Benito's blog

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Does one need a pizza oven to make pizza at home?  I don’t think so although I’d love to have one 😉  I’ve been trying to fine tune my processes for making the dough and finally baking the pizza.  I’m still using the recipe from the TFL community bake but I’ll post it below for those interested along with my small alterations.

One thing about baking in my oven with a cast iron is that I now bake on the roasting setting which activates the upper elements of the oven.  I’ve also gradually moved my baking steel upwards in the oven so that the actual cast iron skillet is on the equivalent of the second highest rack.  This has the effect of baking really hot and fast.  My first pizza I didn’t check for doneness and it went just a bit too far after 6 minutes at 550ºF.  The second pizza I checked and gave it an extra 30 secs after I turned it in the oven after 3 minutes of baking, so it had a total of only 3.5 minutes and yet was totally baked, again maybe just a bit too long.  Anyhow, I’m pretty happy with my pizzas but I’m always fine tuning things to see if I can bake them better.  I now also brush water on the cornicione immediately before the pizza goes into the oven, this has really helped with getting “leopard spots” on the cornicione so that’s one tip I can share.

For these two individual pizzas I made a home made pesto with basil, walnuts, Grana Padano and a combination of EVOO and toasted walnut oil.  The other toppings were a simple combination of roasted red peppers, sliced kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes.  After the pizza comes out of the oven, extra pesto and Grana Padano was added.  Delicious.  If you haven’t made your own sourdough pizza dough yet you really need to give it a go.

 For 4 9” pizzas NY style thin crust 200 g each

Levain Build 100% hydration 35 g needed 

433 g bread flour

43 g Whole grain flour (50:50 whole spelt:whole wheat) (consider using whole Kamut instead of whole wheat)

4.76 g Diastatic malt 1%

252 g water and

41 g water hold out

8.43 g salt 1.71%

2.5 g sugar 0.5%

4.8 g olive oil 1.0%

Total flour 493.5

Total water 310.5 

63% hydration water only

64% including olive oil

Sourdough version you may have to adjust the amount of levain. At 3.5% PreFerment Flour (PFF) 2-4 day retard should work.

(1) In your mixer bowl(or by hand) dissolve the Starter or yeast in all of the Final Dough Water except the HOLD OUT Water.  (Add diastatic malt too)

(2) Mix in the flours until well hydrated 

(3) Allow to fermentolyse for 1hr 

(4) Mix in the remaining HOLD OUT Water, salt, and sugar mix until well-incorporated. 

(5) Slowly drizzle in the oil until well combined. 

(6) Beat or knead by hand until dough is moderately developed. The dough will be sticky and elastic. If kneading by hand, use slightly wet hands and avoid adding more flour. 

(7) Oil your hands and a suitable container. 

(8) Shape into a tight ball.  I divide the ball into four smaller ones each for one 9” pizza at this point.  Each goes into a small oiled bowl and allowed to proof for 1 hour before starting cold fermentation.

(9) Cold ferment in the refrigerator for 48-96hrs. 

(10) Remove to warm up to room temp for at 3-6hr or so before use, or you can ferment at room temp. for 6hrs.   2-3 hours seem ideal 80ºF 

(11) Stretch the balls into your desired size skins (see video below), top and bake at 550F (as high as your oven will go) Until the crust is browned and the cheese has melted. Spin the pie at least once to avoid burning due to oven hot spots. I have included a link to a skin stretching tutorial. Watch this video, more than a few times then go through the motions in your head. If you can see it in your mind's eye, you too can be a home oven pizzaiolo! 

Heat oven to 550ºF roasting setting, with skillet in oven on baking steel on the second highest rack about 1 hour.  My set up with the baking steel on the roasting rack that set up is on the third highest rack because of the added height from the roasting rack so it essentially makes the skillet on the second highest rack.

Place stretched dough into skillet and top with sauce and toppings.

Brushing water on the cornicione prior to baking in oven, gives better oven spring and leopard spots to the cornicione. 

