Simple Sourdough

• 250g water
• 150g sourdough starter
• 25g olive oil
• 500g bread flour
• 10g sea salt

• Dutch oven
• Parchment paper
• Large mixing bowl
• Something to cover the bowl with (i.e. a lid or plastic wrap)

1. Mix the water, starter, and olive oil together. The starter should more or less dissolve into the water.
2. Mix the flour and salt into the water mixture. I use a large fork. It will look kind of dry. Just try and get as much of the loose flour mixed in as you can.
3. Cover the mixture and let it sit (or “autolyse”) for around an hour.
4. Knead the dough until it’s uniform in texture. It will be a little wet and sticky at this stage.
5. If you don’t want to make the bread right away, put it in a sealed container and put it in the fridge.
6. Let the bread rise for a while. Usually I’ll let it rise for about 6 hours, but sometimes I’ve left it overnight.
7. Lightly flour a sheet of parchment paper, and get the dough out of your bowl and onto the parchement. Cover it (I usually just flip over the bowl I was using) and let it rest for a while (30-60 minutes). While it’s resting, preheat the oven to 450° F.
8. Pick up the parchment paper, put it in your dutch oven, put the lid on the dutch oven, and put the dutch oven in the oven.
9. After 20 minutes, remove the dutch oven lid and lower the oven temperature to 400° F.
10. After 40 minutes, remove the dutch oven. Carefully remove the bread from the dutch oven and transfer it to a wire cooling rack.
11. Let the bread cool for around 60 minutes.

If you put your bread in the fridge after step 5, when you take it out I recommend kneading it a bit before letting it rise. Because the dough is very cold after being in the fridge, it’ll take longer to rise. Keeping the dough in in the fridge will also enhance the “sour” flavor.