Makes 2 large round loaves
We use a food processor for bread, which makes it really quick and easy—although not quite as traditional or cathartic. For a more sour flavor, reduce starter to 1/2 cup and let the shaped dough rise longer.
½ teaspoon yeast
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
5 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
1 cup sourdough starter
Whisk yeast and sugar into 1 1/2 cups warm tap water. Let stand until it starts to foam, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, pulse flour, salt, and starter to combine in a food processor. Add yeast mixture and process until dough forms a single mass. If the dough won’t come together, add a little more water. If the dough is too wet, add a little more flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it until it forms a smooth, soft ball.
Place dough into a large lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel, and put in a warm place to rise. When it has doubled in size, punch dough down and form into 2 large, round loaves (or other desired shape). If baking bread on quarry tiles or pizza stone, transfer shaped dough to a cornmeal-coated baking peel. If not, transfer them to a large, rimmed cornmeal-coated baking sheet. Again, cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and allow it to rise until doubled in size.
When ready to bake, heat oven to 500 degrees. Slash a cross shape on the top of each loaf. Bake at 500 for 8 minutes, then turn the oven down to 475 and continue to bake until very brown, another 12 minutes.
Remove the bread from the oven, transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Can you offer a recipe for sourdough starter???
I can smell it from here. Thanks for the inspiration! And a ho-ho-ho merry chirstmas to three many cooks!
I’ve been baking bread with sourdough for awhile now, I love to try new recipes–nothing finer than bread fresh from the oven.
Hmm…I wonder how it taste like?
I recently bought some sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour, so I’ve been baking a lot of sourdough bread. I’ve been looking for some new recipes to try, though, so I’ll definitely be baking this ASAP! Looks fabulous 🙂
I took a little (unwanted) blog reading break, so I’m happy to finally catch up on all of the posts/recipes that I missed. I love the article attached to this recipe, and I especially love sourdough bread. I will make this… soon:).
I like the new look around here! Probably not new anymore, since it’s been a while!
This looks delicious and I can’t wait to make it. Only thing is, I don’t know how to slash the cross into the top without deflating the dough (which I learned the hard way). Do I need to use a new razor blade to do it?
A sourdough pizza is in the oven right now, about to wake up our senses with its aroma!
Starter recipe, please?
I would like the starter recipe also. I am so making this recipe, but Im not sure my starter is working correctly. Thanks
I would like to try your recipe but would like the starter recipe please. Thank you
Thanks for this recipe! Have been mucking around with LOTS of sourdough recipes lately and have had MANY failures! I split this amount into 2 loaves and they worked out very nicely. I thought perhaps the sugar you included helped or maybe its the proportions are just spot on! Thanks so much…
Cheers, Nicole from Canberra, Australia
I made your recipe tonight. Awesome! I had a hard time this winter trying to get the starter going. So I waited until it warmed up outside and tried again. After a conversation with my chiropractor I figured it out. Fed it for 3 weeks and ignored it… then found your recipe and made two beautiful loaves… hands down the absolute best sourdough bread I have ever had! Thank you for the recipe!
I spent most of the last year trying to get a starter started and then finding a recipe that did not take 2 days to make. We live in Texas so the temps vary from day to day and our house tends to be cold…as we keep the AC going during the summer and the heater off during the winter. I made this recipe last week and it was the #1 winner so far!!! In fact, it is the first recipe that I will repeat (today, actually) and will probably be my last experiment. The flavor was just enough sourdough but not too strong, the amount of time invested was perfect. As long as your starter is ready to go, you can easily start in the morning and have bread by dinner. The loaves looked beautiful, although the bottoms were a little too brown, so I will experiment with the temp and time this second go around. All of that varies with ovens so not a big deal. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It is now printed and in my bread binder as a winner!!!
Helloooo from sunny Scotland. This bread looks great and I will make it tomorrow. I have a question I hope you can answer. Would you happen to know the calorific value, especially the carbohydrates in this finished bread? grateful in advance. Senga.
So sorry, Senga, that I can’t supply you with that info, but there are apps that can help. I hope the recipe worked well for you.