Pizza Sourdough Bread

This bread is great with any pasta dish. I love to make it into garlic toast. Cut into slices, spread a little olive oil, garlic salt, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, then place it under the broiler till toasty brown.

Course: Side Dish

Servings: loaves

Ingredients

1 cup Sourdough Starter
1 cup Warm Water
1/4 cup Oil
2 teaspoons Celtic Sea Salt
4 cups White Whole Wheat Flour (do not use sprouted flour)
10 tablespoons Tomato Paste
1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1 cup Parmesan Cheese Vegans can omit this

Instructions

Add your sourdough starter to your mixing bowl.
Then add the water, oil, seasoning, tomato paste, parmesan cheese, salt, and 3 cups of flour.
If mixing with a mixer, use a dough hook and process just until ingredients are mixed together. If mixing by hand, stir together the dough with a wooden spoon for three minutes, or get your hands in the bowl and mix for 3 minutes. Add the rest of the flour and mix until the dough pulls away from the bowl, forming a loaf. Make sure it is still a little wet. This will result in more holes in the bread and make a lighter loaf.
Transfer the dough to a well-oiled rising bucket or bowl and put a cover over it. Let the dough sit in the bowl for 5 hours at room temperature, which should be around 70°F.
After 5 hours, the dough should be doubled. If it hasn't doubled, let it keep rising until it does double. Once doubled, stir the dough down with a spoon or punch it down with your fist in the bucket or bowl.
Tear your dough in half and place in two greased loaf pans pressing down the sides.
Allow the dough to proof again for approximately 2.5 hours or until doubled and nicely risen.
Make sure your oven is well preheated to 400°F when the dough is ready to go in at the end of the 2.5 hours or is doubled.
With your oven preheated, slash the top of the dough with a sharp knife or lame. Put the proofed dough into the preheated oven (400°F) for 30 to 40 minutes until nicely brown or when you tap it the loaf sounds hollow. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack.