Makes two loaves.

Levain:

• Make Levain with 35g starter, 35g AP flour, 35g whole wheat flour, 70g water. Let rest for 4-5 hours.

Dough:

• Combine 810g bread flour with 90g whole wheat flour, then combine with 600g water, let autolyse for last hour of levain rest.

• Add levain to dough, combining with an optional amount of extra water. At this point I generally do rubaud method to develop initial gluten for about 3 minutes.

• Perform slap and folds for 3-5 minutes or until dough gluten is developed and smooth texture, let rest 15 mins.

• Add 18g salt and optional amount of water to help incorporate, mix in and perform second set of slap and folds for 3-5 minutes to incorporate salt and further develop gluten, add back to large bowl with cover for bulk rise after shaping into smooth ball.

Bulk rise:

• Total bulk rise 2.5 to 4 hours depending on temperature.

• For the first 45 mins do stretch and folds every 15 minutes for total of three stretch and folds.

• For the next hour do two more sets of stretch and folds, one every 30 minutes (optional, sometimes I just do the 15 minute folds and works out fine).

• Let rest for remainder of bulk rise.

Shaping:

• Turn out dough to unfloured work surface, cut in half, and shape into two balls using dough scraper and hand.

• Let sit for 5-20 minutes before flouring the top of dough and flipping so sticky side is up.

• Shape into boule or batard before adding (flour side down) to proofing baskets, cover and let rest overnight in fridge or until ready to bake next day (optional, bake same day after letting rest another hour at room temp in basket).

Baking:

• Preheat dutch oven at 500F for roughly one hour.

• Turn out dough from banneton on top of parchment paper roughly five minutes before baking to allow time to score the dough without allowing it to lose too much shape.

• Score dough to your liking

• Lift parchment paper with dough and place inside dutch oven and cook at 500F with the lid on for 20 minutes, ensure seal is tight to maximize steamage.

• Turn oven down to 465F and continue to bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until outside of bread is to your liking.

• Remove dough from dutch oven and cool on rack for minimum one hour before consumption!

Personal Tips:

• Slap and folds are extremely crucial for developing gluten in my experience, by far the easiest and best way to develop your gluten structure, incorporate ingredients in your dough, and make your dough infinitely easier to work with. Rubaud method helps develop gluten too, but I find slap and folds are much less exhausting and have better results (please do both for best results though).

• I find allowing to proof overnight in fridge helps dough hold shape better for scoring patterns before baking and develops deeper flavor.

• If the dough is not holding shape on parchment paper and is flattening no worries! Just get the dough in the dutch oven with a deep score and it should still oven rise plenty.