Recipe from “Homemade Sourdough: Easy, At-Home Artisan Breadmaking” by Jane Mason with Ed Wood et al.

I halved the below recipe, but used the same amounts for the levain.

100g starter 850g bread flour 550g water 15g salt

  1. Make a 100g/100g/100g starter/flour/water levain, let sit for ~8 hours/overnight until peak activity.

  2. Add remaining ingredients, knead until passing the windowpane test, then bulk proof on counter for 4 hours.

  3. Shape into baguettes and set on a heavily floured dish towel with pleats between the loaves. Cover with plastic wrap and let proof again until it passes the poke test. The recipe estimated 3 hours, but I let it go for closer to 6, as mine weren’t really passing the poke test, but that may be because I’m bad at loaf shaping and didn’t get a tightly shaped surface.

  4. Transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, score the tops, and bake at 450 F for 20-25 mins. I also added a tray of water to the bottom rack of the oven to try and steam the crust a bit.

They aren’t perfect loaves visually, and they may be slightly overproofed, but not disastrously so, and they taste delicious!