Sour dough  artisan bread

There’s nothing quite like the crisp crust and airy crumb of a good sourdough artisan bread, a timeless staple made with just flour , water, salt and patience. This sour dough Artisan bread recipe is the bread recipe you have been looking for easy and delicious.

My girlfriend gave me some sour dough starter, that someone gave to her, and so on. There are stories some sour dough starters can be hundreds  of years old.

A women somewhere in the United States claims her is 122 years old. I like to think my was part of ancient ancestry. The process is simple, whatever you use from the starter is replaced called “feeding the starter” with equal parts of flour and water, I use 1/2 cup of flour to 1/3  cup of water.

The starter is ready when it appears frothy with air bubbles and has a sour smell. This process takes a few hours, longer if you keep your starter in the refrigerator, I keep my on the counter top. It will also let you know when it’s hunger, it falls flat, you can revive it by feeding it.

Not all of us are so lucky to have sour dough starter passed down to us from our bread baking friends. Thankfully, making mother sourdough starter is as simple as stirring together equal parts of flour and water and letting it sit. no expensive heirloom starters, or mysterious rituals required. To make the mother starter use the same process as” feeding the starter”.

I was looking for a artisan bread recipe that tasted and looked like the bread I bought at the local bakery, well I think I found it.

Things to know about this sour dough  artisan bread recipe

If you don’t have access to a sour dough starter. Here’s how to make your own starter. In a clean jar mix 1 cup wheat flour or unbleached white flour with 1/2 cup of water.  After the second day, discard half of the starter ( about 1/2 cup) feed with  fresh 1/2 cup flour and 1/4 cup water and mix well. The starter is ready to use when bubbles form and a tangy yeasty aroma develops and doubles in size. If you want to skip the whole sourdough starter process you can substitute the starter with 2 teaspoons of dry yeast and following the same instructions.

The recipe calls to bake it in a dutch oven, covered the first 30 minutes, uncovered 20 minutes and on the grate the last 10 minutes,

I found the crust too hard when I took it out pan the last 10 minutes so I left it in the dutch oven the whole 30 minutes uncovered.

After  many failed attempts experimenting with different flour combinations,  I like equal parts of whole wheat and white flour.

Something else I learned in my failed attempts at bread making, more isn’t always better, meaning don’t  over knead the dough. like I did, wondering why the bread was heavy well that’s why!!!

I have used the same recipe adjusting the water and flour ratio to make focaccia, pizzas, and flat breads.