Rustic sourdough bread with a perfect crust and open crumb

What comes to your mind when you hear the term, Rustic sourdough bread. For me, it is a dark sourdough bread boule, a tangy deep flavor, with crispy crust, chewy and open crumb!

Rustic sourdough bread is something that is not bound by any definition or any predefined ingredient.This recipe is more of a basic sourdough bread recipe, which happens to fit into the perfect definition of rustic sourdough bread. I have kept it simple, and true to the texture. Adding the flavors is totally up to you.

Everybody has their version of rustic bread. It is a bread that can be casually made by combining whatever you have on hand, without having to worry about the aesthetics of the bread. There is no definite shape or flavor to rustic sourdough bread. It is your bread, make it your comfort bread, flavor the way you like it.

A few of the flavors that I have made this rustic French bread recipe with are; olives, pistachios, thyme, dried tomatoes, candied orange peels, sunflower seeds, and capers. And they were great in this rustic bread. In addition to it there other options like rosemary, cheese, mint, dill, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, sprouted grains, etc. that you can try.

I have written this rustic sourdough bread recipe in a way that it can be used by beginner’s sourdough recipes to make the first sourdough bread. It is a simple and approachable recipe. I have tried to answer all the aspects of making perfect sourdough bread with a perfect crust and open crumbs. I hope you will like this recipe, which is Pain de Campagne, French rustic sourdough bread

Let us start.

Few helpful resources on sourdough baking:

• Why is your sourdough bread too dense? Ways for making bread less dense.
  
• Everything you need to know about making dehydrated sourdough starter and easily reviving it
  
• No-knead wild yeast bread: It’s a Yeast water bread recipe
  
• How to make yeast water with fruits?
  

Ingredients for making the rustic sourdough bread

Sourdough starter

We need a ripe mature starter for making this rustic sourdough bread and no commercial yeast. An active sourdough starter is one that is in its Growth or stable stage. In simple terms, the starter that is at its peak or about to reach its peak is considered an active starter.

A mature starter is the one that has been around for 4-5 months or more. The microbiota inside such a starter is much stable, predictable, and resistant to various foreign contamination and unfavorable conditions.

These characteristics of a starter are crucial to make great rustic sourdough bread.

Now, that we have a mature starter at its peak, we will make a levain from that.

For that we will need :

• 6 g starter
• 36 g bread flour
• 36 g water

(More on the process in the instructions section.)

Flour

For keeping this sourdough bread recipe simple I have used only bread flour. You can add 5 percent of whole wheat flour if you want, but do not add anything beyond that, coz in that case the hydration level of the dough will change considerably and the overall texture of the loaf will differ.

Also, if you will use regular all-purpose flour for making this bread, the results might differ. For making light lean bread, like this country rustic sourdough bread, gluten plays a key role. Bread flour has higher protein content than all-purpose flour. Hence the bread made with bread flour will be lighter. If you are interested in knowing what else makes their bread dense, do read this post on what causes dense sourdough bread.

Water

Use filtered water to make the levain. You can use tap water if you are sure that it is chlorine and fluoride-free.

Use cold or warm water to make the dough depending on your ambient environment.

Patience, time, and temperature

Patience, time, and temperature are the three intangible ingredients for making any naturally leavened bread. I have written about the temperature in many of the posts and will be discussing it in the process section. (Read about it in the sourdough starter recipe.)

 

Baking with sourdough is all about enjoying the process of baking and giving it all it takes. And it does take a lot of patience and time. Time is a key ingredient for making the best sourdough bread recipe. After all, long fermentation makes sourdough bread, what it is.

Step by step process

1. Preparing the levain:

We need a ripe starter to make levain. The levain should ferment for at least 7-8 hours before reaching its peak. So, I like to prepare my levain in a 1:6:6 ratio.

You can always reduce the feeding ratio to suit the duration of fermentation you are looking for.

But if you keep your starter refrigerated, I recommend that you stick to the ratio of 1:6:6 or even go to 1:7:7.

Take 6 g of the starter, and add 36 g of water and mix well. Now add 36 g of flour and mix. Clean the edges and level the levain. Choose a transparent jar to prepare the levain so that we can monitor its growth and know when it is ready. It is a good idea to mark the level of the levain in the jar with a rubber band so that you would know when it has doubled and is near its peak.

You can do a float test to see if the levain is ready.

Take a drop of levain, without deflating it or stirring it, and put it in a bowl of cold water. If the levain is ready, it will float on the surface.

