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, is the temperature for normal oven or convection. Do you like baking with convection?
Recipe is without fan (no convection). With steamed loaves, I don’t like to use convection because I feel it just blows the steam around and possibly vents it in the oven. I do use it sometimes when baking enriched doughs that have an egg wash as there’s no steaming!
Hello Maurizio,
Thank you so much for your baking wisdom! Question…what size banneton do you use for this recipe? 8.5 or 10 inches? Thank you so much.
These were actually 14″ long bannetons! But you can definitely go with a 10″ one as well.
Hi Maurizio, thanks for sharing all these wonderful recipes and your passion for baking! I’ve been really enjoying your blog. Today was my second time baking this bread and I had the biggest success ever! Please take a look at my beautiful bread! https://photos.app.goo.gl/qxfBnu5SDPDnYRyMA Thank you so much and keep it up with your great work!
Sun
Hi Maurizio, I have made this loaf many times with great success. Someone has lent me a 2Kg banneton and wanted to try this recipe out with a larger loaf. I was planning to just not divide the dough in the final stage and make one large batard, would this work as well do you think?
Thanks for any help, keep up the great work!
Will
That’d work, Will! Just be sure to shape it tightly enough and you will certainly have to adjust the bake time—extending it to fully bake the larger loaf all the way through.
Want to make this again, but realized I don’t have enough regular bread flour – any thoughts what would happen if I sub ~half of it for extra strong bread flour with 13.3% protein? I have to say, the bread flour I used for this recipe before is 12.3%, a bit higher than yours already.
Since this is rather high hydration I’d say it would be just fine with the sub. Generally I like to increase the hydration a bit when using stronger flour, but that really does depend on the flour itself. I say go for it!
Awesome, thanks, was going to just do it! Except the starter seems to be betraying me today… Tried making the levain using a rye starter, and while when fed rye it’s really robust and fast to rise, wheat seems to slow it down a lot!
Hey Mauricio, I have two batards of this in the oven now and they have developed convex bottoms rather than flat. The only place I have veered away from the recipe is that they stayed longer in the fridge than you recommend(5 hrs longer). Any ideas? The dough was beautiful when it went in bannettons and still looked good out of the fridge.
Thanks for all the work you put into the site, it’s really a great resource.
You’re welcome, Matt. Usually if they “balloon” up like that it’s a sign your dough has under proofed—despite your extra hours in the fridge. 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.
Hi – may I ask why the bottom around the exterior after baking seems to shrink in?
I’ve never noticed this happen, Sandra!
Would I be able to add extra ingredients to this recipe without much change? Like olives and rosemary?
I’d say it should work well! Just be aware of whatever you’re adding, whether it will bring additional hydration to the dough or pull some from the dough. Olives, if dry, won’t do much either way and the same goes for rosemary. But ingredients like walnuts tend to pull a bit from the dough.
It worked!!
The first time I used this recipe I wasn’t sure when to end bulk ferment so I did an experiment – one loaf an hour longer than the other. Longer was better but still not long enough.
The second time, I ripped off a small piece of dough after second mix and put it in a shot glass so that I could monitor the growth. The piece doubled right around ~5 hours so that’s when I started pre-shape. The loaves came out awesome – very light / open crumb!
However, the piece in the glass continued to grow And eventually overflowed the shot glass at around 6.5 hours.
Next time I might push bulk a smidge further just to see what happens. We’ll see how that goes!
Thanks for the killer recipe!
Love the experimentation, Bob! Glad to hear things are going well 🙂
I see that I can start my levain the night before, what about the autolyse? Can I go ahead and get that going, the night before? If so, should I leave it at room temp (70 degrees in my house), or put it in the oven with the light on (which is what I do, when I have no obligations on a Saturday?
I would not recommend doing a super long autolyse, it can have a detrimental effect on the dough, making it super extensible and slack and hard to mix back to strength (potentially not even coming back).
Hi Maurizio,
I’m having some problems with this recipe. I live in Portugal and I don’t have a strong flour to use. My dough is fermenting very well but is not strong enough, I simply can’t make the window pane test. I’ve tried to make more stretch and fold, but did not worked. Maybe don’t autolize or reduce the amount of water, I don’t know. Please give me a light.
Best regards and thanks for all your work and help,
Lucas!
Lucas, try reducing the hydration by 10% and give it another go—the reduced water should bring strength to the dough and you’ll feel it immediately. Once you find a suitable hydration, you can try to push it back up (if desired), 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.
Generally, with an increased hydration, you need to mix longer to develop the gluten in the dough to sufficiently support the water added, but this only goes so far. At some point, the flour you’re using just isn’t able to take on any more water and you’ll essentially have a weak and slack dough. It’s always best to start conservatively and work your way up with hydration as you feel out your flour. This is typically why I recommend holding back water during mixing, adding it in as the dough handles it.
