Consistently beautiful sourdough bread

Do you love homemade sourdough bread?

My family does, and always found making sourdough bread an effort that may—or may not!—turn out a lovely, light bread. Until I discovered the secret.

I live in Colorado at high altitude, and having made consistently good bread in Texas, I was mystified. Why couldn’t I get the same results in my new home? I followed recipes (even high altitude ones) but still had inconsistent results.

Then I asked ChatGPT. Why am I having so much trouble?

With the knowledge of the World Wide Web in its artificial brain, ChatGPT helped me figure out a recipe that works, all the time. Yes, there were trial-and-effort experiments, but I get loaves of beautiful sourdough bread now every time I bake (at least once a week).

We had scrumptious sourdough rolls for Thanksgiving, too!

So here’s the secret.

Make sure your starter is at peak.

Measure out 500 grams of bread flour and 330 grams of water into a large bowl. Mix until you have a shaggy ball of dough. Don’t add the starter yet!

Cover the bowl and leave it alone for 30 minutes.

When the 30 minutes are up, add 100 grams of active starter and 10 grams of salt. Mix this by folding the dough over and over until the starter is incorporated.

Cover again and let it rest. It is going to rise slightly (maybe 30%) over the next 3 or 4 hours. Watch the dough, not the clock!

During this time, every 45 minutes or so, do four stretch and folds.

Once the dough has risen 30% or thereabouts, do one last stretch and fold and transfer it to your banneton, sprinkled liberally with flour.

Cover the banneton and put it in the refrigerator. I leave mine overnight—it needs at least 5 or 6 hours. The dough will not seem to rise much, if at all, in the refrigerator.

In the morning, preheat your dutch oven and your oven to 450º.

When your oven is ready, remove the dough from the refrigerator and turn the dough out onto parchment. Use your lame or a sharp knife to score the top of your bread.

Now put the dough on the parchment into your preheated dutch oven, cover it, and bake it for 25 minutes. Uncover it and continue baking for an additional 20-25 minutes. before removing it and cooling it on a wire rack.

Want really soft crust? Brush butter all over the top!

Now that you have a gorgeous loaf of sourdough bread, how do you store it?

In our house, it goes pretty fast, but even we can’t eat a whole loaf at once!

I tried refrigerating it, and the bread was chewy. Yuck!

Next I tried putting it in a plastic bag on the counter, and it molded!

Then I tried just covering it with a towel on the counter. It dried out.

In frustration, I looked around for another method (besides freezing, which works just fine, especially if you slice it first). Then my eyes fell on my cake plate. All glass with a heavy dome.

I tried wrapping it in a cloth napkin and putting it in the cake plate, and guess what? Success!

Now I just slice a piece for toast, pop in in the toaster, make a cup of hot herbal tea, and breakfast is served!