BY CHERYL ORR

Just like fashion, food trends are cyclical. What goes around comes around.

The sourdough craze kicked off during covid and continues to be popular as many young people
discover the joys of bread baking. But I can remember long ago when kitchens were harvest
gold and Martha Stewart was a young ingenue espousing all things garden and home, that my
grandmother safely stored her sourdough starter as if it were made from diamonds and gold
rather than flour and water. Starter was passed down in families and nourished to sustain the
living bubbling mass of natural leavening that was integral to beautiful loaves of bread.

For a while, making bread at home fell out of favor for convenience, but with its resurgence has
emerged a few frustrated bakers. I have been getting requests for bread-making classes and
recipes. Bread making does take time, patience, and a good starter.

The starter I use was graciously given to me by Hunter Causey and has been in her family. If you
don’t have a source for starter, you can make your own from flour and water, which takes
several days to develop, or you can order some online from King Arthur Baking Company. Once
you maintain a healthy starter, you can begin baking a variety of sweet and savory breads.

The beautiful loaves of bread you see at boutique bakeries do take some practice to master,
but you can easily make a nice, crusty and flavorful loaf at home. This week, I have included my
recipe for Basic Beginner’s Sourdough Bread. A piece of equipment you do need for easier
preparation is a Dutch oven. If you don’t have one of your own or one to borrow, I’d suggest a
little more advanced recipe that involves several intervals of stretching and folding the dough in
between the first rest and the long fermentation process to maintain the loaf’s shape, as well as
spraying the dough with water before baking in the oven, and also providing steam by also
placing a pan of water in the oven to ensure a crispy crust.

Enjoy!

Basic Beginner’s Sourdough Bread

Basic Beginner’s Sourdough Bread

Makes one large loaf

INGREDIENTS 

• 1/3 cup active sourdough starter
• 1 1/3 cups warm water, at 110 degrees
• 3 2/3 cups bread flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast, just in case your starter is not fully active

PREPARATION

1. The night before baking your loaf of bread, in a large bowl combine all of the dry
   ingredients. In a liquid measuring cup combine the starter and water. Mix the starter
   and water mixture into the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, dough whisk, or your
   hands until a shaggy dough forms and all the flour is incorporated. For later bread
   making and once you are confident your starter is good you can omit the yeast, and
   increase the starter to 2/3 cup.
2. Cover the bowl with the dough with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for its first rise,
   or bulk fermentation, for 10-12 hours to double its size. Do not allow the dough to rise
   more than that time or past doubling in size. I do this overnight.
3. In the morning, or when the dough has doubled in size, scrape the dough out onto a
   clean counter or board. With barely dampened hands or a bench scraper stretch and
   drag the dough over itself a few times to form a nice large ball. The dough will be a little
   sticky. Place the round dough on a sheet of parchment that will fit in a 5 ½ or 6-quart
   Dutch oven and go up the sides. Cover the dough with the bowl used to ferment the
   dough overnight. Allow the dough to rise again, or proof, for 1-2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees, and heat the Dutch oven with an oven-proof lid in the
   oven for 30 minutes.
5. After the second rise, remove the bowl that covers the dough on the parchment paper.
   With a very sharp knife or blade, make a few shallow cuts across the top of dough. A
   more advanced recipe is required to make intricate designs on your loaf. Carefully
   remove the very hot pan and lid from the oven, and place the parchment with the dough
   into the hot Dutch oven and carefully cover the pot with its lid. Return the pot to the
   oven. REDUCE THE OVEN TEMPERATURE to 400 degrees and bake for 20 minutes.
   Carefully remove the hot lid and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes, depending on
   your oven’s calibration. The internal temperature of the loaf should be 205 degrees, and
   the crust should be golden and crisp. Cool the baked loaf on a rack at least 1-2 hours
   before cutting.

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If you have a cooking question, contact me at cher.orr@gmail.com and I’d be happy to assist! Cheryl Orr is offering weekly Canapé Club at the Patisserie at Edenton Bay. She is currently completing her cookbook, and offering private cooking classes, small catering, and private chef dinners.