17.6 Alternate 1

I wasn’t getting quite the results I wanted, so I changed up the recipe based on something I found online, and it has worked well.

Ingredients:

Levain

Bread

35g 100% hydration starter

522g water

35g wheat flour

783g bread flour

35g bread flour

20g salt

70g water

All of the levain

1/2 - 1 tsp yeast (optional)

Preparation:

  1. Mix the levain early and let it sit until it has roughly doubled in volume.
  2. For the bread, mix the flour, salt, levain, and water together. Knead until it’s it’s a good dough. It shouldn’t be too sticky at the hydration given here.
  3. Fold the dough every 30 minutes or so. Do this three times.
  4. After the third folding, let the dough sit for another 10-20 minutes to relax, then divide it in two.
  5. Gently flatted the two halves out. Starting from where the dough ball was cut to divide, fold the corners in, and then roll (trying to add some stretching) into a log, and place into a greased breadpan.
  6. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for 15-20 hours.
  7. Bake at 450° or 500° for 25-30 minutes. If you have a thermometor, bread is “done” around 180° - 190° internal temperature. Though if you just stick something in and see no dough coming out on the prod, it’s probably fine.

Variations:

  • The original where I saw this said to mix the flour and water first (an “autolyse”), though not ALL of the water, save 50g behind to mix the salt into. I tried this once. It was messy and I didn’t notice a difference, so I don’t bother with it.
  • You can use a mix of different flour types. I usually use 100g-120g of whole wheat flour.
  • I tend to supplement the starter with a 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of yeast. I find it helps to provide a more consistent rise in case my started was feeling lazy.

Notes:

  • Adjust the proportions how you like for lager/smaller loaves. I’ve found these values work well for my loaf pans.