I’ve baked this loaf, or some variant of it, so many times I’ve lost count. This bread was born when I first got my hands dirty with flour and water. Its parent—if you could call it that—was originally Chad Robertson’s Tartine loaf with his liquid levain, brought to life, not with intensive kneading, but rather a series of folds during bulk fermentation.
My best sourdough recipe has grown since then. It has developed a personality of its own as I’ve expanded my baking repertoire and investigated the many facets of baking naturally leavened sourdough. It’s taken on and lost traits from many great bakers out there, borrowing from their inspiration and giving me a direction to raise this bread into something of my own. This bread is one that doesn’t entirely taste like anything else I’ve had, and yet, still employs many of the same processes and ingredients.
That’s one of the greatest things about bread: it can taste and look dramatically different just by changing the two hands that create it. Calling this post “my best sourdough recipe” is a lofty claim, but honestly, I do believe this is the best bread I’ve made thus far.
I sometimes revisit a discussion I had with a few readers of this site and their comments: “bread is just bread, it’s something to be eaten and is something life-giving, isn’t that enough?” I agree, but when something becomes a passion for you it’s important to set lofty goals and get excited when breakthroughs are made. Isn’t that the definition of a craft and the relentless honing required?
I’ve taken my best sourdough recipe from its most nascent form to its current stage and can trace through the years each change to its formula or process — and I’m sure I’ll be changing things well into the future as it continues to evolve — a work-in-progress.
Yes it’s excessive in some way, but there’s an excessiveness to ambition as well.
John Mayer
Maybe the actual recipe for this bread isn’t the most important part, but rather, the lessons and insights learned along the way as I continually hone my baking proficiency. I’m not claiming this recipe will yield the perfect loaf every single time, but I dare say it comes the closest for me—and that’s exciting.
This bread is the bread that I want to make the most often, the one my family asks for the most often, and the one I share most often. I have a special place for whole wheat bread, and taste-wise, it might make me want to call that my favorite one day, but the versatility of this bread is pretty hard to beat. In fact, I bake this so often that my freezer has an entire shelf lined with pre-sliced loaves wrapped and in bags labeled pane perfetto.
While the actual formula for my best sourdough recipe is simply a mix of flour, water, salt, and levain, there are many nuances here to pay close attention to; here are a few key things to successfully making this bread:
- An active starter
- An autolyse
- A high hydration
- Sufficient dough strength
- A warm and complete bulk fermentation
- A long, cold proof
Before writing this post, I pulled out my trusty notebook (or use my free baker’s note sheet!) and paged through the handwritten (and flour-ridden) pages to find any scribbled “ah-ha” moments or little notes jotted down in the margin, along with a few curse words peppered throughout, and have bundled them up into this entry (sans curse words to keep it clean). A compendium of sorts containing my insights, breakthroughs, and ah-ha moments.
My best sourdough recipe doesn’t require an exotic blend of hard-to-find flour, a complicated multi-step levain build, or the use of a mechanical mixer. It’s built around making this bread in your home kitchen.
My best sourdough recipe is very highly hydrated and can be challenging. When mixing, be watchful for the signs and adjust the dough hydration to suit your environment and flour. If you’re not used to working with high-hydration dough, please start with hydration somewhere in the middle and slowly work up.
Flour Selection
I’ve tried a lot of flour out there (and am an avid user of freshly milled flour), indeed not everything there is, but I’ve ordered enough now that the UPS guy thinks I might have a bakery in my backyard. I have baked some great bread with Hayden Flour Mills, Central Milling, and Giusto’s. I’ve also had great success with King Arthur Baking high-protein white flour.
I have consistently made incredible loaves with Giusto’s flour; I only wish it were organic. Nevertheless, I find myself ordering a box of it here and there and enjoying the results every time. Of course, as I mentioned before, try whatever is local first (sadly, my source for local, organic flour is no longer available) and whatever you like.
When trying new flour, remember to hold back more water than you might otherwise, and then slowly add it in at the end of mixing or throughout bulk fermentation. Now, on to my best sourdough recipe.
Watch Me Make This From Start To Finish
I absolutely love this bread and make it often, but it can be challenging for first-time bakers. Be sure to watch my YouTube video below for a look at how I handle the dough and every step of the process.
If you’re brand new to baking sourdough, check out my Beginner’s Sourdough Bread recipe; it has in-depth information on every step in the baking process. Then come back and bake this!
My Best Sourdough Recipe
Vitals
| Total Dough Weight | 1,800 grams |
| Pre-fermented Flour | 6.4% |
| Levain percentage in final dough | 17.1% |
| Hydration | 85.0% |
| Yield | Two 900g loaves |
Total Formula
The target final dough temperature (FDT) is 78°F (25°C). This dough loves a warm ambient environment. Try to keep the dough at the listed temperatures if possible; use your oven with its light on inside, your microwave with a bowl of steaming water, or a proofer. I use my instant-read thermometer to check the dough temperature periodically throughout bulk.
