Cheesy Jalapeño Sourdough (simplified version)

Mix 4 cups of flour, 1/2 cup sourdough starter, with 1 & 1/2 cups water until you have a shaggy dough (it won’t be perfect but try not to have any dry flour sitting on the bottom).

Let above mixture sit covered (I like to use a glass Pyrex bowl with a plastic lid, some people use a wet towel but you can’t let it dry out and I don’t like rewetting towels all the time) for an hour. The water and sourdough will penetrate the flour and work their magic to make the dough workable.

Dissolve 2 teaspoons salt in a little water (I usually use about 1/8 cup) add to dough and mix in a kneading motion until the salt mixture is worked into dough.

Let sit (every time you let it sit it needs covered so it doesn’t dry out) for approximately another 30 minutes then do a set of “stretch and folds”; basically you reach underneath the dough and stretch a side out as much as you can without tearing the dough and then fold it into the middle and you do this all the way around the dough 3 times.

You let it set another 30 minutes and do another set of stretch and folds as described above and repeat again until you’ve done 3 or 4 sets of stretch and folds total; if it feels pretty elastic you’re good at three otherwise do a fourth. At this point in the summer my house is warm enough that it’s ready for shaping and putting in the oven, in my house during the winter, it needs to rest and rise for around another 4 hours, unless my husband has been particularly zealous feeding the fire in the wood stove we use for heat, than the summer time applies. (Note: dough should be airy, stretchy hold it’s shape and have at least a few bubbles when it’s ready. It may take more or less time to rise depending on the strength of your starter and house temperature.) If I am not ready for that I just put it in the fridge in my bowl with the lid, but you can put it in a Ziplock or wrap it with plastic wrap at this point to put in your fridge.

When I am ready I preheat a Dutch oven to 400 degrees F (I will tell you how to do it without one too). Then I will shape dough on lightly floured surface into a square or rectangle just under a half inch thick. I sprinkle on a layer of shredded cheese, I think I average 3/4-1 cup cheese, (I use whatever cheese I have on hand but have found my favorites are sharp orange cheddar or Colby-Jack) then spread out canned- sliced-jalapeños over cheese I just place them by hand evenly across. Now roll up dough tucking the end into itself as much as possible then roll dough the other direction to take it from being long to being more of a ball/roll and tuck end as much as possible again. At this point you take sides and tuck them underneath to make it as round as possible keeping any seams on the bottom or tucking them there as needed. Cut a slash between a quarter and a half inch deep on top of bread to allow it to expand and immediately put it into preheated Dutch oven. Note: It’s easier to make a “sling” or hammock out of parchment paper and place the dough on that (preferably before slashing) to drop it into the Dutch oven without getting burnt.

For Dutch oven cook for 30 minutes covered on 450 then uncover and turn oven down to 400 to cook for 20 more minutes then pull out to cool and preferably let cool 20-30 minutes before slicing (I know it’s hard but it prevents the middle from being gummy). The bread will still be warm to enjoy after this necessary cooling time.