Words from our 2022 champion, Richard,

and his award winning recipe:

 

First, I can’t thank you enough for letting me be a part of the extravaganza. I enjoy baking sourdough bread and it was nice to get up on stage at Scream It Off Screen. I’m a huge fan!

 

So, my recipe is pretty complex and the dough has a fairly high hydration. Because of this, it is difficult if someone isn’t experienced with sourdough. With that said, I have included my recipe below. 

 

My sourdough is a combination of white, rye, and wheat flours. I kept Terry’s starter in the fridge and fed it two or three times to get it active 4 days before baking and then made the bread with a process that spans two days. 

 

Rick’s Go-To Sourdough 

 

Ingredients:

500 g White bread flour

150 g Rye flour

50 g Wheat bread flour

18 g sea salt

6 g diastolic malt powder (optional)

560 g room temperature water

150 g mature starter

 

Add all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl or Cambra tub and mix together with your hands until it looks like a shaggy mess. Then let it sit for 1 hour. 

 

Perform a series of stretch and folds (slide your hand under approximately 1/2 the dough and stretch it out gently and fold it back onto the other half - rotate the dough a 1/4 turn and repeat for a total of 4 times). Let the dough rest, covered, for 30 minutes, then perform another series of stretch and folds. Do a total of 4 of these stretch and fold series’, waiting 30 minutes between each. 

 

After completing the last series of stretch and folds, let the dough bulk rise, covered, until a 25-50% increase. 

 

Turn the dough out onto an unfloured surface and divide into two loaves. Shape each into your desired shape. I shape mine into round loaves to proof in 8” round, rattan bannetons. 

 

Retard in the refrigerator overnight (12 - 18 hours). 

 

To bake, preheat oven to 500 degrees with the vessel you are using to bake with inside the oven. I use a cast iron combo cooker available on Amazon for pretty cheap. 

 

Turn the bread out onto a peel or cutting board with a piece of parchment paper on it. Score the bread and slide it onto the cooking vessel and bake it, covered, for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 450 degrees, uncovered and continue to bake for another 25 minutes. 

 

Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour. 

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It's never too early to start developing your master recipe.