Easy Sourdough Boule Recipe
This last New Years Eve, my middle school aged daughter told me one goal for her this year is to learn how to bake. One thing that came out of this goal was this easy sourdough boule recipe. Before you get all excited, this recipe took me about 5 try’s before I nailed it. It just takes a little practice and experience to make an amazing artisan bread but it is very doable if you just stick with it a few times. I’ll walk you through my experience and process below.
This article is written for beginners so I give the directions in volume rather than weight. It’s how I do it and it works just fine. This recipe is actually pretty forgiving and it will make two 1.5 pound loaves of sourdough bread. One loaf is shown above in a cast iron pan to give you an idea of the scale of the loaves.
Timeline for Baking
Sourdough bread takes some time to make. It’s partly because the yeast in sourdough acts slower than commercial quick rising yeast. It is also due to the fact that we let it rise the second time in the fridge overnight to develop a richer flavor. Let start with a timeline so you can plan out your baking. This is also a good guide for the recipe. I’ll put details on each step below.
- 8AM Day 1 – Feed your levain
- 8AM Day 2 – Feed your levain
- 3PM Day 2 – Make the Autolyse
- 3:30ish Day 2 – Mix the Dough
- 4:30-5:30 Day 2 – Stretch and fold the dough (3 times, half hour apart)
- 8:30Pm Day 2 – Shape the loaves and refrigerate
- 8AM Day 3 – Bake
For example, if you feed your Levain (starter) on Friday morning, you can bake Sunday morning.
Your Levain
First, you need a levain. The correct way to think of your levain is a home for all your sourdough yeast. It’s a living organism that you have to feed once per week. This may sound like a lot, but it takes me about 90 seconds to feed it and it really isn’t just that much work. I have found that we cook with it quite a bit so it is fed much more often than this.
Sourdough yeast is a wild yeast that grows on wheat. It is different than the fast-rising yeast you buy at the store. It has much more flavor and the rise is significantly slower. If you smell your levain, you will notice a distinctly fresh and sour smell.
To Feed Your Levain (Sourdough Starter)
Feeding a levain just takes a couple of minutes. Here are the ingredients you need to prepare:
- 3/4 cup 90-95 degree water
- 1/4 cup wheat flour
- 1 cup white flour
Take your existing levan and scoop out between 3 tablespoons to a quarter cup and set it aside. If you do a quarter cup, the levain will be slightly sourer. It’s up to you to figure out what you like. The important thing is that you are bringing the yeast culture to a new container. Discard the rest of your levain. You can throw it away, or use it in a discard recipe (listed below the article for reference.) If you don’t have a levain, ask a neighbor or a baker for a quarter cup to start your own.
In a container just slightly bigger than a quart, add the scooped out or borrowed levain and mix with the water. Stir to break up the levain. It will just about dissolve in the water. Then, add the wheat flour and white flour. Mix well and let sit on the counter for 7 to 8 hours, until the volume doubles or triples. At this point, you can put it in the fridge for up to a week.
Autolyse
In plain English, all an autolyse does is mix the flour and water together to let it sit for a time until it is fully hydrated before introducing the other ingredients. The reason for this is it makes the dough easier to work with and creates a more consistent bread. The water activates the enzymes in the flour which does two things. It starts developing gluten before any kneading or stretching, and the enzymes also start breaking down the starches into simple sugars that the yeast will feed on.
To Make Your Autolyse
Using a large tub or proofing bowl, mix the following by hand so that all the flour is incorporated.
- 5 3/4 cups white flour
- A strong 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (add about an extra tsp)
- 2 3/4 cups warm water (90-95 degrees)
Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for half an hour.
Mix the Dough
This is the step that makes the final dough and begins the bulk (first) ferment.
How To Mix The Dough
- 1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Fine Salt
- 1/2 tsp Instant Dried Yeast
- 1 1/3 cups Levain*
*This amount of levain, will reduce your starter to slightly more than the 1/4 cup required to feed again. This is a great time to feed your starter again and will be good for a week.
Sprinkle the yeast and salt over the autolyse. Add the Levain.
Using your hands, fold and pinch the dough together through your fingers so that the dough is fully combined. To give you an example of the fold and pinch method, take one end of your dough and fold it over the top. Then, with your pointer finger and thumb, grab one end and squeeze until the dough squeezes out both sides of your fingers.
Move down and inch and continue until you reach the other end. Then, you can fold and repeat.
Do just enough so that the dough is fully mixed. Do not do more than needed to do that. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to avoid drying out a film on the dough.
The dough will be quite sticky and wet. This is normal. As it ferments, it will firm up and become more “doughy.”
Cover and let sit for a five-hour bulk ferment. However, the dough needs to be stretched and folded three times. It works really well to wait for an hour before attempting this (because of the stickiness of the dough, and the time required for the fermentation to develop the dough. As I instructed above, make the dough at 3:30 so the first stretch and fold would be at 4:30. Then do two more with a half hour of time between them. There is no need to knead or do any more work on the dough during this ferment. This will help create a light and bubbly dough.
Stretch and Fold the Dough
A stretch helps to align the strands of gluten in the dough. It also agitates the dough and gives fresh food for the yeast.
How to Stretch and Fold
For every single fold, wet hands your with warm water. Reach down and scrape up about 1/3 of the dough and pull it out to its own point of resistance being careful not to tear the gluten.
Then fold it over. Do this 4 to 5 times.
When done, invert it to put the seam that is created down. By turning the seam down, it will hold its form better and create more tension. Wait for half an hour and repeat. Do a total of three stretch and folds.
Shape the Dough
Divide the dough into two equal parts. Dust 2 proofing baskets with flour. If you don’t have proofing baskets, a medium bowl lined with a towel will work fine. Dust the towel with flour if using this method.
To shape the boule, use floured hands and very gently stretch each half into a rough rectangle. Pull and fold one side over. Rotate, and repeat on all sides pulling the last one over the top. Flip the dough over so that the seams are on the bottom and gently squeeze the bottom to shape the loaf into a ball. You should see the inside ballooning up and forming a nice firm layer on top. A great method is to place your pinkies together and drive them into the bottom of the bread. The gentle resistance of a floured counter will help squeeze the bottom together. When finished, place the boule seam side down in the proofing basket and set in the fridge to proof overnight. Make sure they are covered in plastic so they don’t dry out.
Second Proof (rise)
The second proof is a slow rise in the fridge. This helps develop great flavor in the bread. The dough will slowly cool over several hours and this will create a more sophisticated final bread. I pulled this bowl out at about 9AM the following morning. I show it with the plastic still on, and then off.
Bake The Bread
In the morning, preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Bake the bread in a dutch oven. If you don’t have a dutch oven, you can use a turkey pot or a cast iron pan covering the dough with tinfoil initially. This is the method I demonstrate in the images.
After the oven is preheated, and your dutch oven has been heated in the oven. Take out the proofing baskets, and the dutch ovens. Remove the dough from the proofing basket and place seam side up into the dutch oven. Score if desired. If you don’t score, the seam will open with the oven rise of the bread to give a more rustic look.
Bake for 30 minutes covered. Then remove the top of the dutch oven to expose the crust to the direct heat of the oven. Bake an additional 20 minutes. The crust of the bread should be dark brown.
Let cool on a rack for 20 minutes before slicing.
Sourdough Discard Recipes
