dough covered for 25 minutes, then carefully remove the lid and bake for another 30 minutes or until deeply browned. This helps it with our crusty outer shell that we love on sourdough, and traps steam in the beginning which fully bakes the bread. Wait at least 3 hours before cutting and serving so the bread is completely cool.

Store your bread in a bread box so it can last several days.