Long Fermented Sourdough Bread Recipe

This long fermented sourdough bread recipe brings together incredible sourdough flavor and all the health benefits of long fermented foods. You are going to love the delicious loaf you can create with just a few ingredients and a lot of patience!

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Keyword Sourdough Bread, Sourdough Recipes

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 45

Fermentation Time 2

Total Time 3 45

Servings Loaf

Calories 1823kcal

Author Kate Freebairn

Equipment

Mixing Bowl
Digital Scales
Banneton
Dutch Oven

Ingredients

500 g Bread Flour
350 g Water
20 g Sourdough Starter can increase if particularly cold/winter months
10 g Salt

Instructions

Fermentolyse
Weigh out your sourdough starter and water into a large ceramic or glass bowl. Mix the water and starter together briefly. Then add your flour and salt and mix whole lot together to form a shaggy dough. Cover your bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel and let it sit for around 1 hour.
After the dough has been through fermentolyse you need to bring it together into a ball. Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside, stretching it up and over itself, into the centre, until a smooth ball is formed. You shouldn't need more than about 20-30 stretches to form the ball.
Once the dough has formed into a smooth ball, pop the cling film back on and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Stretch & Folds
Over the next few hours you need to create some structure for your dough by "stretching and folding". Aim to do around 4-6 sets of stretches and folds.
For each set, stretch the dough up and over itself 4 times. Leave around 15 minutes in between each set. Again you do not have to be exact with time, but you need to do at least 4 sets over 2 hours.
Bulk Ferment
Once you've finished your stretch and folds, place the cling film or damp tea towel back over your dough and let it rest and ferment (a plastic cover is a better option for this stage). You want to allow your dough to rise until it's JUST UNDER DOUBLE.
See notes below for more info on this step.
Shaping The Dough
Once your dough has finished it's first ferment, it's time to shape it into either a boule or a batard.
Use a silicone dough scraper to gently ease the dough out of the bowl. You want it to land upside down on your counter so that the smooth top of the dough is on the countertop and the sticky underside is facing up. This will make it easier to shape.
You want to pull the edges of the dough into the centre and then flip it over so that the sticky side is now underneath. Using the stickiness, gently pull the dough into a tight ball.
You will need a banneton to put your dough into. If you do not have a banneton, then a bowl or basket lined with a floured tea towel is perfectly fine. Make sure your bowl isn't too big though, you want your dough to retain some shape.
Cold Ferment
Once the dough is shaped into a tight ball, place it into a flourered banneton seam side up.
Now the dough is in its "shaping container" cover it loosely with a plastic bag or damp tea towel and place into the fridge. You will need to leave your shaped dough in the fridge between 24 to 48 hours (or anywhere in between). It's super important that your fridge is set to the correct temperature for this!
I use a large plastic bag to cover it - I just reuse it each time. This period of cold fermentation is the KEY to long fermented sourdough bread!
Bake Time!
Once you're ready to bake your sourdough, you'll need to preheat your oven to 230ºC/450ºF.
Place your Dutch Oven into the oven when you turn it on so it gets HOT.
When your oven is at temperature, take your sourdough out of the fridge. Gently place it onto a piece of baking paper.
Make sure that you make the baking paper big enough to use the edges as a handle to lower to dough into your Dutch Oven.
Gently score your bread with a lame, clean razor blade or knife. At minimum a large cross is sufficient, but you can get as artistic as you like. You can find my full guide on how to score sourdough bread here.
Carefully take your dutch oven out of the oven. Place the sourdough into the pot using the baking paper as a handle. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven.
If you want to you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on.
BAKE TIME:
30 Minutes with the lid on at 230ºC/450ºF plus
10-15 Minutes with the lid off at 210ºC/410ºF
When you remove your dough from the oven, carefully remove it from the dutch oven as soon as possible and place on a wire rack to cool.

Nutrition