Sourdough Pot Bread

Recipe for a round pot bread with 75% hydration. 

• Start by feeding your sourdough starter, place a rubber band around it, and wait for your starter to double. This takes about 3-5 hours.
• • 33g sourdough starter
  • 66g flour
  • 66g lukewarm water
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• Fermentolyse

• When your starter is ready, take out your stand mixer.
• You can also use your hands, but it requires more effort.
• Weigh all ingredients except for the salt.
• Mix your doubled starter, flour, and water.
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• Stir together until there is no dry flour left. Do not knead the dough.
• Let the dough rest and undergo fermentolyse.
• This basically means that your dough needs to rest.
• While it rests, the enzymes in the flour activate, making the dough elastic and developing gluten.
• If you only mix water and flour, it's called autolyse.
• When you fermentolyse, you start your dough immediately.
• Let the dough fermentolyse for 2 hours, covered with cling film.
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• Kneading

• After 2 hours, add salt to the dough.
• Now the dough needs to be well kneaded.
• If hand-kneading, I recommend Gérard Rubaud's "Rubaud Method" or Richard Bertinet's "Slap and Fold".
• When using a machine, knead the dough until it becomes glossy and cohesive. This takes about 5-7 minutes on my Ankarsrum on setting 4.
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• You can perform a gluten test while your dough is kneading to see when it's ready.
• With wet fingers, grab the dough and stretch it. The dough should be elastic and pliable. 
• People say you should be able to read a newspaper through the gluten window, but you don't need to stretch the dough that thin.
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• When the dough is stretchable and has come together into an elastic mass, stop kneading.
• Less is better than too much.
• An over-kneaded dough has broken gluten and no strength left.
• Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with cling film.
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• Folding

• Do Stretch and Folds - with slightly damp hands, lift and stretch the dough over itself.
• Do this all the way around.
• Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with cling film.
• Do Stretch and Folds again.
• Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with cling film.
• Do Coil Folds - with slightly damp hands, lift under the dough and tuck it under itself.
• Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with cling film.
• Do Coil Folds again.
• Let the dough rest for 2 hours, covered with cling film. (this is where you can adjust the time, shorter or longer)
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• Your dough should have increased by 30-50% in total from when you started folding it.
• Fold in a transparent container and mark it - so you can monitor the progress.
• Your dough should also have surface activity, like small bubbles.
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• Pre-shape

• With slightly damp hands, pour the dough out onto the kitchen counter.
• Stretch the dough into a rectangle and fold it 1/3 over itself.
• Now fold the left side over, the right side, and the bottom up.
• Kind of like an envelope.
• Turn the dough over, so the folds are against the counter.
• Shape the dough by pulling it across the counter toward you - a little from all sides.
• Cover the dough ball with a bowl.
• You have now pre-shaped your dough.
• Let it rest for 30 minutes.
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• Final Shape

• With slightly damp hands, shape the dough further.
• Either by repeating the above steps or pulling the dough across the counter to tighten it more.
• You have now final shaped your dough.
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• Dust your proofing basket with rice flour, or use a bowl with a towel. Use a basket or bowl where your dough can rise upwards and not outwards.
• You don't need to use rice flour, but your flour should be gluten-free.
• Gluten-containing flour sticks, and then the dough you've worked so hard on will stick.
• Place your dough in the basket with the bottom up. Dust with a little rice flour and cover the basket - either with a pot lid, plastic, or a towel.
• Place your dough in the fridge for 12-18 hours.
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• Baking

• Place the rack at the bottom of your oven, put your pot inside, and preheat to 240 degrees Celsius (464 degrees Fahrenheit) with fan.
• Let the pot heat up for about 30 minutes.
• Take your dough out of the fridge and place a piece of parchment paper on top and then a cutting board (you can cut the parchment paper into a circle with two tabs, so you can easily lower it into the pot)
• Turn the dough over and remove the basket.
• Dust with a bit of rice flour and score your desired pattern.
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• Take the pot out of the oven, lower your bread into it, put the lid on, and bake for 30 minutes in the oven.
• After 30 minutes, remove the lid from the pot, place it back in the oven, and bake for about 15 minutes or until the bread has the desired color.
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• If you want to measure the temperature of the bread, it should be about 97-98 degrees Celsius (207-208 degrees Fahrenheit). 
• Wait a bit before cutting the bread to avoid squashing the structure when slicing it.
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• You have now baked your delicious sourdough bread, and the first thing you do is get the cold butter from the fridge and enjoy a few well-deserved slices. After all, you've just spent nearly 24 hours on your bread 😉
• Bon appétit!