Country loaf (teaching formula)

This is a teaching formula for practicing the sourdough sequence on this site. It is not a published bakery recipe and it is not Tartine Bakery’s loaf. The weights demonstrate baker’s percentage, hydration, and inoculation on one kilogram of Wheat flour. Calvel remains a technical companion for flour and fermentation behavior, not a source for these exact grams ¹.

Use ripe Sourdough starter (about 100% hydration: equal parts flour and water by weight). The 200 g starter is 20% of the flour weight — inoculation, not a second flour line in the baker’s math unless you choose to recast it that way.

What this loaf is for #

Work the system, then judge the bread.

• Percentages and hydration: this page.
• Mix and gluten: Mixing, Dough development.
• The long rise: Bulk fermentation (observe; do not merely time).
• Shape and tension: Shaping.
• Final rise: Final proof.
• Cut and steam: Scoring, Baking the loaf.
• When it fails: Sourdough troubleshooting.

Dough temperature after the mix is a process target, not room temperature. If you want that control loop, use Desired dough temperature — this formula does not require it on the first attempt, but production baking does.

Method #

1. Mix flour and most of the water; rest (autolyse) until the dough has relaxed and feels less shaggy. The rest organizes gluten with water before salt and acidity tighten it.
2. Add starter and salt; mix until the dough is cohesive. It should hold together, not look like porridge or a dry rubble.
3. Bulk ferment with folds until the dough is aerated and strong enough to shape. Look for volume, a living surface, and a mass that is lighter without pouring. Details and failure modes: Bulk fermentation.
4. Divide, pre-shape, bench-rest until the skin relaxes, then shape two bâtards with surface tension. If the dough tears, you are fighting it; wait. If it will not hold a seam, bulk probably went too far.
5. Proof until a gentle finger dent fills slowly. Cold retardation is a scheduling tool, not a flavor superstition — it slows the same fermentation.
6. Score and bake on a hot stone or in a covered pot until the crust is deep, the loaf feels light, and steam has done its work. Internal temperature is a doneness clue, not a food-safety number for bread in the way canning times are for jam.

What the percentages are doing #

Flour is 100%. Water at 75% is a moderate country hydration for many bread flours; whole wheat or a thirsty lot will want more, a weak flour less. Salt at 2% is ordinary bakery seasoning and gluten tightening. Starter at 20% is a home-and-teaching inoculation: faster than a tiny levain, slower than a heavily spiked dough.

Hydration here is dough water relative to the flour line. The starter also brings water and flour; bakers who need true dough hydration recast the preferment. This page does not hide that; it also does not duplicate a second formula.

If the loaf is dense, start at Sourdough troubleshooting and Bulk fermentation, not at a new recipe.