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1a. Firstly, if your starter is a bit meh, to save your starter, get it to 🔥room temperature🔥 then, tip out half of it, add 50gm whole meal flour and 10gm high grade and 70-80ml 🔥lukewarm🔥 water, whip it up real good and leave for the day.
To make a loaf of Sourdough:
Before you start to make a dough, make sure you get your starter to 🔥room temperature🔥 if there is any brown liquid on the top, tip it off, then feed it 60gm high grade flour and 60ml 🔥lukewarm🔥 water, whip it up and wait for it to bubble, then use it. To check that it’s good to use, ensure your starter (or bits of it) floats atop the water before mixing it together, if it floats, it’s good to go!
In medium sized bowl, mix 90gm starter with 350ml 🔥lukewarm🔥 water.
In a large bowl put 520gm high grade flour (you can experiment with flours etc)
Add the watered down starter to the flour and mix with silicone spoon (or hands) until well combined/no loose flour remains in bowl.
Sprinkle 🧂salt🧂 over and cover with a tea towel. Leave to proof for ⏰15min⏰
Stretch & Pulls. Water bench top and hands to cover (do not saturate) place dough ontop, and do first stretch and pull. Shape into round ball by pulling with scooped hands around sides gently and place back in bowl. Dough should be getting smoother in consistency. Cover and leave to proof for ⏰30min⏰
Repeat step 7 another 2-3 times.
Get another clean and dry large bowl and coat in vegetable oil of choice (around 2 tablespoons) I have a refillable oil sprayer which is great for this.
First Proofing. Pick up dough and (being gentle not to let out/pop any air bubbles) carefully roll it around in oiled bowl to cover with the oil, leave in bottom of bowl and cover tightly with cling film. Leave to proof in room temperature for around ⏰8h⏰ or until it doubles in size (can mark the clingfilm on side of bowl where the dough sits to keep an eye on rise) or pop in fridge overnight.
Shaping. Place dough on bench top, flour hands generously, do 2 or three stretch & pulls (they will be messy/hard to manage compared to first stretch and pulls) then sprinkle a little flour over dough and (I recommend using a dough scraper for this, but floured hands work ok too) and spinning with scooped hand and scraper from around the sides but also slightly underneath, turn it into a ball shape. The bottom of the dough should be stuck a bit to the bench which will help to stretch and pull the gluten while shaping.
Flour top of dough to prevent sticking, cover with tea towel and leave to proof for ⏰30min⏰
Repeat step 11 (skip step 12 this time)
Final Proofing. Put into proofing basket (or a lined floured basket such as a plastic colander or bowl lined with a well floured tea towel) Cover lightly with clingfilm or pop a tea towel over top. Leave/let proof for 3-6 hours. Or longer in fridge.
Prepare Dutch Oven. Preheat Oven with Dutch Oven in it (oven save dish with lid, a crock pot insert or casserole/Pyrex dish with lid works well) to 🔥maximum temperature🔥
Make a sling out of baking paper (get long piece of baking paper, fold and cut so it opens up to the size of the base of your Dutch Oven with long ends which stick up either side of dish to lift dough in and out of hot dish/alternatively you can purchase silicone versions of these) and tip basket upside down on sling and put into your Dutch Oven. (If struggling with this you can pop sling in Dutch Oven and flip out dough directly into dish, be careful as it will be very hot!)
Score. Using a sharp knife or razor blade, score into your dough on a 45 degree angle, I like to do one large score and a few smaller ones, this is up to you, have fun experimenting with different scoring techniques!
Bake. Put lid on Dutch Oven and place in oven. Immediately turn temperature down to 🔥230 degrees Celsius🔥 and bake covered for ⏰25mins⏰ Uncover and bake a further ⏰5mins⏰
Lift out and remove with sling, cool on wire rack. Let it cool before you cut into it.
Enjoy the fruits of your labour!