Sourdough Boule

You need to make sure your sourdough starter is bubbly and ready to go. It should be bubbly enough to float easily in water. if it has not been fed recently then feed it with flour and water and let it ferment for 4 – 8 hours. Click here for more info on feeding your sourdough starter.

A few hours before bedtime (2 ½ to 3 hours) or early in the morning, add the bubbly sourdough starter and warm water to a large bowl. Mix them together with a whisk until well combined.

Add the flour, wheat gluten, and salt and combine together with a stiff spoon or spatula. You can also use your hands to get the flour fully incorporated. The dough will look a little scraggly, feel dense, and stick to your fingers. Try and scrape off as much dough from your hands as possible but don’t over mix it at this point. Then cover the bowl for 30 minutes.

Using your wet hands pull the dough from under the dough ball up and stretch it gently as you pull it over the dough ball top. Release. Repeat this process as you give the bowl quarter turns until the dough is stretched and pulled from each quarter of the bowl.

Over the next 2 1/2 hours, repeat the stretch and fold every 30 minutes for a total of five times.

Place the dough back in the bowl and cover it. Let it rise overnight for 8-10 hours at room temperature. The next morning, the dough will have risen in the bowl and look much puffier than it did the night before, and it should be a bit jiggly.

After the bread has risen, use your spatula and gently pull the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface.

Start at the top and fold the dough over to the center, repeating on all sides. This is to form the seam at the bottom of the loaf and build up tension in the skin of the bread.

Flip the dough over and let it rest for 5-10 minutes seam-side down. This will relax the gluten in the dough and make it easier to shape.

Use a spatula or dough scraper to slide the dough across your counter in a circular pattern a few times. This should seal up the seam on the bottom and stretch the skin of the dough tight, as well as forming it into a more round shape.

Place the dough seam-side up in a floured cloth-lined bowl or banneton. Cover it with a cloth or towel and let it rise for 30-60 minutes or so, until the dough only springs back about half way when gently poked.

Refrigerate the dough in its bowl/banneton for at least 30 minutes, or up to several hours. Cooling off the dough will make it hold its shape better and rise better in the oven.

Once the bread has risen, preheat your oven to 450° F with a dutch oven in it (for about 20-25 minutes). If you don’t have a dutch oven, you can bake this bread with the same process as my sourdough loaf.

Using a razor blade or sharp knife, make one or more slashes in the top of the bread ¼ to ½ inch deep. This will let the bread expand more easily as it bakes. You can be creative with scoring patterns and see how they turn out after baking!

Bake the bread for 25 minutes, remove the dutch oven lid, and bake for 15 more minutes or until the surface of the bread is a golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when thumped.

Remove the bread and let it cool for at least an hour before cutting into it.