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,
I'm trying this recipe for the second time, the first time I added too much water and shouldn't have made kimchi at the same time. Anyway the bread had a great flavor but it didn't rise enough and was too dense.
This time my dough seems very happy.
My questions are:
1. If we're in your time table after the series of strech and folds I assume I leave the dough to proof undisturbed from 4:30 – 6:15? (I can be a little challenged at times when I have to think for myself).
2. Do you take your shaped loaf directly from the fridge to the preheated oven? Should I test it in the morning by that thumb press method and decide what to do from there?
Thank you for spreading the joy of a perfect loaf.
Kind regards,
Ida
Hey Ida—
Answers:
1) Yes, let the dough rest after the last stretch and fold.
2) Yes, straight from the fridge to the oven!
Calculating DDT?
Giusto's has organic flours. That is one of my primary sources for flour.
I get organic Giusto’s at Andy’s, my local store. We’re not far from Petaluma , Giusto’s store is located there.
Great flour there!
Can I bake them in Pullman pans, like sandwich bread?
You definitely can!
Fantastic, nice adjustments there, Rob! Super glad it worked for you, it always takes a bit of adjustment to suit your flour. Happy you're enjoying my cookbook!!
Outstanding recipe! Thank you for sharing. Are any adjustments needed for longer cold proof times (eg 24-36h in fridge?)
Thanks so much, Mark! Should work fine for a longer proof like that.
Hi Maurizio, loved this recipe! Id like to make it a bit easier by using my stand mixer. What modifications would you suggest? Or do you feel like it'd affect the end product since it seems like this recipe keeps it shaggier at first.
Stand mixer will work just fine with this recipe, in fact, it will make it a bit easier when developing this high hydration dough. I'd follow my process outlined here:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/how-to-mix-bread-dough-with-a-famag-spiral-mixer/
If you're not using a spiral mixer, just mix until the dough matches my description in the recipe at each stage!
I was wondering I would've like to bake this bread without any refrigeration, is this possible? seeing that I am in very warm temperatures like 24-32°CIeverything takes off in my kitchen so refrigeration just makes the bread more sour Which I don't particularly like.
Yup, you can. After you shape, let it sit out (covered) until it passes the poke test, around 1-3 hours depending on kitchen temps. Here's how you do the poke test:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/how-to-use-the-dough-poke-test/
Yup, you can. After you shape, let it sit out (covered) until it passes the poke test, around 1-3 hours depending on kitchen temps. Here's how you do the poke test:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/how-to-use-the-dough-poke-test/
Hi I baked this bread everything was perfect until it went into the oven
Flat like a pancake
Followed the recipe to a T
No oven Spring, not sure what happen The dough was amazing and lively to work with I held back 145g water in total as the flour was AP and absorbed differently .What did I do wrong
It sounds like you likely over proofed the dough. There are a few signs your dough could have gone over: sluggish rise in the oven, the score on top of the dough might not open with a nice “ear” and instead just kind of fuse together, the interior will have lots of small holes and perhaps one or two large ones near the top (but no dense areas of unfermented flour), and finally the loaf could be a little on the sour side. Try reducing the proofing period.
Check out my guide to proofing for a bit more help, too:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/guides/proofing-bread-dough/
It's all good but the freaking website is overloaded with adds and keep jumping up an down don't let me read it 😫 have to print out.
Hey Aleks! I've been trying very hard to remove these jumping ads. If you're still having trouble, please email me (maurizio at theperfectloaf.com) so I can figure out which they are and remove them. Terribly sorry about this!
Hi! My name is Paige I’m new to sourdough. I made my own starter and it came out great! This is my first loaf and this is the recipe I thought was the best! My question is am I able to just split this recipe in half to make one loaf? I was making my leavain and put it in a medium bowl with plastic net over it and then the plastic got stuck to the levain and I lost 30g it’s weighs 121g after I transferred to the correct jar. Can I still make one loaf?
Yes, you can absolutely split this in half, here's more about how I do it:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/reference/introduction-to-bakers-percentages/
I've never been able to get this recipe to work. This time, I added half of water 2 at mixing and it was already pancake batter after 3 minutes of vigorous mixing and "folding." I correct by adding an extra 6.5% original flour weight of the medium protein, so we're sitting at 77% and it's still soup. I had to knock it all the way down to 70% for it to even start coming together.
I feel like there's a critical step missing with kneading the autolyse, levain and salt without the extra water at the start of mixing.
I'm based in Tokyo, so keeping my apartment at 25C left the relative humidity at somewhere between 50% to 60%.
The flours I use are a Hokkaido-grown 11.2% bread flour made from 春よ恋(haru yo koi) by Nissin, and the Nissin's Wellna 13.5% protein whole wheat bread flour, using wheat imported from Canada.
Because I'm in Tokyo, the only way I'm going to get decent sourdough without paying $20 a loaf and trekking all the way to some weird corner of the city is if I make it myself, so I generally stick to a weekend bake schedule. The extra 40 minutes of trying to get the dough to come together was the stuff of horror.
