I threw away my beautiful sourdough starter about six years ago.

I remember looking at her in my fridge and being so sad about not being able to take her with us when we moved to Nashville. How silly was I?! I knew nothing about sourdough as a young, first time momma. I was obsessed with baking bread but I knew so little.

Then I turned 30 and my body rebelled against me so I went through a Whole30 process and learned all the things that are good for my body and bad. Enter my new relationship wtih fermented foods. I love fermented things like kombucha and kimchi. But over these last couple years of discovery I’ve really become a bit of a sourdough snob. Unfortunately I never committed to another started.

It’s weird to be grateful for a pandemic...but because of the pandemic I hit up my favorite bakery, Dozen Bakery here in Nashville who gave me a FREE STARTER! You guys. When she handed that cup to me and shared with me it’s most recent feeding I literally teared  up.

As you can tell...I am a bit EXTRA in my sourdough bread loving . When prepared properly, sourdough starter ignites this awesome fermentation process that can make what would normally be an intolerant mess of grain, more tolerant to a sensitive gut! Hurray!

So Bread is now back in my life and better than ever.

Plus, I discovered my two new bread crushes - Sarah Owens, author of Sourdough and Chad Robertson author of Tartine who are both bread experts. I’ve combined the folding techniques of Sarah and the whole wheat recipes in Tartine to make my favorite loaves.

Check out this video with Sarah from Food52 where she explains tons about starters and her form of making sourdough bread.

Recipe

800 gr Water at 75degrees

700 gr of White flour

300 gr of Wheat flour

20 gr of salt

200 gr starter

Directions

Mix starter and water into a slurry. Add flours and hand blend until no more dry bits of flour. Let stand for 40 minutes to get all the starter active. Add in the salt and hand kneed again. This begins your bench resting periods. Every 30 minutes you’re going to come over and with a bowl of water, use your hand to scrap the dough into itself on all four sides. Repeat this ever 30 minutes over the course of the next 3 -4 hours - until you start seeing bubbles coming to the surface.

Pour out the dough onto a clean surface, lightly flour the top of the dough, cut in half and flip over so the unfloured bit is facing you and the flour is on the counter. Pull the top towards the bottom and then the bottom to the top. Now pull all four corners into the middle and, using a dough scraper or strong edge, flip the dough over. Repeat this on the other batch of dough.

Let these two sit on the counter with a towel over them to protect from a draft for about 30 minutes while they rest a little from all your groping.

Flip the dough over again and now pull the top dough towards you about one inch. Now pull the dough across as if you are going to fold the right over the left like a blade in one inch increments. (This is when it’s helpful to watch the Food52 link where Sarah shows her way of folding.) Once it’s all folded roll up from the bottom and place seam side up in your bowl or loaf dish. (Make sure you have a towel or cloth in the bottom sprinkled with a little flour to protect it from sticking.)

At this point I wrap my loafs and their pans in a plastic bag and let them set in the fridge overnight. Then I bring one out and let it bench rest again for about 30 minutes.

Light the fire up to 500 and place your Dutch oven in there to get nice and steamy hot. Set a time for 20 minutes to make sure the pot is nice and burning hot. Uncover the bread, give it a nice little cut down the middle of it, about ¼ of a inch deep so that air releases and it gives you that beautiful little fan look. Place it on some parchment paper and then gently put it in the Dutch over. Replace the lid, lower the heat to 470 and set the timer for another 20 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the lid and let the bread now cook without a lid for another 20 minutes or until it reaches your desired darkness.

Remove and let rest for about 30 minutes. You want to make sure it cools off enough to maintain its structure. If you cut into it too soon it’ll flatten the whole loaf a little. Which honestly is worth it for some fresh melted Irish butter on some fresh baked bread.

There goes all those pounds you worked so hard to get off during COVID.

Sorry not sorry.