Even though I make lots of bread, I don’t write about it so often. That is because I don’t use a recipe. The way I make bread is as following, and if you follow my hands you don’t really need a recipe, just some practice.
Take some of your sourdough starter and put it in a bowl.
For a big loaf I use about a cup of sourdough starter but if you like it more sour, you can use more or less if you don’t. Add water and flour to your starter so you’ll get a substance which looks like a thick porridge. Stir until all the lumps are dissolved, you’ll notice the dough will become stickier as you keep stirring it. Cover it with a damp cloth and set it aside.
It depends on the amount of starter you use and the strength of it how long you should wait. I generally wait until it is completely filled with air bubbles. You can make it rise overnight in the fridge as well, the slow rising will give the bread a more complex and full flavor, let the dough come to room temperature before you use it again.
After the first rise, add enough flour and salt, and knead with your hands until you have a soft and flexible dough. It shouldn’t stick anymore. You can shape it into a loaf, let it rise until doubled in size and bake it right away or, give it a second rise. Cut in the top before you bake it or else it will crack open in another place. Brushing the top with oil, or egg will make the crust darker in color.
And voila, there we have a new bread again, not so hard, everybody can do it.
A different result you get when you bake the bread in a preheated Dutch oven or other type of oven proof dish. When you don’t make cut’s in the top you end up with beautiful cracks like on the picture.