The everyday loaf, written down properly

23 February 2025bakingsourdoughrecipe

This is the loaf I make when I am not trying to make anything in particular. It goes in the cast-iron pot, comes out with a dark crust and a reasonably open crumb, and makes toast for four or five days. I have made it perhaps two hundred times and until today I had never written it down, which is why every few months it drifts and I have to work out what I changed.

So here it is, in baker's percentages, where the flour is always 100% and everything else is a fraction of the flour weight.

The starter's own flour and water are not counted in the percentages above. Purists add them in, which brings the true hydration closer to 76%. I find it easier to treat the starter as an ingredient and leave the arithmetic alone.

Method

1. Feed Morris the evening before, or in the morning, so that he peaks when you want to mix. In a 20 °C kitchen that is five to six hours after feeding.
2. Mix the flours with 350 g of the water until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave for 45 minutes. Hold back the other 25 g.
3. Add the starter and salt with the remaining water. Squeeze it through with a wet hand for two or three minutes until it comes back together. It will feel slack and then tighten.
4. Bulk ferment for about four and a half hours at 22–24 °C, with four sets of stretch and folds in the first two hours, half an hour apart. It is ready when it has grown by roughly half, the edges are domed and there are bubbles on the sides of the bowl.
5. Pre-shape into a loose round, rest 20 minutes uncovered.
6. Shape into a tight boule and put it seam-side up in a floured basket or a bowl lined with a floured tea towel.
7. Cold retard in the fridge for 12 to 16 hours.
8. Bake straight from the fridge in the pot, preheated at 250 °C for 45 minutes. Score, lid on for 20 minutes, then lid off at 230 °C for 20–25 minutes, until it is darker than feels comfortable.
9. Cool on a rack for at least an hour. Two is better.

The single most useful change I ever made to this was holding back a little of the water and adding it with the salt. It makes the salt dissolve properly and stops the dough tearing when you work it in.

The single least useful change was trying 80% hydration because the photographs online had bigger holes. The holes were bigger. The loaf was also flatter and the crumb gummy near the base, and my shaping is not good enough to justify it. 75% is the number my hands can manage.

If your kitchen is cold, extend the bulk ferment rather than adding more starter. The time is the variable, not the recipe. I learned that one recently and expensively, and I will write it up separately once I have stopped being annoyed about it.