For this recipe, you will need a sourdough starter. If you don’t have one, try to find a friend who has one and will share a bit. You can also make your own starter or you can order one from King Arthur Flour. (By the way, King Arthur Flour has wonderful products. They’re pricey and I’m always feeding an army, so I rarely use them, but it you want the absolute finest result, go with King Arthur.)
This bread really has more method than recipe to it.
Clair’s Sourdough
- 1 c. sourdough starter (if you weigh ingredients, this will be 9 ounces)
- generous 1/2 t. yeast
- 2 t. salt (Clair only uses 1 1/4, but I take it up to 2 t. because it gives me the flavor I’m looking for)
- 1/2 t. sugar
- 6 cups of flour
- 3 c. lukewarm water
Start by stirring a slightly rounded 1/2 t. yeast and 1/2 t. sugar into two cups of warm water. Put aside while you stir together the other dry ingredients. The yeast will dissolve almost immediately and start to grow. Into the dry ingredients, stir the yeasty water, a third cup of warm water and the cup of starter. Stir enough to mix all these things completely, but this stirring isn’t meant to knead the bread at all. You’ll end up with a very wet, sticky mixture.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set on the counter for 12-18 hours. (Yes, that reads HOURS.)
After 12-18 hours (all right, I did get impatient a few times this week and did this step at ten hours with no ill effects) turn out the bubbly, fluffy dough onto a well-floured counter. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice. Again, you’re not kneading this dough at all. The long rise-time is actually doing the same thing that kneading would do: developing the gluten fibers. Let the dough rest on the counter for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes of resting, plop the dough on a lint-free towel that has a layer of either coarsely ground cornmeal, wheat germ, bran, or rolled oats. Sprinkle more of whatever grain you’re using on the top. The dough will be VERY hard to handle because it is so slack and sticky. Do your best.
I have found that if the dough is too wet after the first rise, I can incorporate a little more flour when I turn it out onto the floured board. If you make it on a regular basis, you get a feel for how to adapt the recipe – as far as rising time and liquid to add – as the seasons and weather change. Also, since it is hard to handle, I mostly use spatulas, the board or towel to move it around.
Cover the dough with a second towel and let rise on the counter another 2-3 hours.
Thirty minutes before you plan to bake the bread, turn the oven on to 450° and put the pan that you plan to use into the oven to preheat. Let pan and oven preheat for 30 minutes. Yesterday someone asked me if a full 30 minutes was necessary. It probably isn’t, but there are two things that you want: a pan that is completely heated through before you put the dough into it and an oven that is completely heated to 450° with no possibility of cooler spots in parts of the oven.
A word about what pan to use. Clair used two cast iron dutch ovens (which means that after the 12 hour rise, she divided the dough into two balls.) I’ve been using an enormous 8 quart cast iron dutch oven that makes a humongous loaf. 
This method requires a LID for whatever pan you use. The lid is very important. I’ve also used two of my heavy Calphalon saucepans as well as a couple of my pyrex casserole dishes. The pan should be heavy. Like I said, a lid is essential.
When it’s time to bake the bread, gently slide the dough into the hot pan and put the cover on. Put the pan back into the oven for 30 minutes at 450°. It’s VERY easy to get burned by the hot pans, so be extra careful. Remove the lid and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes. Remember that when you remove the lid, a big whoosh of steam will escape. Steam burns are VERY painful, so be extremely careful.
Remove from the oven and turn out the loaf onto a rack immediately. (Be careful where you set the hot lids and hot pans. Remember that Pyrex will crack if you put it into cool water right out of the oven.)
This morning Dave took my latest effort 
into our favorite coffee shop and weighed it on their scale. This baby weighed in at 3.5 pounds! The bread was phenomenal. The crust was really crusty 
and the texture 
was exactly what I want into a sourdough. It was also really SOUR!
The next step in this process for me is to figure out what I can put IN the bread like herbs, olives, cheese, garlic, etc.
There’s no going back once you’ve made and eaten this bread.
Barb
I think I will just go to Boudin’s and get the best Sourdough San Francisco has to offer. Make it into small loaves and serve Clam chowder in it. Yours looks wonderful however and should I ever be away from a Sourdough bakery I will probably make yours, although I’m not sure I have the patience for all that waiting.
Love, Aunt Joan
I think I’m ready to try my hand at this recipe. Have you ever halved it for a smaller loaf? Does it affect the integrity of the recipe? I don’t have a big pot like yours, but do have 1 pot that is a bit smaller.
Beth, this recipe is pretty forgiving–why don’t you give it a try and let us know how the smaller batch turns out?
Laura
Sorry I didn’t answer this earlier, Beth. I’ve made several smaller loaves and they turned out just fine. IN fact, I have used pyrex casserole dishes for this. You just have to be super careful that there is no moisture anywhere that heated pyrex. I don’t alter the baking time at all and it turns out just fine.
Barb
Hi,
I’ve made this bread a couple of times and it’s yummy. The first time I made it I baked it on a cookie sheet with a Pyrex bowl inverted over it and it came out great. The next time I used a Dutch oven, but I had to raise the dough in a bowl because raising it on a towel let the dough expand to too wide to fit in the pan. I know you said the dough is supposed to be slack, but is it supposed to be this slack?
do you use fresh or dried yeast and can you use “fast” yeast?
We use dry, fast-acting yeast.
This fantastic bread has become one of our weekend rituals. I’ve even shared the recipe with my 76-year-old father, who loves to bake.
We eat it in wedges with pesto, or dipped in olive oil and spices. When it’s past its prime, it’s also good as croutons.
The last time I made it, I forgot whether I’d added the yeast, so I added more, just in case. Turned out I *had* added the yeast. The result was a very round, fluffy loaf, still with a crispy crust, that stayed fresh for days.
Definitely worth the 12 to 18-hour wait!
Heidi, Thanks so much for letting us know how this has worked out for you. We’re tickled pink! We love this bread too and there’s always at least half a loaf sitting on my counter! Barbara
This is, by far, the best sourdough I have ever made. I would suggest starting it right before you go to bed so that you can have it for supper the next day. I have also used just 2 cups of water with no ill effects
Silly question, but do you grease the pans that you are baking the sourdough bread in?
No, you don’t need to grease the pans as long as you have that generous layer of cornmeal or oatmeal or bran on the bottom of the pan when you dump the dough into it. That’s what keeps the loaf from sticking to the bottom. Sometimes you need to run a knife around the sides after it bakes.
I divided this in thirds, made it for the 30 min in an enameled cast iron pan. The wheat germ burned on the crust a bit, otherwise the turnout was good. The flavor is more sweet, less sour… but I cut into it while it was still hot & I read that the flavor will continue to develop. I also used a potato sourdough starter that is pretty sweet, as well.