Sourdough bread

• 3 hours to activate the sourdough starter • 1 day to leaven • Serves 4

Happiness is the smell of freshly made bread

There are many ways to make a loaf of sourdough bread.
So many methods and techniques, so much conflicting advice online, it's really quite overwhelming and put me off making sourdough for ages.

The truth is that with knowledge of the principle of yeasted bread making, and an understanding of how sourdough bread works, when you actually come to make a loaf you realize how simple it is and really how flexible the process is. In many ways it’s the trickiest bread to make and in many ways the simplest.

This is the recipe I use week in week out, in the way I do it to fit in with my lifestyle. No waste, no discard.
Making sourdough is a real learning experience, expect your first one not to turn out perfect and you’ll learn something every time you try again. Keep it up!
Have fun!

Here are ingredients for a 1 bread recipe:

125 g flour 0
125 g semolina flour
75 g fresh sourdough starter
10 g barley malt
175 ml water (better if sparkling)
5 g salt

1. The first thing to be done is to activate the sourdough. To prepare 75 g of fresh, active sourdough, you need 37 g of mature starter, 37 g of extra flour, 37 g of water. Mix the sourdough with water and flour until you obtain an homogeneous dough. Place it in a clean jar,  close it hermetically, and wait for it to mature for about 3 hours
2. Once the sourdough is active and full of bubbles, pour 100 ml of water into a large bowl. Mix in the fresh sourdough starter, and stir well until it melts in the water
3. Add 100 g of semolina flour and barley malt, and mix until uniformly moist. Knead and let it rest for 1 hour
4. Add 75 ml of water. Then, add the remaining semolina flour, and the flour 0, one spoon at the time. Knead for 15-20 minutes
5. Add salt to the dough. Knead again
6. Loosely cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 12 hours at room temperature
7. After this time has passed, take the dough, and generously dust the counter with flour. Fold the dough to create structure
8. After 20 minutes, repeat the folding. After other 20 minutes, repeat it again
9. Preheat oven to 250°C (or, better, as far as oven temperatures go)
10. Arrange the bread in a long shape, and cut it longitudinally with a sharp knife. Then, place it on the baking tray covered by baking paper
11. Bake the bread for about 10 minutes at 250°C. Then, for 30 minutes at 180°C, finally for 15 minutes at 150°C
12. Remove the bread from the oven and transfer it to a wooden cutting board. Serve and enjoy!

Nutrition Facts are detailed in the table below. Data is provided per serving.