Make sure the non oily side of the dough is down in the skillet to avoid a burnt bottom. 

Bake for 3 minutes at 550ºF then rotate and bake for another 3 minutes.  As mentioned earlier, watch the crust as I have found the second pizza often bakes faster than the first.

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This was a partially successful experiment using pandan extract and coconut milk.  The final bake leaves something to be desired, but my first attempt was a major fermentation fail.  In the first attempt, I failed to account for the reduction in hydration caused by replacing all the skim milk with full fat coconut milk.  The increased enrichment and decreased hydration caused fermentation and rise of the dough to go extremely slowly.  At first I thought that something must have gone wrong with my levain but in the end I don’t think that was the primary problem.  That dough in total was baked after 36 hours of rise a combination of warm and cool temperatures.  In the end the dough rose only a bit in the oven and had an excessively sour flavour.

So thinking about trying this again, I decided to increase the hydration by increasing the pandan extract in the dough.  The problem of course was that the dough ended up being a greater weight than I usually use and as a result had way too much of a mushroom top to it.  Also despite a longer bake the sides couldn’t hold the weight of the top of the bread and started to collapse in on itself.  Not a stellar result.  Hopefully this bread will taste alright.  I’ve never tasted pandan, just hearing about it from some Asian bakers so I wanted to try it out.  If we actually like this flavor, I’ll try again and also reduce the dough weight by maybe 100 g  to reduce the crazy mushroom top and subsequent collapsing sides.  Oh I also used the 0.5 tsp of IDY because I wanted this to be ready today.

For Pullman 9x4x4” pan

Sweet Stiff Starter - overnight cool room temperature

• 53g bread flour 

• 24g pandan extract    

• 18g sugar 

• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 52g coconut milk + 37 g pandan

• 18g bread flour   

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• 360g bread flour 

• 50g sugar (reduced from 59g)

• 7g salt 

(Optional IDY 0.5 tsp)

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 77g coconut milk 

      • 62 g pandan extract + 53 g (to compensate for the low water in coconut milk)

• 59g egg beaten (about 1 ⅕ of a large egg)

• 67g melted butter 

Total flour = 431 g

The tangzhong, levain and all the wet ingredients were mixed then added the dry ingredients mixing on low until no dry flour.  Rested for 10-15 mins, then mixed on high until good gluten development.

After 2-2.5 hour of bulk I placed it in the fridge for 1 hour.  after this divided, shaped into boules and then into swirled rolls.  Placed into pullman pan alternating the swirls.

Baked 350ºF for 50 mins then taken out of pan and placed back in over for another 10 - 15 mins bake.  Watch the top crust as it may get too dark too quickly so may need to be shielded.

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This is the same recipe as the recently posted 50% whole wheat Hokkaido sourdough milk bread except that the total dough weight was reduced to make 8 buns in a 9” cake pan. These are going to my sister’s house for our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner tonight, the first time having a family dinner since the pandemic started.

 8 rolls in a 9” round pan or

9 rolls in a 8” square pan

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 45g bread flour 
• 20g water
• 15g lbrown sugar 
• 15g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong 

• 85g milk 
• 15g whole wheat (stoneground not sprouted)

Final Dough 

• 141g bread flour
• 164g whole wheat flour (same as above)
• 50g sugar (used 40 g)
• 6g salt 
• 124g milk 
• 1 eggs
• 57g unsalted butter 

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten
• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• Fleur de sel 

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 50% growth.

Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At room temperature, it typically takes 7-9 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk the dry dough ingredients, and then add the sweet stiff starter, separating it into 5-6 portions as you add it to the bowl.

Now pour/scrape in all the wet ingredients (including the tangzhong), with the melted butter last. With the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for a minute, scrape down the sides, and then mix on medium speed for 15-20 minutes. The dough will seem very soft, but as you approach the 15-20 minute mark, it should not stick to your hands and should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. You can place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours or retard overnight, this makes rolling the dough easier.

