Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread

Ingredients 5 ounces whole wheat flour (about 1 cup)
10 ounces bread flour (about 2 cups)
¹⁄₄ teaspoon yeast
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons table salt
7 ounces water (³⁄₄ cup plus 2 tablespoons), at room temperature
3 ounces mild-flavored lager (¹⁄₄ cup plus 2 tablespoons), such as Budweiser
2 ¹⁄₂ ounces sourdough starter (¹⁄₄ cup)
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Instructions
1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, starter, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 6 hours.

2. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has double in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 1 to 1 ¹⁄₂ hours.

3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500*F. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor sharp blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch long, ¹⁄₂-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425*F and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210*F, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

Cold Rise Variation: For a stronger sourdough flavor, you can refrigerate the dough during step #1 after mixing it.  Ten hours before you plan on baking the bread, remove the dough from the fridge and continue with step #1 but allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 8 hours instead of 6.  Continue with the rest of the recipe as printed.  In theory, the longer the dough chills the stronger the sourdough flavor will be.

Comments
After lots of experimentation, I finally spent time reading up on no-knead sourdough bread baking.  I found that the solution was a very simple one, and that I just needed to reduce the rest and rise times.  That knowledge, and a few tweaks, gave me what I feel is absolutely perfect sourdough bread.  I had lots of fun with the experimentation, even if most of it did prove to be in vain!

Person - Gwen