Try to keep everything else as consistent as possible and let me know how the next attempt goes!
Glad to hear all that, Igor! The flour is malted with diastatic malt powder. I’d say it’s optional, you likely have flour that’s good quality so go with what you have.
No, using non-diastatic malt won’t contribute to the enzymatic boost found when using diastatic malt, yours will simply be a flavor additive at that point.
Thank you and happy baking!
What salt do you use? I made it with iodized salt, and it was ssoooo salty. Should I use kosher? Or Himalayan? Or should I lower to salt to 15g?
You can use kosher; I typically use fine sea salt. I’ll make this clear in the recipe!
OMG I followed this recipe as closely as possible (with slight timing differences) – what are the key parts of the process that allow such a high hydration dough to be so amazing to work with? I’ve never made dough >80% hydration, but this dough was way smoother and less sticky than my 80% doughs. Is it the step-wise addition of water, with some of it together with the starter, and then some with salt again? Or is it just in the proper gluten development? Thank you for this recipe!
Glad to hear that! Yes, holding back salt and mixing helps speed up the gluten development process before more water is added (which, if in high quantity, can mean a longer mix is necessary). But in addition, all the other parts of the process lead to a more manageable dough!
I love this recipe!
the first few times they came out good, but lately there have been very large holes at the top and dense at the bottom of the loaf – what could be the reason for this?
It sounds like perhaps your dough was slightly underproofed. There are a few indicators your dough could be under: explosive rise in the oven, dense spots in the interior with potentially scattered large holes, and a 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.
ok thank you – I will try that out next time 🙂
Hello:
Loving your recipes! In your best sourdough recipe, can I use a bread flour with12.6% protein or should I sub AP or something with a lower protein? Thank you!
Tiffany
That bread flour will work well!
I started this a little too late yesterday and was heading into the wee hours and I still wasn’t done with BF. I needed to go to bed, so I stuck my rising bucket in the fridge. Took it out this morning and it’s now close to being done with BF. My question is, should I still shape it and put it back in the fridge for another cold ferment for final proof? Or can I shape and final proof on the counter for another couple hours before popping it in the oven? I know you may not get this in time – perhaps I will put half in the fridge for an evening bake and let half bake off early this afternoon!
I need this question answered as well….I’d like to at least try one of the two loaves proofing on the counter to cook tonight instead of overnight in frig….plus it will be more that 16 hours if I wait until morning to bake. So I’m not sure which is better: less time in frig bake tonight, left out on counter today then bake, or too long in frig and bake in the morning. I just got way off with my timing.
You can do either a cold bulk ferment, as @randihelfand:disqus did above, or shape and cold proof. Both will work well!
You could do another round of proofing in the fridge, or just skip it and do a cold bulk as you did only. If you do a cold proof expect the bread to be a bit more sour!
Hello! I live in a very hot and humid area in addition we can’t drink the tap water here, so I have to use water from a cooler, it is very heavy almost mineral water, When ever I try to bake the bread it feels so wet I can barely work with it, and it doesn’t really hold a shape, then it comes out the of oven fairly dry with no air bubbles. Could the water be the issue? or am I doing something else wrong?
Living with bad water I always use bottled water, my bread rises better with it.
I too would likely go the bottled water route. If your water is high in mineral content, or even too soft, it can cause issues with gluten development and/or fermentation.
Hi Maurizio. Thanks for this delicious recipe.
I have two questions:
1) How can I get away with letting the bread proof a little longer in the fridge – say baking it around 1.30 or 2 pm next day when I get home from work – without losing oven spring? Would you cut down on bulk fermentation time or at least skip the 20 minute rest period on the counter before putting in the fridge? Or is it simply not a problem to wait a bit longer (I haven’t actually tried yet).
2) Lack of oven spring is a big issue that I have regardless of the recipes I use. I seem to be more succesful in getting oven spring with lower hydration (75-77 %) doughs even though I have become pretty skilled in handling and shaping the super wet dough. The bread just come out of the dutch oven quite flat typically. This recipe was no exception unfortunately, althoug the bread was still airy and delicious. I did notice that there was almost zero rise in the bannetons overnight – I’m guessing there should have been, right? Also my dough did not look as gassy as yours at the end of bulk fermentation.
Do you think it’s a matter of weak starter (the levain does what it’s supposed to do before baking, ie doubles in size, becomes very bubbly and floats, and the starter DOES leaven loaves succesfully occasionally), is it my dutch oven not getting warm enough (I tend to preheat it for an hour on maximum), is it the shaping of the dough or what is it, in your opinion, that tend to result in flat loaves?
I am preparing some starter for new loaves right now (I’m in northern europe so different timezone…) and this time I tried using some different flour. We’ll see if that makes a difference.
