Sourdough Bread Recipe

Ever since our friend Lauren gave us sourdough starter and taught me the simple magic of sourdough a year and a half ago, we have been baking a loaf nearly every day. For the last year we have been baking sourdough in our RV oven (hot tip: use a pizza stone to more evenly distribute the heat since the flame is only on the bottom in an RV oven).

Here is our daily sourdough bread recipe, adapted from Lauren's recipe found here.

If you are new to sourdough note that you make the dough the day before baking the dough since it needs to rise for 10-12 hours overnight. Day one is the dough making day and day two is the bread baking day.

Day One (Dough Making Day) 12 pm

Feed your sourdough starter with equal parts flour and water. I typically feed with around 80 g starter and 80 g water. Stir. Cover jar loosely with lid or fabric covering to allow starter to breath and keep bugs out.

Day One (Dough Making Day) 7 pm

Make the dough. Combine in a large bowl:

100 g starter
350 g water
12 g salt
500 g flour

Stir until a shaggy dough forms. Cover dough in bowl for 15-30 minutes.

Stretch the dough using one hand pulling the dough from the sides of the bowl in toward the center and rotating the bowl with the other hand.

Cover for 15-30 minutes. Stretch again.

Cover and let rise for 10-12 hours overnight.

Note: we found that our dough wasn't rising well overnight when it got colder overnight in our trailer. We bought a seedling heating mat to put around the bowl overnight. You could also use a space heater if you have this problem.

Day Two (Bread Baking Day) 7 am

Preheat oven to 475 degrees (or if your oven is like our RV oven preheat to HIGH and hope that its around 475-500 degrees). Place dutch oven or large cast iron with lid (what we use) in the oven to preheat.

Once oven is hot, put a small layer of rice in the bottom of the cast iron to prevent burning on the bottom (a common issue when using an RV oven!) and line with parchment paper. Shape dough and place in parchment paper-lined cast iron/dutch oven or if you're like me just toss the dough right in without shaping because you are too excited to eat it.

Bake covered for 50 minutes. When I baked in a residential oven I baked uncovered at the end but with an RV oven only having a flame on the bottom I have found that it is best to bake covered the entire time.

Let cool for as long as possible to prevent gummy bread. Cut into only when cooled.

Enjoy!