Simple Sourdough Bread for Country Kitchens

Why Sourdough Belongs in a Country Kitchen

A jar of bubbling starter on the dresser, a linen cloth over a bowl and the smell of a hot crust coming off the oven — sourdough fits country life the way few things do. It costs pennies. It asks for nothing but flour, water, salt and a bit of your attention at the right moments. And because it keeps for days, one bake on a quiet morning can carry you through the week in toast, sandwiches and slabs of bread beside a bowl of soup. You don't need a mixer, a proving box or any special kit beyond a heavy pot with a lid.

Getting a Starter Off the Ground

If you haven't got one going, start small. In a clean jar, mix 50g of strong white flour with 50g of lukewarm water — blood temperature, never hot. Stir, cover loosely and leave it on the worktop. Each day, tip away half and add another 50g of each. Within a week or ten days you'll see bubbles, a fresh yoghurt smell and a rise-and-fall after each feed. That's a lively starter.

Wholemeal or rye flour in the mix speeds things up, and a little warmth helps in a cold kitchen — near a range cooker or on top of the fridge. Don't fret about the grey liquid on top. That's just hooch, a sign of hunger. Stir it in or pour it off, feed again and carry on. Once it doubles within four to six hours of feeding, it's ready to bake with.

Mixing the Dough

This makes one good round loaf, about 800g baked.

• 500g strong white bread flour (or 450g white and 50g wholemeal for a nuttier crumb)
• 350g lukewarm water
• 100g active starter
• 10g fine salt

Stir the starter into the water first, then add the flour and bring it together with your hand or a sturdy spoon. It'll look shaggy and rough. Cover and leave it half an hour — this rest does a lot of the work for you. Then sprinkle over the salt with a splash of water and squeeze it through the dough until evenly mixed.

Now for the stretch and folds. Wet your hand, lift one side of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the middle. Turn the bowl a quarter and repeat, four folds in all. Do a set every half hour or so, three or four times over the next two hours. You'll feel the dough change from slack and sticky to smooth and springy. That's the gluten building without any kneading at all.

The Slow Rise and the Cold Night

Once the dough looks puffy — a good 50 to 70 per cent bigger, with bubbles at the edges — it's ready to shape. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, fold it in on itself a few times to build tension, then drag it across the worktop in a circle until the top is tight and round.

If you've got a proving basket, dust it well with flour and drop the loaf in, seam side up. No basket? A bowl lined with a floured tea towel works fine. Then put it in the fridge overnight, anywhere from eight to sixteen hours. This cold retard is the secret to flavour and that open, holey crumb — and it means you bake when it suits you, not the starter.

Baking in a Dutch Oven

Put your cast-iron pot, lid and all, into the oven and heat it to 240°C (220°C fan, gas 9) for a good half hour. The pot needs to be properly hot.

Take the dough from the fridge, tip it onto a piece of baking parchment, seam side down, and score the top with a sharp blade or a serrated knife — one confident slash at a shallow angle, or a cross. Slide it into the hot pot, parchment and all, put the lid on and bake for 20 minutes. The lid traps the steam, which is what gives you the rise and the shine.

Then take the lid off, drop the heat to 220°C (200°C fan, gas 7) and bake another 20 to 25 minutes. You want a deep mahogany crust. If it's browning too fast, tent it with foil. Bread is done when it sounds hollow tapped on the base and reads about 96°C on a probe thermometer.

Reading the Bake and Keeping It Going

Let the loaf cool completely on a rack before you cut it — an hour at least. It's hard, I know, but cutting hot bread smears the crumb and undoes the work.

A few things to watch. If the loaf spreads rather than springs, your starter was probably a bit tired or the dough over-proved; feed more often and shorten the fridge time. If the crumb is tight and gummy, give it a longer final rise. Dense and sharply sour? Warmer water and a livelier starter next time.

Then just keep the rhythm. Feed your starter once a week in the fridge, or daily on the worktop if you bake often. Bake two loaves at once and freeze one sliced. Save the crusts and stale ends in a bag for breadcrumbs — nothing from a country kitchen should ever go to waste.