For more information on how to calculate DDT, monitor temperature, and maintain temperature have a look at my post on The Importance of Dough Temperature in Baking.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 852g | Medium-protein bread flour (~11.5% protein, Giusto’s Artisan Bread Flour) | 90.00% |
| 94g | Whole wheat flour (Giusto’s Organic Stoneground Whole Wheat) | 10.00% |
| 710g | Water 1 | 75.00% |
| 95g | Water 2 | 10.00% |
| 17g | Salt | 1.80% |
| 30g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 3.20% |
As I mentioned above, my best sourdough recipe is an extremely high hydration. If this is your first time working with this recipe, reduce the total water or hold water back during mixing to ensure your dough can handle the addition. The amount of water your dough will handle will vary based on your particular flour and environment—play it safe the first few bakes and work the water up gradually once you get a feel for the dough.
My Best Sourdough Recipe Method
1. Levain – 9:00 a.m.
Build the liquid levain in the morning and store somewhere warm around 77-80°F (25-26°C) ambient for 5 hours.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 30g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 50% |
| 30g | Medium-protein bread flour (~11.5% protein, Giusto’s Artisan Bread Flour) | 50% |
| 30g | Whole wheat flour (Giusto’s Organic Stoneground Whole Wheat) | 50% |
| 60g | Water | 100% |
If you haven’t yet read through my post on my sourdough starter maintenance routine, check it out for some helpful hints on what to look for when your sourdough starter and levain are ripe and ready to use.
2. Autolyse – 12:00 p.m.
This highly hydrated dough can be mixed by hand or with a mechanical mixer (like a home spiral mixer). Either one will yield great results, but here, I’ll discuss mixing this dough by hand.
Mix the flour and water in a bowl until all the dry bits are incorporated, then cover. Ensure all the dry flour is hydrated—store near levain (we want the dough’s temperature to remain warm).
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 822g | Medium-protein bread flour |
| 64g | Whole wheat flour |
| 650g | Water 1 |
3. Mix – 2:00 p.m.
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 95g | Water 2 |
| 17g | Fine sea salt |
| 151g | Ripe liquid levain (see above) |
Add the ingredients to your dough in the mixing bowl that underwent an autolyse. Add the water slowly, in stages, while you’re mixing, and stop adding water if the dough feels excessively wet or soupy at any point.
Perform folds for about 2-3 minutes in the bowl. Grab under one side, pull up and over to the other side, then rotate the bowl a bit and repeat. I do this probably 30 times or so (it goes fast and easy). In the end, the dough should still be shaggy, but it will be more smooth and will start to hold itself together more in the bowl.
If you’re a fan of the slap & fold mixing technique I’ve described in the past, you can do this but be aware that it is difficult at this hydration. It’s best to first slap and fold the dough without adding all the reserved water to get the dough smooth and strong. Then, return the dough to the mixing bowl and slowly add the remaining water while folding the dough.
I find that the correct level of dough strength at this point is important. You want the dough to be smooth, elastic, and strong, but it doesn’t have to be fully developed, and it will still be shaggy. We will continue to strengthen the dough through stretch and folds in bulk fermentation.
Transfer dough to a tub or thick-walled bowl for bulk fermentation.
5. Bulk Fermentation – 2:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
At 78°F (25°C) ambient temperature, bulk fermentation should go for about 4 hours. Perform six sets of stretch and folds during the bulk. The first three are at 15-minute intervals, and the last three are at 30-minute intervals. After these folds (2 hours and 15 minutes have gone by), let the dough rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation.
I stretch and fold more vigorously at the beginning of bulk than usual since it is extraordinarily slack and extensible (due to this recipe’s high hydration and autolyse). Pick up one side of the dough with both hands and pull it up, just before tearing, and fold it over to the other side. Rotate your container and repeat 4 or 5 times. That is one set.
Above, you can see my best sourdough recipe dough halfway through bulk, after about 2 hours. There is no significant rise as of yet, but the edges are beginning to dome downward, and the dough’s texture is smoothing out slightly. We still have several more folds to do and more strength to build.
It is essential that the dough is kept near 78°F (25°C) as much as possible (minor fluctuations up and down are ok). If temperatures dip down too far, you might have to extend the bulk fermentation duration to compensate, and vice versa. Use your judgment, the signs described below, and be flexible.
At the end of bulk, your dough should look very gassy, with some bubbles here and there, and the edges where the dough meets the bowl should be slightly domed. You can see all these signs in the image above.
When you gently shake the bowl, the entire mass jiggles from side to side—very alive. You’ll also notice that compared with the photo at the beginning of bulk, the dough is smoother and holds its edges, folds, and creases more readily (most of the bumps and ridges you see are due to trapped gasses from fermentation).
