I’ve had a lot of success, making my loaves so far. Most of them were really just shaping and proofing issues. I had about five different recipes that I tested out. And I finally settled on a mixture of a couple of different recipes. Here is my process, and it has literally produced the best bread I have made out of 20 loaves. I’m super curious to hear everyone’s critique of my most recent loaf. I’m obsessed with it. it proofed on the counter for about two hours at 77°. And then I placed it into the refrigerator for about seven hours and I baked it this morning.

Yields approximately 1000 grams of dough 500 grams per loaf.

Ingredients: - 200g active sourdough starter - 600g bread flour - 360g water - 12g salt

Instructions:

1. Mix the Dough: In a large bowl, combine the sourdough starter and water; mix thoroughly before adding the flour. Mix until a shaggy dough forms. Cover with a kitchen towel or disposable plastic shower cap and let it rest for 30 minutes.

2. Add Salt: Sprinkle the salt over the dough. Use your hands to incorporate the salt into the dough by squeezing and folding it until evenly distributed.

Allow dough to rest 1 hour.

Complete one set of stretch and folds every 30 minutes. Covering your dough between each. Do 4 to 5 rounds until your dough is smooth and passes the window pane test.

At this point I put my dough into a new clean glass container that has measurement markings so I can accurately determine whenever my dough has proofed properly and doubles in size. This is again another personal preference.

1. Bulk Fermentation: Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic shower cap and let the dough ferment at room temperature for about 4-6 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

You can use the poke test to determine if your dough is done at this stage.

1. Shape the Dough: Once the dough has doubled, gently turn it out onto a rice floured surface. Shape it into a round ball by folding the edges towards the center rotating and push/pulling which tightens the dough into a smooth ball. This technique takes practice to achieve good surface tension to assure you get a good oven spring.

2. Final Proof: Place the shaped dough into a floured proofing basket or a bowl lined with a floured kitchen towel, seam side up. Cover and let it rise at room temperature for 1-2 hours, or until it has slightly increased in size and passes the poke test (a slight indentation remains when you poke it gently with your finger).

Flip the dough onto parchment paper or a silicon baking sling (my preference) Score the dough using a scoring tool or bread lame.

1. Preheat the Oven: About 30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 450°F (230°C) with your Dutch Oven inside of it.

2. Bake the Bread: For 25 minutes with the lid on. Then 20 minutes with the lid off. You can add a couple ice cubes to the Dutch Oven (My personal preference) or mist your loaf with a spray bottle of water.

You can also dry bake your loaf. All 3 will produce a different crust texture. It's all preference.

1. Cool and Enjoy: Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing. Enjoy your homemade sourdough bread!

Feel free to adjust the recipe based on your preferences or equipment.

Extra notes: Proofing/Bulk Fermentation: From the time your starter hits the flour - your time starts then.

Dough warmer than 80 degrees will proof in less than 5 and a half hours 75 degrees will proof in roughly 7 hours 70 degrees will proof in roughly 12 hours 65 degrees will proof in roughly 16 hours

Place in refrigerator at any point to slow ferment to prevent over proofing. Always check the temp of your dough.