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Zacs Official Sourdough Recipe and Schedule

Introduction

This is the recipe I’ve developed over the past couple years baking sourdough. It’s a combination of a few different recipes/schedules I’ve tried in the past and I’ve found it to be what works best for me. I’ve also included a schedule that I typically follow when baking bread.

This recipe works great for pizza dough as well. Instead of the shaping step, I divide the dough into two balls and wrap them in plastic wrap and pop into the fridge until I’m ready to use them. Working with cold pizza dough is much easier than room temp. I like to let them sit in the fridge for a day or two before using them.

Starter

Maintenance Feed

(to do each day) - 1:5:5 ratio

  • 2g-4g Starter
  • 20g Water
  • 20g Flour
Bread Feed (levain)

(Normally done the night before you start the bread) - 1:3:3 ratio

  • 20g Starter
  • 60g Water
  • 60g Flour

Ingredients

Large Loaf Ratios
  • 600g - Bread Flour
  • 12g - Salt (2% total flour)
  • 450g - Water (75% hydration)
  • 120g - Starter (20% inoculation)
Smaller Loaf Ratios
  • 450g - Bread Flour
  • 9g - Salt (2% total flour)
  • 338g - Water (75% hydration)
  • 90g - Starter (20% inoculation)

Recipe

Mixing
The night before, mix starter
  • 20g starter, 60g water, 60g flour
    • Measure out ingredients
  • Salt in a separate container
  • Water in mixing bowl
  • Flour to the side
    • Mix until fully incorporated
  • Incorporate starter with water and stir until bubbly and dissolved
  • Add salt and stir to dissolve
  • Add flour
    • Lobster pinch to incorporate
    • Rubaud method to strengthen gluten
    • Do this method for 5-10 minutes
    • Give remaining starter a maintenance feed
  • 2-4g starter
  • 20g flour
  • 20g water
    • Ferment
    Let rest for 30 minutes, we’re starting the stretch and fold process
    • Wet your hands
    • Pull the dough and fold it over on itself
    • turn 45º and repeat 4 times
    Start a 30 minute timer
    • repeat for a minimum of 4 times over 2 hours
    • ideally 6 times for a total of 3 hours
    • Cover with plastic wrap or something air tight
    Let it bulk ferment (sit there) for 3 more hours
    Shape
    Pre-shaping
    • At this point it should pass the ‘window pane’ test but I’ve found it’s usually good to go at this point.
    • If it’s noticeably cold you might want to extend bulk ferment a little longer
    • Lightly flour a surface
    • Do one last stretch and fold (to get the dough off the bowl) and tip over
    • Dump dough onto surface
    • Use the scraper to pull the dough under itself to create tension in the doughs surface (preshape the dough)
    • Let rest for 15-30 minutes (people call this a bench rest)
    Final shaping
    • We want to build more tension in the dough so it has a nice oven spring
      • video says use rice flour but a little extra normal flour is fine for the banneton dusting
      • If you brought the circle banneton
      • If its a boule shape (the longer one)
    Proof
    Proof dough
    • Let the dough proof (sit there) for 90 minutes
    • Place dough in the fridge for at least an hour.
    • At this time I like to start the oven to preheat.
    • Oven preheats at 500º with the dutch oven inside for 45 minutes - 1 hour.
    Bake
    Score the bread
    • flip the the bread on some parchment paper
    • You can get fancy with it or just score a 1/2” through the top
    Bake the bread
    • Place dough in dutch oven with a few ice cubes
    • set temperature of oven to 450º
    • bake for 20 minutes with lid on
    • take lid off, bake for another 25 minutes
    • If light brown, bake for another 3-5 minutes
    Let rest until completely cool
    • Unless this bread is for a special dinner then enjoy after 30 minutes
    • Steamy bread is delicious but will dry out if you don't eat it all in immediately

    Notes mentioning this note

    Example Schedule

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