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I assume you have the combo cooker since you say you put the bread in the deeper part of it. The walls of the dutch oven/combo cooker should not be there to keep the doughs shape. All it does is give the dough a steamy environment for it to rise properly in the oven (called oven spring). Using the lid will eliminate the need for parchment paper (you can dust some corn meal or spread some oil on it) and is the combo cooker's strength when it comes to baking bread. You can also score it right after you've placed it on the lid.


The way I do it (I only have a dutch oven and not a combo cooker) is cut some parchment paper to a little bigger than the proofing basket. I then put my cutting board on top and flip everything. You should be able to hear the dough exit the basket. I then score the bread before I lift and gently place it into the dutch oven, which has been in the oven preheating at 260 degrees. I put the lid on and wait 20 minutes before I remove the lid, lower the temperature to 230 and bake for another 20-30 minutes. The finished dough should have an internal temperature of 95-100. I've had great success with this method. Here


Now, I can't stress this enough: the dutch oven/combo cooker should not be there to support your dough's shape. If it is you are not shaping it/developing the gluten enough. You might get some good bread either way, but you will never get that open crumb structure that everyone's after. If you want to get a nice open crumb here is what you do:

• Use relatively high hydration (70% is nice and manageable even for beginners)
  
  
  
• Make sure to develop the gluten structure during mixing. Trevor J Wilson on YouTube has a few excellent videos, particularly his on the Rubaud method.
  
  
  
• Fold the dough a few times. The more folds you do, the better the structure (usually). I do one about every 30 minutes for the duration of the rise, but 3 folds during the first 1.5 hour is sufficient to get a good crumb. You have to make sure you don't deflate the dough during each folding session. You will definitely get plenty of doughs that will come out like flat discs, but eventually you will get consistently good bread.
  
  
• Pre-shape and shape. This adds tension and will give you a nice sturdy dough that will support it during the oven spring.
  
  
  Hope this helps and wasn't too long of a description. Good luck with future bakes!

Everything Bagel topping: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MTKMZTJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

525g Filtered Water (Specifically not chlorinated, the live starter and ferment doesn't like it)

200g Active Sourdough Starter (I feed early in the morning of an afternoon start)

80g Red Barn Dark Rye Flour

770g King Arthur Bread Flour

Mix into shaggy ball. (I use a dutch dough whisk, it has been SO helpful).

Cover with plastic and Autolyse for 4 hours - (Let the flour sit and hydrate DO NOT SKIP, makes huge difference in taste.)

Sprinkle 20g Coarse Kosher Salt onto dough. Pinch into the dough, stretching gently. Then using a dough scraper or your hand, reach "under" the dough in quarters and stretch and pull it over itself. Do not punch down the dough, get your hands wet for easier handling, DO NOT add flour use water. Cover in between stretch/turn cycles with plastic.

Every 30 minutes return and stretch the dough in quarters for a total of 4 times. Should be transformed into a very stretchy and wonderful dough that doesnt stick to you when your hands are wet.

-If your home is about 70-73 degrees leave out on the counter top for 6-8 hours then continue to next step.

-If your house runs super warm, OR you don't want to be rushed into baking, leave the dough in the bowl you were stretching it in cover with plastic and put in the fridge for a long ferment, leave in the fridge for 12-15 hours, remove from fridge for 2 hours before continuing to the following step.

Using a dough scraper turn the dough out gently onto the counter. Using your bench scraper divide the dough in two. Using the bench scraper (as it will stick less to your hands), keep the scraper at a 45 degree angle DO NOT FLOUR THE COUNTER TOP you want the dough to grip the counter as you form it into a rough ball. Cover with plastic and let bench rest for 30 minutes.

Prep bannetons or bowls with cloth cover. Prepare a plate with an even layer of the Everything bagel seasoning mix spread on it.

