

Hi!! I made these two boules and plan on gifting one to a friend who is grieving. Which would you keep and which would you gift?
Recipe: “Simple Sourdough” by Maurizio Leo from The Perfect Loaf book.
Process:
Day 1: make levain with 100g white flour (I used King Arthur bread flour for this whole recipe) 100g water, 20g ripe starter.
Day 2: just past levain peak (I was running late but decided I’d try using a levain that was a smidge hungry, it had fallen abt a half inch in the jar)
Step A: autolyse flour (1000g flour, 600g water) and let rest for 30 min.
Step B: add entire levain and 20g salt. (Recipe always says to add up to 60g water at this point also, but mine always ends up being soupy so I don’t add the water and actually dust with flour until I reach the texture in the photos the book has). I mix by squeezing the autolyse and levain until it’s mostly homogenous.
Step C: strengthen dough by lifting and folding one side to the other, rotating bowl abt 1/8 turn each time. I do this for abt 9 minutes. It’s a workout. Take dough temp- aim for 78 degrees. Cover dough.
Step D: begin bulk ferment timer, for abt 4-5 hours (until dough looks “alive” and jiggles when bowl is lightly shaken). I stretch and fold in the beginning every 30 minutes for a total of 4 times. I add inclusions at the second set of S&F (this time I added smashed/chopped duck fat confit garlic cloves and fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage). Cover and let rest for the rest of the time.
Step E: divide into two halves and preshape using water to keep hands nonstick. Create small amt of surface tension with bench knife and hand, then allow rounds to rest for 35 min uncovered.
Step F: Flour tops of rounds, then flip over and stretch out to rectangle. Fold bottom third up, then each side inwards, then bring top lip all the way down and under, allowing the dough to flip over. Push and pull dough using the counter to tug and create surface tension again until it feels right. Flip over into floured baskets and pinch seam closed.
Step G: place clean plastic bag over baskets and seal shut. Put into fridge to cold proof for 16 hours.
Day 3:
Step H: preheat oven to 450 with Dutch oven inside. Allow to rest at temp for 45 minutes.
Step I: carefully remove dough with a gentle flip onto parchment and remove excess flour from top. Do decorative scoring first, then the expansion score.
Step J: remove Dutch oven from oven, slide dough inside, place two ice cubes between parchment and baking vessel, close immediately and place in oven.
Step K: bake for 20 min with lid on, then remove lid. Bake for 30 more minutes.
Step L: check that internal temp has reached 206F. Coo at bread bc it’s so pretty. Sit on your hands for two hours before cutting.
by LunarKaleidoscope

16 Comments
Oh my god, I added line breaks to the post but I’m on mobile and they did not go through. I’m so sorry yall lol
I would gift the one on the left! Great scoring job 🙂
Left one for sure. I usually gift best looking ones and last one I’ll try out new scoring patterns etc or if it turned out less appealing to me for gifting.
left one
To the left to the left
Left, more impressive ear.
Left
https://preview.redd.it/e8jury42cm0f1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92313c819129e50d13bed048f221d97276ef603d
Crumb is a little denser than I hoped for but it smells INSANE
Right one. Better loaf is for me. They don’t even know the difference most of the time lol
Left
I always struggle so much with this. How do you know what it’ll look like inside without slicing it??
Neither. I would eat both.
Left
They both look absolutely awful. You really should gift them both to me so I could test them out. 😂
Left
I’d be thrilled with either but the color on the top loaf in pic 1 which is on the left in pic 2 looks outstanding.