Bushturkey's linseed and toasted sunflower seed sourdough

 Levain build:

Mix on the evening, 2 days before of the day of the bake.

I mixed the flour and water for the stiff levain and ferment at room temperature for 12 - 16 hours, until ready.

Linseed soaker:

Mix water and linseeds. Bring to the boil on the stove. Remove from heat and let stand to soak around 2 hours.

You can do this on the day of the final mix to prevent off flavours from developing. I've not, yet, had off flavours from sitting the soaker overnight.

Sunflower seeds:

Toast, on the day of the final mix, on the stove until fragrant and are browning a little. