Soft Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough

I had taken a little hiatus from making bread recently, for no particular reason. But then I finally picked up a cookbook on sourdough bread that I’d had my eye on for some time now and I was completely inspired and recharged. Over the past few weeks I have made large pans of crisp and oily focaccia twice, a gooey camembert bread wreath, multiple iterations of thick crusted pizza (which included two separate pizza parties), two loaves of crusty Dutch oven bread, a pan of cinnamon rolls and finally this lovely every so slightly enriched honey whole wheat bread. Phew. I bought a 25 lb bag of flour about a month ago and it’s pretty much gone!

This whole wheat sourdough loaf is lightly sweetened with a little bit of honey, and adds a small amount of whole wheat flour for a little nuttiness, as well as a little nutrition. It is risen with 100% sourdough, no commercial yeast at all which means the rise time is longer, but is so easy. You hardly have to do anything other than mix the ingredients together and let them sit for hours. Almost all hands off. That’s my kind of bread.

I chose this bread for the small Christmas morning brunch I made for my parents. We had scrambled eggs, toast with butter and jam, orange juice and coffee. It was perfect! Merry Christmas!

Soft Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough
Adapted from Artisan Sourdough Made Simple by Emilie Raffa
Ingredients

• 150 grams (3/4 cup) bubbly, active starter

• 270 grams (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) warm milk

• 30 grams (2 tablespoons) warm water

• 40 grams (2 tablespoons) honey

• 30 grams (2 tablespoons) oil

• 120 grams (1 cup) whole wheat flour

• 360 grams (3 cups) bread flour - or all purpose in a pinch

• 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt

• 14 grams (1 tablespoon) butter, melted

Directions
Make the Dough: In a large bowl, whisk the starter, milk, water, honey and oil together. Add the flours and salt. Mix to combine until a rough dough forms. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour. After the dough has rested, gently work it into a semi-smooth ball, about 15 to 20 seconds. The dough will feel supple and smooth when it comes together.

Bulk Rise: Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise at room temperature until double in size, about 6 to 8 hours. The dough will look nice and domed when ready.

Shape: Remove the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Gently dimple the surface with your fingertips to release any large air bubbles. Roll the dough into a log, tucking the ends underneath. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly coat a 9x5 inch loaf pan with oil. With floured hands, cup the dough and pull toward you to tighten its shape. Place into your loaf pan, seam side down.

Second Rise: Cover the dough and let rest until it has risen about 1 inch above the rim of the pan, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, depending on temperature.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Bake: Bake the dough on the center rack for 40 to 45 minutes. When finished, remove the loaf from the oven and brush the crust with the melted butter. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Braided Challah Ring

Is homemade bread ever a bad idea? I don’t think so! Judging from the success of this lovely braided challah that I recently brought to a potluck, I don’t think most other people think it’s a bad idea either! This is a quick and simple homemade bread. If you’ve never thought to bring fresh bread to a potluck, trust me, it’ll go over well. Especially if you bring a little jam and/or butter to go with it. Something different, and impressive, especially if you decide to go for the braided ring like I did here. You can just do a simple braid and leave it in a loaf shape if you prefer, but it’s fun to try something different. Any jam will go well with this rich and eggy bread. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

Braided Challah Ring
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients
Quick Starter

• 1 cup (120 grams) All-Purpose Flour

• 1 cup (227 grams) lukewarm water

• 2 teaspoons instant yeast

Dough

• All of the starter

• 3 1/2 cups (420 grams) All-Purpose Flour

• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt

• 1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar

• 1/4 cup (50 grams) vegetable oil

• 2 large eggs + 1 yolk (save 1 egg white for the glaze, below)

Glaze

• 1 egg white, saved from above

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 tablespoon water

Instructions
To make the starter: Mix the 1 cup flour, 1 cup water and yeast together in a large bowl or the bucket of a bread machine. Let the mixture sit for about 45 minutes. See "tips," below, for instructions using SAF Gold yeast.

