Gesen KingWhen it comes to cooking and baking, I am the kind of person who uses recipes as inspiration more than as rules to follow. This has generally worked out okay for me, but when it came to sourdough, the recipes required a few more technical steps than I was willing to master. I found a base recipe for the ratios and decided to cut out all the confusing steps and see if it would still work. Thankfully it did! I now make this recipe regularly.
Sometimes I use my oven and other times I use my InstantPot Pro so I will provide instructions for both methods. I consider every loaf to be an experiment, sometimes they turn out better than others but they are always edible! I try to mix my dough before going to bed, especially if I am planning to bake it in the oven. If I am using the InstantPot I can get away with a much shorter fermentation time (around 4 hours instead of 8-14) since it is held at the optimal fermentation temperature around 110.
Temperature, elevation and type of flour all have an effect on the loaf so I try to watch for visible signs of readiness instead of following specific timelines.
Sourdough Loaf
Ingredients
- 100 g starter
- 500 g all-purpose flour you might want less liquid if using a whole grain flour
- 300-350 g water or combination of milk, water, eggs, oil
- 10 g salt
Instructions
- Add starter to bowl (if the starter is really runny you can add a little extra flour or use a little less water)
- Add water and stir to dissolve (to the bowl for your bread and 50g to the jar for your starter)
- Add flour and mix until shaggy dough is formed (add 50g to the jar for your starter)
- Cover and let sit overnight
- Uncover and add salt (& other flavorings if using: garlic, Italian seasoning, cinnamon raisin, etc) mix or knead for 5-10 min
- Pour into buttered bread pan and let rise for a couple hours or until just below the rim (if it is smooth enough to roll into a log before placing in the pan go for it! Mine is almost always too sticky to properly shape)
- Preheat oven (for the rv oven I set it to max and then when it reaches around 400° I put the loaf pan in and turn down the temp. Ideally you want it to stay around 350°-400°)
- Bake for 30-50 min or until the internal temp is 190°
Sourdough Loaf for InstantPot Pro
Ingredients
- 60-70 g Sourdough Starter
- 230 g Filtered Water Or combination of eggs, milk, yogurt, other liquid of choice
- 330 g Flour
- 8 g Salt
Instructions
- Combine starter, water and flour into a shaggy dough
- cover and let dough sit overnight or in the InstantPot on yogurt setting for 4 hours.
- Add salt and any other add-ins (seasonings, chopped nuts, dried fruit, etc)
- 'Knead' for 5 minutes – I use a dough whisk to mix the dough, it is typically too wet and sticky to work with my hands.
- Pour into buttered InstantPot bread pan and smooth the top
- Place on wire rack in InstantPot and set on yogurt setting for 1 hour
- Set InstantPot to bake 350 for 2 hours and make sure the vent valve is open
- Internal temp should reach 190. Remove from InstantPot and allow to cool slightly before slicing.
