Baking a healthy and nourishing loaf of sourdough bread with your sourdough starter is gratifying, to be sure, but what if you’re not home all day to check in on the long-fermented dough? I mean, some of us do have to work, right? This simple weekday sourdough bread recipe and schedule are uncomplicated for mixing and baking a loaf of bread during the busy workweek.
This post includes pictures and videos that clearly and concisely convey the full sourdough bread-making process. But why is this recipe so easy compared to others?
Real Quick: Why is This Sourdough Bread Easy?
- It’s a no-knead sourdough bread recipe: mix everything in one bowl
- It uses only two types of flour: bread flour and whole-wheat flour
- It’s moderate hydration—no messy dough or counters
- It’s baked in a Dutch oven or combo cooker
- Timing is extremely flexible
Let’s go over the workweek schedule.
A simple weekday sourdough bread schedule
In the past, I’ve discussed a weekend baking schedule that outlines a schedule for low maintenance during the week with a bake on the weekend. The following schedule, however, allows baking during the week around a typical nine-to-five workday. It’s also quite flexible, and you always have the option to place the dough in the fridge longer to bake when you get a chance.
Read through my ultimate guide to dough proofing for more information on adjusting the proofing period for this sourdough bread.
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 7:00 a.m. (before work) | – Make the 10-hour levain (ready ~5:00 p.m.) – Save time later, scale-out flour & salt into bowls and cover |
| 5:00 p.m. (after work) | When levain ready, mix dough for autolyse |
| 5:30 p.m. | Finish mixing and begin bulk fermentation |
| 9:00 p.m. | Divide, pre-shape, and bench rest |
| 9:30 p.m. | Shape and place into the refrigerator to proof overnight |
| 7:00 a.m. (next day) | – Bake the next day before work – Alternatively, bake after work |
The schedule above has example times, so shift the timeline to earlier or later according to your schedule. Don’t worry if you don’t hit the times precisely as they’re written. There’s some flexibility there.
A Simple Weekday Sourdough Bread Recipe
Vitals
| Total Dough Weight | 1,800 grams |
| Pre-fermented Flour | 8.0% |
| Hydration | 76.0% |
| Yield | Two loaves |
Total Formula
The following table shows all the ingredients needed to make this bread. Each ingredient will be called out as needed in the method steps below.
My final dough temperature for this simple weekday sourdough bread was 75°F (24°C). For more information, see my post on the importance of dough temperature.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 806g | High-protein white bread flour, malted (King Arthur Bread Flour) | 80.0% |
| 202g | Whole wheat flour (King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour) | 20.0% |
| 766g | Water | 76.0% |
| 19g | Fine sea salt | 1.9% |
| 8g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 0.8% |
Method
1. Prepare levain – 7:00 a.m., before work
A levain is simply an off-shoot of a sourdough starter. A sourdough starter is never used up completely; it’s continually fed day after day indefinitely. A levain is created with a small bit of a sourdough starter and left to mature (ferment) until ready to be mixed into a dough. Ultimately, it meets the same fate as the dough: baked in the oven.
In the morning before work, mix in a jar:
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 40g | Bread flour |
| 40g | Whole wheat flour |
| 81g | Water |
| 8g | Mature sourdough starter |
Loosely cover the jar; it should be ready after about 10 hours at room temperature, 72-75°F (22-24°C).
2. Autolyse with Levain – 5:00 p.m. after work
Performing an autolyse gives our dough a chance for the flour to fully hydrate and begin the gluten development process (all without kneading). I typically don’t do an autolyse with the levain included, but we’ll do that in this simple weekday sourdough bread recipe because it’s a short period.
Add all the ingredients below to a mixing bowl. Mix with wet hands until all the dry bits are incorporated. Cover and keep somewhere warm at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Note: the water in the table below is 50g less than the total water for this recipe; the water (and the salt) are held back for the next mixing step.
Dough Mix
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 766g | High protein bread flour, malted (King Arthur Bread Flour) |
| 161g | Whole wheat flour (King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour) |
| 635g | Water, Autolyse |
| 169g | Ripe levain (created in Step 1) |
The image above shows the direct result of even a short autolyse. The left image shows the shaggy mass just before I finished incorporating everything. The right image shows how smooth and strong the dough becomes simply by resting. Let’s take this further with a little mixing.
