Thanks for the compliment! Learning what’s good and what’s not, still.
I’m using the Lodge 3 quart multi-cooker. Not quite as old as yours but getting there. I’m new to sourdough, and this is actually my 4th loaf with the starter I began about 3 weeks ago.
Thanks for the time/temp info. My first 2 loaves were burnt on the bottom, and the 3rd I tried the cold oven start (which isn’t to my taste really). For this one I heated to 450, cooked covered for 15 mins, then uncovered for 35 minutes. The rack under the loaf had a flat pan with some water in it. Also had parchment under the loaf - under the parchment, some cornmeal. Heard I could create more of a barrier that way. Now I want to crank up to 500F for the next bake! I adore the deep color of the crust on yours.
I find my whole wheat sourdough needs to be 209-211F to not be under baked. Thats using a 3 qt dutch oven. I started out baking covered 25 minutes and have now extended it to 35 minutes. Then uncover and finish to the color you like.
I forgot to include that I do keep a pizza stone (14 inch circle stone), on the bottom rack so my baking vessel is above the stone. I’ve just always kept the stone there, but many others use something on the lower rack for electric ovens with bottom heating elements.
Every oven is different … and what every baker wants can be different also, so there is no one right answer for anything
FWIW, I think you are doing exceptional for your 4th loaf !!! It is a tough time to be learning because you can’t just run out and get more flour. BUT, I’ve been baking bread over 40 years, sourdough for the last 5 and I am still learning. I enjoy reading what others try and then decide … do I want to try that? And sometimes, it is just a little tweak that I might pick up.
This is my second bake of this bread, and we love it. I’ve been baking it in a dutch oven but I have a cloche on order and should be receiving it sometime around 6/21 (everyone is bread-baking these days, so it takes a while to get stuff.) Thanks for this, and we’ll probably start playing with it next time we bake.
Hi,
I have to say 1st that, we love this bread.
I bake it at least twice a week for the last 6 months. I experimented some variations of flours and hydration, but returned to the original. Lately I tried to use less starter. I’m baking now with 80 gr. It’s the same delicious.
Thank you Chris for this good recipe.
Ytzhack Heber
Thank you for sharing the recipe. I’ve made the bread three times and we were very happy with it. It’s very similar to Czech bread which is impossible to buy in the UK were we live.
What size of proofing basket do you use for this recipe? As I’m quite new to bread baking, I don’t have the bread making kit yet and have been using a plastic bowl and floured tea towel but I decided I want to bake regularly and invest in the kit. There are different sizes of proofing baskets on Amazon and I don’t know which one to choose. I was looking at the 10 inch but it says it’ll hold up to 1kg dough. When I weighed my dough it was 1.47 kg. Will the 10 inch basket be enough or should I get a larger one? It’s hard to find a larger one.
1.47kg is indeed probably too big for a standard banneton. I find I can push the limit to 1.2kg or so. So I use a mixing bowl/tea towel for miches like you do, or I divide the dough in half and bake two loaves.
700g loaves are on the small side for my preference so if I were doing to divide this recipe, I’d actually first scale it up. That’s what I did here
Alternately, to just bake one 1kg dough version of this Whole Grain Sourdough, I’d multiply each ingredient by
0.68 (1 kg ÷ 1.47 kg = 0.68)
Bake time will need to be adjusted down a bit, but not tremendously.
I’m also sure there is a larger basket out there somewhere
Hi I’m doing my last proofing for this recipe and I have a proofing oven …I’ve set it for 80 degrees how long should I proof it from the refrigerator to oven? Thanks
Love to try this. I mill my own WW and Rye but don’t have any spelt. I’ll pick some Spelt up but my Starter is 100% hydration Rye. Should any adjustments be made for using the Rye starter? Thanks
I would probably change nothing and just have a final bread that is 60g heavier on the rye flour. If you wanted to get this precise blend of flours though, factor in that the 120g seed starter here would probably be 60g refined “white” flour and 60g water:
Levain
200 grams (7 oz. or 7/8 cup) water
120g (4 oz. or 1/2 cup) sourdough starter
236 grams (8 1/3 oz or 2 cups) whole wheat flour
Use your rye starter for the 120g, but when you make your final dough, substitute 60g of the rye flour for bread flour.
274 grams (9 2/3 oz. or scant 1 1/4 cup) water
85 grams (3 oz. or 7/8 cup) rye flour 15 grams rye
250 grams (8 3/4 oz or 2 cups) white bread flour 310 grams bread flour
170 grams (6 oz. or a tad over 1 3/4 cups) spelt flour
13 grams (scant tbs.) salt
PLUS
556g Levain built the day before
I have just made the Day 1 mixture and did not realize that it needs only 12 hours and then I need to add Day 2 ingredients, which means I will have to get up at 3:45 a.m. Can I delay the next step until 6:30 a.m.? Maybe refrigerate the “dough”?
