Sourdough loaf

As adapted from Patrick Ryan’s recipe, with tips gleaned from Clever Carrot and Sour Dom

Ingredients

300g sourdough starter (see Tips)
500g strong white flour
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt
250ml luke warm water
Olive oil

Method

1. Whisk together the water, sourdough starter, a dash of olive oil and the sugar (but not the salt) together in a bowl, then mix in the flour.
2. Leave to rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes before kneading. This will make the dough easier to handle and shape.
3. Turn out onto a surface, add the salt, and then knead for 10 minutes or so.
4. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel or cling film and leave in a reasonably warm place to prove for about 3 hours.
5. It won’t rise as much as a loaf using conventional yeast, but it should increase in volume by at least half again. It is ready when it no longer looks dense.
6. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knock back. Shape into one cylindrical (30cm long) or two round loaves, pulling the dough up and towards the centre to form a seam. Sour Dom has some more detailed advice on shaping.
7. Flour your proving basket(s) generously, or line bowl(s) with a heavily floured cloth or tea towel, and place the dough inside, seam-side up.
8. Leave to prove for 2-3 hours, until it has increased in volume by 1½ to 2 times.
9. Preheat the oven to 230C/210C Fan/Gas 8. Fill a baking tray with water and place in the bottom of the oven to create steam. Also put a large baking tin or sheet into the oven to heat up, ready to cook your loaf/loaves on.
10. Turn out proved dough onto greaseproof paper. Using a thin sharp knife score two to four times on the top of each loaf, transfer onto the baking tray (with paper) and place in the oven.
11. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a good crust has formed and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Tips

• I used this BBC recipe for my starter, with advice from Sour Dom. I take 100g out of the fridge the night before and add 100g water and 100g flour. 
• You can check it is ready for use by dropping a teaspoon of it into a glass of water. It should float to the top; if it sinks, then it may need feeding more!
• We christened my starter  'Breaddie Mercury'!