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====== Mixed Sourdough Bread ======
This bread has a 72% hydration if you don't count the seeds as a dry ingredient (which I don't, as they don't absorb water).

It's the bread I bake every week, and my staple.
===== Ingredients Starter =====
  * 300g strong wholegrain wheat flour (you can use 200g wholegrain/100g rye as well)
  * 300ml water
  * 3 tbsp previous starter

===== Ingredients Main =====
  * 750g strong white wheat flour
  * 120g mixed seeds (pumpkin & sunflower) this is optional -leave it out if you don't like seeded bread
  * 450ml water
  * 18g salt


Mix all starter ingredients together, and then take away 3 tbsp of the mixture as your next starter. That way, you always have a nice fresh starter.

Let the starter mix sit overnight in the fridge.

A Sunday is perfect for baking your bread as it's not that easy to fit this around a working day. In the morning, add the main ingredients, and just mix up with a spoon until all solids are mixed in. Let the mixture sit for 2 hours, then stretch 5 times or so.

Stretch occasionally throughout the day as you walk past (every two hours is fine). When the dough has become noticeably larger in volume (1.5 times original or so), stretch it 3 times or so and put in a proving basket, and let rise for 2.5 to 3 hours depending on ambient temperature. I do this around 3 o'clock or so.

When the dough has risen nicely in the proving basket, it's time to bake. I do this around 6 to 7 o'clock in the evening.

Pre-heat your oven to 230 degrees with a dutch oven inside. When the oven is hot, take out the dutch oven, tip your dough from the proving basket into the dutch oven, score the top with a sharp wet knife, put the lid on, and bake for 20 minutes at 230. Then take the lid off, and bake for a further 50 minutes at 180 degrees.

If you don't have a dutch oven, turn the bread out of the proving basket onto a slightly oiled tray, put a cup of water into a tray at the bottom or your oven, score the bread, and bake for 20 minutes at 230 degrees. Then lower the temperature to 180 and bake for 40 to 50 minutes at 180 degrees.

When baked, put it onto a cooling rack, and leave until it's room temperature. Best not cut into it before it's cold, as it will dry out faster if you do.

If you want to do this during the week when you are working, you can slow things down by putting the dough into the fridge. So you could mix up the dough in the morning, put it in the fridge, and take it out as soon as you get home from work. Stretch it to warm up the dough, and continue as usual, but you will bake the bread later in the day, e.g. around 9 p.m.

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The timings are for a heated house in winter - in summer, things can move quite a bit faster. If you don't heat a lot, things can move a lot slower.

===== The Process =====
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The dough freshly mixed - the stage where the starter is added to the rest of the ingredients.

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3.5 hours later - we can see some rise, and I have stretched the dough twice.

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5 hours later - you can see the increased rise.

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6 hours later - the dough is stretched once more and transferred to the proving basket.

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8 hours - we have a full rise in the proving basket, and the dough is put into the Dutch oven at 230 degrees.

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20 minutes at 230 degrees, and we lift the lid of the Dutch oven.

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After a total of 1h 10 minutes baking time (50 minutes after removing the lid)