Yield: 2 loaves.
This is a "cheater" soughdough bread because it uses a safety net of commercial yeast. The yeast makes the dough rise faster and ensures perfect results every time, no matter what condition your starter is in.
The intial step produces a really flavorful sourdough bread with a distictive tang. You can skip the first step and just chuck everything into the bread machine, but the resulting bread won't be as tasty and the sourdough starter will need to be freshly fed (within a day or two). Otherwise, it doesn't matter whether or not the sourdough starter is freshly fed, as it essentially gets fed in the first step.
1 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm water
22 ounces (by weight) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (5 1/2 cups)
1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons instant dry yeast
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
Step 1: The starter. (Three hours)
Add half of the flour (11 ounces or 2 3/4 cup), water, and starter to your bread machine.
Set the machine to manual. Turn it on and let it work until mixture is smooth.
Turn off the bread machine.
Cover the bowl of the bread machine with plastic wrap and let sit for 3 hours.
Step 2: Kneading (about 1/ 2 hour)
Remove the plastic wrap and add the other half of the flour and remaining ingredients.
Make sure it's set to manual and let 'er rip.
Step 3: First rising (One hour)
When the first kneading cycle finishes, turn off the machine but leave the dough in the machine.
Spray the exposed surface of the dough with non-stick spray and cover the bowl of the bread machine with plastic wrap.
(This ensures it doesn't dry out while resting.)
Let the dough sit for 1 hour.
Step 4: Final Rising (One hour or more)
Dump the dough onto the counter and gently deflate it.
Divide into 2 halves, shaping each half into a loaf.
Place loaves on a lightly greased, cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet.
Cover, and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour, but may be more).
Step 5: (20 minutes)
Bake in a preheated 450 oven for approximately 20 minutes, until golden brown.
Step 6: (An eternity)
Wait until the loaves are cool enough to handle before slicing.
Step 7: (1.6 seconds)
Devour with gusto and butter.
Also makes fantastic toast.
The Johnson Family Cookbook