A better approach that seems less effort is a 4-hour long Autolyse of fresh ground wheat berries at 90% hydration, then add ~10% sourdough starter, a 4 hour bulk ferment including several stretch and folds with 2% salt added at the next to last stretch and fold, a 12-hour retard, then form the loaves, and a final rise in baskets of about 3 or 4 hours. Bake at 450F convection on a pizza stone.
Working here in California at mostly room temperature, the whole thing took about 20 hours, noting that autolyse began while the flour was still warm from grinding - e.g., 115F, but the starter came straight our of the fridge.
The wheat was Red Winter Wheat, that had not been tempered, so the dough not as wet as it sounds, and was easy to work. In fact, I added another 15 ml of water as I folded in the salt.
This is the best 100% whole wheat bread I have ever baked, so this is a procedure that I intend to repeat over and over, and someday perfect.
- agres's Blog
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