Sourdough bread - Recipe and bread

Описание: This is a nice easy sourdough bread to get started with. Measurements are simple and the overall hydration is low which makes it an easy bread to handle. This can’t be rushed and when working with wild yeast it is easily affected by variations in temperature, hydration, salt content, levain etc.

As it is a basic hand mix and for the beginner sourdough maker, I have kept the hydration fairly low. I use oil on my hands throughout as this helps working the dough but normally I would use water.You start this process in the morning and it is only shaped in the afternoon. The dough is then placed in the fridge overnight and baked the next morning.The times below are a good indication of what is involved. It will speed up or slow down depending on how warm or cold your house/kitchen is.
7:00am In a large bowl, mix flour and water together, enough so that there is no dry flour remaining. This is called autolyse stage, very important step as it helps gluten development. Cover the bowl and leave for 1 hour. It will be quite tacky and wet.
8:00am Add levain and mix well. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes
8:10am Add fine salt and mix well. Transfer to an oiled bowl
8:30am, 8:40am, 9:00am, 10:00am & 11:30am Stretch and rotate the dough for approximately 1 minute, shape into a ball, place in bowl. Cover and leave at room temperature.
1:30pm Laminate the dough. Place in oiled container ready to coil fold
2:00pm, 2:30pm & 3:00pm Coil fold. This will continue to build up your dough strength.
3:30pm Divide your dough into two equal sizes and shape into balls. You can use a scale or you can eyeball it. Cover them with bowls on your work bench and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
4:00pm Dust bannetons with semolina and flour mix. Shape dough once more into balls and place seam side up in baskets. Place in a bag and leave at room temperature for approx. 1-2 hours until almost doubled in size. Either place in fridge now and bake in the morning or go to next step
6:00pm Preheat oven to 260c with Dutch oven inside. Upturn one loaf onto parchment paper and with a sharp blade slash the top of the loaf. Put the loaf in the pot and into oven for 45 minutes and drop temperature to 220c.
After 45 minutes take off the lid.
Give it 5 more minutes for more colour.