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Slow fermented Swiss Dark Flour Cob

I needed to refresh my sourdough starter, so rather than throw some of it away I used it as part of this lovely loaf which helped to give it even more flavour and a smashing crust.

Ingredients

Sponge

50g of unrefreshed sourdough, 50g water, 50g organic white flour No 4 and 2g dried yeast. Mix all together, loosely cover and leave on kitchen counter. It started fermenting in an hour.

Recipe

450g Swiss Dark Flour

310g water

7g sea salt

Method

Mix flour, water and active sponge together and knead until it passes the “window” test. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and knead for a few minutes so all the salt is blended in. Cover and leave to rise. Once doubled in size, scrape onto a lightly floured surface and stretch and fold and shape into a round and place top down into a floured proving basket for second proving.

I bake these in a La Cloche baking dome so I preheat the oven to 240’c but if you don’t have a La Cloche preheat a tray or stone and place a second tray at the bottom of the oven to also heat up. Once the dough has risen to just above the edge of the proving basket carefully tip out onto a piece of baking parchment and slash top as required. Carefully place dough in the heated dome base and replace lid and bake in the middle of the oven. If using a tray or stone, add some boiling water to the tray at the bottom to give some steam in the oven as you place the dough into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes and reduce heat to 220’c and bake for a further 30-35 minutes, if using a La Cloche remove lid after 25 minutes to allow loaf to finish baking and form a lovely crust in the last 10 minutes. I find when using the La Cloche I add a few more minutes to the bake as although the loaf looks lovely its a little light in colour. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.