6. Divide & Preshape – 6:15 p.m.
Divide the dough into two halves and gently preshape each piece of dough into a round. Then, let the dough rest for 30 minutes, uncovered. Act quickly when handling this dough and rely heavily on your bench knife. I try to use my hands as little as possible when dealing with the dough at this point.
7. Shape – 6:45 p.m.
Lightly flour the top of your dough rounds and flour the work surface. With this recipe use a little more flour on the surface than normal, the dough will be extremely sticky and wet. Flip each round and shape into a batard (see notes below) or boule, whatever your preference.
Here’s a video of how I shape a bâtard. With this dough, be sure to use the “slack dough” shaping method since the dough is such high hydration.
I prefer to shape these as batards, and my shaping method is as follows:
- Flip pre-shaped round
- Fold the bottom up to about halfway
- Fold the left side over to about 3/4 to the right
- Fold the right side over to cover left
- Stretch top up & away from the center and fold down to about half (you’ll now have a “letter”)
- Grab a little of the dough at the sides near the top and stretch it over the center, so the dough crosses. Imagine lacing up a shoe where you first grab your laces and cross them over
- Repeat three times from top to bottom (the result will look like a laced up shoe)
- Take the bottom and gently roll the dough up to the top and try to seal it slightly when done rolling
Alternatively, if the dough feels pretty strong, you could shape it by “cinching” up the dough. For more instruction on how to shape this dough as an oblong loaf, see my post on how to shape a batard (with video!).
After shaping, let the dough rest on the bench for a few minutes and then place it into a banneton that is lightly dusted with white flour. You’ll see above my bannetons give the dough plenty of room to relax and expand in the fridge overnight. If your proofing container is on the smaller side, and you find your dough almost spilling over the edges, it might be time for a larger basket.
8. Proof – 7:25 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., the next day
Cover your banneton with plastic and place it in the refrigerator at 38°F (3°C) overnight.
9. Bake – Next Morning: Preheat oven at 8:00 a.m., Bake at 9:00 a.m.
Preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C). Remove the dough from the fridge (there’s no need to let the dough come to room temperature) and uncover. I scored the dough with a single, long slash to get that dramatic opening when baked. I keep the blade at a reasonably shallow angle so the taut skin created during shaping will “peel” back as the loaf rises.
I steamed my oven in my usual way, described here in my post on how to steam your home oven for baking. But you can also bake in a pot or Dutch oven.
Bake for 20 minutes with steam, then remove your steaming pans if baking on a surface or Dutch oven/combo cooker lid. Then, bake for an additional 30 minutes until done to your liking. I like to bake rather dark, so I sometimes extend this second half of baking until I get the crust I’m looking for.
Once your loaf is done, remove and let cool on a wire rack for 1-2 hours. See my post on the best way to store the bread after it’s baked for a few tips on keeping it on the counter and freezing if you think you won’t get through both loaves in a week.
Conclusion
It’s hard to put into words just how much I enjoy this “my best sourdough recipe.” I bake it almost every week (sometimes multiple times if baking for friends and family), and yet every time I pull it from the oven, I smile. The crust color, the open and light interior, only the smallest perception of sour notes, and the way it crunches when toasted. I could go on and on.
The photos to follow are the results of scattered recent bakes that all followed this process exactly and have a slightly different outcome. You’ll notice some are a bit darker, some have more or less flour on them, some expand differently in the oven, and some are taller and some are shorter—that’s the nature of baking.
With baking, every single bake is different no matter how consistent you try to be. It’s the same with my Dad and his Italian restaurant, and the reason I’ll sometimes get a call in the middle of the afternoon: “hey, the pizza dough is incredible today, you should head over and grab some.”
Crust
As a kid, I was known to take slices of bread, cut out the center, and eat the crust. It used to anger my family because they’d reach into the breadbasket only to find slices of only the soft parts. That’s how much I love the crust! Can you blame me, though?
I enjoy bread with a chunky, chewy crust, but this bread with its delicate and cracker-like crust takes the top spot for me. Even though I bake these rather dark, the crust remains thin and brittle, crackling under the slightest pressure. I love using the “heel” (the very end) of this bread to eat soup or combined with hefty slices of cheese. It’s delicious.
Crumb
I think there’s a balance to be had with bread like this. It’s possible to let the crumb open up too much, but for me, this is just right. Scattered open areas with that translucent webbing spanning from wall-to-wall, a dynamic movement to these areas, almost show you how shaping was carried out.
Taste
This bread has an almost imperceptible hint of sour, and because of this, the wheat flavors from the flour come forward. It has an incredibly tender, soft crumb that almost dissolves in your mouth. It’s one of those rare foods whereupon taking that first bite your mouth begins to water.
In the end, bread is just bread. But it’s also the staff of life and has been for thousands of years. It’s is also more than the sum of the ingredients you add to the mixing bowl. It’s how it makes you feel when you give some to a friend, and they grin ear-to-ear as they take a big bite. It’s the knowledge that you created this thing over a few days that once was a lump on your counter and is now an incredibly delicious food meant to be shared. To me, this is real bread and my best sourdough recipe to date.