I think I'm going to stick to my regular 74% hydration recipe where I just add all of my starter to all of my water, mix, then add all of my flour and it just comes together beautifully. This recipe is cursed.
It sounds like your dough is most likely over hydrated—your flour likely isn’t able to take on quite a much water, and that’s ok! Try reducing the hydration by 5% 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!
I love this loaf, thank you!! I work M-F and would love to make this for a work event Wednesday. If I make the dough on Sunday can I give it a longer proof in the fridge (Sun evening though Wed morning) without compromising the gluten structure, or should I decrease the amount of starter for a proof longer than 48 hours? If so, how much should I reduce it?
You could leave the same amount of starter, just cut bulk fermentation a little short, like 15 to 25 mins. I also have a "work week" baking schedule, here:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/simple-weekday-sourdough-bread/
Hi there I made this recipie yesterday shaped 2 loaves and pulled 1 out today to bake and it's a lil underproofed (I'm still learning bulk ferment) my question is can I pull out the 2nd say tomorrow to room temp to finish proofing?
Thanks in advance
Christy
Yes, take it out and give it more time to proof on the counter before baking!
Will this recipe work for “mini batards?” I’d like to make something for individual sandwiches!
It absolutely will and I have done this!
Bah, I've tried this recipe 5 times… all flat underproofed loafs.
My flour can handle a high hydration, but this loaf feels impossible. It take seems extra time to bulk ferment due the hydration, but by the time it's ready and doubled in my proofer, it's 2am… I always miss the window for perfect proofing. I think me and this recipe need to break up.
I would try adding more levain/starter to this dough, Darcy. This might help you speed things along!
I'll give it a try!
(Just when I'm out, it pulls me back in ahaha)
No matter what I do this dough doesn't strengthen. I just moved mine into the Dutch oven and it's the most amorphous pathetic blob and I'm feeling so discouraged.
Alison—it sounds like your dough is most likely over hydrated—your flour likely isn’t able to take on quite a much water, and that’s ok! Try reducing the hydration by 5% 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!
This is a great recipe, but I have to ask why the Proof begins at 7:25; why 40 minutes from Shape to Proof, as the shape and placement in the baskets doesn't take that long. Thank you!
It takes me a bit longer to shape these loaves, but yes, however long it takes is good enough Mary! If it takes you only 5, then that's totally fine.
Hi Maurizio!
I started making the dough but just noticed I will not be able to bake it in the morning. Will it fail too bad if I leave it 24h in the fridge?
It'll be fine!
Are there any other medium-protein bread flours you can suggest? I think in another post you had said King Arthur’s white flour has a protein content of 11.7%? Even though it is technically not a “bread flour” it is mainly the protein content you are looking for, right? So can we replace the bread flour with this white flour and still have good results? Thank you.
You're right, it's mainly protein content I'm referring to there. King Arthur AP should work fine, though, expect you might not be able to add all the water called for here. Judge this during bulk fermentation!
Yes, definitely let it ferment longer as needed. But what you can do, instead, is make a slightly larger levain for this recipe if you find it's taking too long. Try increasing the levain by 50%. This should help speed things up for you and your starter!
Are the oven temperatures above for a fan oven, or do I need to make adjustments?
They are for a regular electric oven, no fan (convection). If you find your loaves are coloring too fast, reduce the bake time by 5 to 10 minutes to adjust for your oven.
I made the levain and the autolyse but got busy and left them out too long and didn't finish the next steps. I put them in the fridge overnight. I don't think the levain is ripe enough anymore. Can I save the autolyse for a day and use with a new, ripe levain or do I need to start over entirely?
I wouldn't do that. I would use the levain in a discard recipe and make another one!
Hi! I have two questions!
1. Is there any purpose in replacing 3 of the last stretch and folds with coil folds instead? In what situation would you choose to perform different kinds of folds, e.g. lamination, coil folds, bench folds
2. Do you rest the dough after mixing in the levain and salt, or do you go straight into the first set of stretch and folds?
I've been baking for a few months now and I'm on a journey in achieving a crumb as open as yours 🙂 it looks beautiful!
Hey, Angelica! I answer all your Qs right here:
https://www.theperfectloaf.com/how-to-stretch-and-fold-sourdough-bread-dough/
As for #2, definitely let the dough rest after mixing for around 30 minutes before the first set of stretches and folds.
Hope this helps!
Hi Maurizio, thanks for the article! If I’m following your recipe to the dot – do you generally do all 6 folds as “rigorous” folds or do you change it to gentle folds based on the strength of your dough like the article mentioned?
It really depends on the dough and how it's feeling that day. If the dough is getting smooth and strong by the end of the sets, switch to gentle!
The absolute best sourdough recipe! (I have tried quite a few…)
The first loaf is almost gone a few hours after it came out of the oven! I used Bobs Red Mill bread and whole wheat flour. I did let the leaven sit a little longer time since my other loaves haven’t been as airy and that seems to have helped!
Nice mods there, Jennifer (and I like you adjusted things as needed!). Thanks for the feedback and enjoy!