2. Preparing the dough and Autolyse

To follow a bread recipe to perfection, it is crucial to measure each ingredient in weight and not in volume. So, do use a weighing scale to measure the ingredients precisely.

In a large bowl add the flour and then add the water. Retain about 10 g of water to add later with the salt.

Mix well to combine the flour and water properly so that no dry flour patches are left. You can use the back of a wooden ladle to do so. It is crucial to ensure that the dough is well hydrated throughout. If needed, go in with your hands.

Please note that from the surface you might feel that the dough is very dry and you might feel tempted to add more water. But as you will go in with your hands and start to combine the flour with water, you will observe that the dough will become fully hydrated without any need for further water.  I like to use the Pincer method, which means just going in with your hands grabbing the dough in your hand, and just squeezing it. Then, leave it and grab some more. Your hand will act as a pincer in this method. This way we keep on moving and work with our dough for a good 1-2 minutes, till everything is well combined.

But, if you are adding whole flours in here, that might change.

Now clean the sides of the bowl and cover it with a cling wrap and let it autolyze for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The exact time will depend on the time taken by your starter to reach its peak. But do let the dough autolyze for at least 45 minutes.

Autolyse initiates the gluten formation in the dough. There are two key proteins in the flour. Glutenin and gliadin. On coming in contact with water, there happens a chemical reaction.

Glutenin and gliadin combine to form Gluten. The most important ingredient to achieve a light and open crumb sourdough bread.

 It is important to note that do not add salt or starter in this stage. Salt and yeast fermentation is known to stretch the gluten. The gluten formed at this stage is not strong enough. The sole purpose of autolyse stage is to obtain maximum gluten formation.

There is an optional step but worth it. Measuring the temperature of all the ingredients and use warmer or cooler water to achieve the predefined final dough temperature( FDT).

 It helps us to standardize your sourdough bread-making process and will give consistent results every time.

 If you live in tropical regions, use colder water so that the final dough temperature( FDT) remains within 70-82 ⁰ F.

Use the following formula to determine the temperature of the water.

Final Dough Temp. ( FST)= water temp.+ kitchen temp.+ flour temp.+ levain temp.+ friction factor/4

Water temp.= FDTx4 - ( kitchen temp+ flour temp.+ levain temp. +friction factor)

= 80 x4-(82+79+80+0)

= 320-(241)

= 79 ⁰F

• I live in California, and at this time of the year, the ambient temp of my kitchen is around 82 ⁰F. I have the ideal condition to achieve an FDT of 80 ⁰F. I do not need to do much.
• Levain temp. was 80 ⁰F
• Flour temp. was 79 ⁰F
• Take friction factor as 0 as we are not doing any continuous kneading in this rustic sourdough bread recipe.
• If you are going to follow the recipe as such, aim for an FDT of 80 ⁰F.

 For the rustic sourdough bread recipe, I am going for a bulk rise of 3.5 to 4 hours. So I want my Final dough temperature at 80 ⁰F.

If you want to bulk rise for 4.5-5 hours aim for the FDT of 76 ⁰F and determine the temperature of the water using the formula. To understand it better, and see an example, refer to the temperature section of the quick sourdough starter.

The process for the Final dough temperature( FDT) and Final starter temperature( FST) is very similar, except for the friction factor.

The friction factor is the representation of the dough temperature raised due to the friction produced during kneading the dough in a bread machine or stand mixers. The friction raises the temperature of the dough on kneading. And friction factor gives the value of that temperature for finding the accurate water temperature.

3. Adding starter and salt in stages:

After the dough has got enough time to autolyze, we will add the levain. I like to spread the levain on the dough surface. Then, I go in with the tips of my fingers and poke the starter into the dough. I do it for good 30 seconds or so before I start to stretch and fold the dough, with the purpose to incorporate the levain.  Take as much as time you need, but you need to ensure that there is no batter-like unincorporated levain left in the dough. If required, flip the dough and use the pincer method to combine.

Once you are satisfied, cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Alternately you can also go for Rubaud Method. I find it a little tiring for this rustic sourdough bread recipe. Rubaud method works best for high hydration recipes.

And yes, if you want to use your stand mixer for combining the water, levain, and salt. You can also use that. Just stick to the time gaps in between each stage.

After 30 minutes, add the salt. Sprinkle the salt on the dough surface. Now add the reserved water. Adding water at the later stages of gluten development is called bassinage. In Bassinage, we try to work water into the dough, after autolyze stage. It is known to open up the crumb structure of the rustic sourdough bread. So, if that is something you are looking for, do not skip this step.