3. Mix – 5:20 p.m.
Add the ingredients in the table below to the top of the dough: first, add the salt and then add the reserved water slowly to help dissolve the salt. Add the water a little at a time, depending on how the dough feels: it should be shaggy and loose, but not “soupy.” You can pause midway through pouring the water to incorporate it with a wet hand. If it feels like the dough can handle the rest of the water, add it all.
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 50g | Water, Mix (as needed) |
| 19g | Salt |
Since this dough uses a fair amount of high-protein white bread flour, it doesn’t require extensive mixing or kneading.
Using wet hands, mix everything until it comes together into a shaggy mass. This dough is rather strong and doesn’t require intensive mixing or kneading, but give it a few folds in the bowl, perhaps 5-10, until it smooths slightly (see the image, right).
Cover the bowl with reusable plastic and keep it somewhere warm in your kitchen for bulk fermentation.
3. Bulk Fermentation – 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Bulk fermentation, or first rise, occurs when the dough is leavened (through the production of carbon dioxide gas) and flavored (through the production of organic acids) as a result of natural fermentation. Below, you can see how much my dough rises during this 3-hour and 30-minute bulk fermentation at 75°F (24°C).
During this time, give the dough 2 sets of stretch and folds: the first set is 30 minutes after the beginning of bulk fermentation, and the second set is 30 minutes after the first. After the second set, let the dough rest, covered, until the next step.
As you can see in the video above, each set of stretches and folds is simple: With wet hands, grab one side and gently stretch it up and over to the other. Perform this fold in each direction: North, South, East, and West.
4. Divide & Preshape – 9:00 p.m.
Fill a bowl with some water and place it on your work surface. Scrape out your dough from the bulk container onto your dry counter. Divide the mass in half using a bench knife. Using a wet hand and the knife in the other, gently preshape each half into a loose round. Let the dough rest, uncovered, for 30 minutes until it’s relaxed outward.
See my guide to preshaping bread dough for a video and more instructions.
5. Shape – 9:30 p.m.
As seen in the video below, flour the top of the round with your hands and flip it over. Take the bottom edge and fold it up to about the middle. Take the left and right sides in your hands and fold the right over to about 2/3 of the left side. Repeat for the left side. Then, take the top and fold down to about the middle and gently seal. This should form a little envelope shape.
Now, flip over the entire thing and begin dragging and sealing the dough underneath itself (top-right, above). Using both hands, rotate and drag the mass toward you to create tension on the top. Repeat the dragging if necessary.
Read through my guide to shaping a boule for more instruction.
6. Proof – 9:45 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m. (the next day)
Cover both proofing baskets entirely and put them in the fridge to proof overnight. The fridge allows us to slow fermentation to bake before or after work the next day.
7. Bake – 7:00 a.m. (pre-heat oven at 6:00 a.m.)
Preheat your oven with the rack at the bottom third to 450°F (230°C). Place your Dutch oven inside, with the lid and bottom side-by-side.
Take one basket out from the fridge and uncover it. Your dough might not have risen considerably in the fridge, but that’s fine. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit over the basket and place a pizza peel (or large cutting board) on top. Using both hands, flip the entire stack over and remove the basket.
Score the dough using your favorite design. As you can see above, I love the “box top” score. Check out this video of me scoring this style (and a few others) below:
Now that your dough is scored, carefully slide it into the Dutch oven and bake for 20 minutes, covered.
After this time, remove the lid and bake for 30-35 minutes or until done. The internal temperature should be around 205-210°F (96-99°C).
(Note that If you’d like a thinner crust on this bread, increase the covered bake time to 30 minutes and reduce the second half of the bake (without steam) by 10 minutes. This increased baking time with steam can help reduce the thickness of the crust.)
Remove the loaf to a cooling rack for 2 hours before slicing. This lets the crust and crumb fully set and the flavor develop. Return the Dutch oven to the oven (without parchment) and bring it back to temp to bake the second loaf.
Follow my guide to storing sourdough bread to keep it fresh for the next week (or freeze it for longer!).
Print
Simple Weekday Sourdough Bread
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 25 hours
- Yield: 2 loaves
- Category: Bread, Sourdough
- Cuisine: American
Description
A loaf of delicious sourdough bread designed around a busy workday. The levain is prepared for this bread in the morning and left to ripen while you’re at work. When you get home, continue with the baking process. The dough can then be baked at night or the next day in the morning, or after work.
