I got a sourdough starter kit for Christmas last year and we finally got around to making it in March. The first thing we made from it were sourdough pancakes - which turned out really well. I had been making Ciabatta bread using grocery store yeast and was excited to try out a sourdough starter.

A lot of sourdough recipes will take multiple days to prepare. I was in a hurry and wanted something to try out the same day for dinner so I got the ingredients ratios from another recipe and used the same steps I had been using to make my other breads. Since my starter was in the refrigerator before baking and wasn’t active, I added a teaspoon of yeast to the ingredients. This recipe was improvised :)

Recipe

Step 1: Combine all ingredients and mix until blended.

Step 2: Cover and let rise in mixing bowl for 2 hours.

At this point the dough was fairly watery so I turned it out onto the counter and worked in more flour until it was the right consistency.

Step 3: Turn dough out onto floured surface and fold dough several times while working in more flour.

Step 4: Cover and let rise 1.5 hour in mixing bowl.

Step 5: Punch down dough and split into two equal parts.

Step 6 (Bread Pan): Fill bread pan with dough.

Step 6 (Dutch Oven): Turn dough out and fold several times. Shape dough and transfer to proofing basket.

Step 7: Let rise for 2 hours.

Step 8: Preheat oven to 450 F.

Step 9: Transfer loaf in proofing basket to cold dutch oven.

Step 10: Bake for 40 minutes or until it looks right.

Step 11: Remove bread pan and remove lid from dutch oven.

Step 12: Bake loaf in dutch oven an addition 15 minutes or until right.

Other recipes say you should heat the dutch oven before placing the loaf in it. I forgot to do this and it worked out okay. I kept an eye on the bread while it was baking so these times might not be exact.