Dust the top of the ball of dough with flour, use scraper and flip over onto its top, stretch gently with hands into a square about 3/8ths inch thick, sprinkle a layer of cheese bits over the entire top, followed by a layer of the soft garlic pieces. Roll the dough like a jelly roll to capture filling. You will have a long tube now. Fold bottom end of tube up 2'3rds like a book fold, fold the top down over the entire rest of the dough and GENTLY stretch it over the top of the ball. Add a little flour to the top (this is now the top of your boule), flip it over and stretch the top over the entire boule, gathering it up at the bottom and forming a seam. (There are videos of this not sure how to explain better).

This part is nice to have a helper, but pick up the boule by its top (usually right at the end of my final shaping I grab it and do this step as it goes into the banneton. I also sprinkle a bit of the seasoning into the cloth covered banneton so that it is less likely to stick. Pick up the boule (which should be seam side up from you shaping it) and either using your hand or a water sprayer, moisten what will be the the top of the loaf to the point it feels a touch slippery, I like to rub the water in just a little so that it gives a good surface to adhere to. Set the boule onto the plate of seasoning and move it around to cover the entire top of the loaf (not necessary to do the bottom).

Place in banneton seam side up. Put into fridge for 4 hours minimum before baking (you can leave them at this stage for up to 8 hours, it just helps the ferment. Leave the remaining loaf in the fridge while it's brother bakes. Chill helps its oven spring.

Preheat oven to 475 with Dutch Oven inside for minimum 1 HOUR before baking (very important for oven spring to be truly preheated).

Just before pulling the dutch oven out, lay out a square of baking parchment on the counter, flip banneton out onto parchment paper (will be right side up now, lots of seeds go flying, dont worry). Gather the corners of the parchment and lift into dutch oven, slash with a lame knife a few times to let it rise, replace lid. Bake 40 minutes covered. Uncover final 5 minutes (monitor for browning).

Also highly recommend making mini boules. This recipe makes 6 boules in 5" mini bannetons. If you do this size, bake 20 minutes covered and 5 minutes uncovered.

Let rest minimum 1 hour for crumb to set. EAT! Makes EPIC toast.

Sure glad to help. I wanted to learn to make sourdough without "cheating" and using commercial yeast. So I discovered the Obi-Wan of Sourdough, Ed Wood Ed is a physician and research scientist who gave it all up to devote himself to sourdough, after learning about Middle Eastern cultures when he was setting up the Saudi medical system. Now that's commitment.

His book is easy to understand, requires no special equipment, but rather the perfection of technique, wieght and time. He has cultures from all over the world and will be glad to sell you some. (Cheap.)

Lastly, here is my reddit album of "Easy Sourdough in 35 Simple Steps. It's not really hard at all but takes time, and the result is SO worth it. B) Good luck!

In the UK, in winter? Only if you're happy with a starter that never gets going.

I had to do something similar to OP as it's super cold at the moment, so my starter wasn't really doing much of anything. I ended up building this enclosure, which is made up of the following items:

• 7W reptile heating mat (£9)
  
• Really Useful Box, 35 litre (£12)
  
  I took the surface temperature of the starter a number of times using an IR thermometer that I bought, and after sitting in the box for a few hours it's a good 5 degrees centigrade higher than just sitting on the side, which brings it into the ideal range.
  
  Total cost was £21, and as you can see, my starter is a lot more active now :)
  
  Plus it's big enough to act as a proofing box, so it's doubly useful.

> Do you regularly measure the pH of your starter?

Yes! I have a pH meter at home for doing fermentation projects, it's crucial to keep them below 4.6 or you're in dangerous territory.

If you keep a liquid levain (which I recommend, after many years of keeping a ~65% hydration stiff levain I've found a 100% hyd liquid levain much more reliable), you can pH it directly. After doing this a half dozen times, I can mostly judge the pH just by sight and smell unless it's spent time in the fridge. In that case, I don't know of any reliable way to judge it other than just taking the pH.

> Is there an easy/cheap way for a home baker to do so?