Ingredients
Levain
- 40g bread flour
- 40g whole wheat flour
- 81g water
- 8g ripe sourdough starter
Main Dough
- 766g bread flour
- 161g whole wheat flour
- 19g salt
- 685g water
- 169g ripe levain
Instructions
- Levain (7:00 a.m. before work)
In a small container, mix the Levain ingredients and keep it at a warm temperature for 10 hours. - Autolyse with levain (5:00 p.m after work)
In a medium mixing bowl, add all of the levain, 766g bread flour, 161g whole wheat flour, and 635g water (50g was reserved for mixing, later) and mix until no dry bits remain. Cover the bowl and let rest for 20 minutes. - Mix (5:20 p.m.)
To the mixing bowl holding your dough, add 19g salt and some of the reserved 50g water (or all if the dough feels like it can handle it). Mix thoroughly and strengthen the dough for about 5 minutes. Using wet hands, mix everything until it comes together into a shaggy mass. This dough is relatively strong and doesn’t require intensive kneading (like slap and fold), but give it a few folds in the bowl, perhaps 5-10, until it smooths slightly. Transfer the dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover. - Bulk Fermentation (5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.)
This dough will need 2 sets of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation, the first set 30 minutes after bulk fermentation begins. Perform the second set 30 minutes after the first, and then let the dough rest the remainder of bulk fermentation. - Divide and Preshape (9:00 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 (9:30 p.m.)
Shape the dough into a round (boule) or oval (batard), then place the dough in proofing baskets. - Proof (9:30 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m. the next day)
Cover proofing baskets with reusable plastic and seal shut. Then, place both baskets into the refrigerator and proof overnight. - Bake (The next day, bake at 7:00 a.m. before work, or 6:00 p.m. after work)
Preheat your oven with a baking surface or combo cooker/Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C). Remove your dough from the fridge, score it, and transfer it to the preheated baking surface or combo cooker. Bake for 20 minutes with steam. After this time, vent the steam in the oven or 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 204°F (95°C). Let the loaves cool for 2 hours on a wire rack before slicing.
Notes
- This recipe is wonderful left plain, or you could top the dough with rolled oats, white sesame seeds, or flax seeds.
If you use this recipe, tag @maurizio on Instagram so I can take a look!
What’s Next?
There you have it; this simple weekday sourdough bread can be made daily and adjusted to fit your schedule. Now, there’s no reason not to bake. This recipe is also a great place to experiment: mix 125g of nuts like walnuts and pecans and dried fruit like cranberries, cherries, or raisins.
Many recipes on my site can be adapted to this simple weekday sourdough bread schedule, most notably my Beginner’s Sourdough. Both recipes use flexible doughs, and the fridge provides even more.
For a more hands-off approach, check out my easy no-knead sourdough bread recipe. It can also be adapted to bake in a single day or ferment longer for an easier schedule.
Happy baking!
903 Comments
Hi There I love your site and insight! wondering if this recipe could be Halfed? I know, why would you only want one loaf. But I really only need one at a time and it lasts me several days. Let me know if I could HALF with the same results.
Thanks!!
Absolutely can be halved!
I’m not Maurizio, but yes, you absolutely could. I’ve done it! Just make sure you’re halving everything, including the 50g of water which is held out.
Hi Maurizio,
Thanks for this great site. I note your responses to queries for those without bread flour. My question is this: Is there anything preventing me from using the weekday method with the AP recipe or any sourdough recipe for that matter?
Not at all, will work great!
Hi – I love your website, I love how all the recipes come with schedules, that’s my favorite part. My question has to do with the type of flour i’m using. I’ve had excellent results using Bobs red mill artisian bread flour or KAF bread flour. I live in MA and bought this wonderful flour at a place in Hadley, they grow and mill all their own flour. https://www.groundupgrain.com/ Everytime i use this flour for this recipe i notice that over the course of the stretch and folds the dough almost seems wetter and by the time it comes to do the preshape and shape that dough is so sticky and so hard to keep shape and when i bake, the loaves are coming out flat, taste awesome but flat 🙁 i know what over proofed looks like and it’s not that, my starter is awesome and works well with all the other flours i use. I cannot figure out what the hell i’m doing wrong and why this flour behaves so differently?
