This is a batard i made last weekend:

Ingredients:

 - 400g freshly milled Hard White Wheat

 - 300g Water

 - 100g WholeWheat Sponge / levain / preferment (at 68% hydration)

 - 9g fine Sea Salt

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800 g Final Dough at 73% Hydration

Process:

1 - Flour ,Water, and salt mixed to form a dough (SOAKER), and left 8 Hours at room temperature.

2 - Preferment / levain was prepared 2 days before. (BIGA) and stored in the refrigerator after fermenting at room temperature for 8 hours.

3 - Day of Bake, BIGA and SOAKER where cut into pieces and mixed without tearing the dough until it passes windowpane.

4- Stretch and fold gently into an envelope shape, round into a ball every 1 hour for 3 hours.

5 - Preshape, and Shape intoa Batard and place in a rice-floured couche for 45 min, preheat the oven.

6 - Poke test, Slash the loaf at an angle, load into the oven with a peel on parchment, and covered by a preheated pyrex bowl.

7 - After 15 Minutes, the bowl is removed, the stone replace by a colder one and shifted upwards to pervent burning the bottom of the loaf.

8 - After 30 minutes, switch off the oven and let the loaf in to dry out for 10 min.

Result: Chewy crumb, not dense, and very slightly moist and slightly sour.

Recommendation: Yes, But the preferment was over ripen when mixed, which is evident from the lazy yeast activity, hence: tight crumb. Next time, i'll mix it when it is just ripe.

Khalid