Directions

1. Mix together bread flour, whole wheat flour, and salt into a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. Into the bowl of a stand mixer, measure out your sourdough starter.
3. Measure out your water, and microwave it until the water reaches 90 degrees F (or if your starter is fridge-cold heat water to 100 degrees F). Add the water to your starter and mix with a fork until starter is dispersed with very few clumps remaining.
4. Add your flour mixture to the starter mixture and mix together until no dry flour remains. Cover and let sit 40-55 minutes.
5. Using a dough hook attachment, kneed your dough on the lowest setting for 5 minutes. Don’t worry, the dough is supposed to look very sticky and will NOT pull away from the sides of the bowl!
6. After 5 minutes, transfer your dough back to the bowl that originally held your flour mixture, cover, and let rest 1 hour and 30 minutes.
7. Turn your dough: Wet your hand thoroughly, and then lift your dough and fold it back over onto itself. Do this 5 or 6 times, rotating the bowl and scraping the dough away from the edges with your fingers as you go. This is what we do for sourdough bread instead of kneading! Check out the link below the recipe for a great youtube video on how to turn sourdough. Again, the dough will be very wet and sticky at this point so don’t be concerned! You may feel the need to wet your hand more than once, and some dough will still stick to you and that’s ok! You should notice that by the 5th or 6th turn the dough has become much stronger. At this point cover the dough again and let rest another 1 hour and 30 minutes.
8. Turn your dough again. Perform the same procedure outlined is step 7. At this point you may notice the dough is a little lighter and fluffier. I usually try to turn the dough just a little more gently this time so as not to squash out too many air bubbles.
9. Cover the dough and let rest 2 hours.
10. Shape your dough: Turn your dough out onto an un-floured work surface. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a generous amount of flour. Using a dough scraper turn the dough upside down so the floured side is against the counter. Use your thumb against the rest of your fingers to pinch the part of the dough that’s farthest away from you, pull it slightly farther away from you, and then fold it over onto itself toward the middle of the ball of dough. Repeat this with the part of the dough closest to you, and then with both sides. At this point, turn the dough upside down so the folds are facing the counter. At this point, cup your hands around the part of the ball of dough facing away from you, and gently pull towards yourself, developing tension along the top of the loaf. Repeat this motion how pulling the dough from left to right. Repeat these motions as few times as possible to develop a round loaf with a gentle tension on top. If the dough rips, you developed too much tension! No worries. Simply stop shaping and use less tension next time. I’ve provided a youtube link below on how to shape sourdough bread, as I’ve found personally that watching helps a lot more than reading!
11. Sprinkle flour in your banneton, and then using the dough scraper lift the loaf from the counter top and place it smooth side up (counter side down) in your banneton. Cover with a light lint free cloth and let rest 40 minutes to an hour.
12. Preheat your dutch oven: While the dough is doing it’s final rest, place your dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 500 degrees F.
13. Once your shaped loaf is done resting, remove your dutch oven from the oven, remove the lid, and gently turn your loaf out into the bottom of the dutch oven. Due to the orientation of the dough in the banneton, scoring is not necessary although you may score the bread at this time if you wish! Do this quickly and then cover the dutch oven immediately and place it back in the oven for 16 minutes.
14. Uncover the dutch oven and bake for 12 more minutes.
15. Remove bread from oven to a cooling rack and ENJOY!!