DAY 1:

Feeding Sourdough Starter

• First thing in the morning, feed your sourdough starter. I typically feed 70g of my starter in a ratio of 1 part starter:1 part water:1 part flour. This simply means that I mix 70g of starter with 70g water and 70g flour. Scoop the mixture into a clean jar, and leave it in a warm spot (ideally, (21-27°C)), semi-covered for 4 hours. Your starter should at least double in volume in this time. If it doesn't, it may need a couple of good feeds before it's fit for purpose.
• I use 160g of active starter for baking and feed the remaining 50g before storing it for the future.

Autolyse

• When your starter is almost at its peek (~1 hour before it's ready), add flour and water to the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook attachment. Run the mixer on low speed for 2-3 minutes, just until there are no more dry flour remaining.
• Cover the shaggy dough with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap and leave the flour to hydrate (autolyse) for 30-60 minutes.

Mixing the Final Dough

• Once the sourdough starter is active and bubbly (and at least doubled in volume), mix the final dough. Sprinkle the salt all over the flour mixture and pour in the sourdough starter. Run the mixer, fitted with a dough hook attachment, for 8-10 minutes, until your dough is smooth. It does not need to pass the windowpane test just yet (the gluten will continue developing when we fold the dough during the bulk fermentation period).

Coil Folds And Bulk Fermentation

• Scoop the dough into a large bowl or plastic container, cover with a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap and leave it in a warm place (21-27°C) for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, with cold wet hands, perform the first set of coil folds. Simply lift the bread dough with both hands from the sides and tuck it under to form a coil (video below). Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and coil again. Cover the bowl again, and let the dough rest for 30 minutes again.
• You should repeat the process every 30 minutes until you have done 4-6 sets of coil folds. Your dough will spread less with every set of folds, and by the end of it, you will have a much less sticky, very soft and elastic dough that has blisters on top of the dough. For more information on how to coil fold and when to know when you've done enough folding, head to our dedicated article about Sourdough Coil Folds.
• Once all the folds have been completed, cover the dough and let the dough rise at warm room temperature for 2-3 hours to finish bulk fermentation. Your dough should just about double its original size. If you are using a see-through glass bowl for bulk fermenting, you should see a lot of activity and bubbles forming at the base and sides of the bowl.

Shaping and Final Proof

• At the end of bulk fermentation, using a bowl scraper, scoop the dough onto a lightly floured surface (I highly recommend using rice flour). Try and make sure that the smooth top of the dough (the side that is not intact with the bowl) is placed on the floured work surface. Then swiftly fold the corners of the dough to shape a boule (or batard, if that's what you're baking). My method of shaping is in the video below.
• Drag the ball of dough across the worktop to create surface tention. If your dough is too sticky to handle, dust the work surface with a little more rice flour and use a bench scraper held at a shallow angle to the work surface, pushing the dough while using your hand to tuck it under itself, creating tension. This fluid circular motion involves pushing and gently rounding with the bench knife, while your free hand continues the rounding motion, tucking the dough slightly under itself.
• Place the dough ball into a well-floured banneton basket. We recommend using rice flour for dusting your proofing baskets. The smooth side of the sourdough ball should be at the bottom, with the seam at the top.
• If your dough is spreading in the basket, cover it and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes at room temperature before stitching.
• To stitch, pull and pinch the sides of the dough together with your fingers. This will strengthen the structure before the cold proof and improve oven spring. The method is shown in the video below.
• Cover the sourdough, and place the proofing basket into the fridge overnight (12-36 hours) to cold ferment overnight. NOTE: I don't place high-hydration sourdough in a plastic bag - I actually want it to dry out a little and form a thin crust to make it easier to score the next day.

DAY 2

• The next day, place the Dutch Oven in the oven, and preheat it to 240°C (typically, it is the highest temperature home ovens will go to) with the Dutch oven in it. It needs to be piping hot!
• At the same time, place your sourdough in its proofing basket in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will make it easier to invert and score.

Scoring The Dough

• Once the oven is hot, take the dough out of the freezer.
• Invert the dough gently onto a large piece of parchment paper.
• Gently brush off any excess flour from the top of the dough. Using a bread lame or a razor blade, score the dough deeply (approximately 1cm deep) at a 30- 45º angle.
• NOTE: I tested it with a 6-minute score too, and it made little to no difference. If your sourdough spreads fast after inverting it onto parchment paper, I'd recommend you place it in the Dutch oven and into the oven right away for 6 minutes. Then take it out, score and return to the oven - more on this in the article above.

Baking

• Take the hot Dutch Oven out of the oven, take the lid off, and lift the sourdough into it, holding the edges of the parchment paper. Be mindful of how you lift the paper. Sometimes, the scored slash can begin to close up during this process. To prevent this, lift the parchment from the sides that won't push the two edges of the scored dough back together.
• Place the lid back on the Dutch Oven and place the bread into the hot oven for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, take the lid off, and return the sourdough to the oven for another 20 minutes. If you don't want your loaf of bread too dark in colour, you can reduce the oven temperature to 200°C.

Cooling

• Once baked, take the Dutch Oven out of the oven. Lift the bread out by holding the corners of the parchment paper. Place the bread onto the wire rack, and slide the parchment paper from underneath the loaf.
• Leave the sourdough to cool down to room temperature before slicing.