Basic White Sourdough using 100% Hydration Starter

I have been working on some 100% starter hydration recipes.  A 100% hydration sourdough starter is a culture which is kept and fed with water and flour at equal weights. Like for instance 5 oz water to 5 oz flour. A 166% hydration starter is fed with equal volume of flour and water, which most typically is one cup of water (8.3 oz) and one cup of flour (5 oz).

A  lot of bakers keep their starter at 100% hydration and so here is a recipe for a basic white sourdough bread using the 100% starter:

Basic White Sourdough

In the afternoon mix together by hand or mixer:

1. 100% hydration sourdough starter – 16 oz/453g
2. Water – 18 oz/510g
3. Bread flour – 32 oz/907g
4. Oil – .5 oz/14g
5. Sugar – .5 oz/14g
6. Sea Salt – .8 oz/22g (Don’t add salt until after autolyse- see below)

Mix ingredients together until well incorporated. Allow dough to set for 20 minutes to rest (this is called autolyse). After autolyse, add salt and knead the dough in the bowl until the salt is well mixed in. Cover your dough and let it ferment for 4 – 6 hours or until it feels spongy and well developed.

During the fermentation time, fold the dough int the bowl once an hour. To fold dough, just take the edge of the dough and fold it over on itself, work around the bowl until you have folded over all sides.

After the ferment is done, shape your loaves. You will have 4 lbs 4 oz of dough at 65% hydration. You can divide this into two 2 lb loaves or four 1lb loaves.

Put your shaped dough into bannetons and cover them with plastic bags. Then refrigerate overnight. Next morning take out your dough staggering the loaves by 30 minutes so they are not all proofed at the same time. Let the dough warm up and finish it’s final proof.

This will take anywhere from one hour to three hours. When it looks like the loaf has one hour of proofing left, turn your oven on to 450F degrees and preheat it with a baking stone inside, for one hour. 10 minutes before you will bake your first loaf, preheat a roasting pan lid in the oven.

When the dough is done proofing, turn out your loaf and slash the top, then slide the dough onto a peel which has been sprinkled with semolina flour. Slide the dough onto the hot stone, spray the loaf all over with water, then place the hot roasting lid over the dough. Close the oven door and bake for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, take off the roasting lid to allow the crust to crisp up and brown. Bake for another 10 -15 minutes until the color is a nice deep color.  If you notice that the loaf is browning too fast, turn the oven down to 425 degrees for the last 10 -15 minutes of the bake.

Roasting lid baking:

Take out your beautiful loaf and cool on a cooling rack. Reheat the oven and then bake the next loaf. This bread is a very easy and delicious loaf, it goes well with almost anything and makes terrific sandwiches and toast.

This post will be sent to Susan at Yeast Spotting.

I also wanted to give notice that there are more variety of starters available in the store now if you have been waiting for one of the rye starters or need a new white starter, check it out: Sourdough Store . There are a variety of starter from around the world available.

Have fun baking!!