Buon appetito!
Print
My Best Sourdough Recipe
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 24 hours 55 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
- Category: Sourdough, Bread
- Cuisine: American
Description
This sourdough bread is one of my favorite recipes. It’s a highly hydrated dough that results in a loaf with an open and lacey interior contrasted by a thin, crispy crust.
Ingredients
Levain
- 30g medium-protein bread flour
- 30g whole wheat flour
- 60g water
- 30g ripe sourdough starter
Main Dough
- 822g medium-protein bread flour
- 64g whole wheat flour
- 745g water
- 17g salt
- 151g ripe levain
Instructions
- Levain (9:00 a.m.)
In a small container, mix the levain ingredients and keep at 78°F (25°C) for 5 hours. - Autolyse (12:00 p.m)
In a medium mixing bowl, add 822g medium-protein bread flour, 64g whole wheat flour, 650g water, and mix until no dry bits remain. Cover the bowl and let rest for 2 hours. - Mix (2:00 p.m.)
To the mixing bowl holding your dough, add 95g water (holding back any as necessary if the dough is too wet), 17g sea salt, and the ripe levain (from step 1). Pinch and mix all the ingredients together and do folds in the bowl for 2 to 3 minutes until the dough smooths and is cohesive. Then, transfer your dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover. - Bulk Fermentation (2:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.)
Give the dough 6 sets of stretch and folds. The first three sets are at 15-minute intervals, and the last three sets are at 30-minute intervals. - Divide and Preshape (6:15 p.m.)
Lightly flour your work surface and scrape out your dough. Using your bench knife, divide the dough in half. Lightly shape each half into a round shape. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, uncovered. - Shape (6:45 p.m.)
Shape the dough into a round (boule) or oval (batard) and place it in proofing baskets. Cover the baskets with a reusable plastic bag. - Proof (7:25 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. the next day)
Cover proofing baskets with reusable plastic and seal them shut. Then, place both baskets into the refrigerator and proof overnight. - Bake (Preheat oven at 8:00 a.m., bake at 9:00 a.m.)
I steamed my oven in my usual way, described here in my post on how to steam your home oven for baking. But you can also bake in a pot or Dutch oven. Preheat your oven with a combo cooker or Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C). Remove your dough from the fridge, score it, and transfer it to the preheated combo cooker. Place the cooker in the oven, cover with the lid, and bake for 20 minutes. After this time, remove the lid (you can keep it in the oven or remove it) and continue to bake for 30 minutes longer. When done, the internal temperature should be around 208°F (97°C). Let the loaves cool for 2 hours on a wire rack before slicing.
Notes
This is a very highly hydrated dough. Don’t add in all the reserved water during mixing if it feels like the dough is becoming overly weak, slack, or soupy.
What’s Next?
If you want more help getting an open crumb with this bread, I’ve created a 100+ page book with step-by-step instructions. Learn the best flour to use, the right fermentation schedule, and all my tips in my Bread Baker’s Handbook.
Are you a TPL Member? If so, the handbook is free for you!
2,142 Comments
Hi Maurizio, I’ve noticed a few places where the text refers to images being below but (I think) the images are actually above. Such as with this bit of text
I think the correct image is the one directly above?
I’m making this bread currently and I’m about 2 hr 15 min into the bulk fermentation and it still looks slightly shaggy. It’s domed a little bit but should I extend the BF at all to compensate?
I would have done another set of stretch and folds.
It’s ok if this happens, just expect that you’ll have to divide the dough earlier!
Hey Maurizio,
Is there a way to bake this bread using the combo cooker – like your other recipes? I’m a bit scared of the steam-oven process and not sure if I am ready for that level of complication…Thanks!
Ella
Yes, absolutely! Check out my guide to baking bread in a dutch oven (or combo cooker) for more details.
Works great with a regular cast iron dutch oven like the 12-quart one I use. After checking with Maurizio a few months ago, I use it with about 1/8 inch of grits on the bottom, on which the parchment paper sits with the loaf on it. (The grits are coal black now but it works fine to keep the bottom from getting too dark and thick.) For me, 20 minutes with the lid on at 500°F followed by 25 minutes with the lid off at 450°F keeps the grandkids raving!
Hi Maurizio,
I have been baking this bread for the past three weeks now and I am getting repeatable results. At all times, the bread turned out to be delicious with very nice and airy crumb. However, there is one point I am consistently failing – i.e. the surface of the bread does not tear during the oven spring. So I don’t get the nice, crusty ear and the wonderful colors of the gluten structure at the surface of the bread. First I thought the reason is lack of adequate steam causing the crust to form too early. I ordered the lava rocks and saturated the oven for the first 3-4 minutes of the bake and sprayed the oven every 5 minutes or so. I even sprayed the loaves generously, which helped a little but not much. I can see the loaf increases in volume by ~2 fold, but the surface, where the scoring is does not tear. So I wanted to ask you if there could be other reasons why I don’t see the prominent oven spring that I should get. For some reason, my starter is consistently more active that what is assumed in your recipes. At room temp (~23C) with 100% hydration, it more than doubles in volume in 3 hours. So I wonder if I am keeping the loaves in the fridge for proofing too long. If you think so, would you recommend reducing the warm fermentation time, or cold proofing time? Alternatively, do you think reducing the amount of the starter in the dough would help to get a more stronger oven spring during the bake? Please let me know what you think and once again thanks a lot for the wonderful recipes.