You can buy an inexpensive pH meter, but you'll notice that this is only accurate to ±0.2, which is pretty poor. If you're trying to identify a pH of 4.4 and that's what the pH meter measures, is it 4.6 and too young, or is it 4.2 and already mature?

So a slightly more expensive one is much, much better, and then if you want one that's useful for other ferments you'll probably want to go with a more robust one.

There's another method where you have to take some amount of starter and dilute it down with water and adjust it with a basic or acidic solution until you get it to switch the color of litmus paper…I highly recommend not going down that path. Your time is worth more than that.

I'd recommend buying a scale for sure. I got a $15 one off Amazon (I think this one) that isn't really a big kitchen scale, just a cheap scale that goes to .1 grams and it has worked fine for years if you just wipe it down and take care of it.

Just a note, you can also use the folding method if you wanted to and not do any kneading since it can be tough to get the kneading level correct. I tried to basically get a process that took a bit of time overall, but wasn't very involved (aka I'm around the house, but don't want to spend an hour straight making bread). You do need a few hours for folding (you can YouTube this, it's basically just folding the dough on top of itself a few times), but you're basically just folding it a few times every 30-45 minutes, so it's not like you are engaged with it for the whole time. I'm not gonna bother to include my recipe because it's usually for a really big loaf and it's pretty generic, but maybe this process will interest you since it's pretty straightforward:

Dissolve starter in warm water, add flour and mix. Autolyse 30 min. After 30 minutes, add salt, pinch and fold to incorporate. Stretch and fold every 30-45 min for 3-4 hours. Flour a surface and put the dough on it, pre-shape and bench rest for 10-30 minutes (or whatever, sometimes I don't even rest it and it still works). Put it in a banneton or a bowl and put the whole thing in the fridge for 18-24 hours (you can do 48 or probably 72 if you wanted; as you approach 72 it starts to lose air and kind of collapses).

Preheat dutch oven to 500F (this normally takes longer than the standard oven pre-heat cylce; I let it warm in there at least 30 mins), take dough directly from fridge, slowly turn onto parchment paper (don't plop it down, I push the parchment against the banneton and kind of just turn it upside down slowly) score dough place in covered dutch oven. Turn heat down to 455F, bake covered for 30 minutes then take the lid off and bake another 10-20 minutes depending on how dark you want it.

This is my most recent one and then a crumb shot of one of my early ones: https://imgur.com/a/KqwFCMd

I picked up the LoafNest on Prime Day from Amazon. I have always been intrigued since their Kickstarted campaign but could not justify the price. When it showed up it was a bit smaller that I would have guessed but Amazon's return policy was a huge factor in what made me pull the trigger. Like the directions suggest, I made the first loaf as per their recipe. It is basically the NYT no-knead recipe. It turned out decent. I made another, tweaking the recipe slightly that had better results. I was always planning on using this for sourdough and actually grew to like the smaller size as there are only two of us in the house and it is rare that we get through and entire loaf/boulle. I have also been wanting to experiment with einkorn so this was also a first. I did not follow any recipe (nor keep notes) but I tried to keep the total flour near 400g to fit in the LoafNest liner. I used about 200g water, 90g of starter and 8g of kosher salt. 5-ish hours autolyse while the starter was developing. I had to add water and then more flour when I was mixing because einkorn is like modeling clay when it gets wet. Four total stretch and folds with 30 minute rest periods between, a pre-shape, then a final shape and into the banneton. I let it rest for 30 minutes then into the refrigerator for 16 hours to cold proof. Preheated the LoafNest at 475f for 30 minutes then scored the dough straight from the fridge and into the liner. 2 ice cubes into the base of the LoafNest, put the top on and set it in the oven. Reduced the temp to 450f for 40 minutes. Removed the lid and let it go for an additional 5 minutes and here we are.

I've done that as well. But I found that with just the light on, the temp can get to the 90-100F range over a couple hours in my cheap apartment oven. I cooked some starter that way. I've had better success with a tiny heat pad used for reptiles.The tiny 4-watt one is still pretty hot, but with some dish towels placed on top, it works really well.

