Homemade Sourdough

About six months ago, I started to get into baking my own bread. I bought Bree the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook and began making my sourdough starter, a month long process of combining flour and water, slowly fermenting to create an active yeast. Since the starter has been finished, I have made several batches, but the last batch was the best by far (David, Leisa-Ann & the McCoolas and Cozy's will vouch for this).

Our process - get our starter out of the fridge and feed flour and water three times, 6 hours apart to prepare it to use.

- Use approx 400g starter and combine with 765g bakers flour and 400ml water

- Mix to combine into dough for approx 10 min then cover and set aside to rest for 20min.

- Sprinkle dough with tbs sea salt and kneed for a further 20 min until you can stretch a small piece of dough so it transparent but doesn't break. 

- Cover 1hr to bulk prove

- Knock back the dough and prove for another hour

- Divide into three even pieces and shape into batard

- Cover and leave in fridge overnight (or 8hrs)

- Remove from fridge and rest in 25 degree room to rest for approx 2hrs. The loaves will expand and are ready to bake when they spring back like a sponge.

- Bake very hot oven 25-30min

It is a fairly long process but the finished product is so rewarding. Would love to hear if you have had success with bread and the method you've used.