Bolted All Purpose Flour Sourdough Bread

Step 1

Combine all the ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix until well incorporated.

Step 2

Cover the bowl or straight-walled bucket and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. Then do four rounds of gluten development with half-hour rests in between.

Step 3

Let the dough continue to rise until it is 50-75% larger than its original size. Depending on the room temperature and your starter strength, the dough may need a total of about 4-8 hours for this bulk fermentation.

Step 4

My dough fermented three hours in my kitchen at ~75F, followed by 12 hours outside on a cool night in the low 60s and high 50s.

Step 5

Scrape your dough out onto a floured countertop and shape it into a boule, batard, or oblong loaf, depending on your proofing basket and baking vessel shape. I skipped the pre-shape and bench rest to avoid de-gassing the dough.

Step 6

Transfer the dough to a well-floured proofing basket and cover it.

Step 7

Let the dough proof about 20 minutes at room temperature (longer in a cold kitchen) and then refrigerate it for 6-12 hours. Or do the entire final proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours depending on your kitchen temperature. In either scenario, let the dough expand a bit and get puffy.

Step 8

Preheat your oven and baking vessel for 30 minutes at 500°F.

Step 9

Flip your dough out of the proofing basket onto parchment paper and score it.

Step 10

Transfer the dough to your baking vessel, cover, and bake for:

Step 11

20 minutes at 500F with the lid on

Step 12

20 minutes at 450F with the lid off

Step 13

When the bread is done, the internal temperature should be over 205°F and the bread should sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of the loaf with your fist.

Step 14

Let the bread cool at least 2 hours before slicing.