Just a Hint of Whole Grain Sourdough 

I usually make bread that is around 40% whole grain. This time, I wanted to make a simple mostly white sourdough. So this one has just a touch of wholegrain in it.

Makes 3 loaves

850 g strong baker’s unbleached flour 

100 g freshly milled Selkirk flour

50 g freshly milled rye flour 

22 g pink Himalayan salt 

700 g filtered water 

30 g yogurt

250 g sourdough starter (procedure in recipe)

Two afternoons before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 4 g of filtered water and 4 g of any kind of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for about 8 hours. 

The two nights before:

1. Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature overnight. 

The morning before:

1. Feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 100 g of unbleached flour. Let rise until doubled (about 6 or 7 hours). 
2. Place into fridge until the next morning. 

The night before:

1. Mill the rye and Selkirk wheat berries and place the required amount in a tub. 
2. Add the unbleached flour to the tub. Cover and reserve. 

Dough Making day:

1. In the morning, take the levain out of the fridge, give it a good stir and put it in a warm spot to get nice and bubbly. It will rise again but not necessarily double. 
2. Put 700 g filtered water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub.  Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Cover and autolyse for a couple of hours at room temperature (73F).
3. After the autolyse, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the dough. Mix on the second speed for 10 minutes. 
4. Remove dough from bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot to begin bulk fermentation. My warm spot is the oven with the door cracked open and the lights on. I get an ambient temperature of around 82F. 
5. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minutes intervals and then 2 more sets of coils folds at 45 minute intervals. Then let the dough rise by 30-40%. Total bulk was about 4 and a half hours. 
6. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~675 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let it rest 20-30 minutes on the counter. 
7. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities or big bubbles. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make as tight boule as you can.
8. Sprinkle a mix of rice  and all purpose or baker’s flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Cover with plastic bowl covers or shower caps. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight.

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475 F with the Dutch ovens inside for an hour.
2. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 
3. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.