Rustic Sourdough Loaf

Combine bread flour and cool water in a large bowl. Stir with wet hands or a dough whisk until absolutely no dry flour remains — scrape the bowl bottom. The dough will be rough and shaggy. Cover tightly with a damp towel or plastic wrap and rest for 45 minutes. During this rest, flour proteins absorb water and gluten begins organizing without any kneading effort. Do not add starter or salt yet.

Wet the work surface lightly. Pour the active starter over the autolyse dough; scatter the salt on top. Perform a lamination fold: stretch the dough out into a wide, thin rectangle, fold it into thirds like a letter, then fold into thirds again the other direction. Gather back into the bowl. This weaves the starter and salt into every gluten layer in one pass. Then perform one set of stretch-and-folds to unify the mass.

Cover the bowl and bulk ferment at room temperature (21–23 C / 70–73 F) for 4–5 hours. During the first 2 hours perform four sets of stretch-and-folds, one set every 30 minutes. For each set: wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, pull up as high as it will stretch without tearing, fold over the center. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat four times total. After the last set, leave completely undisturbed for the remainder of the bulk.

Dust a round banneton generously with rice flour. Tip the bulk dough onto a bare, unfloured work surface. Pre-shape: fold the edges in toward the center, flip seam-side down, and drag the ball gently across the table surface to build tension. Cover and rest 20 minutes. Final shape: flip the round, stretch to a loose oval, fold the far third to center, the near third over that, then roll toward you with both hands tucked under to tighten. Place seam-side up in the banneton. Cover with plastic and refrigerate 12–16 hours.

One hour before baking, preheat a Dutch oven with its lid on at 260 C (500 F). Score the cold loaf with a lame or razor blade: a single confident slash at 30–45 degrees to the surface, about 1 cm deep. Lift from the banneton using a parchment sling and lower into the screaming-hot Dutch oven. Bake covered 20 minutes — steam from the cold dough lets the loaf spring and bloom. Remove the lid, lower heat to 230 C (450 F), and bake 22–27 minutes more until deeply caramel-brown.