ingredients

• 100g active sourdough starter, fed

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 450g water

• 1 tbsp kosher salt

steps

1. (8:00pm) The night before, feed your sourdough starter and leave it on the countertop overnight.

2. (7:15am) In a large mixing bowl, add your starter, water, and salt. Mix until the starter is completely dispersed into the water. Add the flour and mix until shaggy. Then use your hands to stretch and fold the dough a few times until flour and water are well mixed and there aren't any dry spots of flour clumps. Cover with plastic wrap, set aside to rest for 10-15 minutes.

3. (7:30am) Uncover the bowl and using a wet hand, grab one side of the dough and gently pull it (let it stretch without tearing), then fold it across the dough, rotate the bowl 90 degrees, and repeat 4 times. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

4. (8:00am, 8:30am, 9:00am, 9:30am, 10:00am) Repeat step 3 every 30 minutes until 6 rounds of stretch and folds have been performed between these two steps. After the last round, cover and let it rise for 2 hours.

5. (12:00pm) Prepare a bowl with parchment paper. Use a bit of rice flour if you have it and flour your surface (if you don't have rice flour, it's okay - it might be a little more wet and sticky causing it to be more difficult to shape but you can also use a spray bottle to mist your surface to help). Turn out the dough onto the surface and shape using your favorite method. Then, place the dough seam-side down into the bowl with parchment paper. Cover and let rise for another 2 hours. My favorite method for shaping is the following:

   1.  Stretch the dough into a rough rectangle. 

   2. Fold the bottom up 1/3 of the way, then fold the left and right sides in to meet in the middle. 

   3. At the top, use a "stitching" motion to stitch the two sides in towards the center all the way down to the bottom. Once you reach the bottom, fold and roll the dough starting from the bottom to the top.

   4. Use surface tension and a bench scraper to shape the dough into a circle.

6. (2:00pm) Preheat the oven with the dutch oven inside to 500F (I do this without the lid to make it easy). Move your mixing bowl with the dough into the freezer (fridge is ok if you don't have room in the freezer) during preheating ~20-30 minutes. 

7. (2:20pm) Once the oven is preheated, turn the oven temperature down to 450F. Get the dough from the freezer. Score the loaf across ~1/4" deep. Carefully, grabbing the parchment paper, lift the dough and place it into the hot dutch oven. Cover with the lid. Bake covered for 5 minutes.

8. (2:25pm) Optional: remove lid and carefully score the same area again to help get a more prominent "ear". Add a handful of ice cubes outside of the parchment paper to create extra steam. Re-cover and bake covered for 20 more minutes.

9. (2:45pm) Remove the cover, turn the oven temperature down to 425F. Bake uncovered for another 20-25 minutes.

10. (3:05pm) Let cool for 20 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!