Sourdough Mixed seed loaf

This is a delicious recipe - thanks so much for sharing, Patricia!

Do not despair hague151! There are a squillion hints and tips regarding sourdough on the net. It took me about 18 months to find a technique that worked for me. For what it's worth, this is what I do to produce a loaf with a really good texture for toast: - when you have mixed the dough to your chosen recipe (I use 60% mineral water in the mix), knead it as you would any loaf. Not excessively; about 5 minutes will do. - leave it and go away for 3 - 4 hours - stretch it and fold it a quarter turn times four : it should get very stiff through this process, but it only takes a minute - shape the dough and pop it into a paper baking case in your Dutch Oven / Le Creuset. The paper stops any sticking. - allow to prove until "doubled in size" (experience will help with this). I will often do this stage in the airing cupboard, where it might take 5 or 6 hours. - heat oven to 220 fan, put the whole thing in, cold, and bake for 20 mins then remove the lid, reduce to 200 deg and bake another 15 minutes. - will keep for ages and makes great toast.

Hi Patricia. The recipe is great. I would ignore hague151 if I was you. I think you gave that person enough attention.

Didn't mean to make you feel bad, but everyone has to start somewhere and I never did Cookery/home economics or whatever at school. I'm pretty good at making the sourdough starters and I've made some pretty good rye loaves, but detailed instructions never go amiss and sourdough baking has more stages and more chances to go wrong than yeast based methods. As a teacher myself I always think that, when giving instructions, it's best to assume that the person reading knows nothing. All the best - I'm baking tomorrow and I hope that it turns out OK!!!

It is really dry by the way at the stretch/fold stage. Sorry to post so many comments, but who else do I ask?

I think the thing about recipes such as this is that they assume a lot of experience. I'm assuming that the stretch and fold is on a floured surface (but I've seen recipes where it's done in the bowl) or whether 3-4 times is the number of times within the 1.5 hours, or the number of stretches or both and what to put it in when transferred to the fridge and whether it should be covered, plus the other questions that have already been answered. I'm half way through now at the stretch and fold stage, I'm doing it on the surface and stretching about 10 times each time. I'm going to put it into a bowl and leave it in a very cold room, because there's not much room in the fridge and tonights temp will be about the same as the fridge. When doing recipes, I think that it would be good to write for the absolute beginner.

1 Do you use a dough hook on the initial mix? 2 What's the best way to get the dough into a hot dutch oven/Casserole? 3 What's an alternative to bannetons, which I haven't got? 4 I've only got one cast iron casserole, but I do have an oval enamelled steel casserole, can I use that for the second loaf?

I'm fairly new to baking - would this work with a mixture of white and wholemeal, or even 100% wholemeal? I quite like to put broken up walnuts in to my bread, would that work with this recipe as part of the seed weight?

I like the sound of this but there is no mention of the mixed seeds in your ingredients. Could you clarify please?