Toasting 35% of the Whole Wheat Before Mixing: Ten Minutes of Pan Time for a Different Loaf

This is the reference entry the rest of the ledger points back to. The 1:5:5 refresh — 20 g starter, 100 g flour, 100 g water at 24 °C — is not the only way to keep a starter, but it is the one with the widest usable window, and most baking failures I have written down start with a starter that was used at the wrong hour.

Thirty-six hours in a 3 °C fridge is the longest cold retard that still improves a white loaf. Past about 48 hours the gluten starts to break down, the dough goes slack in the banneton, and the crumb develops a grey, slightly chalky edge. At 36 hours you get the two things this method is for: a crust that blisters, and a flavour that reads as cultured butter rather than as simply sour.

Caraway is the loudest spice in the bread pantry and the easiest to overdo. At 30% rye the dough can carry 1.2% cracked caraway without the spice taking over; at 1.8% it tastes like toothpaste. Crack the seeds in a mortar rather than using them whole — whole caraway releases almost nothing, and ground caraway goes bitter within a day.