Advice from 1847 Stone Milling

Sourdough is not as complicated as many would have you believe. Sure, like any other hobby that one could see blossom into an obsession, you could spend hours and days tinkering and experimenting. But ultimately, it’s just a combination of flour, water, (natural) yeasts, and salt. Once you have a basic recipe and technique/method you’re comfortable with and that consistently produces good results, you can let your creativity flow freely and really get crazy! 

One of the things I found stressful and confusing when I started baking sourdough was figuring out a schedule that worked well for me.  The shorter bulk fermentation and extended refrigerated proof means I can build the dough on a Sunday, and bake the bread in the morning before work, or when I get home, or even later in the evening. 

One very important note: Since room temperature plays a huge role in how fast your dough will ferment, it is worth mentioning my room temp is approximately 69F. A good rule of thumb is for every 15f increase in room temperature, the fermentation time will be halved. So if your room temperature is, for example, 77f, I might cut my bulk fermentation short by ¼ of the time prescribed in the recipe. The best thing to do is just keep baking! You will quickly learn to read your dough.

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