Best,
-Selim
Hi Selim, I am just a home baker, but I think I have an idea what’s happening. I started baking sourdough several years ago. I have learned a lot from reading Maurizio’s articles…
In my opinion, also based on my first experience, and why I improved, when realized what issues I was dealing with, was the surface tension of how I shaped the loaves. Just keep up with baking, practice makes perfect. But concentrate on your shaping skills. I’ve watched tons of videos, techniques of shaping. It is also might be the scoring itself. It requires practice as well. And also, watch videos of scoring, pick up on techniques.
I do agreed with your that steam is super important. But it helps only when the the surface tension and scoring are done properly. Hope this helps!
Thanks @alexandra_furmansky:disqus, for the suggestions. I will of course keep on trying and practicing. I, too am watching a lot of videos and it definitely helps. I’ll post the outcome for the next batch and get your comments. Once again thanks a lot and happy baking.
Of course! Looking forward to see your success!
It’s likely not due to lack of steaming. As @alexandra_furmansky:disqus said below it could be a lack of tension when shaping — be sure to shape the dough tightly enough so you have a taut surface on the outside of the dough. This strength is important because the strong, taut sections will keep the dough in shape while it rises and expands, but the area where you’ve scored (cut) will open up and break apart.
@maurizioleo:disqus, when I remove my dough from the refrigerator after the proof, they remain pretty intact. As soon as I score them, they start to slowly widen due to the cut. And within a couple minutes after I put them in the oven they get considerable wider – close to double the width. The upward motion starts only after 5-6 minutes and continues slowly until the end of the 20 min mark. Overall the volume of the loaf increases maybe 3 times or so, but never properly tears the scored surface. I will continue practicing with the shaping and scoring. But please let me know if there is anything I might be missing. Once again thanks a lot for all the recipes. I tried the pizza recipe, man-oh-man was that delicious. Great tip with the higher hydration. That made it. Until next time, cheers.
@maurizioleo:disqus, @alexandra_furmansky:disqus; I just solved the problem I have been having since the beginning. It was in fact a combination of two mistakes, first as you guys pointed out; the shaping. I ended up practicing shaping a lot and created a nice tight outer skin on the dough before I retard them. But even after I could not get a good oven spring. Then I realized, the duration of the bulk fermentation at room temp was too short. I was using the exact times Maurizio suggested, but of course the starter, the environment is all different. I was getting a decent rise but I had to wait and addition 90 minutes before the dough doubles in volume. Only after then I divided and shaped. Apparently I did not have enough yeast in the dough to create a big oven spring. I wish I could share picture here, but the result is very satisfactory. Once again thanks a lot for all the help, encouragement and suggestions. Best…
That’s awesome! I am so so happy for you! And I know, how you feel, when you accomplished it and achieved great results!
Sorry o just saw your reply, and wanted to respond to you!! Best wishes for your journey of baking the SD!
Hi Maurizio! First of all thank you so much for your work! You are such an inspiration! I was wondering if you can add diastatic malt to bread flour if you do not have malted bread flour.
Hi Bernie! I would like to share my knowledge about it with you…I could not find King Arthur bread flour anywhere and had to find other options. I got a great Bread flour but the one without barley malt/diastolic malt powder. And in this case that’s exactly what we cask do, get is as a separate diastolic malt powder and add 1% of the total flour weight. For instance for 500g flour 5 g if the powder. You need just a little. I already used it – and it came out amazing. The flour is Giusto high performance. It doesn’t contain the added malt. And I recommend it!
Thank you!
Yes, you can definitely do this. I typically recommend starting at 0.5% diastatic malt powder to flour weight and working up as needed.
Thank you! I will see how it works with this recipe.
Hello Maurizio. What can I do if my oven reaches only up to 446°F (230°C)? I’ve read many tips, recipes, blogs and all of them says that higher the temperature is better. Here you say to preheat at 500°F. My oven is electric and uses a convection system. Do you have any tip? By the way… congrats for your blog (it’s in my favorites now). Regards.
Around 450°F will work just fine! I would not use convection if you can disable the fan, if you can’t that’s ok, too.
Hi Maurizio,
Great blog! I really appreciate the precision and thoroughness of your posts 🤓.
I attempted this recipe after a successful shot at the beginner’s recipe and I wasn’t able to achieve a good oven spring. Used organic flour (14%), slap&fold, proofed overnight at 37° for 15h but dough overflowed the basket while proofing. Bread came out quite flat, although the crumb is nice and soft. These were the results.