I use one of these to monitor the temp. It's kinda awesome and fun.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JA3BMDW?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

Yup! I can explain no problem. So to make this dough I am actually making 4 tiny doughs. for the

turmeric I use

- 25g of starter

-80g water

- 1/4 tsp turmeric

- 100g flour

-2g salt

Charcoal

https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Charcoal-Powder-Certified-Whitening/dp/B07DWH5JYG/ref=sr_1_6?crid=33HAZY20HMN7Z&keywords=food+grade+charcoal+powder&qid=1574600628&sprefix=food+grade+char%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-6

I use organic food grade charcoal i got off amazon, its jet black and adds no flavour or taste. so for this loaf I use

-25g starter

-80g water

-1/4 tsp charcoal

-100g flour

-2g salt

Butterfly pea flower

https://www.amazon.com/Flower-dried-premium-Butterfly-Colour/dp/B07R8MCXKT/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1AQYFZ47GL0EE&keywords=butterfly+pea+flower+tea&qid=1574600592&sprefix=butterfly+pea+%2Caps%2C174&sr=8-1

I use butterfly pea flowers imported from thailand that I get off amazon. They're a purple flower that you steep in hot water like a tea and it turns the water DEEP purple/blue. let it steep for an hour or so, strain and use THAT instead of water

-25g starter

-80g steeped water

-100g flour

-2g salt

white--the final dough double the size of the previous doughs, and is just a standard white soudough. its double because half will be used as colour contrast in the middle, and half will be used as a wrap on the outside

-50g starter

-160g water

-200g flour

-4g salt

so no you have your four bowls of dough. at this point they should be very vibrant in colour. bulk rise them as you would.

When you're ready to do the shaping, remove all doughs from their bowls onto the counter, and immediately divide the white dough in half and place away for the time being. with the four remaining quaters of dough, divide each of those in half, so now you have 8 little piles of little dough.

Start with any colour. I chose a black piece, and laminate it on the counter (mist counter with water, and stretch the dough on the counter top as stretchy as it'll go without ripping. plop another colour on top of the black and stretch it on top keep going switching colours. when youre done with all the dough, fold the entire thing letter style, then roll into a ball. Bench rest for 15 minutes or so. After 15 minutes mist the counter again and laminate the white dough we reserved. dust the top of the coloured dough with rice flour and use your bench scraper to scoop it up and place it rice flour side down in the center of the laminated white dough. fold the white dough around the coloured dough like a present and place seam side up in a proofing basket. let rest 1 hour or up to 24 hours in the fridge.

When ready to bake, flip seam side down onto parchment, make your scores swift and shallow to just slice through the first layer, and bake as you would any other bread

Hope this helps!

I have a couple of these and they're great! Still plastic but the two I've had for the past ~9 months are showing no signs of giving out anytime soon. Occasionally if I have a HUGE loaf I have to cut it in half to fit but that's not really a problem that lasts long XD

BlueAvocado (re) zip Seal Bag (Pack of 2), 1 gal, Clear https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WFH66TU/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_apa_i_BwNYDbBHZJ092

/u/buddyguything knows what’s up. My starter did this once and I started a new one simultaneously with only dark rye flour. I slowly blended the two together when the rye starter was about 7 days old because I didn’t want to loose that unique tang my original girl had. It worked far better than I had hoped and she bounced back like crazy. I now use a 50/50 mix of dark rye and unbleached white flour (just for taste preference) with dechlorinated water to feed my girl. I like the flavour the dark rye gives the loaves and because of its lower gluten content I find it’s much easier to mix up. Check out The Perfect Loaf. His method is what I used and he has a great section on how to start and maintain a wicked starter. Or better yet borrow or get yourself a copy of FWSY if you don’t have it already. Combining the methods those two bakers use has really upped my starter and sourdough game. Let us know how it worked out!