Prepare your pan by greasing them or line with parchment paper.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Press the dough into a rectangle and divide it into 8 or 9 portions. Shape each tightly into a boule, place into a greased or parchment lined pan.

Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  Mine took 5 hours to complete final proof at 82ºF.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the rolls for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot and sprinkle with flaked salt.  I didn’t have fleur de sel so sprinkled a bit of pink salt on after brushing with butter.

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Working with a new whole wheat flour now, this is a local organic stone ground flour that I’m hoping will taste great. I’m also hoping that the thinner crust I achieved recently by not baking in my dutch oven wasn’t a fluke so I’m baking open in my oven with steam using the Sylvia towel and a cast iron skillet again.  

I’m also experimenting again with a very wet autolyse of just the whole wheat and using a stiff levain.  The idea I have in my mind is that if the whole grain component of the flour is autolysed with all the water, except the hold back water, the bran can hydrate more quickly.

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The levain is prepared the night before and fermented at a cool room temperature.  Not surprisingly, this lower hydration levain ferments more slowly than a 100% hydration levain and also holds its peak longer.

In the morning the whole wheat flour is mixed with the water and allowed to hydrate for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, the levain and salt and added.  Once the levain is well combined the bread flour is added and mixed until there is no dry flour.  Rest for 10-15 mins.  Reassess the dough and decide if it requires more water, at this point I added the hold back water and allowed the dough to fully absorb that water using Rubaud kneading.  After 15-20 mins of rest 400 slap and folds were done to achieve moderate gluten development.

Proofing box set to 82ºF.  Rest 15 mins and a bench letterfold was completed.  Aliquot jars were prepared, one for rise and one for pH.  The pH at this stage was 5.39.

A series of coil folds were then done the first 3 at 20 mins intervals as the dough relaxed by 20 mins and then the following one and a half coil folds at 30 mins intervals.  The the time of the final half coil fold the dough showed a 10-15% rise and had a pH of 4.99.

The dough was allowed to complete bulk fermentation at 82ºF.  Bulk ended when the dough reached a rise of 40% with a pH of 4.52.  It was shaped, no pre-shaping was done since the final coil fold acted as the pre-shape, and placed in a banneton.  It was allowed to proof at room temperature until it had a rise of 70% and a pH of 4.16.  Cold retard was then started at 3ºC.

Although I know other bakers who will target a pH of 3.9 for all doughs as the start of cold retard, it doesn’t completely make sense to me.  Doughs with more whole grain will buffer the acid produced more than dough with less whole grain.  Dough with more whole grains also tend to have less gluten.  If one were to target lower pH regardless of the type of flours used in the dough one would run the risk of over fermentation and more gluten degradation.  I believe that doughs with really strong gluten can tolerate a lower pH than ones with weaker gluten.  However, I’ll need to do much more baking to prove this to myself.

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The next morning the oven is pre-heated to 500ºF with the cast iron skillet on a rack well above the baking steel.  After 30 mins of pre-heating, the pan with the Sylvia towel is filled with boiling water and placed on the baking steel next to where the bread will bake.  When the oven is ready, another cup of water is boiled, the dough is flipped out of the banneton, excess rice flour is brushed off, the dough is scored and water is brushed onto the dough.  The dough is transferred on the baking steel and finally 250 mL of boiling water is poured into the cast iron skillet.  After a minute or two, the oven temperature is dropped to 450ºF.  20 minutes into the bake the oven is vented by removing both the pan and the skillet.  The bread continues to bake at 450ºF for ten minutes.  The bread is then removed so that a rack can be placed one position over the baking steel and the bread is then placed on this rack.  The temperature is then dropped to 420ºF and the bread is then baked for another 10 minutes rotating half way through.

Another benefit that I see at the end of the bake is that the bottom crust isn’t nearly as darkly baked as it would be when baked in a dutch oven.  I won’t know about the crust thinness until the dough is sliced, but so far the advantages of baking without the dutch oven seem to be worth the extra effort of baking using my open steaming method.

