SLOW, LAZY SOURDOUGH BREAD

Slow, Lazy Sourdough Bread image

Bread developed slowly - with a long, slow fermentation period - tastes better. Similar to making cheese, or cooking a stew or chili, or maybe the traditional American south's method of barbecuing pork. In all these cooking methods, one of the primary ingredients is time. Time for invisible good things to happen. Time for transformation. Molecular stuff. Magic.

Provided by @MakeItYours

Number Of Ingredients 6

Ingredients

400g Home milled Red Fife Wheat Berries or Whole Red Fife Flour (~ 3 1/3 cups)
200g Home milled Hard White Wheat Berries or Whole Hard White Wheat Flour (~ 1 1/10 cups)
480g Water (~ 2 cups) ~80% hydration
2-3g of cold, unfed sourdough starter (an inoculation more than an ingredient)
11g Salt (~ 2 1/4 tsp)
~36 hours Time(Note that volumetric measures are inherently inaccurate - especially for flour where 1 cup is going to be a very different amount of flour for you and for me and even for you one time vs. another time. You should get a scale.)

Steps:

Combine starter into water, stirring until starter is fully dispersed.
Combine salt with flour in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, turn on low speed, and slowly add water / starter mixture (see video "Lazy Mixing and Kneading").
After fully combined, set mixer to medium speed and allow it to knead dough for 3 - 5 minutes until dough is forming a relatively smooth ball around the hook.
Transfer dough into a mixing bowl or rising bucket and let sit until dough just starts to visibly rise (~ 6 - 8 hours). At this point you may optionally want to perform one or two rounds of stretching and folding (separated by half an hour) to build some strength / tension in the dough. I usually do this, but it's not a hard requirement.
Keep an eye on the rising dough, checking in with it at least once an hour.
When it has risen to twice its initial volume (or whenever you feel the bulk proofing has come to a good ending point), prepare a lined proofing basket by flouring the inside and set it aside.
Moisten a work surface with a small amount of water, moisten your hands, and turn the dough out onto the moist work surface.
Build tension and shape the dough into your preferred shape (boule, batard, oblong) and then transfer into the proofing basket, cover and place in the refrigerator for 12 - 16 hours. The length of this cold second proof can be stretched to suit your schedule. Shoot for a minimum of 12 hours, but the maximum can be pretty long; 24, 36, maybe even 48 hours would probably be fine.
When ready to bake, pre-heat oven and baking vessel to 450f.
Transfer cold dough into pre-heated baking vessel* and score as you like.
Cover and bake for 30 minutes at 450f.
Reduce oven temperature to 375f, uncover and bake for an additional 25 minutes.