192.5

Ingredient	Percent	Mass (g)
Strong Bread Flour	80.0 %	187.0
Whole Wheat Flour	20.0 %	46.8
Water	70.0 %	163.6
Salt	2.0 %	4.7
Sourdough culture (60% hydration)	20.0 %	46.8
Instant Yeast (*Optional)	0.5 %	1.2
Total	192.5 %

(T-5h15) Mixing

Autolyse: Combine the flours, salt, and water together, stirring until the flour is saturated. Leave to rest for 30 minutes. This rest can probably be shortened, but then kneading would require more work.

Knead in the sourdough and yeast until the dough is smooth and shows clear gluten development. When working by hand, this can take ~10 minutes. With a mixer, expect the first stage to be ~3 minutes on low speed until everything is combined, then another 3 minutes or so on 2nd speed (to develop strength). Test with the window pane method.

Depending on your flour, mixing in all of the water at once could make the dough very difficult to work with. A technique to mitigate this is to autolyse with all but a small amount (20-30g) of the water. During the kneading process, once some gluten has developed, add the water in small amounts then knead the dough until it’s fully absorbed.

(T-5h) Bulk Fermentation

Ferment the dough for 2-3 hours (at 20 C). At 1 hour intervals, fold the dough.

If preparing the next day, chill in the fridge after the first fold; bring the dough back to room temperature before dividing and shaping.

(T-2h) Dividing, Shaping and Proofing

Divide the dough into loaves of the desired size. Roll the loaves into smooth balls, with a taught (but not broken) dough surface.

Place each loaf in a heavily floured banneton/form seam side up. If instead you prefer a loaf pan, lightly grease and flour the pan, then put the loaf in seam side down.

Proof for approximately 90 minutes, until a gentle dent in the dough does not bounce back within a minute or so.

(T-0h30) Baking

Preheat the oven to be very hot, aiming for 230 C.

If the dough was proofed as a freestanding loaf. Just before baking, dust the conveyor with cornmeal and flip the dough gently onto the surface.

Add steam to the oven, then score the dough.

Bake for ~30 minutes, depending on the mass and shape of the loaves.

Timing suggestion:

Supposing you want fresh bread Sunday at 18h. Plan to:

• Feed the starter to be at 60% hydration at least by Friday, or prepare a pre-ferment Saturday at 16h.
• If making the day before, mix the dough at least an hour before bed, then chill the dough overnight. Note: you would need to prepare the preferment even earlier in this case.
• Mix the dough at 13h on Sunday.
• Divide and shape the dough by 16h30 on Sunday.

Notes:

• I usually use Mulino Padano “Star” flour. It is advertised as having 15.5% protein, though other flours with more than 15% may also work well.
• The instant yeast is probably optional if you have a very active sourdough.
• Rather than using a sourdough culture, you can use a 60% preferment, in which case the instant yeast would be a necessity.
• This recipe is lightly adapted from The Bread Code. My sourdough is pretty wimpy, so I often need to augment with a small amount of instant yeast at mixing time. Also, I have tested this recipe successfully with a pre-ferment (rather than mature culture) with reasonable results.