I have not slept well since Thursday last week. I wake up almost every day at 4am and then toss and turn until my alarm goes off at 6:30 am. Then the other day I ran over a 4×4 on the highway so I went to get my tires checked out and ended up not only needing an alignment, but was past due for breaks and rotors. I can actually do brakes myself (I thank my dad for that), but since they were already doing the rest I didn’t feel like messing with it. So I’m exhausted with $500 less to my name. And then I realized I did not write up a post last night for today.

Thankfully I made this bread awhile ago, but keep forgetting to post about it (hooray, saved by back posts!). I love a good sourdough bread. Even though it didn’t come out as pretty as I had hoped, it still tasted just right! Even though this bread is now long gone, I now crave it looking at it in remembrance. Will you make one with me too? Maybe I can sleep tonight after having some good fresh bread.

By the way, there is a difference between using unfed, straight out of the fridge, sourdough starter and fed. In order to make this transition you must first use or remove 1 cup of the unfed (which I used to make sourdough pizza crust since that’s what it calls for). Add a little water and flour, wait a few hours and now you have fed your starter! For complete directions refer to King Arthur Flour.

RUSTIC SOURDOUGH BREAD

Makes two loaves

Ingredients:

1 cup “fed” sourdough starter

1-1/2 cups lukewarm water

2 tsp instant yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

2-1/2 tsp salt

5 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour (I did half and half)

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough. Allow the dough to rise, in a covered bowl, until it’s doubled in size, about 90 minutes. Gently divide the dough in half; it’ll deflate somewhat.
2. Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves; or, for longer loaves, two 10″ to 11″ logs. Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 1 hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
3. Spray the loaves with lukewarm water. Make two fairly deep diagonal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here. Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it’s a very deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Source: The Baker Chick, originally from King Arthur Flour.