To combine the water and salt into the dough I use the same technique that I used for combining the levain. First I poke the dough and then stretching and folding.

 When, you feel that the salt and water are well combined, clean the edges of the bowl and cover it. Let it rest for 30 minutes before you start to stretch and fold it further.

4. Bulk rise and building gluten strength and structure

Yeast activity is known to strengthen the gluten structure.

The dough has already been in the bulk rise stage, for 30 minutes. Now we will do our first stretch and folds to further build the strength and structure of the gluten molecules in the dough.

Wet your hands slightly, and grab the dough by putting your hands under and stretch it outwards. Stretch it to point till you could easily stretch it without feeling any resistance from the dough. Now fold it under the opposite side of the dough. Rotate the bowl, 45 degrees, and repeat.

 In one session of Stretching and folding you should be doing 4-6 stretching and folding. Reduce their number toward the later stretching as the dough will become stronger.

For the first two rounds do 6 stretch and fold, and 4 in the last two rounds.

One thing to note here is that your dough might not be ready after the fourth session of stretch and folds. In such cases, give the rest of 30 minutes and do another round.

You can always do a windowpane test to confirm that the dough is ready.

How to know that bulk fermentation is complete?

• The dough would have increased in volume. Not doubled up, but somewhere about 70 percent increase in volume. If you are new to sourdough baking, use a glass bowl, or a square transparent vessel. This will help to visually estimate the increase in the volume. You would also see big gaps at the sides of the container caused by the air bubbles in the dough.
• The dough would become smooth and elastic. Not at all sticky.
• The dough would retain its dome structure from the last stretch and fold.
• There would be visible bubbles under the skin of the dough
• The feel of the dough will change. It will feel lighter.

5. Pre-shaping and shaping the rustic sourdough boule.

We can shape it the way you want. You can shape it as a round boule or a bâtard (football-shaped). For this rustic sourdough recipe, I am going to shape it as a boule. Boule is a French word that means ball. So, this rustic loaf will be round ball-shaped sourdough bread.

For pre-shaping this rustic sourdough bread, I invert the bowl on a lightly flour-dusted workstation and let the dough fall onto the surface.

Start by dusting the hands with the flour and start pulling the dough from the sides and tuck at the center. Work yourself around the dough and seal all the edges at the center forming a round boule.

 Gently flip the dough onto a floured surface, with seams facing downward. Dust the top of the dough lightly with the flour, and cover it. Allow the dough to relax for 30 minutes.

For shaping this sourdough french bread: Once the dough has relaxed, flip the dough, such that the seam side is facing you.

Using the flour-dusted fingers make the dough into a square. Then, Stretch the right side and bring it to the center, and seal. Now, stretch the left side and seal it while bringing it to the center. Similarly, stretch the bottom side, and while sealing it roll the entire dough so that all the seams face down and the top of the boule will be facing you.

Now, cup your hands and place them at the farthest end of the dough( from you). Now, gently pull the dough towards you in a way that tightens the surface of the boule, and creates tension. Now rotate the boule about  45 degrees and repeat. Do two more to cover the 180 degrees of the boule and build uniform tension on the surface. This assists in achieving a better oven spring. Let the dough rest like that for a minute or two and then gently transfer into a proofing basket with the seam side facing upwards.

6. Proofing the shaped sourdough boule:

Proofing basket:

As far as the proofing baskets are concerned, you can use whichever you like. I use a rattan basket, without the lining cloth. You can use it with the cloth if you want.

Dust the baskets generously with rice flour if you have or just use the regular flour. Rice flour can help prevent the dough from sticking to the sides of the banneton.

If you do not have a proofing basket, just DIY a proofing basket. Use any bowl and line it with a naturally breathable cotton cloth. Dust the cloth generously with rice flour or the regular flour.

This rustic sourdough bread recipe calls for slow fermentation. Slow fermentation helps to further strengthen the gluten structure, helps in flavor development, and also makes sourdough bread easy to digest.

 Before putting the bread for the cold retard, let it proof at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

 Then, I place my banneton in a plastic bag and fluff it up with air and seal it with a rubber band.

Let the loaf cold retard for at least 10 -12 hours before baking. You can increase the retard up to 24 hours if you want, but do check in between to find out if the dough the over proofing. The ideal retard temp. is anywhere between 40-50 ⁰F, depending on how long you want to proof.

If you have replenished your groceries the same day, your fridge temp. might be higher and your bread will proof much faster. Many such nuances will come over time.

Therefore, it is a good idea to check the temperature of the fridge before placing the banneton into it. Such little things will improve your baking skills over time. They will help to understand the ideal time to proof and when exactly to bake.

The most crucial factor in sourdough is to understand when the dough is ready to bake. I struggled with it for a long time. Later I realized that I have been baking over-proofed dough. Keeping track of the temperatures and fixing the time frames accordingly has helped me in getting consistent results over time.

I like to do this poke test to check if my dough is ready to bake.

Finger Poke Test

*Poke a finger into the dough and see if it bounces back slowly, leaving an indentation. The dough is perfectly proofed and is ready to bake.

*If on poking, the dough bounces back quickly and leaves no evident indentation: Dough is under-proofed and needs more time to proof.

* If on poking, the dough does not merely bounce back: It indicated that the dough has been over-proofed.

7. Scoring and baking the best rustic sourdough bread

It is very important to bake the bread at the right temperature for the best results.

How to make rustic sourdough bread in a Dutch oven.?

Rustic Sourdough bread should be baked at 500 ⁰F in a Dutch oven or something similar.

So, we all pre-heat the oven to 500 ⁰F with Dutch oven heating inside. But there is one more thing that we have to keep in mind. We will bake the bread in the Dutch oven. The temp. of the Dutch oven is more consequential and should also be about 500 ⁰F. The oven air might reach 500 ⁰F in 30 minutes, but the Dutch oven will take much longer to heat up to that temperature. So, I always preheat the Dutch oven for at least an hour at 500 ⁰F before putting the bread into it. This is very important to get a perfect oven spring on your sourdough loaf.

Also, you can place an ice cube under the parchment paper, before closing the lid of the Dutch oven. It buys more time for the bread to spring.

Now, once the temperature is reached, remove the bread on parchment paper. Make a simple straight score or a cross like me, using a sharp scoring blade. Carefully lift the dough and transfer it to a Dutch oven.

After baking at 500 ⁰F for 22 minutes, reduce the temperature to 450 ⁰F and remove the lid of the Dutch oven. Let the rustic sourdough bread brown for 20-22 minutes depending on your liking. Some people prefer their sourdough dark, some like them lighter. Bake as you like.

Let it cool for 30-40 minutes before slicing. The bread is still baking from the inside and slicing the hot bread will cease the process. The bread might turn doughy as a result. So, show some patience. You have worked so hard to reach this stage. You deserve better.

Storage of rustic sourdough bread:

The sourdough rustic bread has a longer shelf life than the commercial yeast bread because it is more acidic. Hence, the food spoiling bacteria and molds do not develop that easily.

Also, it has a thicker crust that prevents sourdough bread from getting dry.

Freshly baked sourdough bread can last 4-6 days at room temperature without any chemical preservatives if stored properly.

 It is best stored wrapped in a cotton cloth or a cotton bread bag. Place it in a cool corner of your kitchen.

It is not advisable to refrigerate the sourdough bread. Though you can freeze it if you baked in bulk and want to store the sourdough bread for longer. Place the entire loaf or slices in a freezer-safe bag, with air removed. Now warp it with a double layer of foil, mark the date and place it in the freezer.

How to tell if sourdough bread is bad or spoiled?

Never keep the sourdough bread at room temperature for more than 6 days. It will go bad for sure. If you are not finding time or ways to enjoy it, freeze it way ahead.  In case, the bread has been sitting on the kitchen counter for about a week, smell it and look for any visible signs of mold.  If it smells off or you see any sign of mold, discard it all. Sometimes just 1-2 slices are left, which would not serve the entire family and just keep lying on the kitchen counter.

 I like to cut them into squares and rub them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and pop them into the oven with whatever I will be baking that night.  Toss them into the dinner salad or put in an airtight jar to use later. 

Frequently asked Questions

 

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There is no perfect recipe for a sourdough bread that will work for all. There goes in more skill than the ingredients to make a great sourdough loaf. Recipes must be tweaked based on the vigor of starters, as well as ambient temperatures in each kitchen.

Every flour is different, there are marginal differences for sure. But if you work on your technique and learn to understand your starter and dough, you will feel confident with all recipes.

I hope you find my rustic sourdough bread recipe useful and if you do, do leave a rating and a comment. It helps me create more resources like this for you.

Happy baking!

Recipe card for the Rustic sourdough bread