if you are going by volume, i would do 2x the amount of flour (unpacked). that should be reasonably close. I would highly recommend a kitchen scale though. It's not a must, but it's cheap and really helps ensure consistent results while you are first learning to bake bread. There are so many variables that affect the outcome its nice to remove a major one.

yeah, thats way too much starter. you don't want the yeast competing for food so you want to keep the population size down. Just an estimate but, I typically have around 1cup of starter when it's first fed and stirred down. It expands to about 2 cups

Yeah! It's from Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. Great book, highly recommend. http://www.amazon.com/Flour-Water-Salt-Yeast-Fundamentals/dp/160774273X

I'm using the lodge cast iron combo cooker and I really like it. It is good because you can bake with it upside down, like a bread oven cloche (using the bottom on the top acting as a large domed lid).

https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Cooker-Pre-seasoned-Skillet-Convertible/dp/B0009JKG9M/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?adgrpid=57694863284&hvadid=274716765092&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9022196&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=4040917449113359869&hvtargid=kwd-302136551955&keywords=lodge+combo+cooker&qid=1555722764&s=gateway&sr=8-2

5 qt might be a bit small for a recipe of that size. Any chance you could simply scale it into a smaller loaf?

Also, if you do get a 5 qt, I might recommend this one instead, since the flat lid allows you to place your dough in and then use the pot as the lid and slide it into the oven.

Okay, a couple of things: First, it would probably help if you could get a dutch oven or combo cooker. For example, this one. For bread baking, you use the shallow part as the base, and the deep part as the lid. There's less risk of burning yourself this way.

Second, it wasn't clear from what you wrote already, but make sure that your starter is sill active when you mix it into your dough. This usually means using it within maybe 4 hours of feeding it. Or, if you're letting it ferment overnight, then feed it a smaller quantity so it's still rising in the morning.

Third, you don't actually want it to form a dry skin before baking. Many recipes have the final proof done upside down in a basket, so what will be the top of the loaf does not have much chance to dry out. Generally, you would shape it and immediately transfer it to a basket (banneton) for final proof. Some folks use a bowl lined with floured cloth instead. After the proof is over, transfer it directly to the dutch oven, slash the top if you want, and bake immediately. This means preheating the oven while the dough is still in the fridge.

I keep recommending this one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LEXR0K

I have a different 5 qt Lodge that is a good size for the loaf you're looking to bake. I like this one more because you can bake the loaf in the lid.

You might benefit from the direct, thought over style of a book then. I found Ken Forkish' [FWSY](http://www.Flour.com/ Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza https://www.amazon.com/dp/160774273X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5E6ZAb6E7J4NC) to be a much better use of my time and energy than trying to piece together the knowledge from a bunch of different sources on the internet.

thanks! i'm using theLodge 3qt combo cooker - i had the same concerns but in the end it was more than enough space. not sure how it would handle a loaf of a more oblong shape, but i'm very pleased so far!

I personally use this one: https://www.amazon.com/Escali-P115C-Precision-Lightweight-Lifetime/dp/B0007GAWRS/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=escali&qid=1568744496&s=home-garden&sr=1-1

Its compact, easy to clean, measures up 5 kg (11 lbs) and I've never had an issue with small quantities.

I think it's the same one that the Bon Appetit kitchen uses, if that means anything to you.

This is what I use. Its very affordable and is awesome to use.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Serrated-Offset-Bread-Knife/dp/B00ADJFLK2/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1541830844&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=victorinox+serated+knife+offset

Recipe and techniques taken directly from the ever-popular FWSY by Ken Forkish. This was my first attempt at the Overnight Country Blonde, and I was really happy with how this loaf turned out!

If you have these you won't have to worry about getting burned-protects arms too, and the dexterity is very good. There are similar gloves in smaller sizes.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GEBA52C/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is useful to have a safety pin on you but they do sell replacement band fasteners

https://www.amazon.com/ECSEM-Replacement-Fastener-Connector-Wristband/dp/B01CQD1EF8/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=fitbit+band+holder&qid=1565298695&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Keep away from the commercial yeast. Your starter is probably not active enough, and your gluten not strong enough.