To make the dough: Add the dough ingredients to the starter and mix and knead together — by hand, mixer or bread machine — until a smooth, supple dough is formed. This dough is a pleasure to work with; smooth and silky, it almost feels like you're rubbing your hands with lotion.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning it over once to coat it lightly with oil. Cover it and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours, or until it's not quite doubled in size.

To shape the dough: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and fold it over once or twice, to expel the carbon dioxide. Divide the dough into four pieces, and roll each into a snake about 18" long.

On the lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, braid a four-strand braid (see instructions at King Arthur Flour) or fashion a simpler three-strand braid. Form the braid into a circle, pinching the two ends together.

In a small bowl, make the glaze by mixing together the reserved egg white, sugar, and water. Brush the loaf, reserving some for a second application.

Cover the loaf with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow it to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it's almost doubled in size. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 375°F.

To bake the loaf: Brush the loaf with the remaining glaze (this will give the finished loaf a beautiful, shiny crust, as well as provide "glue" for the seeds), sprinkle with poppy seeds, if desired, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the challah is golden brown, slightly firm to the touch, and the internal temperature is 195°F.

Remove the bread from the oven, and cool completely before slicing.

Cornmeal Sourdough Bread

I've got another great sourdough bread recipe today. It's a super simple loaf that comes together very quickly and bakes up beautifully. This bread slices up well and makes the best sandwiches. Made with a majority whole wheat flour for nutrition, but with a little white flour for optimal texture, it's just the right combination. I included a little butter for additional tenderness and flavor, and a little honey for just a hint of sweet, just how I like it. This recipe is great for me, allowing me to use up some sourdough starter without even thinking ahead since I used the cold starter straight from the fridge. Maybe sourdough purists would be appalled, but it works for me in my life and kitchen. If this sounds appealing to you, I encourage you to give this recipe a try.    

I got some GREAT oven spring out of this bread! It's always exciting to take that first peek into the oven about halfway into baking and see how beautifully tall the bread has risen above the top of the pan. It makes me so happy! This bread has a nice dark brown crust, with a fluffy and light interior, just fantastic. And it's a really easy and quick recipe as yeasted bread goes. I've managed to get it all done in 4.5 hours start to finish. You'll need about another 2 hours to let it cool before slicing, but overall pretty simple and quick. 

Cornmeal Sourdough Bread
Adapted from Easy Sourdough Loaf
Ingredients

• 110 grams sourdough starter; cold, unfed from the fridge
• 250 grams whole wheat flour
• 100 grams all purpose flour
• 30 grams coarse grind cornmeal
• 8 grams salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons yeast
• 30 grams butter, softened
• 15 grams honey
• 180 grams water

Directions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all of the ingredients. Mix in low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, adjusting the water as needed to achieve a medium dough consistency (you may need additional water). Continue mixing to in medium speed to a medium-high level of gluten development.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. 

Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter and shape into a tight loaf. Generously butter a 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pan. Place the dough, seam-side-down, into the prepared pan. Proof, covered, for 1 hour, or until the top of the dough has risen to about 1.5 inches above the edge of the pan.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone on the bottom rack, to 425F. Once you are ready to bake, place loaves in the oven, reduce the temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 25 minutes. Take the loaf out of the oven, remove the loaf from the pan, and place it directly on the baking stone, and bake for approximately another 15 minutes, until the crust is a deep golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Let bread cool completely before slicing. 

Easy Sourdough Loaf

With the craziness of the holidays now pretty much over (after tonight anyway), it's back to real normal, everyday life. For me, this includes getting back to the basics with simple, wholesome food. I've had my fair share of sugar over the past many weeks and I'm ready to reset and restart in 2018. 

It's been a cold couple of weeks here in West Michigan. As I write this it's 4 degrees out and snow continues to fall. It's beautiful. In this kind of weather a thick slice of hearty toast topped with soft scrambled eggs, a few thick slices of melted cheese, or a generous helping of peanut or almond butter sounds just about perfect. A slice of this bread is just the right for this type of occasion. It's made with simple and basic ingredients, nothing crazy, nothing strange, just good food. It doesn't get much better than that. 

For this recipe, I adapted another sourdough recipe that's also posted on my blog; just changing it a little to make it a more useful recipe for me on a daily basis. I added commercial yeast instead of relying solely on wild yeast for the rise, and cut the recipe in half because as a single person, it takes me quite a while to go through two full loaves of bread. These adaptations worked beautifully and gave me a tall and fluffy loaf, perfect for just about everything. 

Easy Sourdough Loaf
Adapted from Soft Sandwich Sourdough
Ingredients

• 311 grams flour
• 160 grams water
• 8 grams salt
• 32.5 grams butter, room temperature
• 15 grams honey
• 205 grams starter
• 1.25 teaspoons instant yeast

Directions
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all of the ingredients except about 10% of the water. Mix in low speed until the ingredients are incorporated, adjusting the water as needed to achieve a medium dough consistency (you may need additional water). Continue mixing to in medium speed to a medium-high level of gluten development.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours. 

Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter. Shape into a cylinder and let rest, covered, for about 25 minutes. Generously butter a 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pan. Shape the dough tightly into blunt batards and place it, seam-side-down, into the prepared pan. Proof, covered, for 1 hour, or until the top of the dough has risen to about 1.5 inches above the edge of the pan.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 425F. Once you are ready to bake, place loaves in the oven, reduce the temperature to 400F. Bake for 25 minutes. Then remove the loaf from the pan, place directly on the stone, and bake for another 15 minutes or so, until the crust is a deep golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

Pflaumenkuchen

Every year there seem to be "new" discoveries to make at the farmers market. Some fruit or vegetable that I just never really noticed before seems to jump out at me and I start seeing it everywhere, and see recipes all over the internet that I probably would have just skipped over before. This year I "discovered" Italian Prune Plums. They are a small, egg shaped, dark purple/almost black plum that is nice enough raw, really shines when baked. Hence this recipe. I bought a small basket a few weeks ago and ate them raw in yogurt with granola. Nice, but certainly not something to write home about. But then I saw the recipe for this yeasted breakfast cake. The description of the plums baking up into a "sweet-tart, floral, rich, and grapey" when cooked left my mouth watering. I was hooked. 

This cake was a simple yeasted dough that was mildly sweet with just a little richness from butter and an egg. The perfect compliment to the juicey and tart plums that really did bake up into a deliciously jammy topping. Covered in a good handful of cinnamon sugar it really was the perfect late summer breakfast treat. Paired with a steaming cup of coffee you will not go wrong. 

Pflaumenkuchen (Yeasted Plum Cake) 
Adapted from Sweet Amandine, originally from My Berlin Kitchen, by Luisa Weiss
Ingredients
For the dough:

• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (195 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons (25 grams) sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
• Grated zest of half a lemon (optional, I didn't have one but I know it would be great)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6-8 tablespoons (3-4 ounces) whole milk
• 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 egg 

For the fruit and topping:

• 1¼ pounds Italian prune plums
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions
Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan or cake pan.   

Make the dough:  
Put the milk and the 3 tablespoons butter into a small saucepan and heat over the lowest possible flame, swirling occasionally, until the butter has just melted.  Add the vanilla extract. Set aside to cool until lukewarm.  Meanwhile, blend the dry ingredients - the flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, yeast, lemon zest, and salt - in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg with the lukewarm milk and butter.  Pour the mixture into the dry ingredients, and stir with a wooden spoon until you have a loose dough.  Knead on medium speed for about 4 minutes, or until a smooth dough forms.  If your dough is sticky, add a tablespoon or two of flour, only as much as you need to keep it manageable.  Form the dough into a ball, place it in the buttered pan, cover with a towel, and let it rise until it's doubled in bulk, anywhere from one to two and a half hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

Prepare the fruit and topping:
While the dough rises, heat the oven to 350 degrees, and pit and quarter the prune plums.  Stir together the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.  Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and leave to cool.         

