Prepare your starter (levain)

• Feed 60g of active starter with 60g flour and 60g lukewarm water. Leave for 4-6 hours until doubled in size, bubbly and floating in water (float test).
  

Prepare The Bread Dough

• Add 150g of bubbly starter in a large mixing bowl. Pour in 300g of water and mix well.
  
• Add the rye and white bread flour, salt and sugar and mix well with the dough whisk or your hands. It’s easier to have a feel for the dough if you use your hands. You will have a shaggy, slightly sticky dough.
  
• Transfer the dough into a rectangular container (I like a glass pyrex dish), cover and leave to rise at a COOL room temperature overnight (8-10 hours) or in the fridge for 12+ hours.

Shape The Sourdough

• • If you have used the cold rise method (in fridge) allow the dough to come to room temperature before shaping.

    Tip the dough onto your kitchen worktop – no need to add flour. Gently stretch to a rectangle shape, doing so gradually so as not to tear the dough if possible.

    

• Fold the dough into three sections (letter fold). Pick up one of the sides of your dough and fold it a third of the way over. Now fold the other side over the top, as you would a letter.
  
• Roll the dough into a tight ball and flip over seam side down. Use your hands to shape the loaf into a spherical shape, sprinkling with a little flour as you do.
  
• Flip over, seam side down, and shape into a round loaf (known as a “boule”). Use your hands and a bench scraper to roll the loaf in your hands, slightly tucking the edges under as you go (please check the video for a demo).
  

Second Rise

• Cup the loaf into your hands and put into a prepared banneton, with the seam side up. Cover loosely with a towel or a bag and leave in a warm spot to rise for 1-2 hours or until it springs back slowly when prodded. The temperature in your house will dictate how long it will take for your dough to prove.
  
• Preheat your oven to 450F (230C) at least 45 minutes before the end of proving. Place a lidded pot (Dutch Oven) in the oven to preheat. Tip the loaf onto parchment paper and score the top using a sharp knife, razor or lame.
  

Bake your Sourdough

• • Remove the pot from the oven using pot holders (please be very careful as it can easily give you very bad burns, as I can testify). Carefully place the dough into the pot, lifting it by the baking paper.
    

• Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 425F (220C). Take the lid off the pot and cook for another 20-25 minutes. You can lift the bread out of the pot and cook directly on the oven shelf for the final 5 minutes. Cool the bread on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.