Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough Bread

Instructions

Make The Dough (about 50 minutes)

1. Add the flour, water, and starter to a large bowl. Using your hands, mix until a shaggy dough forms.
2. Once the dough is mixed, cover the bowl with a tea towel. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 40 minutes.
3. After the 40 minute resting time has elapsed, add the salt, cubed cheddar, and sliced  jalapeño. Mix with your hands  until well combined.

Stretch & Folds (about 3 hours)

1. To do this, dampen your hands lightly with water. Reach under the dough on the opposite side of the bowl from you. Pull the dough up and over towards you. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat on all four quadrants of the dough. Scoop your hands under the ball of dough and flip it over completely. This completes one stretch and fold. Do 6 more series of stretch & folds, one every 30 minutes, for a total of 3 hours.

Shape The Dough (30 minutes plus 8 hour rest in the fridge)

1. Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Remove the dough from the bowl and let it rest on the counter for 20 minutes. 
2. Generously dust the inside of a banneton with flour (we like a mix of 1:1 all-purpose flour and rice flour).
3. Shape the dough into a boule. You want as much surface tension as possible without tearing the outside of the loaf. Once shaped, turn the loaf into the prepared banneton (top-down, seam side up). Lightly flour the exposed dough. Cover the banneton with a plate and set it in the fridge overnight, or for at least 8 hours.

Day Two (about 1½ hours plus 5 to 6 hours of cooling time)

1. The next day, place a cast iron Dutch oven in the oven with the lid on. Preheat the oven to 500°F (260ºF) (or as hot as your oven can go, but no higher than 500°F). After the oven has come to temperature, continue to preheat the Dutch oven for another 30 minutes.
2. Once the Dutch oven has preheated, have a large square of parchment paper ready on a work surface. Take your bread out of the fridge. Gently invert the dough onto the parchment paper. Gently score the bread with a bread lame or a razor blade. Using oven mitts, carefully remove the Dutch oven from the oven, take off the lid, and then carefully lift the dough into the pot using the parchment paper as handles. Using oven mitts, carefully place the lid back on the Dutch oven and back into the heated oven. Reduce the heat to 450°F (230ºC) and bake the loaf for 30 minutes. Take the pot out of the oven, carefully remove the lid (be careful of steam), and bake for another 20 minutes with the lid off.
3. Remove the pot from the oven. Remove the lid and carefully lift the loaf out using the edges of the parchment paper as handles. Place the loaf on a wire rack and pull the paper away from underneath the loaf (if heat makes it too difficult to extract the dough and parchment layer safely, just let the loaf cool in the Dutch oven—don't risk burning yourself). Cool the bread completely before slicing, about 5 to 6 hours.