What would you suggest I change next time to get a better oven spring?
Tofi — it looks like it was under-strengthened/over hydrated to me. I’d say drop the hydration 10% and see how that helps next try. You’ll likely find a stronger dough with more rise. You could also try a little more kneading upfront and/or more sets of stretch and folds. If it turns out great, then slowly increase the hydration percentage if you’d like.
Hope this helps!
Hello, Maurizio, this recipe also created my best loaves to date in terms of crumb texture and taste, Thank you. However, after taking the loaves out of the banneton they spilled quite flat. I am guessing I am not shaping them with enough surface tension. I will try again with that 10% lower hydration.
HI Maurizio,
I’d love to make this loaf tomorrow, but it’ll be my first time making sourdough. I chose this recipe simply because I have all of the ingredients. How much water would you recommend holding back?
Hey, Rachel. I’d say hold back 100g for your first attempt.
I have some really great starting off point recipes you might want to think about tackling first as well, but this is up to you! This is a great one!
Hi Maurizio,
I’ve been following your “beginners sourdough” recipe for about a year now, shaped as a boule, looking to progress to this recipe as a batard. I’m looking to buy a batard banneton but the one’s linked in your baking tools on Amazon, the comments say they are good for around 600g loaves. Do you have a link to the batard bannetons you use for 900g loaves?
Thanks,
Henry
Hey, Henry. The larger oval baskets I use are from sfbi.com, they are the 14″ ones.
Hey, thanks so much for the recipe and guidance, it’s super useful and easy to follow.
I’m baking loaves to this spec semi regularly now, but without fail they (both on this recipe and similar ones I’ve followed) will come out of the fridge in the morning and not hold any of the shape of the proving basket from the night before. I’ve shaped them like mad, tried both boule (I even did the extra tightening you mention when in the bowl) and batard style but without fail they lose about 50% of their height and end up basically taking the shape of the inside of the combo cooker by the time they’re out of the oven. The bread is still great inside but rarely has much height on it, I assume because it’s spread out so much relative to its original shape. Every other step looks identical to yours pics and wording and feels right based on my limited experience, and the bread looks great going in to the fridge at night, just when it comes out it basically loses any shape, which is so frustrating! I don’t suppose you have any ideas or pointers on ways to keep the dough better shaped out of the fridge?
Thanks again!
James
James, that’s why I like a clay baker here, because it protects the shape of a loaf after taking it out from the basket. That’s how it looks: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOO-TgESk8a6XoxzviSfuoxTNP2G_3rHp8Z5uhbYEaYrftWEFCIBattVWjPPfO0HQ?key=YUp5R3ZxM2xTV1ExZ2ZSRWVpMHgwbWE3THp4emFR
It forgives many of beginners mistakes on loaf shaping.
This resipe is fantastic. I use 80% hydration and bake it in the clay baker. And it is the best bread I’ve ever eaten and baked. Thanks for the perfect guide!
Glad to hear that, Leszek!
Hi Maurizio, what size are those bannetons, in cm? I fear mine is too small and may be hindering growth of loaves over 500/700 g. Thanks!
For dough weights of 900g or so they are about 35.5 cm long. For 500g you could probably do 25.4cm or so.
Thank you Maurizio ! For this answer and the others elsewhere on your site and YouTube. And thanks for sharing your process on your fabulous website ! Especially appreciate the conversation you keep running after each article; it’s helpful to see others’ approach and complication and read your trouble-shooting responses. After a non-lifted first attempt at beginner’s sourdough, I succeeded with lift in a second attempt (kept my eye on the hydration – most common problem judging from your responses to others; and the warm day helped too). Today’s challenge: sourdough bread with ap flour. There’s a chill in the air and in the house, but I’m hoping this will come out lifted and yummy! The whole family loves your pizza dough recipe which is now our « go-to » recipe here. Bombolini last night were a hit too – just need to adjust the frying when I finish cooking up the batch today. I think my coconut oil got too hot – outside too brown before inside cooked through. But delicious taste. Thank you thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and craft. Stay safe,
Hi Maurizio, I am fairly new to your blog and sourdough baking but have tried quite a few of your recipes already and I was pretty pleased with the results so far. I loved the apricot/walnut and olive breads! These were pretty high in hydration and my dough probably lacked a bit of strength as they didn’t rise as much as the beginner’s bread. Today I tackled the recipe above and was really determined to create a strong dough, both with the frequent stretches and folds as well with a short session of slap and fold (worked ok). Everything progressed well until the last stretch and fold set. During this set my dough suddenly lost all strength and literally broke apart. I had almost the same dough as before autolyse. I have no explanation for this other than that I might have used too much water for the last set. After that the dough was basically lost. Any idea what could have happened? Another question: Before encountering your site I usually used my KitchenAid for kneading, which also seems to work well with highly hydrated doughs. You seem to do mostly manual kneading. What’s the reason for that? greetings from Switzerland, stay safe and healthy, Nils
Yes, I’d say drop the hydration of the dough, it might have just gone too far and it almost sounds like total gluten breakdown at that point (maybe the dough was proofed too long as well). Decreasing the hydration 5-10% should help considerably.
