Why our sourdough takes three days
A long cold ferment, a hot stone floor, and a score that opens like a book. The method behind the loaf.
Why our sourdough takes three days
Day one is the levain — a small, active culture fed twice and left to peak overnight. Day two is the mix: flour, water, salt, levain, and nothing else. We fold it every thirty minutes for three hours, then it goes into the cold.
The cold is where the flavour lives. Twelve to sixteen hours at four degrees Celsius, the fermentation slow and deliberate, the gluten developing into something that can hold the gas without tearing. Bread rushed past this stage tastes fine. Bread that has been here tastes like something.
Day three is bake day. The dough comes out of the cold, gets shaped on a floured bench, rests for forty minutes, and goes into a Dutch oven that has been sitting in a 260-degree oven for an hour. The steam trapped inside the pot gives the crust its lacquer. The score — a single deep arc across the top — lets the loaf open rather than burst.
It comes out looking like the best thing in the kitchen. It usually is.