About two months ago I decided to learn how to make perfect sourdough bread. Since I had no experience with baking, I thought it would be easy. How wrong I was… 🙃

After dozens of attempts and kilograms of flour used, today I managed to get a perfect loaf (at least for me!). I won't describe the whole story, I'll share the recipe and a list of things that in my opinion contributed to the effect I was expecting. I'll be happy to answer questions in the comments.

Recipe

\all percentages refer to the initial flour weight**

• flour 500g – white flour 350g (Caputo Manitoba Oro) + whole wheat flour 100g (Caputo Integrale) + 50g from starter
• water 350g (70%) – 300g + 50g from starter
• starter 100g (20%) – 100% hydration, made mostly with white flour
• salt 10g (2%)
• bulk fermentation – 6hrs at 25C and ~50% rise
• cold proof – ~12hrs at 3C

Tips

• follow the The Sourdough Journey bulk fermentation guide (especially the Dough Temping Guide table) – know your room temperature and try to achieve the Target % Rise within the Approx. Timing. Room temperature makes huge difference
• use aliquot for measuring the bulk fermentation % rise
• starter activation – I stored my starter in the fridge, and even though it looked like it was active after ~24hrs (2-3 feeds), it really peaks after 48hrs (4-6 feeds)
• 2% salt is the max limit – initially i used 4% and it seemed like the bulk fermentation was quite lazy. Different sources tell different things about the impact of high salt % on the fermentation process, so I'm not sure if its really the case here or maybe the successful attempts were due to other factors.
• 4 stretch and folds every 20-30mins during first 2-3hrs after mixing the ingredients