I use both hand mixing and machine mixing depending on what I’m working on in the kitchen. If it’s a small 2kg or less batch, I typically mix by hand. When I do larger batches I use my Haussler Alpha mixer. I’d say mixing by hand can help preserve some of the flavor of the flour by avoiding excessive oxidization on the flour when mixing, but generally I find home bakers rarely mix that long in a mechanical mixer. So in the end, the choice is yours!
Hi Maurizio. Your breads are beautiful! I have a question regarding the mixing stage in your recipe above. You describe that: ‘you can do a slap and fold for 3-6 minutes’ (I apologize for paraphrasing). Does that mean that it is necessary to do so or that one does not have to? Did you do that for the loaf shown in the picture? Thank you!
Yes, I did slap and fold kneading technique for the photos in the post above, but it’s not necessary given the number of sets of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation. The important thing is strengthen the dough sufficiently during mixing/kneading/bulk fermentation so it is shapable and holds its shape all the way to the time it’s baked.
Thank you, Maurizio, for creating and maintaining the by far best website on artisan sourdough baking. I appreciate the amount of detail you pay to ever step of the way while still staying approachable and easy to follow.
I”d like to share one thing I discovered today while following your “Best Sourdough” recipe. You mentioned the extreme stickiness of this dough and how hard it is to handle it. So I did a little experiment. I used a pair of disposable (powder-free, food-grade) vinyl gloves for working with the dough. What a revelation! Nothing sticks to my hands, despite the high hydration level! The gloves remain almost entirely clean. It’s like having a pair of “Teflon” hands. A quick rinse and I can re-use the gloves for the rest of the recipe. It’s the answer to my “how-to-avoid-sticky-cement-hands” prayers. I also allows me to control the water-flour ratio better since I don’t have to add any water to my hands.
You’re very welcome, sorry for the late reply. Hah, I love this idea! I’ve seen many bakers use gloves due to health requirements but I’ve not tried it myself — I’m going to have to give it a shot!
Hello! Love your site so much and refer to it daily during quarantined procrastibaking times! I am baking sourdough today and shaping at 1:30pm. Can I do the final rise on the counter, instead of overnight in fridge, and bake off the loaves tonight? How long do you recommend for the counter rise? Thank you so much! Gemma
Yes you certainly can. Depending on the temperature in your kitchen it usually takes 2-4 hours to fully proof. Use the “poke test” to determine when the dough is ready for the oven!
Hi Maurizio,
This is an awesome blog. I used to bake mostly pide and flatbreads and just started to bake with sourdough. This weekend I tried your best sourdough recipe and it worked perfectly. I wanted to thank you specifically for the very detailed descriptions, pictures and videos. At every step I could follow the instructions and achieved a similar outcome as you have described. I tried to incorporate the steam generation as much as I can, but I need some more improvements over there. I had a rather mediocre outcome in terms of the loaf opening up in the oven, but the resulting taste and texture was awesome. Once again thanks a lot for all the hard work. Best.
So glad to hear this! Happy baking, Selim.
Hi, I’ve baked a dozen or so loaves from your website and had pretty good success but this last batch , not so good. Used the “My best Sourdough “ recipe and all good until I took it out of the fridge. Stuck bad to the fabric in proofing basket even though I thought I had plenty of flour. After the bake I had little rise with a huge hole in the top half and gummy texture even though temp was 207 when I removed loaves. Any ideas? Thank you very much
Based on the description of your loaves it could be that they were under proofed. There are a few indicators your dough could be under: explosive rise in the oven, dense interior with potentially scattered large holes, and gummy texture to the interior. Finally, it’s possible the bottom of the loaf might be slightly bowed upward (like the letter “U” — the top will kind of dome).
Make sure to build your levain from a starter that’s strong and mature (meaning it’s risen to it’s peak height before you take some to use). From there, bulk fermentation is very important! Make sure your bulk fermentation goes sufficiently far, you want the dough to look smooth, it should have risen considerably, and have bubbles here and there — it should look alive. If you tug on the dough a bit it should offer resistance to your tugging, it’ll feel stronger. Give the dough the time it needs in bulk fermentation! If you have to give it another 30m or hour to see these signs, do so. It’s important for this step to go sufficiently far for the dough to have enough fermentation activity before its proof.
When would the decision to add more time to bulk be made? Let’s say I’ve done 6 sets of stretch & folds (three at 15 min & three at 30 min intervals), and then waited the 2 hours. Now I open up and see my dough is still shaggy and loose. Just wait another hour, or do some more stretch & folds?
