I promised my father-in-law my never-fail sourdough recipe, which is even easier than the one I was using a few months ago because it needs no kneading and actually works better than if you do. Here it is, with the earlier recipe after it.
Polwarth No-Knead Sourdough
This gives the best results I’ve had with sourdough bread: light but chewy, with a crisp crust, plenty of holes, and a wholemeal edge to the whiteness.
400g strong white flour
100g strong wholemeal or strong brown flour
10g salt
335g sourdough starter made 1:1 by weight with strong white flour and water
280g water
1. Around 7pm, put the flour in a 5-litre bowl, add the salt to one side and cover with a bit of the flour, then add the starter and water and bring it all together with a Danish whisk or by hand.
2. Rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
3. Using a wetted dough scraper and fingers, scrape underneath the dough, lift up one half of it and fold over the other. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Repeat a few times.
4. Rest, covered tightly with clingfilm or a teatowel, for 30 minutes.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until it’s time to go to bed. Leave the bowl, covered tightly with clingfilm, at room temperature overnight.
6. In the morning, flour a proving basket and the surface of a worktop, scrape the proved dough onto the worktop, stretch and fold into the middle, flip over and shape into a baton by tucking under the sides with your fingers. Lift the dough into the proving basket, cover with a large tented plastic bag, and leave at room temperature for four or five hours.
7. 40 minutes before it’s time to bake, put a baking stone into the oven and heat at 240°C.
8. At baking time, throw half a cup of water into the bottom of the oven. Dust a baking peel with semolina, tip the dough out onto it and quickly score the top with a knife or lame, then slide the loaf onto the baking stone.
9. Reduce the temperature to 210°C and bake for 45 minutes.
Polwarth Original Sourdough
A little more wholemealy, a little denser and chewier, but still tasty.
300g strong white flour
110g strong wholemeal or strong brown flour
90g wholemeal rye flour
10g salt
335g sourdough starter made 1:1 by weight with strong white flour and water
280g water
1. Around 7pm, put the flour in a bowl, add the salt to one side and cover with a bit of the flour, then add the starter and water and bring it all together with a Danish whisk or by hand.
2. Rest, covered, for 30 minutes to autolyse.
3. Turn out the dough and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough passes the windowpane test, or near enough.
4. Place the dough in the bowl and leave covered with clingfilm at room temperature overnight.
5. As steps 6.-9. in the recipe above. You might get away with two or three hours for the second prove.
← 22 May 2016 · Food →
A few years on, these are still my standard loaves, but I no longer prepare them in the evening and bake them in the morning; if you start the dough at 7 a.m., attend to it for the next hour and then leave it alone for the day, it will be ready to knock down and shape by 6 p.m., and can go in the oven an hour or two later.
Added by Rory on 24 September 2019.