sourdough bread — 2026-03-14
used 101g of levain made with 40g bread, 10g rye, 50g water, and something like 20g of starter i don't remember
349g filtered warm water 450g bread 50g rye
i did about 10 minutes on speed 2 in the mixer for the initial knead. i touched it twice early on but i think that was unnecessary and unhelpful. next time try just doing mixer for the initial knead. i then did about 16 stretch and folds
the dough is still really sticky
here was the dough near the end of the mixer:
here's what it looks like after stretch and folds
it's still very sticky. i think maybe too sticky? i'm not sure
i ended up losing a lot of dough down the drain because it got stuck to my hands and i couldn't get it off. which was pretty upsetting. i need to learn the indicators for sourdough after first kneading
oh shoot i forgot to add salt. gah, and i should have only added 325g of water at first to make the 25g of salt water
right and first i'm supposed to just mix and then after than im supposed to kneadq
im doing 15g of salt this time
15:40 - just did 8 or so stretch and folds. adding the salt dry was definitely worse but what can you do. the dough is a lot more cohesive this time. still sticky
16:20 Whoops I waited a bit long. Looking a bit more cohesive. Still gets very sticky after the stretch and folds. But I think that's expected? Because of the temperature of my hands and such
16:55 - did more struggle and folds. about 16-20 i think. dough still sticky
this will probably be the last because i need to go to the gym
18:35 - got back from the gym and did some more stretch and folds. still wet
20:27 - restarting. going to preshaping
this was the dough after preshaping. i think i didn't knead enough to get good gluten. my guess is that i mixed and then went straight to kneading without letting it rest at all... it might also be too much hydration for our kitchen. it is more humid i think
i did 5 folds for proofing and added a bit of flour after the 3rd fold. here's the bowl
i put a ton of flour in the bowl because this is kind of a sticky towel.
finished at 21:12. started shaping around 21 or so i think
22:50 - this is after 1h40m of rise 
it's a decent amount of rise but nothing crazy. i might leave it on the counter overnight
around 23:10 i put it in the fridge