When the dough is ready, deflate it with your fingertips.  Push it down evenly along the bottom of the pan and about 1-inch up the sides.  Gently press the quartered plums into the dough at a 45-degree angle, making concentric circles.  (Start at the edge and work your way toward the middle.)  If you have extra plums on your cutting board once you've arranged your circles, squeeze them in somewhere.  The more plums, the better.  Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, spoon the melted butter over top, and set aside, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Bake for 40-45 minutes (the original recipe called for 30-40 minutes, but mine was definitely not done at 30 minutes, and was questionable at 40; I'd start checking at 30 just in case your oven runs a little hotter than mine, but it may take 45 + minutes so use your best judgement), until the crust is brown and the plums are bubbling.  Cool until the fruit is no longer hot.  

Sourdough English Muffins

Growing up I loved Thomas' English Muffins. Who can resist those nooks and crannies - so good! I loved spread butter on a hot, freshly toasted muffin and watch it melt into little pools of goodness. More recently I decided that it was time for me to create my own version, a better version; fresher, cleaner ingredients, more flavor. You get the idea. I wanted to make a sourdough version so I could use my sourdough starter, and to add even more flavor. After a couple attempts I think I've nailed it. These sourdough English muffins are amazing; super soft and delicious. No, they don't have quite as many nooks and crannies as the Thomas', but honestly I don't miss them. These are just too good, fresh, soft, light and airy. Perfect for a breakfast sandwich topped with eggs, meat and cheese, or a little simpler with just a good pat of butter, some peanut butter, or some nice melty cheese. I'm never going back to the store-bought version again.

These little muffins are really simple to make, but they do take a little time with the shaping of the individual buns, the rising, the grilling and the final baking. I don't have enough griddle space to grill them all at once so it takes a couple batches. Trust me, it's worth the time. You can make these guys as big or small as you want. I like my English muffins nice and thick so that's how I shape them, but you can also shape them a little thinner and wider in diameter depending on your preference and what you want to do with them. This recipe does not use English muffin rings. I didn't have any, so I looked for a recipe for a thicker dough so that I didn't have to go buy a new tool. I'm guessing that with a wetter dough, and the help of these rings you would probably have more luck creating those yummy nooks and crannies, but honestly I don't even care. These will work just perfectly for me!

Sourdough English Muffins
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon (12 grams) brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (6 ounces) warm water
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) whole milk
• 1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1/2 cup (120 grams) sourdough starter, fed or unfed; fed will give a more vigorous rise
• 2 1/2 cups (300 grams) all purpose flour
• 1 cup (120 grams) whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 teaspoon citric acid, optional; for enhanced sour flavor
• Cornmeal, for coating

Directions
Combine all of the dough ingredients, except the cornmeal, in a large bowl. Mix and knead — by hand, electric mixer, or bread machine — to form a smooth dough. The dough should be soft and elastic, but not particularly sticky; add additional flour if necessary.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and set it aside to rise for about 1 1/2 hours, until it's noticeably puffy. Alternatively, for most pronounced sour flavor, cover the bowl, and immediately place it in the refrigerator (without rising first). Let the dough chill for 24 hours; this will develop its flavor.

Gently deflate the dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface, cover it, and let it sit for a few minutes, to relax the gluten. Divide the dough into 12 equal sized pieces. Shape each piece into a round ball, then flatten each ball into a 2 inch round. 

Place the rounds, evenly spaced, onto cornmeal- or semolina-sprinkled baking sheets. Sprinkle them with additional cornmeal or semolina, cover with plastic wrap, and let them rise until light and puffy, about 45 to 60 minutes. If the dough has been refrigerated overnight, the rise time will closer to 2 hours.

Carefully transfer the rounds (as many as a time that will fit without crowding) right-side up to a large electric griddle preheated to 350°F, or to an un-greased frying pan that has been preheated over medium-low heat.

Cook the muffins for about 6-8 minutes on each side. The edges may feel a bit soft. Transfer the muffins to a baking sheet and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 8-10 minutes to finish cooking through. 