Hi – I have been loving your site and all your recipes, the schedules have been my favorite part and extremely helpful. I’ve been using this recipe for a while now. I live in MA. I bought some flour that is grown in Hadley, MA and milled there by a place called https://www.groundupgrain.com I use their whole wheat 14% and their all purpose 12.9%. It tastes amazing, but every time I use their flour with this recipe I notice that in the beginning the dough seems normal, it’s lacking strength (rips apart) but as the day progresses the dough seems to get stronger (can see that windowpane) but also feels a lot wetter as I go through all the folds. Once it’s time to shape I have a really hard time getting this to keep any sort of shape, it’s extremely sticky, when it comes times to bake I get rather a flatter loaf 🙁 I cannot for the life of me figure out what the deal is with this flour. I know what over proofed looks like and I don’t believe that’s the issue, it’s not my starter either because I’ve had amazing results using Bob’s Artisian bread or KAF Bread flour. I checked all the different flours I’ve been using and noticed they all have about the same protein content. HELP 🙂
Dear Maurizio,
As a confinement project, I decided to get my starter going and give it a try to baking my very own sourdough bread – in Paris! 🙂
This is the third week I bake this wonderful bread!
I bake single loaves (half the recipe) using whole wheat (T150) and a combination of what we call here T80 and T65, which are kind of white but unrefined flour, since that’s what I had available. Great flavor, great crumb and crust!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3Rh8UtXagHonDnWSA
THANK YOU for such a well-written guide, every step is very easy to follow.
And as a very nice consequence, we are now making your sourdough discard pancakes every weekend almost as a ritual.
Now I’m going to give a try to some of your other recipes using different flours.
Congrats on such a great blog,
Take care and stay safe!
Hi! Thank you for this recipe, I was always a little scared to follow along with your methods because I thought they were more complicated- but I’ve come to really appreciate the break down and proper language. I find it a lot more informative than some recipes out there. I was just wondering if you could offer some help – I keep finding when I go to preshape/shape my dough that it’s very relaxed and doesn’t look all strong/puffed up (or easy to pull into shape) like in your boule shaping video. So it seems a bit weak perhaps? When I put tension into it, it holds together well but then once in the fridge for proof and going to bake, it definitely flattens out and I end up with a pretty unspectacular slightly risen frisbee haha. Any tips would be great!
May I use sprouted rye instead of the whole wheat? As many people, there isn’t any available.
Also- the bread flour that I have from King Arthur says Gluten free. Is there a different bread flour from King Arthur?
https://shop.kingarthurflour.com/items/king-arthur-unbleached-bread-flour-5-lb
Of course almost impossible to find these days…
You’d get a more dense loaf with sprouted rye, but it would still be great bread. There is a standard Bread Flour from KAF that is not gluten free, that’s what you want. I don’t use any specialty gluten free flour here!
Hello there!
I started to build the levamisole 11h ago and it hasn’t risen nearly double.
Is that maybe, because my starter is not as strong as yours?
I don’t want to waste the good bread flour I brought for that so I‘ll stay up a couple more hours than usual and keep an I on it.
Hopefully it sprung up a few hours later. Keep it warm and give it time! If you’re seeing no activity at all, try creating your starter/levain with more carryover mature starter.
Unfortunately it didn’t worked out. So I started from new and the second try didn’t end up better. I had a pretty flat bread, but it was still very tasty and had a few air bubbles inside. I changed the feeding of my starter a bit in terms of temperature and flour.
– Mariella
Hello – Thanks so much for this site and for managing to respond to most questions, which is amazing. I have two questions when you have a chance – have tried to research both of these but have not found a clear answer.
1. What am I losing by taking a somewhat haphazard approach to starter activation? I keep a 50/50 starter in the refrigerator, feed it when I bake with it once or twice a week, and sometimes feed it randomly at other times. When I’m going to bake with it, I take it out, feed it, wait until it is actively bubbling (though it doesn’t usually rise), and use it in my bread recipe. I’ve mostly done recipes with levains and/or long, slow, bulk ferments so far, and they’ve been turning out well, which indicates to me that the starter has time to get going in the dough. As long as that’s true, do you think there’s something I’m missing from not doing a more rigorous feeding schedule and not giving the starter a full day/night to reactivate after the fridge? For example (just making this up), maybe this works fine to get a perfectly good loaf, but the rise/crumb would definitely better with a starter that is more up to speed?
