I make this bread every day. It doesn’t take much of my time. About 10 minutes in the evening and 3 minutes in the morning.
Before going to bed, I prepare the dough. First, I put water in the bread pan. Then the sourdough starter, followed by the flour, and finally the salt. The quantities may vary. Sometimes, while the bread machine is kneading, I add a bit more water or flour as needed. After a few times, you can gauge if it’s necessary.
My bread machine kneads for 15 minutes and then beeps to notify me. I mist the proofing basket with a plant sprayer to make it nicely moist. Then I sprinkle rice flour in the basket and tilt it on its side, rotating it until the entire basket is evenly coated with flour.
I’m lazy, so I simply place the pan with the dough upside down in the basket. After about fifteen minutes, the dough slowly settles into the basket, and I can cover it with a cloth. Ready to rise slowly and nicely.
The next day, if everything goes well, the dough should have risen nicely. Sometimes it rises a little less, which adds a bit of excitement. My oven is quite slow, so I turn it on while placing the upside-down proofing basket on a pie crust. With the pie crust and all, I put the basket with the dough in the refrigerator for a while. Once the oven is preheated (around 225 to 250 degrees Celsius), the bread usually falls out of the basket, and because it’s nice and cool, it retains its shape. I always spray a little mist over the bread. When the bread is in the oven, I also pour a glass of water onto the bottom. The mist and steam make the bread nice and crispy. It may seem contradictory, but it makes a huge difference. I’m curious about why this happens.
The bread turns a beautiful golden brown in 25 to 30 minutes. And it’s wonderfully crispy right out of the oven. After about three hours, the crispness becomes slightly more elastic, but it still maintains a pleasant crust until the next day. And the bread? The bread is always delicious again.