Simple Sourdough Bread

Earlier this week I was driving to the nearest town and somewhere along the drive the green grass started to disappear and lawns were suddenly blanketed in snow! It may be an unpopular opinion but I get so excited by the changing seasons and I am particularly looking forward to seeing winter on our new homestead. 

With frosty season making it’s way here that means that soup season has also begun! Nothing can warm a person up from a hard day of working out in the cold like having a pot of soup on the stove can. I plan to make plenty of soups and stew this winter over our wood burning stove. 

But what is soup without good bread? Bread, by far, is the vessel of choice for our soup eating. It’s almost preferred over spoons. There is nothing you can compare to the magic of spreading butter across a warm loaf of bread and dipping it into soup broth. 

It just makes everything better.

If you have not jumped onto the sourdough bandwagon, I strongly urge you to. Sourdough is simply the healthier option when it comes to bread. It has many, many benefits for digestion and gut health but it also adds this amazing flavour to baked goods that just cannot be replicated anywhere else. 

Something I love about baking with sourdough is that it just immediately simplifies the recipe. Sourdough recipes typically require much less ingredients than their yeast based counterparts. 

For my basic sourdough loaf of bread, I only need 4 ingredients. 

• Marilla, my affectionately named Sourdough Starter.
• Flour
• Water
• Salt

No yeast, no sugar, no baking soda or other ingredients that you often see in other sandwich types of breads. In my opinion, the less it requires to make, the more sustainable it is.

To begin, add in a 1/2 cup of sourdough starter with 1 ½ cups of warm water. Mix them together with a fork and let stand for 5-10 minutes. This will give you time to replenish and feed your starter, should you need to.

After the sitting time, add in 4 cups of flour and a pinch of salt. 

Finish combining the dough together with your hands. The dough will feel tacky and sticky. This is more of a wet style dough so this is completely normal. I like to keep a small bowl of water to dip my fingers in while kneading. This will prevent the dough from sticking to your hands too much.

When the hour is up, it is time to knead the bread. Knead it directly in the bowl by folding the edges into the middle of the dough and pushing down. You will start to feel the tension building up. Continue this process for another minute. Cover with your towel and let your dough rest for 8 to 12 hours.

When the rising time has finished and your dough has doubled in size, gently coax it out of the bowl onto a well-floured surface. Cover once again and let it rest for 10 minutes. Now, gently begin to form your loaf of bread by folding over the edges, as you did while kneading. Place the loaf onto a floured tea towel and place into your proofing basket. 

Allow your sourdough to proof on your counter for up to an hour or in the fridge until you are ready to bake. I allow mine to proof in the fridge for 4-5 hours. This makes the dough easier to score in the next step. 

Preheat your oven to 450F. While the oven is preheating, bring your sourdough bread out of the fridge and place it onto a sheet of parchment paper. Score your bread using a razor blade or knife. Some people get very creative with their scoring patterns. Most of the time, I just keep it simple.

Place your loaf of bread and the parchment paper into your cast iron dutch oven and into the oven. 

Bake with the lid on for 20 minutes. 

Remove the lid from your dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes. 

When the 30 minutes has finished, remove your bread entirely from the dutch oven and place directly onto the baking rack. Bake for up to 10 additional minutes while keeping a close eye on your loaf of bread. 

This final step is to give the bread a beautiful toasted crust. Your loaf may need less than 10 minutes, I find the 5 to 10 minute range safe when it comes to toasting the crust. 

Remove your loaf from the oven and allow for it to cool completely before slicing. 

How did your bread turn out? Let me know below in the comments!

Pssssst! Have you grown your own sourdough starter yet?

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Other Sourdough Recipes You May Enjoy:

• Sourdough Apple Tarts
• Flakey Sourdough Pie Crust
• Sourdough Discard Banana Bread