2. What is the point of making a levain? A lot of recipes call for something like 50g starter, 100g flour, 100g water, mix and let that rise before you add to the larger autolysed flour/water salt. What do you get from doing that that you wouldn’t get from just adding 250g of ripe starter to the autolysed mixture? (Maybe one answer is that it lets you get better overall fermentation from a small quantity of haphazard starter by scaling up gradually?)
1. Yes, absolutely, a consistent refreshment regiment with your starter will improve your bread — hands down. Try it for a few weeks as an experiment: pay a little more attention to your starter, refresh it when it needs a refreshment on the dot (you’ll see it just start to fall in the jar, feed then), and keep it consistent. Use the same amount of flour, water, and carryover each time. Then after a week or so try baking with it, I’m sure you’ll see improvement. I say this from firsthand experience 🙂
2. You don’t have to make a levain, a starter and levain really are the same thing (I’m working on a post here about this very topic due out soon!). I like using a levain because it ensures my fermentation is at the right point when I go to mix, sometimes I have to scale up and I need more levain than the amount of starter I keep on hand, and I can change the flour mixture as desired. But you can certainly just use your starter, the key is to use it at the right stage of maturity each day.
Hi Susan, I am also a beginner but the standard Le Creuset in the US is 5.5 qt which is 5.2 liters so I imagine the 6 liter would be okay? It’s not much bigger.
Hello!
I baked this recipe using AP flour in place of the bread flour (kept ratio of AP flour/whole wheat the same) and decreased the initial water by ~75g. I added very little of the reserved 50g water with the salt. Despite adding an extra set of stretch and folds and 1.5 hours to the bulk fermentation time (in oven with the light on to warm things up a bit), I didn’t get as much rise. The dough felt heavy and not very elastic and produced a fairly dense crumb: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rCr1sUawCCTW7sMA7
Any thoughts on correcting for next time? I loved the flavor of this loaf and the baking schedule is so convenient. Thank you for curating such a fantastic wealth of knowledge on this site and for sharing your wisdom with all us sourdough newbies!
Hey! Looks like good rise. I’d say the dough could actually take more water and probably use a bit more time in bulk fermentation as well — maybe 15-30 minutes. Give that a try and see how it goes!
Hi there!
Tried this recipe with AP flour (in place of the bread flour, I should say—kept AP/wheat ratio the same!) decreasing initial water by ~75g and adding in very little of the reserved 50g. Despite an active starter/levain, the dough didn’t rise as much in bulk fermentation as I’d hoped (added an extra set of stretch and folds & extra 1.5 hours to time). Resulting crumb (https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPHaIQM5lKfqXy2KHMYKwBPnieUKM-WEvmteSAUWOoA3bCKu3mTvvW-NwkysEyqPw?key=QWNqQzdvSXJiQ3ZvVC1pTEhEQzVpT2tUX0tOUllR) was quite dense. Any thoughts on what to do differently next time?? Thank you for the super thorough resources and taking time to respond to all us sourdough newbies!
Had my first bake this morning and I am very pleased! Need to improve my lame skills but otherwise a very successful first sourdough experience. I used artisan flour from Janie’s Mill and Shop Rite Whole Wheat. I would make a little extra levain next time as mine was a little short. I also omitted some of the water when adding the salt as my first try with another recipe ended up as a soupy mess. Thanks for the great directions!
Good adjustments, glad to hear it worked out well fo you Eileen!
Baked my very first rounds this morning and I am very pleased with the results. I was a little short on the levain but it worked out ok. I also did not use all of the water when I added the salt.
Thank you for this recipe! I finished bulk fermentation and shaped my loaf and it seems really sticky. I’ve been having this issue with all of the loaves I’ve made except my first one. Any ideas/tips?
Thank you!
Mia
Drop the water in the mix, Mix. Try omitting that reserved 50g and see if that helps. If it does, but it’s still sticky, drop more water until it feels right for your flour.
Hello Maurizio – if I were to bake this bread in higher altitude (7000ft), would you recommend adding 1oz of water and 55g of flour to the dough mix? Or should I try it with the current recipe? Thank you.
