Sourdough Boule
 
Ingredients
Levain:
  • 25g mature sourdough starter (has at least doubled in size overnight and is nice and bubbly)
  • 50g flour blend (25g all purpose + 25g whole wheat or 50g all purpose)
  • 50g lukewarm water
Autolyse:
  • 450g bread flour
  • 50g spelt flour
  • 350g lukewarm water
Salt Step:
  • 10g table salt
  • 25g lukewarm water
Instructions
Day 1:
  1. Feed your sourdough starter twice, once in the morning or early afternoon and again at night. Leave the starter in a warm spot, like your microwave or oven (turned off), to help it along.
Day 2 8:00 am - Levain:
  1. In a glass jar or pyrex measuring cup, mix the starter, flour, and water together.
  2. Make note of where the levain is starting with a rubber band around the container. Cover the container and place it in your oven with the light turned on or the turned off microwave.
  3. You need the levain to double in size before you can use it. *
  4. Remember to feed your starter again since you removed some.
Day 2 11:00 am - Autolyse:
  1. About 1-2 hours before your levain is done rising, mix the bread flour, spelt flour, and water together in a bowl with your hands. Use a bowl scraper to clean off your hands and to scrape down any dough bits stuck to the sides of the bowl.
  2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the oven with the light turned off alongside your levain.
Day 2 12:00 pm - Float Test and Combine:
  1. Once your levain has doubled in size, take a teaspoon of the levain and drop it into a bowl of water. Do not to stir the levain before the float test because that will knock air out of the levain, making it sink, and giving you a false negative. If it floats, that means it's full of air and has the ability to make your bread rise. It it sinks, it's not ready yet or has gone past its peak.
  2. If you've passed the float test, pour 100g of the levain on top of your autolyse dough. You made 125g of the levain to leave you some extra for the float test.
  3. Work the levain into the dough with your hands until you have a consistent dough.
  4. Cover with plastic wrap and put it back in the oven for 15 minutes.
Day 2 12:30 pm - Salt:
  1. Sprinkle the table salt on top of the dough and then pour the lukewarm water on top to dissolve the salt.
  2. Work the water and salt into the dough with your hands. The dough will have separated with the addition of the water but keep squishing it around until it doesn't feel slimy anymore and is back to being a bit sticky.
  3. Cover the bowl and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes.
Day 2 1:30 pm - 3:00 - 4 Stretch and Folds:
  1. Rinse your hand with water so that it is a bit damp but not profusely dripping. This helps the dough to not stick to your fingers.
  2. Take one corner of the dough, pull it up to stretch it until you feel just a bit of resistance, and then fold it over to the other side. Repeat with other three sides of the dough. Don't stretch the dough to the point that the entire dough ball is lifting out of the bowl ... that's too much of a work out for the dough! You just want some gentle stretches to build gluten.
  3. You will do 4 sets of these stretch and folds at 1:30 pm, 2:00 pm, 2:30 pm, and 3:00 pm. Between the sets, cover the bowl and put it in the oven to rest.
Day 2 3:00 pm - Post Stretch Rest:
  1. After the last set of stretch and folds at 3:00 pm, put the bowl back in the oven for a long rest of about 2-3 hours. At the end of this rest, the dough should have some large bubbles around the edges and have some slight jiggle to it.
Day 2 5:00 or 6:00 pm - Shaping
  1. Dump the dough out onto a clean and well floured counter.
  2. Working around the edges fold the edges into the center and then turn it over so that the seam is face down. If the dough has absorbed the flour on the counter give it a quick dusting. Dust the top of the dough and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Leave to rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
  3. Prepare either a proving basket dusted with flour or a bowl lined with a flour dusted kitchen towel.
  4. Flip the dough back over onto the lightly dusted counter top so the seam side is facing up again.
  5. Even though it's round, think of the dough as having 4 points on the edges. Fold the left corner over just past the center and the right corner over just past the center. Repeat with the top and bottom edges. Flip the ball over so that it is seam side down.
  6. Tighten up the dough ball by cupping the top edge with both hands with your pinky fingers on the counter. Gently drag the dough ball towards yourself a few inches working the dough under itself and tightening up the top of the dough ball. Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat the dragging motion on all 4 edges.
  7. Flip the dough into your proving basket or bowl lined with a floured cloth. The seams should be facing up.
  8. Cover with a second towel or plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
Day 3 Morning (Start between 8:00 - 11:00 am) - Baking:
  1. Place a round dutch oven or a cast iron pot with a lid in your oven and preheat your oven to 475°F. The oven needs to be crazy hot, so I usually let the oven keep preheating for 15-20 minutes after it has beeped to tell me it's preheated.
  2. Take your dough out of the bowl and flip the seam side down onto a piece of parchment paper. **
  3. Lightly dust the top of the dough with all-purpose flour and sort of rub it around so that it has an even coat of flour.
  4. Using a bread lame or a serrated knife, make one semi-deep slash. You don't want it to be super deep, but you need it deep enough that the dough sort of splits and you can see a bit of the fresh, unfloured dough underneath. After making the main slash, you can go back and make some smaller and less deep slashes for design.
  5. Remove the dutch oven from the preheated oven and drop the dough down in it. Cover the pot with the lid and bake for 25 minutes at 475°F.
  6. Drop the temperature to 425°F and remove the lid from the dutch oven. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until it you are happy with the color.
  7. If you're worried that it's not cooked in the middle, use a thermometer to check that the internal temperature is between 195-210°F.
  8. Using two wooden spoons take the bread out of the dutch oven and allow it to cool completely on a wire rack. Wait at least 1-2 hours before cutting into it to avoid a gummy texture.
Store in an airtight container or ziplock for up to 3 days.
Notes
*Everyone's levain will rise at different rates. My starter is pretty active since I feed it regularly so mine more than doubles in the allotted time. Don't use the levain before it's doubled but also don't let it go so long that it starts to shrink back down.
**Beware that some parchment papers are only oven safe to 425°F. I usually risk it and nothing bad has happened yet but you could also just skip the parchment paper ... it just makes maneuvering the dough easier.
Recipe by Birch Tree Baking at https://www.birchtreebaking.com/sourdough-boule/