I love this recipe and feel like it consistently produces good loaves

This is certainly not my first loaf and there’s always room for improvement. I’m happy with the depth of flavor, color, and crumb. I’ve found that the temperature of the water, adding more levain, and fermenting in an oven with the light on really helps make this recipe work consistently.

This is basically the Tartine country loaf recipe except with more levain.

700 g water plus 50 g water
300 g levain
900 g bread flour
100 g whole wheat flour
20 g kosher salt

1) The night before you want to bake, prepare the levain with 30 g active starter, 150 g 50/50 bread flour / whole wheat flour, and 150 g water. Mix, cover and allow to ferment on the counter.
2) In the morning, measure 700g of 80°F water in to large bowl.
3) Mix into the water 300 g of levain
4) Add all flour to the bowl of water and levain. Mix well. Use a bread scraper to clean the walls of your bowl. Allow the dough to autolyse for 30 minutes.
5) Add 20 g of kosher salt and 50g of 80°F water to your dough. Mix the salt and water into the dough ensuring that the salt is incorporated throughout the dough ball.
6) Cover the bowl with a towel and place inside of your oven with the oven light on.
7) Every 30 minutes, perform hand-folds by wetting your hand with water, insert your hand into the dough down the side of the bowl, grab and pull up. Repeat four times around the dough ball. Allow the dough to ferment for 3 to 4 hours. You should expect about a 30% rise during the fermentation phase.
8) Once fermentation is complete, pour the dough onto an unfloured surface. Dust the top of your dough with a small amount of flour. Divide the dough in to two equal portions and shape each into a ball. Allow to bench rest with a towel over the dough for 20 minutes.
9) Fold into final shape, place inside floured bannetons (I use 50/50 rice/WW), and allow them to rise in the oven with a light on for 3 to 4 hours. Alternatively you can also cold proof these in the refrigerator for about 8 hours before baking.
10) Remove the bread from the oven. Preheat the oven to 500°F with your baking vessels inside the oven. Once preheated, carefully remove baking vessels from the oven, place bread inside and bake covered for 20 minutes. After this initial bake, remove the lids and contour baking for 10 to 20 minutes until the desired color is achieved.

Happy baking! I love to hear any improvements you would recommend.