Oh hell yeah. Everybody likes sourdough bread. Well, a lot of people do. Some people anyway. I personally love it. There’s nothing better than a slice of home-baked sourdough bread. I like to toast it and slather it with honey and butter, but you do you.

Note: Begin this process about 4 days before you want to have bread. The starter needs to be woken up about 48-72 hours before you make the dough. The recipe itself will take about 24 hours, with multiple knead-rest cycles and an overnight trip to the fridge. Plan ahead!

If you don’t have a sourdough starter, it takes about a week to make one.

Your patience will be rewarded.

Ingredients

• 1 cup active Sourdough Starter
• 1.5 cups water, room temperature
• 3.5 cups bread flour. Note: if you can afford it, get the actual Bread Flour. It has a different gluten content and whatnot than all-purpose flour. But you absolutely can use all-purpose flour.
• 2 teaspoons sea salt

Process

The process below describes using hand tools. You can use a stand mixer if you prefer, but you’ll want to finish kneading by hand.

1. Whisk together the water and the starter.
2. Add the salt and whisk again. Remove the whisk and switch to a wooden spoon.
3. Add the flour, half a cup at a time. Stir with a wooden spoon.
4. Once the flour is incorporated, your dough will be shaggy. Cover it with a damp towel and let it rise for an hour.
5. After one hour: sprinkle a little sea salt on the dough, then ‘stretch and fold’ it. Pull one side of the dough out and gently stretch it, being careful not to tear it; then, fold it back over the dough. Rotate the dough 90 degrees, then stretch-and-fold. Rotate 90 degrees, stretch-and-fold. Do this a few times.
6. Cover the dough back up and wait 1 hour.
7. Repeat steps 5-6 at least two more times. This helps to activate the gluten and give the bread a nice texture.
8. Plop the dough down onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Stretch it into a rectangle, then fold it into thirds. This should roughly make a ball of dough.
9. Place your hands around the bottom of the dough-ball, making sure you’re touching the dough, and move your hands in a circular motion. This will roll the dough ball around. Do this until the dough ball has a nice shape.
10. Pinch the seams together and place the dough smooth-side down into a well-floured tea towel. You can put the towel-wrapped dough ball into a vessel if you like. Cover with another towel and place in the fridge for at least 12 hours. You can go longer if you like.
11. FINALLY we get to bake! Preheat a dutch oven or a cast-iron skillet in an oven to 450 degrees. Place a cookie sheet on the rack below the dutch oven or skillet.
12. When the oven is ready, turn the dough out onto a floured piece of parchment paper, and score it.
13. Place the dough into the dutch oven or skillet and return to the oven. Add some water to the cookie sheet. It will make steam. This is good.
    
    If using a dutch oven, bake 30 minutes with the lid on and 20 with the lid off. If using a skillet, tent foil over the dough for the first 30 minutes of the bake.
    
14. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 1 hour before you slice into it.
15. Enjoy!