Here's another long overdue bread write-up. I think I made this one sometime in March or April. It was supposed to be a prelude to making Lady Bear's Bread, but I still haven't quite gotten around to doing that yet.

As with the previous recipe, I've filled in the details as best I can, but I may have missed a few things since it's been such a long time. If I ever make this one again, I'll try to remember to come back and update this post. That said, there are so many bread recipes out there, I often don't get around to making the same one twice.

Big Bear's Bread

Slightly adapted from Northwest Baking

Ingredients

First (Biga-like) Dough

• 225g ripe/active/fed starter (100% hydration)
• 450g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 365g all-purpose flour
• 450mL ice water

Slurry

• 200mL warm water
• 18g coarse sea salt
• 115g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour

Directions

1. Make sure your starter is nicely active and vigorous before mixing the dough.
2. Combine flours for first dough with starter and water.
3. Mix very well, cover, and chill for 3-4 days.
4. On the third or fourth day, combine the slurry ingredients to make... a slurry.
5. Cover and rest for 30-60 minutes.
6. Take the first dough out of the fridge and let it warm up slighlty while the slurry rests.
7. Tear (do not cut) the dough up a little bit and mix in the slurry.
8. Once the dough and the slurry are mixed (but still look a bit ragged), cover and set aside to ferment, covered, at room temperature for ~4 hours. Stretch and fold every hour or so.
9. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each portion. Cover and rest for ~30 minutes.
10. Shape the loaves and place them into well-floured bannetons. Cover and proof in the fridge overnight.
11. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F).
12. Grease a pan and sprinkle it with cornmeal.
13. Once oven is preheated, place a pan of boiling water on the bottom rack.
14. Turn out loaves onto prepared pan and slash the tops -- no more than one slash per loaf! -- if desired.
15. Place loaves on top rack of oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 230°C (450°F).
16. Bake at 230°C (450°F) for ~20 minutes.
17. Reduce oven temperature to 220°C (425°F) and remove water pan from oven.
18. Continue baking for another 10-20 minutes until loaves sound hollow when tapped.
19. Turn off oven and let loaves sit in the hot oven for another 10 minutes.
20. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.