To a medium bowl add: 700g bread flour and 14g salt.
Then mix it with your hands.
Then add: 140g starter and 546g water.
Then mix the dough with your hands until it comes together in a shaggy mess. Make sure that every bit of flour is wet.
Then leave the dough to rest covered for an hour to develop the gluten.
Bulk fermentation
Perform three sets of stretch and folds spaced out by 30 minutes.
Check the gluten development by pulling a windowpane; it should be okay by now. If it tears, you may have flour with low gluten, affecting the process.
Put the dough in a see-through container with relatively straight sides. It will help you monitor the growth and get the perfect fermentation.
Level the top of the dough.
Then mark the top of the dough and where the dough will have grown 50% on the container. I use a whiteboard marker.
Put it somewhere warm to proof. I use a Brød & Taylor proofer set to 30°C/86°F.
Proof until grown by 50%. Expect it to take in the ballpark of 3 hours in the proofer, but don’t get hung up.
Divide and pre-shape
Divide the dough into two equally sized pieces.
Pre-shape them using coil folds to be as gentle as possible; if you are unsure how to do this, watch the video.
Once they’re pre-shaped, let them rest on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes.
Final shape
You should go for a bâtârd or cigar-shaped loaf for an open crumb. If you are unsure how to do this, watch the video.
Once they are shaped, put them into bannetons lined with some linen.
Then put them into the fridge and let them retard for at least 8 hours, but up to 48 hours.
Note that your fridge needs to be set very cold to work.
Bake
Then when you are ready to bake, heat your oven to 260°C/500°F with baking steel or baking stone inside. If you can turn off your fan, you should do so.
You have two options for baking this: dutch oven or steaming the oven.
If you are using a dutch oven, you should add that to the oven.
You should add a ceramic or metal pan at the bottom big enough to hold a rolled-up towel and a small pan filled with lava stones if steaming.
Dutch oven bake
Grab a dough from the fridge and dust the bottom with rice flour, and flip the dough onto a peel.
Score the dough, and add the dough to the dutch oven. Put the lid on and close the oven door.
Turn off the oven, and let the bread bake for 20 minutes.
Remove the lid from the dutch oven, turn the oven back on using the fan, and set the temperature to 230°C/450°F. Bake for another 30 minutes.
Remove the bread, and let it cool on a wire rack.
Steaming bake
About 10 minutes before you bake, add a rolled-up towel to the bigger pan in the oven. Pour over an entire kettle of boiling water. Make sure the whole towel gets soaked.
Close the oven door and let the steam saturate the oven.
Boil some more water that you need to use for the smaller pan. You’ll need about 2.5 deciliters or a cup of water.
Grab a dough from the fridge and dust the bottom with rice flour, and flip the dough onto a peel.
Score the dough.
Open the oven carefully not to let too much of the steam out.
Then add the dough on top of the baking steel.
Then grab the boiling water, and pour it over the lava stones. Quickly close the oven.
Turn off the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove the steaming pan and close the oven.
Using the fan, turn the oven to 230°C/450°F and bake for another 30 minutes.
Take the bread out of the oven, and let it cool on a wire rack.