Someone over on our Instagram feed asked when I was going to share the recipe for the 24-hour sourdough loaf that I’d photographed. I forgot that I’d never actually blogged about it, so here it is!
It’s my new favourite sourdough bread recipe because it helps me plan my baking time to a tee. No more hanging around at bedtime for my bread to be ready to take out of the oven. You start at “zero hour” with a refresh of the starter and end with taking it out of the oven.
The 24-hour duration is a fairly loose timing. You can stretch or shorten the timeline to suit by warming or cooling the environment of the starter and the rising dough. I like to time it so that my final proof takes place overnight. The recipe suggests refrigerating the dough for this 8-12 hour stage however, our downstairs cloakroom gets really cold at night – and the banneton takes up a lot of space – so I do the rise in there.
It means I can get up in the morning, pre-heat the oven and La Cloche and enjoy lovely, fresh sourdough for breakfast!
Save the recipe to Pinterest for later!
24-hour sourdough loaf
Equipment
- Reusable food cover
- 1.5kg round banneton
- Grignette/lame for slashing dough
- La Cloche baking dome
Ingredients
- 585 ml/20½fl oz water at 27ºC
- 180 g/6⅓oz 1:1 100% hydrated, fresh sourdough starter that's been refreshed the night before and again in the morning (Hour 0)
- 900 g/31¾oz strong white bread flour
- 9 g/⅓oz fine sea salt
- a little rice flour for dusting your banneton I can't recommend this enough!!
Instructions
Hour 6
- In a bowl, whisk the warm water and starter and mix well
- Add the flour and salt (combined well) and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
- Cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours
Hour 8½
- Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times
Hour 12½
- Shape your dough lightly and place into a dusted banneton
- Cover with the reusable food cover or damp tea-towel and leave to prove on the side until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20 degrees, then transfer to the fridge for 8-12 hours
Hour 24
- In the morning, preheat the oven to 220ºC for 30 minutes to 1 hour before you are ready to bake with your La Cloche in the oven. The dish or La Cloche must be very hot
- Take the dish out of the oven and sprinkle a little flour over the bottom
- Put your dough into the La Cloche and slash the top of your bread using a grignette (or lame) then place the lid back on top and return to the oven as quickly as possible. Bake for 45 minutes
- Turn the heat down to 190ºC, remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes