The recipe that started everything. A handwritten Italian bread, taught to me by a friend who learned it from her grandmother, translated into grams and wild yeast.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 450 g | King Arthur or similar |
| Warm water | 290 g | Slightly less than Lean — the oil adds moisture |
| Active starter | 100 g | Fed 8–12 hr earlier |
| Extra virgin olive oil | 25 g | Good stuff. You'll taste it. |
| Fine sea salt | 10 g | Added after autolyse |
Because my starter is fed with organic whole wheat flour, roughly 50 g of the total flour in this recipe is whole wheat (about 10% of the total). It’s a subtle background note, not a wheat loaf — but it’s part of the character.
Weights use baker’s percentage — the starter’s flour and water are subtracted from the totals. Use the calculator to scale.
New to sourdough? Learn how to make your own starter.
Method
1Mix (5 min)
Combine 290 g warm water, 100 g active starter, and 25 g olive oil. Stir until the starter dissolves. Add 450 g bread flour. Mix until no dry flour remains.
2Autolyse (30 min)
Cover. Walk away.
3Salt (2 min)
Sprinkle 10 g salt over the dough. Wet hand. Pinch and squeeze until smooth.
4Four folds, 30 min apart
Same fold technique as the Lean Master. Wet hand, four folds per round, four rounds total, rest 30 min between.
5Bulk rise (1 hour)
Let it grow by ~50%. Should look puffy and a little glossy from the oil. You can also use your oven's proof setting at ~100°F — it'll get there in about 45 minutes. Same target either way: ~50% growth, puffy and bubbly.
6Shape (5 min)
Same shaping as Lean. Build tension on the counter until smooth.
7Cold retard (10–14 hours)
Banneton, fridge, overnight. This IS your final proof. No separate room-temp proof needed before the fridge — the cold and the time do all the work.
8Preheat (45 min)
Dutch oven, lid on, 475°F.
9Score and bake
One slash. 475°F covered 20 min, then 425°F uncovered 20–25 min. Lower temp than Lean — oil browns faster.
10Cool (1 hour)
Wire rack. Wait. The interior crumb is softer than Lean and needs the full rest.
Compared to
The published recipes I learned from and measured mine against. Respect to the bakers who came first.
Traditional Italian country bread uses a biga (yeasted preferment) rather than sourdough levain. Yours is a sourdough modernization at 5% olive oil — on the lean side; some Italian formulas go 8–10%.