Sourdough Country Loaf

Combine the bread flour and whole wheat flour in a large bowl. Pour in the water (holding back about 30 g for the salt later) and mix with your hand until no dry flour remains — squeeze and fold until the mass is shaggy and fully hydrated. Cover and rest 30–60 minutes at room temperature. The autolyse lets enzymes begin degrading the starches and the gluten proteins hydrate and loosely align without mechanical work, making subsequent mixing far more efficient and giving the crumb a silkier extensibility.

Dissolve the salt in the reserved water, then pour starter and salt water over the autolysed dough. Use the pinch-and-fold method: pinch the starter through the dough in 10–15 passes until integrated. Then begin the series of stretch-and-folds: every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours, grab one edge of the dough, stretch it up until you feel resistance, and fold it to the opposite side. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat four times per set. After four sets, leave the dough covered to finish bulk fermentation — roughly 10–14 hours at 68°F / 20°C, or 4–5 hours at 76°F / 24°C. The dough is ready when it has grown by 50–75%, feels airy and domed, and a flap peeled back shows a network of bubbles just below the surface.

Turn the dough gently onto an unfloured surface. Using a bench scraper and one cupped hand, do a pre-shape: drag the dough toward you while the scraper pushes from behind, rotating to build surface tension into a loose round. Rest uncovered 20–30 minutes (bench rest). Then flour the top of the round generously, flip it, and do the final shape: for a boule, grab the far edge, fold it to the center, then fold left, right, and roll the whole package toward you, using your palms to drag and seal the bottom seam tight against the bench. The surface should be taut like a drum. Drop seam-side-up into a well-floured (rice flour is ideal) banneton or a bowl lined with a floured towel. Pinch the seam closed. Cover and refrigerate 12–16 hours.

Preheat the oven with a Dutch oven (lid on) inside to 500°F / 260°C for at least 45 minutes. Turn the cold loaf out of the banneton onto a piece of parchment. Working fast, score with a lame or sharp razor blade held at a 30–45° angle: a single ear cut down one side of the dome, or a bold cross-hatch. The cut should be decisive and swift — 5–7 cm deep — not a timid scratch. The cold dough (straight from the fridge) is easiest to score cleanly.

Using the parchment as a sling, lower the loaf into the screaming-hot Dutch oven and put the lid on. Bake covered at 500°F / 260°C for 20 minutes — steam from the dough trapped inside the pot creates the glossy, extensible crust needed for maximum oven spring. Remove the lid, drop the temperature to 460°F / 238°C, and bake a further 20–25 minutes until the crust is deep mahogany and an instant-read thermometer at the center reads 205–210°F / 96–99°C. Transfer to a wire rack and resist cutting for at least 1 hour — the interior crumb is still setting via residual heat.