altmake

Sourdough Instructions

Contents
  1. Starter Feeding
  2. Making and baking the dough
  3. Tips
  4. References

These are the notes I bake from: how I maintain a small starter with very little discard, and the step-by-step timeline for a mostly white loaf with a little whole wheat. Treat the timings as guidelines; how active the starter is and how warm the room is decide the real schedule.

Starter Feeding

  • Feed as early as when the starter has doubled. This will be 1 to 3 times per day when left on the counter. The frequency depends on the room temp and the type of flour.
  • Store in the fridge when not baking. It can go a week or two without feeding in the fridge. After taking it out of the fridge, try to get at least 3 feedings in before making a levain. If you don’t, the starter will not be very active.
  • If you are planning on making a levain in the next couple days, try not to let the starter starve. Once it collapses and runs out of food, a layer of liquid (hooch) will form on top. This is fine, but a starved starter turns acidic and sluggish, which slows the development of your levain and dough.
  • I typically only maintain a 40 gram starter. This reduces my discard waste. In a small container I add about a teaspoon of starter, 20 grams of water, and 20 grams of flour. On the next feeding I use the same container and dump all of the starter leaving only what remains on the sides of the container. To this I add my water which I mix thoroughly until the starter is fully dissolved then add the flour until it is a consistent mixture with no lumps.

Making and baking the dough

  1. Mix 1/2 tbsp starter, 30g white flour, 30g wheat flour, 60g water to make levain
  2. Rest about 12 hours. It should be doubled in size with a rounded top. If the top is collapsed or flat, start over.
  3. Mix 100g levain and 350g warm water
  4. Add 450g white flour, and 50g whole-wheat flour
  5. Rest 25 to 40 minutes
  6. Add 10g salt and 25g warm water
  7. Rest 30 minutes
  8. Stretch and fold 6 times 30 minutes apart. Watch videos below for different techniques.
  9. Wait until volume has nearly doubled. This is the end of the bulk fermentation stage.
  10. Shape into round
  11. Rest 30 minutes covered with towel
  12. Dust 10” banneton with 50/50 mix of whole-wheat and rice flour
  13. Final shape
  14. Rest 3 to 4 hours (10 to 12 in refrigerator)
  15. Preheat oven to 500°F (260°C) for 30 minutes
  16. Dust loaf bottom with 50/50 mix of whole-wheat and rice flour
  17. Score
  18. Place in Dutch oven
  19. Lower oven to 450°F (230°C) and bake for 20 minutes with lid on
  20. Bake at 450°F (230°C) for 20 minutes with lid off
  21. Place on cooling rack. The bread is still cooking even on the cooling rack. If you cut into it while it is still warm, it will have a gummy texture and dry out much quicker.

Tips

  • For starter, levain, and the dough, the timing is very subjective. How active the starter is and the temperature of the room will play a huge role in the time. It’s best to work based on the look and feel.
  • Take a small piece of dough, put it in a shot glass, and cover it. Use this as a benchmark for if your dough has doubled in size. It is easier to mark the glass at the start to see how much it has risen than it is to guess if a ball of dough has doubled looking at it in a bowl.
  • Add a little salt to the sourdough starter discard and pan fry it to make a little biscuit. This goes well with eggs. This is the easiest way I’ve found to use the discard and prevent waste. Some people collect and save the discard to make other recipes which can be found online.
  • Cut the loaf in half and take a photo of both cut faces for reference. Make note of anything unique and compare your crumb to The ULTIMATE Sourdough Proofing Guide PDF guide below.
  • To cut into slices, first cut the loaf in half. Then place the cut side down on the cutting board. This will prevent the bread from crushing while cutting.

References