Anne Bread / Sourdough
The Best Sourdough Ever
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Baking Parchment Paper
- Plastic wrap
- (optional) Baking/Pizza Stone
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 ¼ cups
Anne's Sourdough Starter - 3 ½ cups Flour
- 2 teaspoons Salt
- ¼ teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
- 1 ⅓ cups Water (Measurement is approximate. See notes on consistency)
Additional
- Flour to sprinkle on surface
- Water to brush on before baking
Instructions
Making the Dough
- Mix in a stand mixer with the dough hook, or in a large bowl with a spoon.
- Mix the Starter, Flour, Salt, and Yeast quickly to roughly combine.
- Slowly add water and mix until is forms a sticky, "shaggy" ball.
- There is no need to knead this bread, only get it mixed. This dough should be much firmer than normal bread dough, with just enough water in it to make it hold together but not enough to form a soft dough. It should be about the consistency of cold play-doh directly out of the can.
- Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 6- 12 hours (or overnight) to rise.If you are in the middle of rising the bread and something comes up that prevents you from finishing right away, you can stick the dough in the fridge. As long as you get back to it within a couple of days, the bread will turn out fine.
Forming the Loaves
- Sprinkle your work surface liberally with flour.
- Uncover the dough and push it down in the bowl to deflate it.
- Divide the dough roughly in half.
- Place 1/2 on the prepared work surface and flour the outside of the dough
- Form into a ball by gently tucking the dough toward the center bottom of the ball and pushing it together at the bottom, repeating until the ball of dough has a firm, tightly stretched top.
- Place the dough on parchment paper on a baking sheet.
- Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Cover the bread with plastic wrap and let sit 1-3 hours.
Baking the Bread
- Preheat the oven (with the pizza stone, if applicable) to 425 degrees
- Uncover the baking sheet.
- Immediately before baking, using your hand, brush the tops of the loaves of bread liberally with water, pouring off the excess – they should be very wet, and it's OK to have a little bit of water around them on the parchment paper.
- If you are using a pizza stone, transfer the loaves onto the hot pizza stone in the hot oven, parchment paper and allIf you are not using a pizza stone, simply place the baking sheet into the oven.
- Bake 30-35 minutes, rotating the loaves front to back after 20 minutes. Loaves should be a rich brown.
- You can eat hot right out of the oven, or cool on a wire rack. Bread will keep 4-5 days in a plastic bag on the counter.