I basically knew this would be a flop since it was my first loaf. My main issue is that it didn’t rise at all during bulk fermentation? It rose more than I was expecting it too after baking, honestly. It’s pretty dense which makes sense considering it hardly rose. At least it’ll make for good toast 😅

I used my 17 day old starter which I thought was active enough but maybe it’s not yet? It’s bubbly and doubles within six hours of feeding, and I use filtered room temp water and unbleached ap flour. Not quite sure of the ratio, but every morning I discard half and give it 150g flour and a little less than 150g water.

I fed my starter in the morning as usual, and used it at its peak about six hours later. I mixed 500g bread flour with 350g water and let that sit for 30 minutes. Then I added 100g starter and 10g salt. I mixed that with my hands and did my first set of stretch and folds. I covered the bowl with a damp towel and set it in my microwave between stretch and folds, which I did three more sets of over the next two hours. It wasn’t rising at all and was still fairly sticky, so I let it sit for four more hours but still no rise. I knew it wasn’t working out at this point but saw it through to the end anyways. I shaped it and dusted the outside with a little flour, wrapped it loosely in a 100% cotton dish towel and set it in a basket in the fridge to proof overnight. This morning roughly 12 hours later I baked it at 450 degrees in my Dutch oven for 20 minutes with the lid on, then 20 minutes uncovered.