A Lean Master variation. Add the cheese during your first fold and let it melt into the crumb. Salty, sharp, perfect with soup.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lean Master dough | 1 batch | Mixed through Step 3 (salt added) |
| Sharp cheddar, cubed | 60 g | Small dice — 5 mm cubes |
| Gruyère, cubed | 60 g | Same cube size |
| Parmesan, grated | 30 g | For folding in plus topping |
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
1Build the Lean Master
Follow the Lean Master recipe through Step 3 (salt added).
2Add cheese on first fold
When you do your first fold (Step 4), scatter the cheddar and gruyère cubes over the dough before folding. Fold them in — four folds, one per side. Save the parmesan for topping.
3Continue folds and rest
Folds 2–4 as written in the Lean Master. The cheese will redistribute as you fold.
4Bulk, shape, retard
Same as Lean Master — 1 hour bulk, shape, into banneton, 8–14 hour cold retard. 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. This IS your final proof. No separate room-temp proof needed before the fridge — the cold and the time do all the work.
5Score and top
Score one slash, then sprinkle the grated parmesan over the top of the loaf before baking.
6Bake
500°F covered 20 min, then 450°F uncovered 20–25 min. The cheese on top will get deeply golden. Internal temp 200–205°F.
7Cool
Full hour on a rack. Cheese needs to set up.
Compared to
The published recipes I learned from and measured mine against. Respect to the bakers who came first.
The canonical sourdough-plus-cheese template — about 25% total cheese by flour weight. Yours hits 30% which gives a more pronounced cheese pull.