Sourdough Social Capital — Recipe w/ Clean Borderless Sidebar

Ingredients

White flour — 495 g (≈ 4 1/8 C)

Whole Wheat flour — 100 g (≈ 13/16 C)

Water — 441 g (≈ 1 7/8 C)

Ripe starter — 210 g (105 g flour, 105 g water) (≈ 7/8 C)

Table salt — 20 g (≈ 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp | ≈ 1/16 C + 1 tsp)

Volumes are shown as fractions of a cup. Amounts ≥ 1 cup are rounded to the nearest 1/16 cup (1/16 C = 1 Tbsp). For example: 9/16 C = 1/2 C + 1 Tbsp)

Stretch & Fold, and Rise/Bulk Fermentation (BF)

First stretch and fold: Stretch and fold for 1-2 minutes until you feel the dough becoming more elastic, i.e, more resistant to your stretch. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn after each stretch.

Cover and let rest for 1 hour.

Second, third, and fourth stretch and fold: Stretch and fold 4 times, rotating the bowl a quarter turn each time, then let rest, covered, for one hour.

Check dough rise before the fourth and final stretch and fold. If the dough has already risen to target percentage (See Target Rise % Guide in section notes), skip the remaining stretch and fold and proceed to the Shape and Cold Retard section.

Shape & Cold Retard

Using a scraper or a hand, pour out dough onto a smooth, lightly floured surface. The dough should be be smooth side down. In other words, the dough that was on top while in the bowl, is now in direct contact with the table. The sticky side is up, which allows you to use that sticky side to fold the dough on itself in the next step.
Flatten the mess gently, and sort of push it around to an approximate square shape, or at least something more symmetrical than it probably was when you turned it out of the bowl
Fold the top down to the middle of the square. Fold the bottom edge up so that it meets the top edge in the middle. You have a rectangle. Take the right edge and fold it in so that it meets the middle of the square. Do the same with the left edge. Now it's a square again, only smaller. Ignore this square and rectangle talk; that's just aspirational recipe crap. Your hunk will look uneven and sloppy and that's perfectly OK.
Cover the dough with a flour-sack towel or other sort of dough-friendly towel that won't stick to it much. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
Uncover the dough and flip it.
Gently flatten it; don't smush. Then, by reaching under the dough with your hands facing up, use your fingers from underneath to gently pull and spread the dough into a roughly circular shape of roughly regular thickness.
Pull up an edge with two fingers fold it to the middle and stick it gently to the middle. Repeat this sequence completely around the circumfrence of the circle; pulling the edge up, folding and sticking it to the middle. Then, if the dough allows, keep working your way around the circumference 1 or two more times, or until the dough is too tight to continue. That tightness is exactly what you want to create.
Flip the dough over using bench scrapers.
You have rounded glob of dough. Put your right hand at 3 o'clock and your left hand at 9 O'clock and rotate the round a few times. What you're trying to do is put enough downward pressure as you spin the dough, so that the bottom drags on the surface of the table. The bottom will essentially spin at a slower speed than the rest of the round. This will tighten the dough and help give you that rise that occurs when it's baked. It's called tightening the dough and is extremely important. If you can't get the hang of this technique, there are other easier ways you can look up or ask your AI about.
Let the dough rest just as you've left it for 1-2 minutes in order to secure the seam underneath. Use this time to flour your banneton.
Flip it over into a floured banneton (it should now be seam side up).
Leave in refrigerator, covered with a towel, at least 24 hours, and up to 4 days. If in a dry climate, cover the top of the banneton with saran wrap, then put a towel on top of that.

Bake

Preheat oven to 500º F with dutch oven on shelf in lower half of oven

After preheating, stage your oven mitts, boule, scoring tool, and sheet of parchment parchment paper near the stove

Remove dutch oven from stove but leave the lid on.

Flip boule over onto the parchment paper (it is now seam up), and score the dough.

Uncover dutch oven, place dough in it, replace the lid, and return it to oven.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove dutch oven lid and remove the lid from the oven, reduce heat to 450º F, and continue baking until internal temp is about 200º F (20-30 more minutes). Alernatively, just bake till it's brown enough for you.

Calories	Protein (g)	Fat (g)	Fiber (g)	Carbs (g)	Sugar (g)
2548	79.8	83.0	60.5	430.7	94.6

Calories

Protein (g)

Fat (g)

Fiber (g)

Carbs (g)

Sugar (g)

2548

79.8

83.0

60.5

430.7

94.6

Rye and 100% Whole Wheat Versions

Rye Sourdough recipe adjustments and comments

Instead of whole wheat, replace 100 g of white flour with semi-dark (the most commonly available) rye flour.

Add 3 Tbsp fresh caraway seeds to dry ingredients during initial mixing.

Don't skip the caraways seeds. They are the secret to this bread's traditional deli flavor.

This may be the strongest sourdough recipe here, a real crowd pleaser, assuming it's a crowd that likes rye sourdough. Though it's a bit of a carraway seed hack, there's only a nominal amount of rye flour, anyone who grew up with deli rye will immediately recognize the taste, crust, and crumb from their childhood.

100% Whole Wheat Sourdough recipe adjustments and comments

Replace 695 g white flour with red whole wheat flour for the most intense flavor. (Yeah, it's really only 85% whole wheat, but what a pain to create an entirely new 100% whole wheat starter.)

Both rise and crumb openness will be dimished proportionally to the amount of whole wheat flour. 85% whole wheat will rise the least and have the densest crumb; it's recognizable as a sourdough, but only barely. For a good flavor to rise/crumb compromise, replace 300 g of the bread flour with 300 g whole wheat flour.

If you insist on good rise and crumb, but still want to try very high whole wheat percentages, consider white whole wheat instead of red. It's just as healthy as red whole wheat, and impairs rise and crumb somewhat less. Many people prefer the taste (chacun a son gout), but it lacks red's nutty, earthy, and bittersweet flavor.

The most important tip for high percentage whole wheat is to pay close attention to rise time. Whole wheat rises faster than white. The higher the percentage whole wheat the faster the rise. The everpresent danger is overproofing so play close attention until you get a feel for rise time with your percentages and climate.

Social Capital Sourdough