#corneliusthesourdough

Our beloved Cornelius made the front page!!! “Over the past few weeks you may have noticed the dramatic rise of a very old baking tradition steeped in culture.

This recipe is very similar to the master recipe on foodbodsourdough.com, but with some added helpful tips from my gracious Mother, who has been my sourdough guide through this entire journey. I have had nothing but success with this process, but I am in no way an expert. I recommend checking out other recipes and resources for more inspiration and guidance!

Total time is about 24 hours (or longer depending on how long you cold-ferment) from start to finish but requires very little time hands-on. Makes one big loaf.

When starter is at its most active, weigh 50g starter into a bowl and add 350g water. Mix them with hands until starter is mostly dissolved.

In another larger bowl, weigh 500g unbleached flour and 11g salt. Combine well.

Pour the liquid starter into the flour and fold/smush together in the bowl until all the flour is mostly combined. The dough will be ragged (shaggy) and a bit wet. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, a plastic bag, or shower cap. Let sit for about an hour.

After an hour, and while still working in the bowl, go ahead and do a fair amount of stretch-and-folds (I haven’t counted, but something like 20-30). You don’t need to get it super tight, just until you’ve got a smooth-ish ball of dough. For the next 2-4 hours, come back to your dough every 30-60 minutes and do a few stretch-and-folds. After the first round, you will only need to do a few stretch-and-folds each time (I do about 4-6 per round). There’s no golden rule for time in between or amount of folds, but the more the merrier! Cover and leave on counter between rounds.

Now your dough is ready to be covered again and bulk-ferment. At room temperature, this takes about 8-12 hours. Warmer goes faster, colder goes slower. I usually put it somewhere colder overnight and then bring it to room-temp or warmer at the end. You’re looking for your dough to at least double in size and be nice and jiggly. Its fun to ferment in a glass bowl to see the bubbles!

I test it by poking a hole with a wet finger and looking for it to spring back at least halfway, leaving just a little divot. If you made a double recipe, you should divide your dough into loaves after this fermentation.

Now you do a final round of stretch and folds, either in the bowl or on the counter is fine. You don’t want to overwork the dough at this point in order to preserve the air pockets and bounciness. After that round, I plop it on the counter to develop the skin. You can either dust the counter with flour or wet it. Both prevent sticking, but I find that a little bit of stickiness helps push the dough together, so don’t keep adding flour. I find my scraper works great for this process by pushing under the edge of the dough towards the center while turning it gently against my hand. You can also just use your hands, which may work better in a bowl. You’re trying to stretch the top of the dough outwards and down to get a tight skin and a more spherical shape. Basically, the goal is to create tension in the dough for it to rise into. If bubbles form near the surface, just gently pinch them. I do this skin-tightening until it’s a great little bouncy ball, then let it sit for 20-60 minutes, then repeat once more. I’m sure you could get away with just one round though.  Now your dough is ready to go in its proofing basket (banneton)! Lift it gently and place it in the rice-floured banneton/basket with the nice skin facing down, lumpy bottom facing up. You can dust with some more rice flour to make sure nothing sticks. Cover and pop it in the fridge.

If you want to roll your dough in seeds, do this before it goes in the banneton. (Wet the top of the dough and roll in seeds before placing seed-side down.)

This part is the final proof or cold-ferment, where the dough develops its signature flavour and stability. I’ve heard minimum is 3 hours, but I usually aim for 10 hours. If I’m not super confident in my dough, I let it sit for closer to 24 hours in order to develop more stability. You’re ready to bake! A good trick to keep the bottom of the dough from burning is to preheat the oven to 500˚F and reduce it to 450˚F when the dough goes in. This is so the bottom element of the oven won’t come on for a long time. I also pop a baking pan on the rack below to protect it from direct heat.

I preheat the roasting pan as well, but many bakers don’t. Enamel pans heat up and cool down very quickly, so it doesn’t make as much of a difference as with cast-iron.

From your banneton, place a sheet of parchment paper overtop and then a cutting board or plate. Flip the whole thing over so your dough is right-side-up, on the parchment paper. Another dusting of flour (can be wheat flour) will make your score-patterns stand out more for purely aesthetic reasons.

Now you need to score your dough to allow it to open up and expand! Don’t be shy and cut deep, at least ¼ inch. You’ll want to do at least one big score that is surprisingly deep so it has lots of space to grow. My personal favourite is three big scores towards the middle, but I’m getting bolder with more intricate patterns now. After the big scores, feel free to get creative with designs such as leaves (which are just tiny little scores). Look up examples of patterns!

Now, without burning your knuckles, lift the parchment paper and drop it in the roaster. I like to pop a couple ice cubes between the parchment and the roaster to keep it moist. Lid (or tinfoil tent) on, and in the oven she goes!

Now for the hardest part… No peaking!!! You want to maintain moisture and even temperature. You do get to open the oven once, after 30-35 minutes, to take the lid off and let it brown. Once the lid is off, it should take about 25-30 minutes to finish baking. If you have a proper thermometer, the internal temperature should be 205-210˚F, but I have never had to bake it longer.

Carefully lift the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack, then slide the paper out from underneath.

Okay I lied. This my be the hardest part! Do not slice too early! Seriously, it will likely be gluey and sad. I would say wait for absolutely a minimum of 2 hours, but I usually leave it overnight. Once it has cooled a bit, wrap in a clean tea-towel and let it finish cooling all the way. To store bread, I keep mine on a cutting board under a glass bowl for the sole purpose of displaying it to myself. After a few days of this I put it in a bread-bag before it gets too dry.