Yield: 12 English muffins.

Afternoon Sandwich Bread

I've been quite busy over the last couple of weeks, I'm on my OB rotation right now which has been really good, but doesn't leave me a lot of free time. This means I don't get to spend as much time as I usually like to in the kitchen, making dinner and prepping lunch for the next day. For weeks such as these it's good to have a few things on hand that make it easy to throw together a delicious meal in a short time. Recently I've been really into making sandwiches for dinner. I  still have some leftover Thanksgiving turkey in the freezer (yes I do!), and some really good cheese hanging out in the fridge. Add a few additional condiments a few slices of good, homemade bread and dinner is served. 

This has been my go-to bread for the past few weeks. I've made 3 or 4 loaves recently and have been loving it. It's soft, tender and delicious. It's also really quick to make. There are times when I love spending 2 or 3 days make a complext loaf of bread with a long, slow rise. But often I don't have the time to spend doing that. This bread is super fast, yet still really really good. I can start making it around noon, and be pulling freshly baked bread out of the oven by 5! On a tight schedule, that is the way to do it!

The first time I made a version of this bread I made it pretty much as originally written, adding in a bit of whole wheat flour because that's how I roll. It turned out great. The next time however, I had some sourdough starter that needed to be used so I adjusted the recipe to include some of this starter. My sourdough version was also wonderful, and helped me use up my starter - a win-win situation! 

Afternoon Sandwich Bread
Adapted from Alexandra Cooks
Ingredients

• 180 grams all purpose flour
• 140 grams whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 110 grams warm water
• 56 grams milk
• 1 tablespoon (21 grams) honey
• 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
• 120 grams sourdough starter
• 2-4 tablespoons mixed nuts/seeds/grains (optional): for this loaf I used a mix of coarse cornmeal, sunflower seeds, steel cut oats, and buckwheat groats, but use whatever you have on hand, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, millet, quinoa, etc. 

Directions
In the bowl of your stand mixer mix together the flours, yeast and salt. Add the water, milk, honey olive oil or butter, and starter.  

Using the dough hook, knead the dough until it begins pulling away from the sides of the bowl and clings to the hook, 6-8 minutes total.  Near the end of kneading, add in the mixed nuts/seeds/grains and continue kneading until evenly incorporated. 

Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn it over to coat all sides, and cover the bowl. Let it rise in a draft-free place until doubled, 1 to 2 hours. Turn the dough out onto the counter and shape into a loaf. Place dough in well-greased 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pans. Let rise until the dough domes an inch above the rim of the pan, another hour or so.

After the dough has been rising for 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350°F. When the loaves are sufficiently risen, bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until nicely browned. Remove from the oven and tip the bread out of the pan. Place on a rack to cool completely before slicing.

Dutch Oven Sourdough

I have been making bread for years now, and am now consistently happy for the most part with the loaves I turn out. While I'm no pro, I can bake up some pretty tasty loaves and rolls whenever I feel like it. One thing had been eluding me however, an artisan-type loaf with a deeply golden, crackling crust, one that shatters into millions of shards when cutting in. I've tried so many different recipes in the past, but they invariably turn out pale, anemic looking loaves with a soft, uninspiring crust. Well, no more! I finally did it, out of my own home oven I pulled this gorgeous, crusty loaf. I may have heard angels singing...

This is a beautiful and simple recipe, there is mixing involved but no real kneading. It takes a bit of time to rise, seeing as there is not commercial yeast involved, as well as the fact that my apartment is sometimes  a bit chilly, but there is very little hands on time at all. 

I have seen plenty of recipes in the past that call for baking bread in a Dutch oven and how well this can mimic a commercial steam-injection oven, but for whatever reason I never got around to trying it before. When I came across this recipe on The Clever Carrot however, and saw her beautiful finished loaves I decided that it was finally time to try it for myself. I can now say that it worked! I was able to pull out of my very own oven, a blistered, deeply golden brown boule of sourdough bread. As it cooled on the counter I was even able to hear the crust "cracking" as it cooled, music to my ears and such a happy sound. 

