Sourdough Loaf or Pizza dough

See my sourdough starter recipe for instructions on how to make and maintain a sourdough starter. Additionally, many of the techniques used in the soft sourdough bun recipe apply here, namely shaping.

• 500g flour
• 12g salt
• 350g water (70% hydration), slightly above room temperature
• 100g sourdough starter

1. Sift the salt and flour together.
2. Gently whisk the starter into the water.
3. Mix the flour & salt into the water mixture. This way, with flour on top, it doesn’t get as stuck to the bottom. Stop once it has just come together.
4. Let it sit in the bowl for 30-60 minutes to let it autolyse, which starts some gluten development.
5. Kneed using the stretch and fold technique:
   1. Have a bowl of water nearby to wet your hands. This helps prevent the dough from sticking to you.
   2. With the fingers of both hands, gently lift about half the dough from the bottom of the bowl, and fold it over the other half.
   3. As you do more stretch and folds, the dough will develop more gluten and resist stretching. This will also help prevent the dough from sticking to you.
   4. One set of stretch and folds is about 4-8 times. After each set, let the dough rest for 30 minutes before moving on to the next set.
   5. After 2-4 sets, we will have developed enough gluten to shape the dough.
6. Let rest until relaxed.
7. Dump onto a lightly floured work surface.
8. Use a bench scraper to shape the dough in circles to form a taut ball.
9. Add some oil to a bowl and place the dough ball in the bowl. You can proof in the fridge for 12 hours.
10. After proofing, dump onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into two.
11. Shape each into either a circular bun or a long loaf. The shaping techniques from the soft sourdough bun recipe apply here.
12. Place each on a parchment paper slice and let rise for 1-3 hours. The parchment paper is used to transfer the dough to the dutch oven.
13. Preheat the oven to 425°F with the dutch oven. It is better to use a non-enameled dutch oven, because the enamel can be damaged by the high heat.
14. Just before baking, brush the loaf with water and score with a razor blade. The score helps the loaf to expand up (out of the score), rather than in some other direction. Pick up the parchment paper and place the loaf in the dutch oven.
15. Bake covered for roughly 15 minutes, then uncover and another 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 190°F.
16. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

Pizza dough

For pizza dough, use 700g flour and 490g water. Divide into 4 rather than 2. Once divided, you can keep them in an oiled tupperware in the fridge for up to a week.