Sourdough Bread, 75% Hydration

Ingredients

900g white bread flour

100g wheat flour

200g levain/starter (see Levain Procedure)

700g + 50g filtered water at 90F

25g salt

6g citric acid

Note: this recipe makes two loaves of bread, and requires capacity for two cloches or iron pots in an oven to bake. If you only require one loaf of bread, or you cannot fit two pots in your oven, the recipe may be cut in half.

Procedure

The night before: Levain

In a small bowl, mix 27g levain with 100g filtered water and 100g bread flour.

Stir until completely mixed, no dry flour remaining.

Cover, leave on counter overnight at room temperature no greater than 72F, and no less than 60F.

Morning: Initial Mixing

Mix 200g levain (discard remainder) with 700g water at 90F, stir to completely homogenize.

Mix in 900g white bread flour and 100g wheat flour. Stir until no dry flour remains.

Cover and let rest 45 minutes.

Mix 25g salt and 6g citric acid in 50g water at 90F. Stir until salt is in solution.

Dump salt solution into dough and mix until fully incorporated.

Daytime: Manipulate

Cover and allow bulk fermentation to occur for at least three hours at 74-84F. At temperatures under 74F, fermentation will really slow down, so adjust time accordingly. Every half-hour, manipulate the dough gently in the container to mix it and evaluate the aeration level.

After the dough has fermented for at least three hours and is rebounding 20% or more in size between manipulations, remove it from the container in which it fermented, turning it out on to an unfloured stone surface.

Dust the top of the dough with flour, cut the dough with a bench knife into two roughly equal pieces.

With a bench scraper, flip each piece of dough so the floured side is down. Manipulate each dough into a round shape under tension by twisting gently. Cover and allow to rest on the surface for 45 minutes.

Prepare parchment paper or lightly grease a bread pan.

Tension each dough rough into a rough sphere and transfer each to either parchment or a greased bread pan.

Allow the dough to rise in the covered pan or on the parchment for at least three hours, perhaps four. In this time, it will approximately double in size. When the bread is clearly swelling, start the oven at 500F to give it at least a half hour to come to temp.

Eveningtime: Bake

Place bread in oven (covered by cloche if using cloche) and reduce the oven temperature to 450F.

At 20 minutes indicated on your baking timer, remove the lid from the cloche, if applicable.

At 25 minutes indicated on your baking timer, sample the interior temperature of one of the loaves using a K-type thermocouple probe, such as a Thermapen. The interior temperature of a baked loaf should be greater than or equal to 210F. Remove the loaves from the oven when they reach this temperature.

This bread is really best when allowed to cool completely before consumption.

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