Mild Sourdough Boule — 75% Hydration Recipe

600 g boule · 75% hydration · 2% salt · first-revival starter

The mildness here is not an accident. This loaf is built on the first revival of the starter — a culture coming up for the first time has not yet built the sharp acetic edge that a mature, repeatedly-fed starter carries, so the crumb tastes sweet and milky rather than sour. Add a modest 50% bulk rise and a cold night, and you get a loaf that suits people who say they do not really like sourdough.

Ingredients

	Weight	Baker’s %
Shipton Mill No. 4 white flour	310 g	100%
Water, 28–30°C	224 g	72% added
First-revival starter (100% hydration)	60 g	19%
Fine sea salt	7 g	2%
Total dough	≈ 601 g

That 72% is deliberate. The starter carries its own flour and water, so once those are counted the dough lands at 75.0% hydration and 2.06% salt on total flour — which is what those numbers should mean. Put 75% of the flour weight in as water and you are actually baking at 77%.

You will also need fine semolina for the banneton and for dusting before it goes in the oven.

Contains wheat flour — contains gluten.

The flour matters

Shipton Mill No. 4 is a strong white bread flour, and at 75% hydration that strength is doing real work — it is what holds the shape through a long cold retard. A weak flour will spread in the banneton overnight.

If you cannot get No. 4, any unbleached strong white bread flour at 12.5% protein or above does the same job:

• Marriage’s Finest Strong White — the closest match, widely stocked
• Matthews Cotswold Strong White — stoneground, very similar character
• Wessex Mill Strong White — reliable, slightly sweeter
• Bacheldre Watermill Strong White — stoneground, a little more flavour
• Allinson Very Strong White — the supermarket fallback, works fine

If your flour is below 12.5% protein, drop the water to 70% (about 209 g), or it will not hold its shape. Better a tighter crumb than a puddle.

For dusting, any fine semolina or Italian semola rimacinata works. If loaves stick in your bannetons, a 50/50 mix of semolina and rice flour is close to foolproof.

Method

1. Wake the starter

Revive the starter as normal and use it at its peak — domed, bubbly, just before it starts to sink. Peak is the whole point: a starter used past peak brings exactly the sourness you are trying to avoid.

2. Mix

Combine the flour and water only. Stir to a shaggy mass with no dry patches, cover, and leave 30–45 minutes. That rest does the gluten work for you.

Add the starter and the salt. Squeeze and fold until fully incorporated — slack and slippery at first, then it comes together.

3. Bulk ferment to a 50% increase

At 22–24°C expect roughly 4–6 hours. Warmer kitchens run faster, so go by the dough rather than the clock.

Give it a set of stretch-and-folds every 45 minutes for the first three sets, then leave it alone.

Judge the 50% by eye. A straight-sided container with a mark at the starting level makes it obvious. You want it visibly domed and jiggly with a few surface bubbles — half again its volume, not doubled.

4. Shape

Turn out, pre-shape into a loose round, and bench rest 20 minutes uncovered.

Shape tightly into a boule. You want real surface tension — that is what holds the loaf up through the cold night. Dust the banneton generously with fine semolina and settle the dough in seam side up.

5. Cold ferment overnight

Cover and refrigerate at 4–5°C for 12–16 hours. This is where the flavour rounds out without turning sharp, and cold dough is far easier to score.

6. Bake

Put the cast iron pot in the oven with its lid on and preheat to 250°C (230°C fan) for a full 45 minutes. The pot must be properly hot.

Take the dough straight from the fridge — no warming up. Turn it out onto parchment, score decisively with one confident slash, and dust with fine semolina.

• 15 minutes, lid on
• 15 minutes, lid off

Lid on traps the dough’s own steam and gives you the rise. Lid off sets the colour.

If it looks pale at 30 minutes, give it another 3–5 minutes uncovered — ovens vary more than recipes admit. It is done at a deep amber, or 96°C in the centre if you want certainty.

7. Cool

At least an hour on a rack before cutting. The crumb is still setting as it cools, and cutting early gives you a gummy loaf. This is the hardest instruction in the recipe.

A timeline that fits a changeover

Morning	Revive starter, use at peak
Late morning	Mix, rest, add starter and salt
Midday to late afternoon	Bulk to 50%
Late afternoon	Shape, into banneton
Overnight	Fridge, 12–16 hours
Next morning	Bake 30 minutes, cool 1 hour

Out of the oven by mid-morning, cool and cuttable before an afternoon arrival.

Scaling

Dough weight	Flour	Water	Starter	Salt
600 g	310 g	224 g	60 g	7 g
900 g	465 g	336 g	90 g	10 g
1,200 g	620 g	448 g	120 g	14 g

Above about 900 g, add five minutes to each stage of the bake.