Sourdough Boule

 Inspired by JVR

Schedule; 

stir up a sponge on Friday night, leave it overnight, stir up the dough on Saturday morning and leave it on the counter to pull and turn over the course of the day, then bake in the evening or refrigerate overnight and bake on Sunday morning.

Sponge:

• 2-4 Tbsp starter.

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 50 g).

• 2 Tbsp water (about 50 g).

To make your sponge, stir the starter, flour and water in a small bowl and leave it on the counter top for a few hours, or preferably overnight. Or do it in the morning and leave it over the course of the day, until it gets nice and bubbly. Even 24 hours is fine.  

**start here with 1/2 cup fresh bubbly starter

Dough:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 cups water

Scrape that sponge into a bowl and stir in the flour, water and salt. 

It will look shaggy and wet, and you couldn't really knead it if you wanted to. It will seem not quite right, but cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it on the counter top for at least a few hours, or even longer. 

Every once in awhile, roughly every half an hour but it could be shorter or longer, uncover it and fold the dough over itself once or twice. It will get nice and smooth on its own, and develop blisters on the surface.

Take your smooth, very satisfying dough out of the bowl and shape it into a ball. Cup it in your hands and turn it on the counter top, pulling at the sides to sort of tighten the ball.

Upend it into a floured banneton or put it into a floured bowl, smooth side down. Cover it with the tea towel again and put it in the fridge overnight, if you want to bake it in the morning, or leave it for an hour or so, if you made the dough over the course of the day.

When you're ready to bake it, take the dough out of the fridge (I like to leave it on the counter top long enough to warm up), and preheat the oven to 450 ̊F with a heavy pot inside — I use an round enamel-coated cast iron pot with a lid that's about 4 L.

 When the oven is hot, invert the dough onto a piece of parchment paper and cut a few slashes on the surface with an X-acto knife or other sharp blade. Carefully drop the dough on the parchment into the pot and cover with a lid. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until golden and crackling like a fire.

Let it cool before slicing to keep it from getting gummy inside. Makes one loaf.