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You might recall that I made homemade miso that completed its 1 year fermentation in August.  I finally got around to using it in a sourdough bread.  I’ve made miso sourdough with various inclusions in the past but hadn’t made one in some time now.

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Overnight stiff levain cool room temperature

In the morning dissolve miso, salt and levain in water.  Then add flours and mix to shaggy mass.  

Fermentolyse.  Rest 30 mins Added 15 g holdback water

Slap and fold to good gluten formation.  600 done

Rest 30 mins.

Bench letterfold, remove two aliquot of doughs for pH and rise jars.  rest 30 mins.

sets of coil folds every 30 mins when dough relaxes x 3-4 as needed.

When the pH reached 4.52 and the rise was 50% the dough was shaped and placed in a banneton.

The dough was left to ferment further until a pH of 4.24 and a rise of 90% was achieved.  The dough was then placed in a 3ºC refrigerator overnight.

The next morning the oven was preheated to 500ºF with a cast iron skillet and baking steel in place.

My plan was to try a 5 minute score.  I’ve outlined what that is In this post. And have included a time lapse video in that post.  

The dough was placed without scoring on parchment and placed into the oven without steam.  The temperature was dropped to 450ºF and the dough was baked for 5 mins.  After 5 minutes the dough was removed from the oven and scored.  The dough was placed back into the oven and boiling water was added to a pan with a Sylvia towel in it and into the cast iron skillet.  It was baked with steam at 450ºF for 20 mins.  The oven was then vented and the steaming pan and skillet were removed.  The loaf was then baked for another 20 mins at 425% rotating to ensure an even bake.

On reflection of this bake, the bloom was less than stellar and I believe that two or three things might have improved this.  Shorten the 5 mins to 4 mins of initial baking without steam.  Score more deeply.  Peel back the scored crust just a bit so that it doesn’t immediately reattach to the sticky exposed dough.

Another thing I don’t like is the off colour of the crust.  Despite brushing off as much of the rice flour as possible, much of it stuck and caused as off colour to the crust that I’m not fond of.

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For one loaf 9x4x4” Pullman pan

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 53g bread flour 

• 24g water 

• 18g light brown sugar 

• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 89g milk (adjusted down to 1:5 ratio from original)

• 18g Whole Wheat flour   

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• (163g) bread flour or 133 g and use 30 g to mix with butter

      · 188 g whole wheat        

• 54g sugar

• 7g salt 

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 159g milk 

• 59g egg beaten (about 1 ⅕ of a large egg)

• 60g butter softened but do not melt, unless you are mixing with the mixer then melt.  Combine with 30 g of flour to make easier to add to dough if hand mixing.

Total flour = 431 g

Total weight 915 g

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1 Tbsp butter

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 50% growth. (See gallery where 150ml grows to approximately 225ml.)

Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At room temperature, it typically takes 7-9 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk the dry dough ingredients, and then add the sweet stiff starter, separating it into 5-6 portions as you add it to the bowl.

Now pour/scrape in all the wet ingredients (including the tangzhong), with the melted butter last. With the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for a minute, scrape down the sides, and then mix on medium speed for 15-20 minutes. The dough will seem very soft, but as you approach the 15-20 minute mark, it should not stick to your hands and should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. You can place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or line with parchment paper.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Press the dough into a rectangle and divide it into four. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using a rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator). I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the temperature turned down to 325ºF. If you loaf is super tall like mine was, I gave it another 7 mins with the oven turned off to really ensure that the side crust was firm enough to hold its shape. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot.

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This is a modified bake that I last did in the winter and wanted to do again now that I have a good pH meter.  40% whole Kamut, 40% whole spelt and 20% bread flour, so lots of whole grain.

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I did an overnight levain build at 74ºF but starting with 3ºC water.  I also did an overnight saltolyse without the holdback water also starting with 3ºC water.  This was left a cool room temperature to saltolyse.

The next morning about 9.5 hours later the levain had peaked at > 3.5 x rise and was added to the dough.  Once mixed well with Rubaud kneading it was left for 15 mins.  The hold back water was gradually added and once completely incorporated 15 mins rest was done again followed by 400 slap and folds to ensure good gluten development.  pH was 5.49.

