Starter

Dough

Baking

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Knead Some Dough

After the second peak, remove the starter from the oven. In a stand mixer or bread machine, combine the following ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups of prepared starter
• 2 cups of bread flour
• 3/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of ascorbic acid

Mixing the Dough

If you are using a stand mixer, use the kneading attachment and knead the dough until it no longer sticks to the sides or the bottom of the mixing bowl. This will take about 10 to 15 minutes on a low (2 to 3) speed setting. The dough should be very dry, almost approaching the point where two dough balls are trying to form in the mixer. If it looks too dry, add up to an additional 1/4 cup of starter.

You may also knead the dough in a bread machine, although this dough is fairly stiff and will require a bread machine powerful enough to do the job.

You may also knead the dough by hand, but unless you're a weight lifter, you may find this very tiring.

Prepare for rise

After kneading, spray or wipe the inside of a bowl with a little cooking oil. Place the dough into the bowl, forming a ball. Now flip it over and roll it around to coat the dough ball with the oil. Next, place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough. This prevents the dough from drying out during rise.

Place the bowl and dough back in the oven and let it rise for 45 to 60 minutes. During this time, the dough should rise about 1-1/2 to 2 times its size. If your starter was very active, the dough may be rising too quickly. In this case, you can reduce the rise time to 30 minutes. If your starter does not seem very active, this is okay. It might take several hours for the rise, just go for the doubling in size no matter how long it takes.

Form the Loaf

After the rise time, the dough ball should be twice the size, full of air, and somewhat wet. Remove the dough from the oven and turn onto a floured surface.

Sprinkle the dough with some flour and knead the dough gently, using your knuckles or the palm of your hand. The idea is to remove all of the larger air bubbles, while keeping some of the smaller air bubbles intact. Avoid using a roller pin or otherwise flattening the dough. The whole process shouldn't take more that a few minutes. As you finish, knead the dough into a small round circle.

Now lift the dough from its sides and fold it back to form a ball. Stretch the dough slightly across the front, while tucking it towards the back. Finally, pinch the back of the dough ball to seal the seams.

The best way to bake this bread is on a baking stone. If you are not familiar with this device, it is a sheet of porous stone often used for baking pizzas. It has the ability to pull moisture out of bread while it is baking, resulting in a thick, delicious crust. You can buy a baking stone at most cooking supply stores. The one shown in these photos cost about $20US dollars. Sprinkle some corn meal on a baking stone and place the loaf on the stone. Now spray the loaf lightly with some cooking oil spray. Also spray one side of a piece of plastic wrap. As before, place the greased plastic wrap over the dough. With the plastic wrap in place, you can now easily reform the dough ball if necessary through the wrap.

Place the baking stone in the oven. Let the bread rise for 3 to 4 hours. Unlike commercial yeast, San Francisco yeast rises much more slowly, so you won't wind up with a dough monster filling your oven to its brim. The dough should rise to 2 to 2-1/2 times its original size.