Rustic Sourdough Bread

So, now that I'm retired, I decided I'd start making my own bread regularly (instead of the chemical laden store-bought stuff).  I bought some starter from the King Arthur Flour site (supposed to be a descendant of one that's over 250 years old!) and I've been "feeding" it for the last couple of days.  The instructions were a little scary, but I did it!  I have a beautiful batch of starter in my very cute King Arthur crock - at least, I think it's beautiful!  It smells kind of yeasty and just a little sour...and good!  I almost feel like I know what I'm doing!

Rustic Sourdough Bread

1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups luke-warm water
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
5 cups King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour

Combine all of the ingredients, kneading to form a smooth, soft dough.  I threw it all in my Kitchen-Aid mixer and turned it on for about 5 minutes.  You're supposed to add additional flour if needed, but since I'm not entirely sure if I needed more, I just went with the 5 cups.

Rub some butter in an large bowl and put the dough into that.  Now, at this point I think I might could have used a little more flour, because it was just a tad sticky, but I got it in the bowl and managed to turn it over once so it looked kind of smooth on top.  Then I covered it with a piece of aluminum foil and let it rise for 90 minutes.  It was definitely doubled in size!

Divide the dough in half and shape into two oval loaves.  I would rather have tried putting them into loaf pans, but figured I'd stick to the recipe the first time.  I rubbed a little flour on my hands before I tried shaping the dough into ovals and that seemed to work fine.  Place the loaves on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.  I opted for parchment-lined and I even sprinkled a little bit of cornmeal on there before I put the loaves on it.  I read that somewhere else and it sounded kind of cool...sooo, I went with it.

Cover (I used a couple of paper towels) and let rise until very puffy, about 60 minutes.  Success!

Preheat the oven to 425^F.  Slash the tops and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  I'd also read somewhere that you should put a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven to create steam and that you should occasionally mist some water over the bread while it bakes.  I put in a pan of water, but the misting was too much for me to handle without advance planning.  I don't have a mister bottle, but I guess I'll have to go buy one now!  I checked mine at 25 minutes and it was done!  Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Check it out!

I have bread!  Nice fresh, home-made Sourdough Bread!   I'm so proud I could spit!  I rubbed a little butter over the tops because John told me that's how his Mom used to do it.  Aren't they pretty?

And they taste so much better than the Sourdough I buy at Publix!  I'm calling this one a winner!