This recipe may sound complicated and time consuming, but it is quite forgiving. I like to bake the bread for dinner, so start a day ahead and make the dough, do the first rise, and put in the fridge overnight. I form the loaves in the morning and then put it back in the fridge, taking it out about an hour before I bake it (a couple hours before dinner as you don’t want to slice it when it is too warm).
Ingredients: 8 oz (about 1 cup) Bluebird Pasayten Hard White Flour
14 oz (about 1 3/4 cups) Bluebird Spelt Flour
11 oz (about 1 1/2 cups) Organic unbleached white flour or bread flour
1/2 cup raw wheat germ
12 oz (about 1 3/4 cups) active sourdough starter
3 1/4 cups lukewarm water plus more as needed
3 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
Method: Make sure your starter is active and ready for feeding.
Mix flours, wheat germ, starter and water either by hand or in a mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add water as needed to make the dough come together. If you live in a dry area, you will need more water! Add enough water to make the dough pliable. Keep mixing/knead for several minutes until a nice ball is formed and everything is well combined. Cover with a cloth and let rest for 20-40 minutes.
Uncover and mix in sea salt and sunflower seeds. Knead until well mixed and seeds are spread throughout-about 4-6 minutes (this bread would be fine without sunflower seeds too). Cover with a cloth and plastic bag.
If you are around and have the time, every 45 minutes or so, stretch and fold the dough over itself 4-5 times. re-cover each time after turning. Let the bread rise between 3-6 hours depending on how warm the rising area is (less time for warmer temp). After one last stretch and fold, cover the dough with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. Let it rise in there for 4-12+/- hours.
Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into two pieces. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Shape the bread into loaves by lightly wetting the surface and gently cupping the dough and circling it around until a nice ball forms. Place in floured boule basket and repeat with second loaf. Cover the loaves with plastic wrap. You can either let it rise for another hour in the basket and proceed with baking, or return to refrigerator and let it rise in there until you are closer to baking time.
About an hour before you plan to bake, remove boules from refrigerator (if you put boules in there), remove plastic wrap and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rest. Preheat the oven to 475F and put in any baking stones if you plan to use them. Invert dough onto floured cutting board and use a lame or blade to score the bread (usually a star pattern or line down the center with smaller slashes angling away from it). If you like a sturdy crust, spray the oven with water. Put dough in the oven and spray the oven 3 times in the first five minutes. Turn oven down to 425F after the last spray and let bake for 15 minutes. Rotate after this time and bake for another 10-20 minutes depending on how hot your oven is. Place the bread on a cooling rack and let it rest for at least 30 minutes before slicing.