– Ready in 1 day (as long as you have a mature sourdough starter available to use) –
Gather together…
A large, lidded, cast-iron casserole dish, 24cm in diameter by 12 cm in depth (I use an ancient, inherited Denby one), approximately 5 litres in capacity, Argos sells a 5.3 litre casserole dish for under £50, Sainsbury's sells a large cast iron casserole dish for £35.
A reusable silicone liner - mine is meant for a 1lb or 2lb loaf tin yet it does the job perfectly (the Bake-O-Glide one I use is no longer available, but this Toastbags one looks identical).
150g of mature sourdough starter - very active and bubbly, see below how to get it to this stage (DO weigh the starter on digital scales, it needs to be exact).
250g strong white bread flour (DO weigh the flour on digital scales, it needs to be exact).
250g / 250ml lukewarm water (DO weigh the warm water on digital scales, it needs to be exact).
then later...
200g strong white bread flour (DO weigh the flour on digital scales, it needs to be exact).
1 tsp of 'table' salt (i.e. fine salt, not coarse salt).
dust with...
1 tsp of white flour (this can be plain flour or strong bread flour) - to dust the casserole dish with.
and finally...
1/2 tsp of white flour (this can be plain flour or strong bread flour) - to sprinkle on top.
Get making…
1. AT BREAKFAST TIME on the MORNING BEFORE BREAD BAKING DAY, remove the sourdough starter from the fridge (if that is where you have stored it, I keep mine on the kitchen bench unless I'm not baking for 3+ days). As you need 150g to bake the bread with, you'll need to discard less of the starter than usual, ensuring you have a 1/2 cup (120g) of starter left in the Pyrex bowl (I now use a Pyrex - aka toughened glass - bowl to store my sourdough starter, after having three regular glass jars crack, each incident was a near miss each time for my poor starter "Mary" - eek!) To that 120g of starter in the Pyrex bowl, add a 1/2 cup (120g) of lukewarm water - at this stage stir well to loosen the starter - then add a 1/2 cup (60g) of wholemeal flour. Stir well and wipe down the sides with a clean damp cloth, cover the jar with a clean, dry cotton cloth (secured with an elastic band) and put it to keep warm in the oven, WITH JUST THE OVEN LIGHT ON (the heat from the bulb will keep the oven slightly warm) for 3 to 6 HOURS - however long it takes for your particular starter to become very active and bubbly. If it is a COLD DAY then pre-warm your EMPTY oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON. Set a timer to ring after 3 hours to remind you to check your starter and in the meantime put a note on the oven door so that no one unwittingly turns the heat on and frazzles your starter - eek!
2. Check your sourdough starter half way through the six hours, i.e. after 3 hours (set a timer to remind you to do this). If it looks bubbly and active - great, get on with the recipe steps. If it looks inactive or hungry (i.e. if a layer of watery 'hooch' liquid has formed within the starter or on the top) then stir in the hooch and do another cycle of 'discard all but 1/2 of a cup and feed with 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup wholemeal flour'. If it is a COLD day, repeat the quick oven pre-warm (warm the empty oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON to continue to keep the sourdough starter cosy). You want the starter, to get really active and bubbly, if you are in luck it will look something like the photo below (if yours is only half as bubbly as this it will still be fine)...
3. The AFTERNOON BEFORE BREAD BAKING DAY is when to make the dough. (It needs to be made in the afternoon as you are approaching a period of four hours of rising time, and you don't want to be up until midnight waiting for the dough to rise so you can put it in the fridge!) Put 150g of (active, warm and happy) sourdough starter in a medium-large bowl (if you have any wrist/hand weakness you will want to use the bowl of an 'electric-mixer-with-dough-hook', as the mixing later on is tough!) Add 250g/250ml of lukewarm water and stir to loosen the starter, then add 250g of strong WHITE bread flour. Stir really well with a metal spoon for 1 minute. The mixture will look a bit loose - fear not, we will be adding more flour later.
4. Cover the medium-large bowl with a damp tea towel and put it to keep warm in the oven-with-just-the-oven-light-on again, this time for 2 HOURS. Set a timer to ring to remind you. Also check that the note is still on the oven to stop anyone turning it on properly. If it is a COLD DAY then pre-warm your empty oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON.
5. Remove the warm dough from the turned-off-but-light-on oven and add 200g of strong WHITE bread flour and 1 tsp of salt (NOT lumpy rock salt, fine 'table' salt). Always add the flour first and then add the salt to sit on top, as a high concentration of salt all in one place will kill the yeast - so adding the salt on top of the flour means that the flour 'dilutes' it.
6. Mix gently but well, with a comfortable-to-hold spoon for 1 to 2 minutes to ensure there are no dry patches of unmixed flour. It is hard work - you may want to use an electric mixer with a dough hook.
7. Place the silicone liner into the large, 5 litre-capacity, lidded, cast-iron casserole dish (circa 24cm diameter x 12cm depth). Sprinkle 1 tsp of white flour (plain flour or strong bread flour - either type works fine) on top of the liner and spread around evenly.
8. Tip the sticky dough into the lined-and-floured casserole dish, don't worry what shape it is, it will gradually spread and fill the base of the casserole dish.
9. Drape the damp tea towel over the casserole dish (flat across the top, not touching the dough) - you may need to re-dampen the tea towel at this point - and again put it in the oven with just the oven light on (this will keep it at a constant warm enough temperature) for 2 HOURS. Set a timer to ring to remind you. If it is a COLD DAY then pre-warm your empty oven for 1 minute at 180 C ish - set a timer for 60 seconds or it will get too warm, before turning the heat OFF and just leaving the oven light ON.
10. By now it will be the EVENING BEFORE the day you want to bake the bread. After the final warm rise, take the casserole dish out of the oven and TURN THE OVEN LIGHT OFF. Your dough will have puffed up (if your starter was active and bubbly) and should look something like this...
*Note* - even when my dough has looked far less puffy than this, the dough manages to perk up overnight in the fridge ready for its morning bake. So don't worry if yours looks far less -or not at all - bubbly.
11. Remove the damp tea towel AND PUT THE LID ON the casserole dish instead.
12. Place the LIDDED casserole dish containing the dough in the fridge overnight.
13. FIRST THING IN THE MORNING OF BAKING DAY remove the casserole dish from the fridge. Don't worry if your dough still looks regrettably flat, it will puff up beautifully in the oven.
14. Using your fingers, sprinkle pinches of flour (1/2 tsp in total) evenly over the surface of the dough - this flour will help you to cut it without sticking.
15. Using sharp kitchen scissors, make 3 long cuts in the dough - it will take a few snips to make each long cut. (I find using scissors easier than using a knife / blade when the dough is in-situ in its baking vessel). See the photo below to help clarify the scissor-cutting method...
16. Wipe the inside of lid with a dry cloth to remove the condensation droplets.
17. Put the lid onto the casserole dish and put the COLD DISH (containing the cold dough) into the COLD OVEN - yes this 'cold oven baking' method seems very odd but it works and it saves time and energy as the wasteful pre-heating stage is removed.
18. Set the oven to 250 C (230 C fan) or Gas 9 and bake for 60 minutes (part of this time will be taken up with the oven getting up to temperature, this is fine as it means that the dough can rise without being constrained by a crust-that-forms-too-soon).
19. After 60 minutes remove the loaf from the oven, take it out of the casserole dish, remove the liner and cool it on a wire rack (or else the base - which bakes beautifully as shown in the lower photo - will go soggy).
20. Wait for AT LEAST 2 hours (ideally 4 hours) before cutting the loaf or else it will get squashed and misshapen if cut when warm, plus it needs the time to finish drying out. You don't want to be eating 'sweaty' bread!
21. Enjoy with a generous spread of butter.
22. The lactic acid produced by the sourdough starter bacteria act as natural preservatives - and give the bread its great flavour - so the loaf will last well for 2 days (on day 3 it still makes delicious toast). Just keep it wrapped in a tea towel at (cool) room temperature when storing it. This loaf also freezes-and-defrosts well if you slice it (once completely cool) on the day of baking and freeze it on the day of baking. I either defrost mine slowly at room temperature, or in the microwave on 'Medium-Low' for 20 seconds or so, until mostly defrosted. Hurrah for sourdough bread and its natural preservatives!
Adapted from the no knead 'Boule' recipe in the book 'Five Minute Bread' by Jeffrey Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, and from James Morton's advice in his 'Super Sourdough' book and from the 'cold oven baking' wisdom of Elaine Boddy on foodbodsourdough.com.