Sourdough Italian Bread

Feed your starter 4-12 hours prior to beginning the recipe. This will give it the time it needs to be active and bubbly.

Add the flour, water, sourdough starter, olive oil, salt and sugar to your stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.

Mix on low speed for 2 minutes, producing a shaggy dough. Increase the mixer speed to medium for an additional 5 minutes, at which point the dough will be pulling away from the sides of the bowl, becoming more elastic and smooth in appearance.

Here you can test the gluten development with the windowpane test. Pinch off a small portion of the bread dough and use your fingers to pull it into a square shape, observing the center of this square. If it pulls thin enough to allow light through without tearing, your gluten development is satisfactory. If not, continue kneading with the mixer for 2-3 minutes more and try this test again.

Transfer dough to a well-oiled, large bowl, covered with a tea towel, plastic wrap, or beeswax wrap. You want it to be airtight so no hard skin forms on top of the dough from air exposure.

Rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 8 hours at room temperature. This may take more or less time depending on the temperature of your home and the maturity of your starter.

After your dough has doubled in size, place it onto a lightly floured work surface and divide in two. I like to use my bench scraper (dough scraper) for this, but a sharp knife works, as well.

If you're wanting to extend your rise time to better fit your schedule, or for any reason at all (longer fermentation, etc), you can also place your shaped loaves into the fridge at this point. Cover them and refrigerate. You can refrigerate for 12-15 hours (or more), then move forward to scoring and baking.

Once doubled, preheat oven to 400 degrees.