Wood-Fired Sourdough, Demystified
Three weeks of feeding a starter, one Saturday of patience, and a loaf with a crackle you can hear from across the kitchen. No special oven required.
Sourdough has been mythologized into something complicated, but it really is just flour, water, salt, and time. The time is the part most people get wrong — usually they don't give it enough.
This is the loaf I have been baking every Saturday for three years. It is forgiving, it is reliable, and it produces the kind of crust that shatters when you press a thumbnail into it.
Ingredients
Method
- 1
Mix flour and water in a large bowl until no dry spots remain. Cover and rest 1 hour. This is the autolyse — non-negotiable.
- 2
Add starter and salt. Squeeze through the dough with wet hands until fully incorporated.
- 3
Over the next 4 hours, perform 4 sets of stretch-and-folds spaced 45 minutes apart.
- 4
Once the dough is jiggly and 50% larger, tip onto a clean counter, pre-shape into a loose round, rest 30 min.
- 5
Shape tightly, dust generously with rice flour, place seam-up in a banneton.
- 6
Cold ferment in the fridge 12–18 hours.
- 7
Preheat a Dutch oven inside your oven at 250°C / 480°F for 45 minutes.
- 8
Score the loaf, lower into the hot pot, bake covered 20 minutes, uncovered 22 minutes more, until deeply mahogany.
- 9
Cool fully on a rack before slicing. I know. You can do it.
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