I know the instructions below are quite long, but it truly is not a difficult recipe. It looks more intense than it actually is, in reality it's actually quite a simple recipe. Check out The Clever Carrot for if you'd like some great photos to go along with the instructions below. Happy Baking!

Dutch Oven Sourdough
From The Clever Carrot
Ingredients

• 5.35 oz / 150g active, fed starter
• 8.80 oz / 250g water, preferably filtered
• .90 oz / 25g olive oil
• 17.65 oz / 500g bread flour (not all purpose)
• .35 oz / 10g fine sea salt
• fine ground cornmeal, for dusting

Directions
To make the dough: In a large bowl, combine the starter, water, olive oil and bread flour. Squish everything together with your hands until all of the flour is absorbed. It will be a fairly firm dough. Cover and rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes.

Add the salt + ½ tsp. of water (to help it dissolve). Lift and fold the dough over itself several times, and squish with your hands to incorporate. The dough will tear slightly as you fold, and the salt will not fully dissolve. Don't worry- this is normal. Work the dough as best you can until it comes back together into a rough ball. At this point, you shouldn't feel any grains of salt beneath your hands.

Bulk fermentation: Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm spot to rise. Your dough is ready when it no longer looks dense, and has increased in volume about 1½- 2x its original size. This can take anywhere from 3-12 hours depending on the temperature of your ingredients, the potency of your starter and surrounding environment. (Check out The Clever Carrot for her Winter Weekend Baking schedule if interested in a more detailed schedule). 

Stretch & folds: During bulk fermentation, you have the option to perform a series of 'stretch & folds' to strengthen the dough. Simply gather a portion of the dough, stretch it upwards and then fold it over itself. Rotate the bowl ¼ turn and repeat this process until you have come full circle. Do every 30 minutes for 2 hours. Although this step is not mandatory, it will increase the total volume of your bread.

Cutting & shaping: To cut and shape the dough, divide your work surface in half; lightly flour one side (for cutting) and leave the other half clean (for shaping).

Remove the dough from the bowl, and place onto the floured section so that it does not stick. You do not need to 'punch down' the dough; it will gently deflate as you fold and shape it.
Cut the dough in half to make 2 loaves, or leave it whole for a single loaf.

To shape, use a bench scraper to move your dough to the non-floured section (if there is any flour present, it will be difficult to shape- brush away any excess). Gather the dough, one side at a time, and fold it into the center. Flip the dough over and place it seam side down. Using your hands, gently cup the sides of the dough and rotate it, using quarter turns in a circular motion. You can also pull it towards you to even out the shape. Repeat this process until you are happy with its appearance. *See note below.

Second rise: Coat the bottom of your Dutch oven with cornmeal. Place the dough inside for a second shorter rise, about 1 hour. It is ready when the dough is slightly puffy, try not to over-rise the dough at this point or it will lose some of its strength, and will not get the boost it needs to produce a nice, round loaf. 

Preparing the oven: About half an hour before you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 450 F.

Slashing the dough: Right before your bread goes into the oven, make a shallow slash about 2 inches long in the center of the dough. Use a bread lame, a sharp pairing or serrated knife.

Place your bread into the oven (lid on) and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue baking with the lid on for 10 more minutes. Remove the lid, and continue to bake (uncovered) for an additional 40 minutes or until deep, golden brown, rotating the pot halfway through. Keep in mind that all ovens are different; you might have to make minimal adjustments to these temperatures.

During the last 10 minutes of baking, crack open the oven door. This allows the moisture to escape, leaving your bread with a crisp crust. You can also take the internal temperature of your bread to double check that it is done. For sourdough, it should read about 205 F.

Cooling: Remove the bread from the oven, and cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing. Don't cut too soon or else the inside will have a gummy texture!

NOTES
*When shaping, the idea is for the dough to catch enough surface tension on a non-floured area in order to create a tight ball. If there is flour present, it will slide around...and drive you nuts.