My pleasure. I was breaking down how much water plus flour is in 150g starter at 100% hydration to show how I worked out the salt percentage. 450g flour + 75g flour in the starter = 525g total flour. And 2% of 525g is 10.5g.
Just prep your starter, i.e. give it a good feed tonight to be ready by morning, and use 150g in the dough. Exactly how you have described.
Awesome thanks! I’ll give it a go tomorrow!
Is there a reason for the making a well method? I’ve worked with poolish a lot, where I melt the poolish in water and then dissolve the salt in the water. But then add all the flour.
I did this the same with sourdough, so I’m gonna try the well method, but just curious if at the science level it’s different for sourdough and how it’s combined.
A difference between a six and two threes. Whichever way works best for you when it comes to ease and getting the results you’re after.
If i’m not doing an autolyse I find mixing the salt in the flour and the starter in water then combining a good way of doing things. And making a well in the flour is a good way to keep it in one bowl. I also find pouring water onto flour can be clumping as supposed to slowly combining. But at the end of the day it is down to preference.
Oh okay that makes sense!
How long should this take to double?
First picture was taken at 1:20pm
Second is 6:30pm
It’s taking it’s time. This is a high percentage of starter and if it’s room temperature I wouldn’t expect it to take too long. Was your starter very active when used? What was your starter feed ratio?
Trouble is it’s bowl shaped which will make it difficult to judge when doubled as the sides are sloped and it’s a non see through bowl as well. How much has it risen? Is it aerated and are some bubbles forming close to the surface? Give it all the time it needs and shape when ready or when you can’t put it off any longer.
What temperature are you keeping it? Do the best you can and we’ll troubleshoot later. Perhaps your starter needs more TLC but we’ll only know when we see the final loaf.
P.s. don’t worry. The first bake or two is testing your starter to see where it’s at. As the starter ages it produces better bread. This bake will be informative and come what may you’ll enjoy it even if not perfect as i’m sure it’ll still be tasty and you have put all the hard work into it. It can take time for a starter to become strong and stable. All this is quite normal.
It was at room temperature. I’m about to shape and put it in a proofing basket
1:20am here in London. Where do you live? I look forward to seeing and hearing about your results come morning.
Don’t be concerned about it. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Oh jeez it’s late there. Thanks for all the help. I’m in NC US. Was about 50F today. I hope sourdough is worth it haha tempting to switch back to my fresh bakers yeast
Of course sourdough is worth it. But it doesn’t have to replace fresh bakers yeast. Doesn’t have to be one or the other. Both have something to offer. Once you get the hang of it it’ll become second nature. Early days yet. All we want is a decent loaf to build on. Further feedings will only strengthen your starter. 50F is quite cold and if your home drops below 70F it can slow down significantly. Your starter build might have suffered too. And because your dough seemed quite slow today then perhaps stretching out the final proof will be beneficial as well. When I said 1.5 - 2 hours try giving it at least 2 hours or even 2.5 hours. Unless you see a significant change. It’s all about reading the dough and not watching the clock. Difficult to do from a far and if it’s your first few bakes. Timings are always a guide only.
P.s. Your first sourdough loaf wasn’t drastically far off. I’ve seen many far worse first sourdough loaves. I think if you would have left it for another hour or two you could have gotten a good bulk ferment out of it. Perhaps it is the cold throwing you off a bit on top of it being your first time using sourdough starter. You’ll get there sooner rather than later.
Ahh makes sense! I’ll keep trying till I master it haha. With pizza, I was making it every single day haha now my pizza dough takes three days to make, but it’s perfect!
Looks good! Good oven spring and lovely caramelisation on the crust. Let’s see what the crumb an taste brings.
Much better ferment than last time. Thats a good crumb 
Thanks! Does this recipe work with oval proofing baskets? Like two at a time.
Or basically how do I scale?
Of course. As long as your oval baskets take the same size dough as your round baskets then simply double up the recipe to make two.
We can build on this recipe if you want. Slowly adding in some different techniques.
Yeah that sounds good to me!
Ok so if you wish to double up then better do this as a levain build.
The recipe will be as follows…
Levain Build:
Allow to mature for 12 - 16 hours. Should be very active and have a nice aroma. Use 300g in the recipe and the excess 30g is starter for next time.
Let’s not change too much about the method too soon. We’ll just try an autolyse including the levain.
Method:
Beginning to take shape like a typical sourdough recipe.
