Three-Day Sourdough (soon…)

An upcoming project. This is the 3-day method I jotted down during my sourdough classes — my next goal at the bench. Until I get there, my everyday loaf is the lighter Semi-Sourdough; photos will land here once I've baked a few of these.

The long one. Three days from a refreshed starter to a cold-proofed, Dutch-oven loaf — but most of that time the dough is just sitting in the fridge being patient. Here's the whole process the way I run it.

The dough

A wholegrain-forward formula. Bread flour is ideally 12.2–13.8% protein.

• Bread flour — 560 g
• Whole wheat flour — 104 g
• Rye flour — 34 g
• Wheat germ — 52 g
• Water — 562 g
• Sea salt — 16 g
• Leaven — 100 g

The soaker (night before)

Soak the wholegrains overnight in the chiller at 1–4 °C:

• Whole wheat flour — 104 g
• Rye flour — 34 g
• Wheat germ — 52 g
• Water — 400 g

The remaining balance water (162 g) and bread flour (560 g) go in at 18–20 °C the next morning.

Building a starter from scratch

If you don't have a starter going, build one over ~14 days. Start with:

• Unbleached bread flour — 180 g
• Whole wheat flour — 20 g
• Honey (not raw) — 1 g

Then feed on a schedule (equal-ish flour & water, ~20–30 g each), keeping it at room temp (23–26 °C):

• Day 1 — 30 g water + 30 g flour + 1 g honey
• Day 3 — 30 g starter + 30 g water + 30 g flour
• Day 5–6 — 20 g starter + 20 g water + 20 g flour
• Day 10 — feed twice (9 am & 9 pm)
• Day 11–14 — 20 g starter + 20 g water + 20 g flour

Keep a backup starter (20 g starter + 40 g flour + 40 g water); leave it ~2 hrs at room temp, then chill — good for up to 14 days.

Building the leaven (day before)

Feed up to a mature leaven on bake-eve:

Time	Starter	Water	Flour	Total
1:30 pm	10 g	10 g	10 g	30 g
6:30 pm	10 g	10 g	10 g	30 g
11:30 pm	15 g	15 g	15 g	45 g
4:30 am	25 g	50 g	50 g	125 g

You need 100 g for the dough; the leftover ~25 g goes back to daily starter maintenance. Final feed at 4:30 am → matures by ~9:30 am → use it between 9:30–10:30 am.

Bake day

1. 8:00 am — mix the autolyse (balance water + bread flour + the soaker) and let it rest.
2. ~9:45 am — mix in the leaven, folding slowly 4–5 min. Dough temp should be under 25 °C, ideally 22–23 °C. If it's at 25 °C, cling-wrap and chill 10 min, hand-fold, chill 10 min more, until it's around 16–17 °C.
3. Rest ~30 min at 22–23 °C.
4. Mix in the sea salt using the pinching method, 5–6 min on slow speed.
5. Light fold → 30 min → lamination (add any toppings here) → 30 min.
6. Coil fold ×3, 30–45 min apart.
7. Bulk a further 1–2 hrs.
8. Divide / preshape → 10–15 min bench rest → shape → 10 min.
9. Into the proofing basket → cold proof overnight, 12–16 hrs at 1–3 °C.

The bake

Straight from the fridge into a screaming-hot Dutch oven:

• 20 min at 250 °C — lid on
• 15 min at 200 °C — lid off

Cool completely before cutting. (Cutting it warm is a beginner's mistake I still make.)