The Master Recipe
A simple sourdough loaf with an overnight rise and a morning fridge rest.
Based on Elaine Boddy’s The Sourdough Whisperer.
Ingredients
- 50g active sourdough starter
- 350g water
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 7g salt (or to taste)
- rice flour for the basket
Recipe
- [late afternoon, around 4–5pm] mix the starter, water, flour and salt into a rough dough with no dry flour left; cover and rest for about 1 hour
- [evening] stretch and fold the dough around the bowl until it comes together into a ball; cover again
- [evening] repeat the folds 3 more times, roughly 30–60 minutes apart, with the last set before bed
- [overnight] leave covered on the counter for 8–10 hours at 18–20°C
- [morning] once the dough has roughly doubled and looks firm and slightly domed, fold it into a taut ball; place smooth side down in a rice-floured banneton, cover and refrigerate for 3–24 hours
- [baking] turn the dough onto parchment in a lidded pan and score about 1cm deep; bake covered at 220°C convection / 230°C conventional for 50 minutes in a preheated oven, or 55 minutes starting from a cold oven
- if the loaf is pale, bake uncovered for a few more minutes; cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing
Tips
- in a cooler kitchen, let the dough rise longer; in a warmer kitchen, check it sooner
- a bowl lined with a rice-floured cloth works if you don’t have a banneton