I call this batch number 33 of the Tartine sourdough country bread recipe, while it may actually be my thirty-third pair of these I’m not 100% positive. I know for sure it can’t be any less, but it’s probably more. On to the entry.
Another Sunday, another pair of Tartine sourdough country loaves shaped and proofing. My family has come to expect this bread to be on hand during the week, and in the rare case where we have to buy some bread from the grocery store, we are always disappointed. Baking bread is a relatively simple act when you boil it down, and yet getting that perfect loaf out of the oven does not always work out — but I still strive forward.
If you’re brand new to baking sourdough, read my Beginner’s Sourdough recipe post first, it has longer in-depth explanations on every step in the baking process!
Sunday started out a bit lazy; waking in the later morning after attending a friend’s birthday party the night before. I stumbled into the kitchen and took a look outside to see completely clear skies—a good sign a warm day was ahead. Given the rising temperature, I knew Sunday would be a day of quick dough handling and preparation. As you can see, even my German shepherd Arya (yes, that Arya) was a bit lazy this morning. I suppose too many rabbits, pigeons, and tennis balls chased the day before; oh, what a life.
Although the leaven was prepared later than usual on Saturday night, it was ready to go (left-hand side image below). As you can see, the bubbles on top indicate there was significant fermentation activity overnight, and judging by the smell (like ripe fruit, almost a hint of vinegar), hopefully, it didn’t go too far.
Over my starter’s lifetime, I’ve experimented with using different flour and grains and have settled on a formula that my particular strain seems to thrive on. Instead of following Chad Robertson’s Tartine starter formula in his book where he feeds 50% whole wheat, and 50% all-purpose, I feed my starter 100% rye flour. I’ve found that my starter shows noticeable activity when fed rye exclusively. If you’re interested in reading about how to create and manage a sourdough starter like mine, head over there and read on.
Also, if you’re one who frequents Instagram, head over and check out my Instagram feed. I typically post many “daily bakes” and those behind-the-scenes shots that sometimes don’t make it into these posts!
Tartine Sourdough Country Bread Recipe
Prepare the leaven – 12:00 a.m.
The night before you plan to prepare your dough, mix the following, lightly cover, and set out on the counter overnight:
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 31g | Mature sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 28% |
| 110g | Whole Wheat Flour | 100% |
| 116g | Water | 105% |
Mix the flour + water, autolyse – 9:00 a.m.
For this loaf, I decided to try and tweak the whole wheat to white bread flour percentages. I still wanted some of the WW taste and texture, but a bit more “white” in this loaf. Due to the WW reduction (from the last Tartine recipe), I’ve also reduced the amount of water to 79%.
Note that this is not a traditional “autolyse,” which only has water and flour mixed, but this is how Chad performs this step in Tartine—let’s follow suit for this bake. In my more recent baking adventures, I no longer mix flour, water, and levain for this step.
Gather the following:
- 250g of your new leaven
- 300g whole wheat flour (I’m currently using Great River Organic whole wheat flour)
- 700g unbleached all-purpose white flour (King Arthur)
- 20g salt
- 740g water and 50g water (reserved for step 5, below)
Method:
- Add 250g leaven to your large mixing bowl
- Pour in 740g water and mix with your hands until the leaven is completely dispersed
- Add 700g white flour and 300g whole wheat flour and mix with your hand until all the dry bits of flour are gone
- Cover your bowl with a towel, or if in a dry climate, plastic wrap and let autolyse for 30 minutes
- After 30 minutes, add 20g salt on top of the dough and slowly pour the remaining 50g of your reserved water on top. Squeeze the dough with your hand to incorporate the salt throughout
- Now reach your hand under the dough and pull the side up and over onto itself. Continue to do this as you spin the bowl; grab, pull, and push. Do this just until the dough comes together and becomes super sticky. Generally, this will only be between 5-10 turns
- Transfer your dough to your plastic or glass container, set a timer for 30 minutes
Next, we tackle the bulk fermentation step.
Bulk Fermentation
At this stage, we want to do four sets of turns, plus 1 – 2 hours of rest on the counter. A “turn” consists of reaching under your dough, grab the bottom and pull up the dough on top of itself. Do this four times, one of each side of your container (if it’s square, that is). Additionally, you want to do this rather vigorously. The stretch up and down on itself is what gives the dough strength.
- 10:10 a.m. – Turn 1
- 10:40 a.m. – Turn 2
- 11:10 a.m. – Turn 3
- 11:40 a.m. – Turn 4
- 11:40 a.m. to 1:40pm – Rest on Counter
Pre-shape – 1:40 p.m.
When the dough has risen about 20-30%, and you see a bunch of little air pockets throughout, it’s ready for pre-shaping. Take the dough out of the container onto your *unfloured* work surface.
Sprinkle some flour on top of your dough and divide into two halves. Take a half, flip it over and pull each of 4 edges from under onto the top. Then, flip the folded dough over, so the seam is on your work surface. You want to form loose boules here by using your hand and your dough knife. Your work surface grabs the bottom of the dough slightly as you spin the dough around to make a little ball. Repeat with the other half and cover (I cover with two inverted mixing bowls) for 30 minutes.
Shape – 2:10 p.m.
The resting dough should have spread out, but not quite into a pancake shape. If it has formed a pancake, you can strengthen it by pre-shaping one more time and waiting another 40 minutes.
Flour the top of one of the boules and flip it over with your lightly floured hand and dough knife. Take the part of the dough that’s closest to you and fold it up and over in half. Take the part that’s to the right, stretch it out as far as it will stretch, and fold it up and to the left. Repeat with the left side and the side of the dough farthest from you. Then take the edge that’s closest to you, pull it up and over again towards the back. When performing this last motion, you will lift the entire dough up and over until the seam side is now down on your work surface.
Spin the dough using your two hands to shape into a boule. As you slightly pick up the dough and spin it, the bottom snags the unfloured work surface and creates tension. I do this several times to create a very taught surface on the top of the boule. Sometimes small air bubbles will be visible.
If you’d like to shape this dough as a batard instead of a boule, check out my batard shaping guide.
Proof – 2:20 p.m.
Place towels into small mixing bowls or proofing baskets and dust with white rice flour. These bowls will hold the dough as they proof in the fridge overnight. Take your taught boules and place them into the floured bowls with the seam *up* facing you. I place each of my bowls into plastic bags and then into the fridge.
Score + Bake – 9:00 a.m.
Gather your tools:
Speaking of tools, if you’d like to see all the tools, I use when baking head over to my tools page and take a look.
The first of these sourdough loaves was retarded for 18 hours. The Tartine formula lists an 8-hour cool fermentation in the fridge but 18-20 hours seems to be the sweet spot for me as my bread takes on a complex flavor with this extended fermentation time. It also seems to help open up the crumb more than what you would typically see; I strive for that light and soft interior.
In the morning you first want to get your oven ready. I place the rack in the bottom third of the oven. Turn your oven on to 450°F (230°C) and let it preheat.
Once your oven is preheated, get your dough ready. I bake this dough straight from the refrigerator—no warmup time is necessary. Take one of your loaves out of the fridge, cut a circular piece of parchment paper, and place it on top of the bowl. I then place a pizza peel on top of the parchment paper (and bowl) and invert the whole thing quickly to get the dough out of the bowl and onto the paper + peel. Get your razor blade out and score the top of the loaf to allow the bread to expand while rising in the oven. For these sets of loaves, I scored one with my “Roman numeral three” pattern and the other with a single long slash.
Quickly take out the shallow half of your hot combo cooker and drag in the parchment paper and dough.
Cover with the other half of the combo cooker and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on. After this time, open the oven and lift off the combo cooker lid (you can leave it in the oven to the side), close the oven, and bake for an additional 35 minutes. These times and temps are a drastic change from the Tartine book, but I’ve found them necessary due to my elevation and climate. I want the crust to be nice and dark brown.
After pulling the loaves from the oven, I cool them on a wire rack for at least one hour before cutting into them. Cutting too soon can cause the crust to harden drastically and the inside to become quite dense. Easier said than done, however.
What a pair of beautiful loaves this morning. There’s no doubt the lazy Sunday morning/afternoon turned out to be a success in the kitchen, and this Tartine sourdough country bread recipe couldn’t be more delicious.
Buon appetito!
Now that you’ve attempted this recipe try your hand at the higher hydration version for a bit more challenge, and an even better tasting loaf!
If you use this recipe, tag @maurizio on Instagram so I can take a look!
374 Comments
My poor little loaf ended up about 2″ high – more like a disc than a loaf. The air bubbles aren’t are pronounced as in your pic. Any suggestion on what might have gone wrong? The starter seemed great, and was trucking along.
It sounds like perhaps your dough was over hydrated, especially if it was overly sticky as you mentioned in your comment below. Try reducing hydration 5-10% and see how it goes next time. Once you are comfortable with the process and shaping you can slowly increase the water as your flour allows.
Keep a close eye on the temperature of your dough during the entire process, it’s very important. Keeping your dough around 78F is a great place to be.
in the middle of preparing for autolyse and realize I don’t have granular salt, only rock salt. Would it be reasonable to mix this in the water so it dissipates, rather than trying to grind 20g by hand? Thanks!
Sure, that would work. As long as it’s fully dissolved in the water you add to your dough that will be just fine. Happy baking!
Thanks Maurizio! I’m in the bulk fermentation process, on turn 4. The dough is still very sticky. Next steps are to pre-shape on an unfloured work space. I can’t imagine putting this on a counter! it’s so sticky! Is this normal?
This is a delicious bread! I made it for the first time today. In the instructions, I would recommend indicating that you should take the loaf out of the fridge right before baking. I was unsure, so I tried it both ways; once right from the fridge and once on the counter while the oven was preheating. I didn’t notice a difference and have since found a note in the comments that it should be baked right from the fridge. Putting that in the instructions might avoid some confusion for another person. Thanks for all the great work on this page!
So glad to hear that! Thanks for that feedback and I agree, I’ll add that wordage to the instructions so there’s no ambiguity in the future. Thank you and happy baking!
First time sourdough baker here. I love your site and IG page! I find myself coming back to it several times to get recipe ideas and tips. Question about the leaven: I ended up making a lot more than what’s actually used in the final dough. Can I reuse the leaven for baking the following week and if so do I just keep it in the fridge? Will it still be active to rise bread a week later? For example the recipe here makes about 465g leaven but only 250g is used in the autolyse. What do you do with the extra?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks, Eddie!
I would not suggest using leftover leaven for baking, but you could use it for pancakes, waffles or banana bread or even pie and galette crust!
Instead of reusing the leaven, just scale back the amount you make, only enough required for this recipe. I posted this quite a while ago back when I used to make much more leaven than was required by the recipe (and this is how they do it in Tartine) — but it’s not really necessary. Just keep the percentages of everything the same and make just enough for what’s called for in the final dough mix. You can see I do this in all of my more recent recipes.
I hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions!
Thanks for the quick response! Appreciate you taking the time to answer questions from everyone. I have another question about the mixing (prior to bulk fermentation). Your method says to do just 5-10 turns before the before the dough comes together. My dough was still a wet, sticky mess with no elasticity after 10 turns. Also your IG page shows a slap and fold technique that, after a while, you can really see the dough taking shape. Can I implement slap and fold prior to bulk to get that shape and texture that you do? I just want to make sure I’m not overworking the dough as I’ve heard that can make the final product dense and chewy?
Not a problem!
If after 10 turns it was still very sticky and wet you can certainly add in more turns — sometimes I’ll do 30-40 when not doing slap/fold, if necessary. Alternatively you could do the slap/fold technique I frequently use. Both of these arrive at the same end goal: adding strength to your dough before bulk fermentation where it’ll be further strengthened using sets of stretch and folds.
It’s hard to over work the dough at mix time by hand. It can definitely make the end result more chewy and tough (plus other adverse side effects) but usually this is a result of mixing in a mixer for too long.
Hope that helps!
Been having a fair amount of success with your amazing blog. Just trying to adapt your recipes to baking in the UK and so far so good.
BUT… I made my leaven at about midday and, then as so often happens, my day flipped and I’ve not had a chance to make my bread. I popped the leaven in the fridge when I eventually got home 7 hours later… Will it be okay to bake with the following morning?
That’s great to hear! I’ve not had a chance to bake with any UK flour and I’ve heard there can be quite a difference.
I’ve actually never refrigerated a levain and then baked with it, it’s hard for me to say definitively how this will work out. I would guess that as long as you give the levain time to warm up in the morning and resume fermentation it might be strong enough to bake with.
I’d be interested to hear how it works out Stephen, in fact I should try this myself sometime soon! Please keep me posted 🙂
Well it worked. I’ve put a pic on my Instagram and tagged you in it.
Let me know what you think.
Also what do you think is the best way to store my loaves? I’ve tried plastic bags which I’ve found make the bread sweat. So now wrapping in grease proof paper which seems to be working better.
It’s interesting baking here. Despite being the middle of summer the temperature still isn’t as high as you like it. So I’m find the process a bit slower. I’m also having to use less water.
Thanks for the blog it’s really fantastic!
Excellent! Stephen, can you send me your IG username or DM the picture? I’m not sure which it was!
I like to keep my loaves in a bread box or in a paper bag on my counter.
It sounds like you have a good grasp of what things to change to work with your environment and flour though, that’s a great sign! Everyone will have to make changes, and I try to state that, it’s the nature of baking and something we all have to get used to.
Glad you’re well on your way!
I am preparing dough for my first attempt at baking a loaf.
My dough is in the first 30 min. autolyse stage.
What do you do with the leftover leaven?
Fantastic! These earlier recipes I have here on my website build a larger leaven than is needed, that excess can be composted/discarded or fed with water & flour if you’re using that to keep a “mother” starter going. In other words it’s just extra that’s not needed.
Later recipes I have listed here make a leaven that has only the amount you need for the recipe (plus a small amount just in case).
Happy baking, Lorrie!
Hi there! I’m, unfortunately stuck at an early stage in the process. I managed to follow your instructions back on the starter page and now have, what I think, is a pretty healthy colony that looks similar to a lot of your photos (no more molding issues!). The starter can pass the float test, no problem. I followed your instructions at the top of the page to prepare the leaven the night before. The following morning my leaven looked pretty similar to your photo, with lots of bubbles throughout and some bubbling through to the surface. Proceeding forward to the bulk fermentation process, i’m getting absolutely no rising! My house in the Bay Area is quite warm at the moment ~80 degrees, but no matter how long I leave it out the dough just sits there staying the same shape with zero indication of ever rising. Today i’ve tried keeping the dough covered and in a slightly warm oven…still nothing after several hours.
Do you think this is attributed to the starter being weak, or more of a temperature or flour issue? At the time I didn’t have any whole wheat flour handy, so I just used the King Arthur white flour for the entirety, could that be the main issue? I would expect to see SOME rising regardless of the flour, but I’m still new to this whole process, maybe the yeast just isn’t chowing down as much on the white flour?
Any advice would be appreciated! I’ve been trying to get this to work for weeks now! I’m jealous of all the people below who have had such success!
P.S. I’ve seen other sourdough recipes that have you add sugar to the mix for the yeast to really nom on. Is there a reason you’ve decided to not do this?
Glad your starter is doing so well now! That’s interesting you’re seeing zero rise during bulk, you definitely should see some, even if it’s just a little. Using 100% KA flour is fine, no problem there. Also, 80ºF is a good temp to bulk that, you should have significant activity at that temperature.
Is it possible you’ve over hydrated your dough? does it look like it’s not holding together when you are doing your turns in the container during bulk? When you do a turn set (a turn at North, South, East and West) does the dough hold its shape in the container? You should notice strength developing in the dough throughout the 4 hour process.
One thought: is the flour you’re using very old? I’ve never experience this happening but something I just thought of. Have you tried any other flour?
I’ve never added sugar to my dough, no reason to do that! There’s plenty of starches in the flour 🙂
Thank you very much for the prompt response! The flour was new, so I don’t think that was the issue. Maybe i’ll try some whole wheat flour/mixture the next time I try. When I did a turn set of the dough, the mixture was quite damp and sticky. It would separate from the sides and allow for me to do a turn, but it would settle back into its container quickly. When it was out on a work surface it would settle down into a pancake shape, similar to that first ‘pre-shape picture’. Still it didn’t show any signs of rising at all over an entire day. I guess i’ll just keep at it!
It sounds like maybe it was a bit over hydrated as well, I’d try reducing water a bit more, maybe 5%, and see if that helps. Keep me posted!
I love this recipe ! The favor is just wonderful. I’ve tried Chad and Ken’s pure levain recipes but has all failed.
Would I get more oven spring if I let the my dough sit out to room temp before baking ? Thank you for your blog.
Thanks, glad to hear that! Leaving it out will not necessarily get you more oven spring. It all depends on how much fermentation you have by the end of bulk and how long you plan to proof your dough in the fridge. More fermentation helps but up to a point, if you go too far your loaves will have very little spring as the food (flour) that is present in your dough is completely used up by your levain.
The best way to test is to keep all things consistent but tweak that final time you let your dough rest before putting into the fridge.
Hope that helps!
Do you have any videos available where you demonstrate some of your dough handling? Some of the steps I am unsure of.
Unfortunately I do not… I am working on that, though!
i’m finding this really helpful for dough handling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEG1BjWroT0
but also just found this, which is perhaps more approachable and simple, and shows mixing, pre-forming and loaf shaping:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgz0oAhgwyg
Both of those videos are fantastic guides. Mac (the first video) makes some incredible bread and Trevor (in the second video) is a top notch baker! You can find more videos and recipes of Trevor’s at his website.
yup! 🙂 this video and article has really helped me in my last couple of batches:
http://www.breadwerx.com/make-tartine-style-country-bread-video
…love the use of hands!
Not sure how I missed this message so long ago! I’m working on videos and I hope to have more up soon 🙂 Sorry for the late reply.
Hello again! I’ve made a few loaves now and it feels like I’m getting the hang of it! I do keep encountering the same problem though and I’m not sure how to fix it. I’m using the lodge combo cooker and each time the top crust is perfect but the crust on the bottom is so thick and hard I can barely get through it with my knife. I’m assuming it’s because it’s in contact with that very hot surface the whole time, but does this happen with your loaves? Should I reduce the cook time? Or I also thought about only preheating the pizza stone for the whole 45 minutes and putting the combo cooker in with like 20 minutes of preheating left? Any advice would be appreciated!
Excellent! My crust on bottom is a little thicker than the top, but not by much, certainly not impossible to cut through. There might be a few things we can try to reduce the heat there on the bottom. When you take the lid off your combo cooker (partway through cooking), place it down on the stone flipped over and the pan with your loaf inside the bottom. This way you’ll create a little insulation so the bottom doesnt cook as quickly. I think your suggestion will work well also, place the dutch oven in there with, like you said, 20 mins left on preheat. This way it’s not super hot, but still warm enough to get ample oven spring.
Hope that helps, let me know if either of those work well for you just in case I run into this myself! 🙂
Hey again!
I’m about to start baking in the next few days, but I’m unclear on the flours. I’ve not been able to find whole wheat bread flour for the 300 g portion. Would it be okay to use just whole wheat flour? Does a bread flour need to be incorporated into the recipe somehow? All i have is all purpose and regular whole wheat. I also have regular bread flour on hand. What do you suggest?
Thank you always!
Laura
Hello, Laura! Sorry for the confusion, no need for “whole wheat bread flour”, it’s simply whole wheat flour, that’s all. I’d suggest using the whole wheat flour you have and the bread flour. Once you get the hang of the recipe try using a mix of bread and all purpose, or just all purpose on its own. I prefer the taste of the all purpose (lower protein) flour in bread and only use proper “bread flour” when the added strength is necessary.
Okay I’ll start with bread flour and whole wheat! Thank you so much! I can’t wait to get started! This blog is so fun to read and so very helpful.
You’re very welcome, good luck and happy baking!
I am really enjoying your posts but do have a question. In the cooking process, you indicate:
Cover with the other half of the combo cooker. Turn the heat down to 450ºF and cook for 25 minutes. After this time, open the oven and cook for an additional 35 minutes at 440ºF.
Do you really mean to keep the oven door open for an additional 35 minutes? Or did you mean to open the hot combo cooker and cook, with the oven door closed, for an additional 35 minutes at 440F?
Stephane, thanks so much for the comments! Holy smokes, I can’t believe that typo has been there for so long! Good catch, I’ll fix it now.
What you guessed is correct: after the initial cook time, open the oven, remove the combo cooker lid (you can leave it in the oven to the side), close the oven and continue to cook for an additional 35 minutes.
I’m still working on my starter and haven’t tried baking with it yet, but for when I do I was wondering about the cook times and temperatures! You said yours were altered for your elevation and climate, but I live in north Florida. It’s winter so temperatures will range from the 40s-60s but we’re a low elevation and pretty much always humid, lowest will be 45% in the coming week. How would you suggest I alter the cook times and temperatures? I’m absolutely eating up all of the information on this site by the way! Thank you!
Hi, Katie! Honestly, after baking for a few years after writing this I’ve come to believe times and temperatures really depend on a lot of other factors rather than elevation. I think you can use the temperatures listed here with no problem. As for duration of the bake, just continue to bake until it looks deeply brown, or until your liking. I like to bake dark, but not quite as dark as some. A good benchmark for “doneness” is if the interior of your loaves reach around 212ºF — if you have a handy instant read thermometer carefully poke into your bread near the end and see where it’s at. From then on you’ll be able to just look at the bread and decide when dark is dark enough 🙂
Thank you so much! I do have one more question for you! I’ve been using your post on the rye starter and something strange happened. By day 3 there was TONS of activity, lots of little bubbles and some larger ones, with the sour smell I was hoping for, but then suddenly after feeding it on day four all signs of life were gone. I haven’t changed a thing in my feeding: same flour mixture, same water, same timing, same method. As for the weather if anything it’s gotten a tad warmer, which I would expect to be a good thing. I fed it again this morning (day 5) and now there are some signs of life again, but it’s almost as if I’ve re-started. Any idea what may have caused this?
You’re welcome, Katie! Yes, that is totally normal, it doesn’t happen to everyone but it can happen. Sometimes early on you’ll see activity like this that will disappear after a day or so. This can actually be yeast/bacteria that you won’t want to keep around in the long term and it eventually dies off as the good, beneficial yeast/bacteria starts to take hold. Just keep with the schedule and eventually signs of life will emerge and be quite strong. Oh, yes warmer temps are definitely welcome! Good luck, it will get there soon enough and you’ll be baking in no time.
I started bread making in July. To date I have successfully made the Tartine recipe several times and even home made baguettes (Pate Fermente method). We love the Tartine but I’m intrigued by your idea of decreasing the WW and increasing the White. Can yo give me some insight into the changes this makes to the Tartine? Does it change the crumb? What effects does it have on flavor? Would you say it makes this easier or harder than the Tartine to get right? Thank you!
Dan, thanks for the comments! Increasing the ration of WW to white will typically result in less rise and a tighter crumb, but a completely different flavor profiled (and a bit more nutrition to boot). I would say that working with whole wheat, especially at the extremes such as a 100% whole wheat loaf, takes more practice and can be challenging, however, the flavor is worth the experiment. Whole wheat sourdough is some of my favorite, it has a heartier flavor to it and it’s much more complex. If you visit my recipes page I have a few recipes for varying levels of whole wheat, from 20% all the way up to 100%. You could start at a lower level and work your way up, you won’t be disappointed!
My first attempt at making this bread was successful. Bread was delicious. Can the leftover leaven (the other roughty 250g) be “regenerated” and used? And if so, how? Thanks,
Steve
Steven, excellent! You really do not need to make this much leaven, since the recipe only calls for 250g reduce everything so you have the same percentages (i.e. 50% mature starter, etc.) but only a total of 250g leaven for the recipe. I wrote this recipe quite a while ago when I was making an excess about of leaven per the Tartine instructions, but nowadays I only make what’s necessary to do the bake.
If you have leftover leaven you can always use it for something else, I have a page with my top 3 leftover sourdough starter recipes — give them a shot!
Hi love all the detail in your posts. What is the right ratio of mature starter to flour and water to make the levain? You say ‘50% mature starter etc’. Does that mean 125g of starter to make 250g of levain? Or is it the 1:1:1 ratio? Thanks!
Thanks Alistair! For this recipe I am using a ratio of 1:4:4 (1 mature starter, 4 flour, 4 water), approximately. This recipe was written up quite a while ago and nowadays I pare down my levain quite a bit but also use a ratio of 1:2:2.
It’s hard to say without more details. Make sure you shape it relatively tight before placing into proofing baskets and watch your proofing schedule, you don’t want to go too long in the fridge — the longer you proof the slower the rise in the oven (within reason). I typically do 16-18 hours in the fridge.
This is my first time making a starter and I am excited about it. I am getting ready to put my bread in the oven using a Dutch oven on a pizza stone. Is my bread covered though the entire process? Or do I uncover during the second stage, when I open the oven and lower the temperature?
What do I do with my left over levain? Can I feed it like my starter?
Thanks for your excellent instructions.! Happy baking!
You only need to cover the bread for the first 20 minutes or so of the bake (to keep the steam trapped inside). I go into more detail on this in my later posts. After 20m remove the lid (but you can keep the lid in the oven to help regulate heat) and lower the temperature some, cook until finished, about 30 minutes at 450F for me.
Your leftover levain can be used to create another starter, discarded, or you can use it to make other food like pancakes, waffles, or banana bread. Check out my post on my 3 top “leftover” levain recipes — they are so good.
You’re very welcome, glad you’re finding my site useful! Let me know how it goes and if you have any more questions — happy baking Clara!
Maurizio, my bread doubled in size, but still not as high as I thought it would. It is maybe 3″ high at center. I thought it would be at least 6 ” high. The crust is beautiful, crumb is a 6 out of 10. Flavor is sweet, delicious.
Any suggestions? Thank you!
Hi! Thanks so much for the recipe and pointers! This is my first sourdough starter and bread! Maybe I’ve missed something, but it looks like the leaven recipe makes 465 grams, but we only use 250 grams for the bread. What do we do with the rest? Do we discard it or use it as a new starter? Please let me know. Thanks!
You are very welcome, glad you found my site! Once you make this first loaf it will be life-changing, trust me 🙂
You’re correct, you really don’t need to make that much leaven. You really just need to make enough to keep your starter going after you bake, or if you do like I do, I always just keep my starter separate from any leaven I make for baking. Later recipes I’ve posted here dramatically reduce the amount of leaven created to bake with, making just enough to cover the recipe and nothing more.
I hope that helps, happy baking!
Hi! Thanks so much for the recipe and pointers! This is my first sourdough starter and bread! Maybe I’ve missed something, but it looks like the leaven recipe makes 465 grams, but we only use 250 grams for the bread. What do we do with the rest? Do we discard it or use it as a new starter? Please let me know. Thanks!
You are very welcome, glad you found my site! Once you make this first loaf it will be life-changing, trust me 🙂
You’re correct, you really don’t need to make that much leaven. You really just need to make enough to keep your starter going after you bake, or if you do like I do, I always just keep my starter separate from any leaven I make for baking. Later recipes I’ve posted here dramatically reduce the amount of leaven created to bake with, making just enough to cover the recipe and nothing more.
I hope that helps, happy baking!
Hi there from Brisbane, Australia. I found your site a few weeks ago and have made my starter, passed the float test this morning so hopefully I can bake this weekend. Just a quick question, I don’t currently have a dutch oven or combo cooker ( just some cast iron skillets that I love!) so I was wondering if I could bake on a standard baking tray or loaf tin, and just throw some water into the hot oven just as I place the dough in (or put a tray of water in the bottom) to create the steam for that all important crust?
Hopefully I can get a dutch oven soon, I am really getting into cooking with cast iron.
One last thing, If I only wish to make one loaf of bread, can I safely halve the recipe, including the leaven, or is it better to prepare a full leaven?
Thanks for any advice, can’t wait to try some real bread!
Hey there! Great news on the starter, that is half the battle with baking. You can definitely make this bread in a loaf tin if you’d like, I’ve done it a few times with great results. Or if you’d like, you can bake this bread directly on a baking/pizza stone in your oven and then create steam by heating a cast iron skillet at the bottom of your oven and then when you load your dough toss in some cold water into the pan to create steam. Be careful when you do this, steam burns are a real thing and you can also potentially crack the glass on your oven if you get too much cold water on the hot glass.
The dutch oven is a sure fire way to go, I highly recommend picking one up. Not only will you make some incredible bread with it but you can use it for a ton of other things in your kitchen!
You can certainly half the recipe, including the leaven, with no problem!
You’re welcome, let me know how it goes — happy baking!
Thanks for your quick reply, can’t wait to get it baked. I will be preparing my leaven this Friday night and if all goes well I will have a nice loaf on Sunday.
Hi there from Brisbane, Australia. I found your site a few weeks ago and have made my starter, passed the float test this morning so hopefully I can bake this weekend. Just a quick question, I don’t currently have a dutch oven or combo cooker ( just some cast iron skillets that I love!) so I was wondering if I could bake on a standard baking tray or loaf tin, and just throw some water into the hot oven just as I place the dough in (or put a tray of water in the bottom) to create the steam for that all important crust?
Hopefully I can get a dutch oven soon, I am really getting into cooking with cast iron.
One last thing, If I only wish to make one loaf of bread, can I safely halve the recipe, including the leaven, or is it better to prepare a full leaven?
Thanks for any advice, can’t wait to try some real bread!
Hey there! Great news on the starter, that is half the battle with baking. You can definitely make this bread in a loaf tin if you’d like, I’ve done it a few times with great results. Or if you’d like, you can bake this bread directly on a baking/pizza stone in your oven and then create steam by heating a cast iron skillet at the bottom of your oven and then when you load your dough toss in some cold water into the pan to create steam. Be careful when you do this, steam burns are a real thing and you can also potentially crack the glass on your oven if you get too much cold water on the hot glass.
The dutch oven is a sure fire way to go, I highly recommend picking one up. Not only will you make some incredible bread with it but you can use it for a ton of other things in your kitchen!
You can certainly half the recipe, including the leaven, with no problem!
You’re welcome, let me know how it goes — happy baking!
Thanks for your quick reply, can’t wait to get it baked. I will be preparing my leaven this Friday night and if all goes well I will have a nice loaf on Sunday.
They look great! You will definitely need to get some steam in that oven to help them rise. You can either use a combo cooker like I typically do, or you’ll have to have a pan/pot at the bottom of your oven and throw in some warm water to create steam. You can search on Google for help with that route if you don’t snag a combo cooker. There is also a method where you load your baking stone with a loaf and then invert a large pot on top of the loaf to trap in the expelled steam. Your crumb looks nice, some openness to it and a nice light brown color. It looks like you baked them long enough, the coloring on the crust is great.
They might have also “flattened” out a bit because of the way you performed your score. Did you slash in pretty deep at a 90º angle with the top of the loaf? Try going at it at an angle, or you could do a little “x” on top (again, don’t go in too deep if at 90º).
I think you’re well on your way here! You’ve got nice fermentation action, good coloring, and some pretty good rise going on. Get some steam in there and see how it goes next bake — let me know if you have any more questions, I’d be happy to help.
No worries, it just takes a bit of practice. Look forward to hearing your results!
They look great! You will definitely need to get some steam in that oven to help them rise. You can either use a combo cooker like I typically do, or you’ll have to have a pan/pot at the bottom of your oven and throw in some warm water to create steam. You can search on Google for help with that route if you don’t snag a combo cooker. There is also a method where you load your baking stone with a loaf and then invert a large pot on top of the loaf to trap in the expelled steam. Your crumb looks nice, some openness to it and a nice light brown color. It looks like you baked them long enough, the coloring on the crust is great.
They might have also “flattened” out a bit because of the way you performed your score. Did you slash in pretty deep at a 90º angle with the top of the loaf? Try going at it at an angle, or you could do a little “x” on top (again, don’t go in too deep if at 90º).
I think you’re well on your way here! You’ve got nice fermentation action, good coloring, and some pretty good rise going on. Get some steam in there and see how it goes next bake — let me know if you have any more questions, I’d be happy to help.
No worries, it just takes a bit of practice. Look forward to hearing your results!
Hello there,
quick question. when the dough is taken out of the fridge, do you allow it to come to room temp or slash and put in the oven straight ahead. And do you think it is necessary to give the dough another rise outside after its taken out of the fridge? thank you
I bake it straight from the fridge. I’ve tried this each way many times and really haven’t noticed any benefit to letting the dough rest on the counter before baking. The one thing I’ve noticed when you do leave it out, though, is that the dough will be harder to score if it’s very high hydration. That cold environment helps keep the dough together some, making it easier.
Hope that helps!
thank you so very much for your reply. my last question would be, what makes nice holes inside the loaf. I have been baking and getting some but not as big as the ones I see in your pictures. what determines them. what factors have to be taken into consideration to achieve that. thank you
You’re very welcome, glad it helped. There are many, many factors that come into play when “opening” up your crumb when baking. Proper starter activity (fermentation), sufficient dough strength, light but assertive pre-shape/shape, and sufficient proof time. It’s something I continue to work on and have had success over time with practice and experience. You’ll get there, it comes with experience and attention to all the little details when baking.
Have fun!