Thanks for a good and detailed site
Oliver
If you are using a dutch oven, one trick I learned for oven spring was to spritz the bread with water a couple of times prior to placing your dutch oven on top of the bread. I’m also using a baking stone underneath, as opposed to cast iron. That helps the bottom from being too dark.
I live at 4800 feet in a dry mountain desert, and I thought that I had baked this bread too long and the crust would be thick and so hard that it would flay my gums (as have many of my other loaves). But despite looking quite dark brown, the crust was really quite thin and crackly. Can I attribute that to the high hydration? These loaves gave me a bit of trouble in the shaping because of the stickiness, but if this crust is what I can expect from high hydration, I’ll keep practicing.
A problem I have not been able to solve is that the bottom of my loaf always burns. I use a Challenger cast iron pan for the steam portion (which results in a really nice spring), and then remove the loaf entirely onto a cold sheet pan for the second half of the bake, but even this didn’t work. Maybe remove the loaf earlier from the cast iron? Does anyone know about what level of “doneness” I should look for when the steaming is done?
Hey, Deidre. I also live at high altitude in the desert (5280ft) and when baking, things always take much longer here. First off, check out my guide to baking in a Dutch oven, the Challenge will act very similarly. You could try a few of my methods in there to help reduce burning — you might have to do a combination of them. Removing the dough from the pan after it has set is also a great idea, just wait until the dough feels mostly firm so you can remove it without damaging the delicate structure. Once it has “set” you can move it more easily, I’d say after 30 minutes of baking or so.
For steaming, I almost always do 15-20 minutes at the beginning in a home oven.
Hope this helps!
Thanks Maurizio! I’ll check out your post on Dutch ovens.
Hello Maurizio! These loaves were *delicious* even with my less than perfect shaping. I noticed the black bench knife used in your batard shaping video, which looks bigger than the typical 6 inch. Do you have a source you could share? Thank you!
So happy to hear that, Kyoko! That’s from RackmasterUK — I believe he sells them online now. Happy baking!
Hi Maurizio! Thank you for doing all the work required to refine and share this recipe! I have made this loaf several times now and it is definitely my best loaf also. I was almost sad the first time I made it. About halfway through the first slice I turned to my wife and told her with sweat coming out of my eyes “I don’t think I will ever be able to top this”. Some might say it was The Perfect Loaf! All attempts at this loaf since then have been great but not quite perfect. To be honest though, that was the only time I followed the instructions perfectly. All the other times life got in the way, but each of those loafs helped me to gain a broader understanding of what is actually happening during each step of the process and I am getting a little better at controlling the timing of each step via the dough temperature. I saw a suggestion somewhere else that said for every 15°F you reduce the dough temperature you double the time. So far that has worked well enough for me when i needed to slow down bulk fermentation after the stretch and folds so I could get some sleep. I would love to hear your thoughts on that. I would also like to thank all the other people here that take the time to share their experiences. I have learned from so many of you!
Hah, that’s just wonderful, Ian! Making honest, delicious, and nutritious bread at home is what this is all about — and it’s not going to be perfect every time! In fact, for me I don’t think there’s ever really that one perfect loaf, but it’s the search for it, the constant baking and testing and striving, that’s why I keep baking 🙂 And I love your words about gaining a broader understanding — that’s so important! When things go “wrong” or need adjustment, that’s when we learn the most.
15°F is a huge range in baking, so I could see that sentiment working out in the kitchen. In fact, I’d almost say it might be a larger gap than that, imagine if you mixed up a dough to 70F vs. 85F? They’d be VERY different doughs!
Happy to help and happy baking!
I have to agree with you, by far this is the best loaf 😉 Everyone who enjoyed this bread could not stop and were coming back for more!! Thanks again for your resources and write ups. I wouldn’t be able to be where I am as a bread baker without all your help.
Glad to hear that, Chaya! Enjoy 🙂
Hi Maurizio, first off, thank you so much for the wonderful recipe! I am wondering if you can help me understand some of the science behind this bread – I misread the instructions and made my dough using the ingredient list for “total formula” rather than the “dough formula,” thus including only 30 grams of levain (misunderstood and thought that the 30 grams starter listed=levain). Otherwise I followed the instructions very precisely. Despite this mistake, I somehow managed to get an open crumb and nice oven spring (no peel but I have only achieved this once using other recipes). Do you know how is this possible? I would like to include photos but don’t think this is an option.
I’ve made this recipe twice. The resulting loaves have great taste, but have been a little flat with not much rise in the oven. I held back some of the water the second time which made the dough less loose and much easier to work with. I tried to increase the stretching and folding during bulk fermentation to develop more structure, and both times I had to extend the fermentation time (5-6 hours) in order to get the dough to rise and develop gasses. I wonder if you have any other tips for a higher rise in the oven. I’m also wondering why the proportion of levain to dough is much smaller than other recipes I’ve seen. I made sure the levain build at least doubled before using it. Should it be even more “active” before mixing with the dough?