Learning Objective
You will learn how to make a retarded, mid-hydration 20% wholemeal classic sourdough boule. This is a great recipe for a beginner.
Makes: | 2 x 1kg |
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Level: | Intermediate |
Created Over: | Mix and bake immediately |
Kind of Bake: | Ambient day – French style – mixed in the morning and baked in the evening |
Diversity Score: | 14 (Botanical Blend No. 2) |
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Equipment
- Medium bowl for mixing leaven
- Clean t-towel or wax cloth
- Large mixing bowl
- Dough whisk
- Dough scraper
- 2 x 1kg banneton
- Lame
- Baking cloche
Suggested Starter
White French
Status of Starter
bubbly, lively first-build starter
Hydration
72.5%
DDT
27°C (80°F)
Flours
To Ferment Your Dough
- 40g starter
- 80g wholegrain flour
- 80g water at 30C
Baking Time
1 hour in a Cloche or Dutch Oven and 5 - 10 minutes uncovered depending on your preferences
Bake At
200°C/180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6
Tutorials
Step | Timings |
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Refresh starter 1st Refreshment | 10am Day 1 |
Refresh starter 2nd Refreshment | 10pm Day 1 |
Plan Your Bake | 9am Day 2 |
Make a leaven | 10am-11am Day 2 |
Mix 700g of the water & leaven into dough | 1pm |
Autolyse with leaven | 1pm |
Bassinage 25g (1 x 25g) | 1.30pm |
Add salt - Start bulk | 2pm |
Stretch and fold | 2.30pm |
Bulk Ends - Now Preshape | 5pm |
Final shaping | 5.30pm |
Put in Fridge 5C | 6pm |
Preheat oven to 220C/425F. Reduce to 200C/400F to bake. Bake | between 12pm - 5pm Day 3 |
Analyse & Recalibrate | On Eating |
Guidance, tips & techniques
This is it… The Sourdough School’s classic beginners retarded sourdough formula, the one from the Sourdough School book on page 114 and the one I have used for over a decade to teach beginners. I use this one because it gives reliable results and helps build confidence. It’s made with white roller milled flour and 20% stoneground wholegrain flour – we use our Botanical Blend No. 2 freshly milled to increase the nutritional benefits and depth of flavour compared to a standard sourdough loaf.
It is the best loaf to start getting a feel for the process and it is the easiest one to handle to familiarise yourself with the techniques that I teach.
I will warn you that if you have skipped lessons then you you may find that you have missed the foundational work that ensures success of this loaf.
BEGINNER
This is the classic retarded 20% sourdough and the one I recommend you master BEFORE you move on to any other bake. We work in the school with 1kg of flour. There are several reasons for this.
- It is easy to work out bakers percentages with 1kg
- The larger amount of dough holds the DDT temperature.
- You can use the base dough for other things, such as a pizza base or Foccaccia
- You can make half (500g of flour) but in my experience a smaller amount of dough loses the DDT quickly so never seems to be quite as open crumb as 1kg
When you first start I recommend you bake this loaf at least 5–7 times to get a feel for the timings before you move on to other formulas – familiarity will give you a better understanding of the process – and build an instinctive understanding of the dough and how it behaves.
Try to use the same flour each time to begin with, as this will help you to recognise the nuances of the dough as the seasons change. What might appear to be pretty subtle differences become more noticeable as you improve as a baker. With time, you will notice that the dough feels slightly different with each batch that you bake. Once you have become familiar with this formula, move on to a formula that uses more wholegrain flour.
Learning Outcome
You will be able to build confidence in making this classic sourdough boule and understand the techniques involved in making sourdough bread.