Thinking that the higher hydration would compensate for the higher elevation, I ended up baking ‘as is’ your “Best Sourdough” recipe (half recipe) and it came out ok. The oven spring (ie. balloon like baked loaf) was not quite reached but looked like a good loaf of sourdough. (I’ve baked it for a friend) As I read some of the previously written comments, it looks like I might want to try this “weekday” recipe since it’s less in hydration. For the mixing part of the dough – I know you mentioned about 30 folds (or there about) or was it 30 sets? – how many minutes would you say we should ‘knead’ it if I’m doing a ‘forked fingers pulling up on the side of the bowl’ mixing (LOL) Only because I seem to lack in arm muscle strength in doing the ‘folds’ for 30 times (LOL) 5 mins? Or is folding for mixing the sure fire thing so I should try that? What would be the visual cues for sufficient kneading @ Mix 1 & 2? (I have a feeling that my lack of oven spring could be in that area – not kneading enough……) Thank you 🙂
I live at almost 6k ft — you could add more water if necessary but I wouldn’t add flour.
G’day fellow bakers.
I have made this recipe a few times now with great success. I have added 30g of water for a little higher hydration (my personal prereference, not to generally improve the recipe as it is great as it is) and the cobbs comes up with a beautiful crust and texture.
This last batch, I decided to try a bit of maturing of the dough. I made the levain (times as per Maurizio’s schedule) on Thursday. I baked the first cobb on Friday but saved the other in the fridge until this morning – Sunday.
The scoring turned out to be easier, the handling between banneton and Dutch Oven was easier and the bread was beautiful.
My second fridge where I rest the dough is rather cold, about 3-4C, but it went straight from fridge to bench, scored and in to the hot DO and in the oven for baking. My oven tends to cook this bread a bit faster than in the original recipe. I cook on 230C with lid for 20 minutes and then for 21-22 minutes without lid.
I very often mature my pizza dough 5-7 days (yes no BS, 7 days) and the difference is incredible both in flavour and texture.
I make a few extra dough balls and we have pizza the next day (or atleast 12 hours after making the dough) and I leave a few in a deep tray covered with plastic and place it in the fridge. The following Friday night pizza turns out fantastic.
It’s great to be able to prepare the dough when you have time, leave it for a few days and bake it when needed.
I wish I could post a picture of my loaf here but I will try to add a link instead. Apologies if it does not work.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2351017408534006&id=100008773080971
Have fun.
Hi Maurizio.
Thank you so much for this article, it’s very useful for beginners.
I have a question, probably a stupid one. How can I understand the moment in which I have to stop the bulk fermentation and pre-shape? Someone says that the dough has to double, do you agree? And how can you see if the dough has doubled with a round bowl like the one you used? (I use something similar too)
Thank you.
Nadia
I am looking to try this recipe tomorrow. Love the clear instructions with timing. I have on hand two several flours: an Artisan Blend organic flour from Janies Mill and a High Protein flour also from Janie’s. I had to order online as there is no flour in the stores. I also have a Heckers Unbleached AP and a Shop Rite whole grain whole wheat. Please advise.
Hi Maurizio, thanks for this fantastic recipe. Worked out perfectly for me at the first try (very first sourdough bread, using your starter recipe). Now at my second try. What is the longest time you could you let the shaped loafs proof in the fridge? I would plan on placing the shaped dough in the fridge this evening (Thursday evening where I am) and am wondering if I could bake one loaf tomorrow morning and leave the second in the fridge until Saturday morning. Thanks for your help!
Should the levain be bubbly like the sourdough starter at the end of 10 hours?
Hi Maurizio, I fed my starter at 12 noon today and its active and happy at 7:30pm. Do I now start the levain process? (mixing 40 g bread flour, 40 whole wheat flour, 81 grams water, & 8 grams starter) or is the 169 grams of happy active starter enough to satisfy this step?
Could you shape this loaf into a loaf pan? I am looking for something more sandwich shaped. Thanks for the great recipe!
Yes, you could certainly do this. Also, check out my recipes page, I have a Pan Loaf section!
First time using this recipe, started the Levain this morning, and it was not ready by 5/6pm tonight. AS of 10pm, it is not quite doubled, so it’s working, but slowly…I’m wondering if I can leave it overnight and start the Autolyse first thing in the morning, or will my levain have run out of energy? I can’t stay up for another couple hours to do the dough mixing and folding at this point. Please help!
It’s hard for me to say, Liz! Next time you could try doubling the amount of starter you use to build the levain to speed things along, or try to keep it someplace warmer. I hope things turned out well!
My dutch oven holds 4 litres of water. Will that be big enough for this?
I’m using a 3.2 quart (~3 liter) combo cooker so that should work!