Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread – a work in progress…

Many thanks to “Sourdough Home”, where I found the following table and many tips that have started me on my way to learning to make sourdough
Here are the ingredients for a loaf of the bread:

Weight	Ingredient	Volumetric Measurement	High starter mix
180 grams	Water	3/4 cup	30cc
210 grams	Active Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter	3/4 cup	510
30 grams	Light Olive Oil	2 1/3 TBSP	30
30 grams	Honey	1 1/2 TBSP	30
20 grams	Vital wheat gluten (optional)	2 2/3 TBSP	20
320 350 g	Whole wheat flour	2 2/3 cup	200
8.2 grams	Salt	1 1/4 tsp	8

Pour starter into a mixing bowl. Add the water, salt, honey, and oil. Whisk together.
If you are measuring by weight, add all the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix it all together. If you are measuring by volume, add the flour a cup at a time and stir. After the first cup, add the rest of the dry ingredients. Make sure the dough is well mixed, feeling it to see if the water has been incorporated through the dough. Yes, this means you should use your fingers to feel the dough, massage it, and look and feel for dry spots where flour has not been moistened. If you find such, mix the flour into the dough and get it moistened.

If you want to follow the rest of the directions from Sourdough Home, follow the link above. I have found them to be a bit problematic, so here is what I am doing at present:
I have found a couple things:

• Drier dough makes better bread. The gloppy doughs that I see advocated on many websites do not work for me. I can’t make them taste good, anyway.
• I have tried kneading with my KitchenAid for long periods as suggested, as long as 20 minutes. I don’t think this adds anything after the first few minutes, as I think the 8 hour to 2 day resting/rising/refrigeration periods I have used tend to obviate the need.
• Making this a 2 day project with over nights in the fridge increase the sourness, which I like.
• I love the Le Creuset baking method, but so far have found 450 too hot, but that may be my crappy oven! BTW, I cut parchment paper with a plate as my template to fit in the bottom of the pot – the bed just comes right out!
• Now that I have an oven with bread proofing setting, I can do THREE rises in a day and my last loaf was the best ever! 

I will continue to edit this as I discover stuff. In the meantime, my favorite sites for reference are

• The Fresh Loaf
• Sourdough Home
• Sourdoughs International
• Breadtopia
• King Arthur Flour’s Sourdough Section