After 30 mins rest a bench letterfold was done.  At this point aliquot jars were prepared, one for measuring rise and the other to measure pH.  

Four sets of coil folds were done at 30 mins intervals each time the dough had relaxed.  By the end of the fourth and final coil fold the pH was 5.13 and the rise was already 20%.  What I found with this dough was that the pH drops were less than expected for the degree of rise attained.  A few possible reasons for this.  First spelt is very extensible, so that for the same degree of fermentation a dough that has a large percentage of spelt may rise more.  This was also the reason I didn’t do a lamination because of spelt’s poor gluten quality.  Second, as you know whole grains are a better buffer of acid than low extraction flours so for the same degree of fermentation a dough with more whole grains will have a higher pH.

The dough reached a pH of only 4.64 with a 60% rise.  Typically since measuring pH I have found that I am shaping at a rise of 40-50% with a pH of 4.2 or so for doughs with < 25% whole grain.  Finally final bench proofing ended when the dough reached 95-100% rise and a pH of only 4.41 which is much higher than I usually shoot for with lower whole grain doughs where the pH might be 3.9-4.0 at the start of cold retard.

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I’ve made this recipe for baguettes before with the seeds on the crust, this is the first time I’ve made baguettes with inclusions, so black sesame seeds in the dough.  It is a much tidier way to add the sesame seed flavour so you don’t cover your floor with sesame seeds when slicing the baguettes.  

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I didn’t make a new spreadsheet showing the addition of the black sesame seeds.  I simply added them during stretch and folds after bassinage was complete.

Overnight levain build with cold filtered water, refrigerate levain and then take out of fridge before bedtime.

In the morning dissolve diastatic malt and levain in water.  Then add flour and mix to shaggy mass.  Rest 20 mins then add salt and gradually add bassinage water, do Rubaud kneading for 4-5 mins until dough is smooth.  

Remove approximately 40 g of dough and set up your aliquot jar.  How to use an aliquot jar.

Ferment at 82ºF, after 50 mins do coil folds, then after another 50 mins do another coil fold.  Once the aliquot jar shows a 20% rise the dough is placed into the fridge until the following day.  At 80ºF this is about 4 hours or so.

The dough is divided and pre-shaped as loose cylinders and left to rest covered at room temperature for 30 mins.  The dough is then shaped, placed on a wet towel and rolled in poppy seeds.  Finally they are placed on a floured couche seam side up and left at room temperature for 40 mins to proof.  Aliquot jar rise to 30%. 

With 10 mins left of bench rest the oven is started 500ºF to preheat.  When the 40 mins of bench rest is completed the shaped baguettes are placed in a bag and returned to the refrigerator for 30-40 mins to chill to make scoring easier.  Once this time is over the baguettes are scored and immediately placed on the baking steel and boiling water is added to the cast iron skillet.  The Sylvia towel with boiling water was placed in the oven 30 mins prior to baking time.

The oven temperature is jacked up to 525ºF to get the burners to activate immediately and then once activated dropped to 480ºF.  The baguettes are baked with steam for 13 mins.  The steam equipment is removed venting the oven of steam.  The oven is left at 480ºF but convection is turned on and the baguettes bake for 10 mins rotating them halfway.  The oven temperature is then dropped to 450ºF and the baguettes rotated again if needed and baked for another 3 mins to achieve a rich colour crust.

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Well it is almost fall and soon Instagram will be full of pumpkin shaped breads. I have never tried to make one of these so thought it might be fun to do. I also haven’t shaped a boule in sometime so thought I was due.

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I still have some mashed purple sweet potato from months ago that I prepared using the instant pot and froze in small portions. I will say that the addition of purple sweet potato to this dough seems to slow down the yeast which surprised me somewhat. As I have been doing lately, I prepare two aliquot jars to watch fermentation, one for rise and the other to measure pH. The gradual fall in pH was as expected so the potato wasn’t affecting LAB at all. However, the rise was extremely slow. I typically see a rise of 40-50% with a pH of around 4.4-4.5, but for this loaf there was only a 20% rise at a pH of 4.4. At that point I did shape this. The dough was left in the banneton until the pH reached 3.9 at which time cold retard was started.

