Tartine sourdough

Recently I’ve been experimenting a lot with this challenging Tartine sourdough bread recipe from Brian Lagerstrom. From all the breads I’ve made so far this one produces the largest loaf with soft and smooth inside and nicely uniform holes. The crust isn’t too thick and it expands a lot during baking, resulting in a fairly dramatic look.

My learnings so far:

• flour matters a lot, especially the plain one (I’ve had the most success with RedMan’s and the least success with Le 5 Stagioni, to the point where the bread would almost not rise at all)
• the dough needs to stay on the drier side throughout the process, do not wet your hands at any point while working with it
• the folding process matters, I feel like it builds surface strength and tension and it helps the dough raise more than it normally would
  • it’s not as hard as the video makes it look, but if you fail, you can let the loaf rest for a bit and try one more time
• I’m also starting to realize the starter really needs to be at the peak of its energy levels when it is mixed into the dough
  • in my case, since I’m keeping mine in a fridge, this means 2 feeds outside of the fridge 24-48 hours prior to making the dough
• even though I score the whole top surface of the bread with a lame before baking it, the crust still cracks a ton
  • I’d love to control this process a bit more but I’m not sure how yet, maybe deeper cuts?

I’ve also been experimenting with rye breads and I’m trying to convert this recipe into a rye one. So far I’ve had the most success with this ratio (replacing the original recipe’s autolyse part, the rest of the recipe stays the same):

57g rye flour
30g whole wheat flour
913g plain flour
200g bubbly starter (no change)
650g water (I’ve reduced this a bit, the original 700g resulted in overhydration, ymmv)