You need about 4-5 hours to make a good sourdough bread. It will last for at least a week and it will not mold.

WHAT YOU NEED

Ingredients:

Water

God's gift or the healthiest and only free drink (or at least that's the way it should be).

Rye Flour

You can order online in Australia, e.g. from here

Rye Flour 5kg. Get it online.

Baker's Flour or any wheat white flour

I usually bulk buy 10 kg because it goes pretty quickly.

Caraway seeds

to taste

Yeast

Optional. The dough should grow without it. I usually use half a coffee spoon, just for a good measure.

Salt

TOOLS

Bread maker for mixing ingredients only. BUT DON'T USE IT FOR BAKING!

Not a must but it will make your life easier. Get a cheapest one and only use the "Dough" function. It keeps the dough in the right temperature to grow. Mine is old Brevil and it mixes dough in 1,5 hours. I keep it in for 1-2 more hours.

Measuring container

A heavy cast-iron pot that you can put in the oven. This is where you will bake your bread. I found this to be the best method. It will make the loaf beautifully round. 

STARTER

Starter mixture for sourdough

Starter is a fermented substance made of rye flour and water. It's the base of the bread.

Once you have rye flour mix it with water. Put it in a small container in temperature of 22 - 30 C and wait 1-2 days until it starts to grow slightly. It has to have small bubbles in it produce a 'sour' fermenting scent. Once you have it, you will use full table spoons of it each time you make bread just leaving a bit at the bottom of the container. You will fill it up with more flour and water each time.

HOW TO MAKE IT

Throw the following in the breadmaker container:

2 cups of water (...)

5 cups of white Baker's flour

(.... that means that the ratio of water to flour is 1 : 2.5)

4 full table spoons of the Starter (described above)

1-2 table spoons of salt, or to taste

1 table spoon caraway seeds or to taste

A bit of dried yeast

Check the dough in the mixer and make sure it stays a bit sticky. To much flour will make the bread crumble. After two hours it should stop being sticky on the surface and only stay sticky inside. 

When the dough grows about twice in size, pre-heat your oven with the cast-iron pot inside for about 20 minutes or whatever your oven indicates. 

Dust your kitchen counter with a bit of white flour and tip the dough from the breadmaker contaner on it. Scoop it from sides to unstick it from the counter so you can take it with two hands to the open oven.

DON'T BURN YOURSELF!!

Bake for 40-50 minutes depending on the oven with the lid on in temperature of 240-250C. This is important so time your oven with an alarm. When alarm rings, open the oven and take the lid out. Then bake for another 8-10 minutes for the crust. But it's not necessary.

You don't need to put additional water or ice cubes as recommended by some recipies. The pot will do the trick as it keeps the moisture inside.

However you need to take the lid out when the loaf is cooling because otherwise it will condense and the bread will become wet and soggy.

That's it. You've done it. Now you're better and more professional than most bakers. Congratulations and Bon Appetit.