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I dipped the string in neutral oil to help make them release more easily after baking. The photos show my process in preparing the dough for final bake. The oven was preheated at 500ºF. Once scored the dough was baked at 450ºF with steam for 20 mins, then the steam was exhausted and the temperature was dropped to 420ºF and the loaf was baked for another 30 mins turning halfway through.

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Apparently this bread is also known as tourte Auvergnate.  It is a 100% whole rye loaf and mine was made without any commercial yeast although I’ve seen recipes that use it in as a sponge along with the rye sour.  Those who are familiar with baking rye sourdoughs know that they ferment very quickly.  From building the first stage of the rye levain until the loaf is out of the oven only took 18 hours.  However, you’re also likely aware that rye breads need time to “cure” after baking so I think they are best if you wait 24-48 hours before slicing.  Based on my first bake of a 100% rye loaf I will wait 48 hours because I found that the rye flavour was more pronounced at 48 compared with 24 hours, and if you’re baking a 100% rye sourdough you want to taste the rye, no?

When recipes for rye say to flour the countertop or your hands, they do mean generously.  At the time of shaping I didn’t have quite enough flour down and was getting a ton of sticking.  Fortunately if you have your dough scraper handy, and of course you would, it is easy enough to get more flour under that sticky dough.  I use the word shape loosely because really you’re molding the dough into a boule.  Forget trying to create any tension, there isn’t the gluten of wheat in this dough so really you’re moulding it like clay.

Stage 1 sponge (Day 1, Evening):

Ingredient Grams 2x800g loaves 1x900 g loaf (0.5625) Baker’s

Percentage
Wholegrain rye flour 118 66 g 100%
Warm (105°F/41°C) water 118 66 g 100%
Rye sour culture 14 8 g 12%
Mix the sponge ingredients by hand, cover and ferment at room temperature (70°F/21°C) overnight, 10-12 hours. The sponge will have tripled in volume and be very bubbly.

Stage 2 sponge (Day 2, Morning):

Ingredient Grams 2x800 g loaves 1x900 g loaf Baker’s

Percentage
Stage 1 sponge 250 140 g 100%
Wholegrain rye flour 250 140 g 100%
Warm (105°F/41°C) water 250 140 g 100%
Combine the Stage 1 sponge and the Stage 2 ingredients in the mixer bowl, cover and ferment at room temperature until the dough has visibly expanded and shows cracks or broken bubbles, 1½-2 hours.

Final Dough (Day 2, Midday):

Combine the Stage 1 sponge and the Stage 2 ingredients in the mixer bowl, cover and ferment at room temperature until the dough has visibly expanded and shows cracks or broken bubbles, 1½-2 hours.

Final Dough (Day 2, Midday):

In the mixer bowl, combine the final dough ingredients and use the dough hook at low (KA2) speed to mix until fully blended into a soft, sticky dough that gathers around the hook but doesn’t leave the sides of the bowl, 5-6 minutes.
Cover the bowl and ferment at room temperature until the dough doubles in volume and shows cracks or broken bubbles, 1½-2 hours.
Turn the dough onto a well-floured work surface. Use floured hands to gently shape into a boule, then place boule seam side up in a floured linen-lined banneton or cloth-lined proofing basket. Cover and proof at room temperature until the dough has visibly expanded and shows cracks or broken bubbles, 20-30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 445°F/230°C with the baking surface in the middle. Turn the loaf onto a well-floured peel, if using a baking stone, or a parchment-lined sheet pan.

Bake without steam for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 430°F/220°C and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature again to 390°F/200°C and bake until the loaves thump when tapped with a finger and the internal temperature is at least 200°F/93°C, 30-40 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool thoroughly before slicing.

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