A lot of people, including myself, had success using the recipes and techniques in Flour Water Salt Yeast. You’ll see many posts talking about “FWSY” — it’s this book. Give it a try!

It's a cast iron skillet (or Dutch oven), like [this] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Utopia-Kitchen-Pre-Seasoned-Cooker-Skillet/dp/B06W2JMRF6)

I used a cheap enameled dutch oven from Target for years, and never had any problem with it. I heated it empty all the time, and I just wrapped the plastic handle in foil. However, if you're using it exclusively for baking I'd recommend getting the Lodge Combo Cooker instead. I find it much more convenient to place the loaves on the shallow "lid" part and use the deep "pot" part as the lid. Fewer burned hands and lopsided loaves.

I wouldn't use an actual Enamel Dutch Oven for baking sourdough. I did that for a while and it ruined the enamel coating.

I use this now specifically for bread and it works great:

https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-LCC3-Cooker-Pre-Seasoned-3-2-Quart/dp/B0009JKG9M

I have 2 Lodge 5q "combo cookers" I make all of my bread in. I prefer a combo cooker because I put my bread on the preheated skillet side and put the pot on top as the lid, this way you don't have to reach down the sides or flip a hot loaf out of hot Dutch oven.

https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-L8DD3-Double-Dutch-5-Quart/dp/B000LEXR0K

I was thinking about getting this one.

I baked this in a Lodge Combo Cooker (https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-LCC3-Cooker-Pre-Seasoned-3-2-Quart/dp/B0009JKG9M).

I baked for 20 minutes at 500F, then popped off the lid and let it go for another 5 minutes at 500F. I then dropped the temperature to 450 and baked for about another 20-22 minutes until the crust was where I wanted it.

Lodge 4.73 litre / 5 quart Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Double Dutch Oven (with Loop Handles) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000LEXR0K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_QGW7Bb4JA36GW

What does everyone think of these vs the slightly larger double dutch oven without the frypan-style handles? I'm about to buy one or the other for upside-down bread baking and not sure which to go for.

• Lodge Combo Dutch Oven & smaller one ~ use shallow part down.
  
• long-sleeved shirt tucked into 15 in. silicone oven mitts ~ no burns since

I'm still learning but I do have some comments for you. Regarding the salt + 50g water - keep that step as is. You need that extra bit of water to get the salt to dissolve and mix into the dough.

One thing I've done to help with shaping (my nemesis) is reduce the water content. You won't get exactly the same crust and crumb, but no one will know and it still tastes fucking amazing. Try 50g less and see how that goes. I also use a LOT more flour than recommended with shaping. I kept losing surface tension from the dough sticking to my hand or bench scraper and it would have a massive impact on how my bread turned out l. Sad and deflated bread from that. I also watched a ton of videos on shaping and tried a bunch of different techniques until I found what worked for me.

I do my bulk fermentation on the counter, shape, put into bannetons and then fridge overnight. I don't think that part makes much of a difference.

Last tip: transferring the dough to the hot as hell Dutch oven. Get a Dutch oven that has a lid that doubles for a pan like this one. Then you can bake in the smaller side and don't have to put your hands near the tall sides. I also flip my dough out of the bannetons onto a parchment lined pizza peel. I slash it there and then drag it from the peel to the Dutch oven using the parchment. Lid (the big side) then goes on and you're good! Preheat the lid next to the bottom too so you don't have to lift if off, add bread, and then put it on. Saves one very hot step from the process.

Ok. One last last last thing. Slashing. I sucked at this for a long time. Asked on here and someone told me speed is key and they were absolutely right. Watch a few videos of professionals and you'll see they make the slashes very fast and don't meet a lot of resistance or drag from the dough.

G'luck!