Hello! Love love love your website. I have made the beginner sourdough with LOTS of success so I decided to try this recipe. Everything developed well until the final proof. The dough was very easy to work with prior and seemed to have great structure. I decided to do it on the counter instead of overnight in the refrigerator. The dough expanded so much it was almost pouring out of the proofing baskets. When I tried to dump it out onto the parchment it completely stuck to the basket and was pretty much ruined. My only guess is that I let it proof too long at too high of a temperature?
Hi Kayla. The fridge proof step is used to delay the ferment, and develop flavor. If you want to do it on the counter, you will need to cut the proof time down substantially. You can search for “room temperature bread proofing” on google to get a sense of how long that will take.
Thanks, Kayla! Yes, that’s right, far too long at room temperature — your dough over proofed. The fridge will cool your dough dramatically and slow, but not completely stop, fermentation.
Hey there Maurizio,
having come quite far with the Einkorn Miche https://www.instagram.com/p/B-2iDmoImSK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link I feel I took a huge step back with my success trying this recipe. I couldn’t get much rise or gluten structure and everything became very pancaky. I think the dutch oven saved me from more disaster.
Here are some videos documenting the situation.
Final stretch and fold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Cx4O6qvSM
After pre-shaping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Z3WOiGJZc
Pre-baking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02K90DiVe5s
Result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKERDKT5fzo
As you mentioned slap and fold is not necessary, I left it out. I feel there isn’t enough gluten development or too high hydration and even during the final stretch and fold I was getting very little resistance. Any pointers? drop hydration 5-10% and slap and fold next time?
Also, the dough stuck to the basket big time. That also points to very high moisture. Should I use semola to help with that?
Thanks for all your help! Phillip
Hey, Phillip! So sorry for the late reply. Yes, it sounds like the dough was over hydrated to me. Try reducing the hydration by 10% and give it another go — the reduced water should bring a lot of strength to the dough and you’ll feel it immediately. Once you find a suitable hydration, you can try to push it back up, but as you do, take note of how the consistency of the dough changes: the dough will start to slacken out as you add more and more water, this means you’ll likely have to mix more upfront or add another set or two of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation.
Try to keep everything else as consistent as possible and let me know how the next attempt goes!
🙂 thx !! It went really well with 10% less hydration (I had tagged you in the Instagram story @cafehelmutaachen).
I even splashed out for a larger bench knife and now my shaping is working better. But I have stopped trying to shape without flour (as you sometimes mention). It makes it impossible for me at times with very sticky dough and seems to not make a huge difference to the end product.
Thanks for the recipes ! I love your side ! I didn’t have 11.5% bread flour. I substituted half bread flour and half AP flour. I didn’t add the last 50gm of water.
It all seem like it was going well until I started shaping the dough. I didn’t seem to be holding its shape !
It’s in the fridge now proofing. Is there anything I can do at this point to ‘save’ it ?
If it’s super slack and wet I’d likely make focaccia or place the dough in a loaf pan and make sandwich bread! Next time, drop the hydration 10% and give it another go.
Hi — thanks for the recipe. After the bulk fermentation, do you do any de-gassing of the dough to remove air pockets? I’ve seen some recipes where the dough is gently flattened with the fingertips, like a focaccia, after then bench rest and before final shaping. From your description here, it seems like you are gentle with the dough during the shaping to preserve the loft achieved in the bulk fermentation. Can you clarify? If I de-gas, do I just need to let it proof longer before baking? Thx!
I don’t typically de-gas, but if the dough is extra gassy and fermented, I might sometimes do a light pat down if I’m worried the dough will have excessive “holes” in the interior.
Hey Maurizio,
I’m new to this community – I’ve made your Beginner Loaf recipe now (YUM) 4 times and have a simple question; are your recipes condensed anywhere for printing (my apologies if I’ve missed a link somewhere…) ? I am familiar enough with the process, but have trouble following a recipe with photos and from a computer (old eyes, sorry). Am I missing a link somewhere? When I printed it out I ended up with many, many pages. Thank you!
Hey Amy! Glad to hear your bakes are going well. At the bottom of every post I have a “Print Sourdough Recipe” link you can click to print any recipe. The print function lets you delete whole sections of the post if they’re not going to help you in the kitchen. Happy baking!
Hey Maurizio,
Making this recipe today after doing fairly well with the beginner’s sourdough. Thanks for the thorough guide, it has been so therapeutic reading through the theory.
One quick question on starter vs levain recipes. In your starter maintenance topics you stress that using the same flour will result in a stronger starter. Typically you say that the starter is 50/50 white and rye, but the levain in this recipe is 50/50 white and whole wheat. Do you use a starter that matches the flour mix in your levain or do you find that a strong starter will result in a great levain, even though you changed the flour type?
Thanks!
Pat
Over the years I’ve found no problem with switching the flour type from your starter to make a levain — even in a single build. I typically maintain a wheat starter but sometimes switch over to 100% rye, no issues at all!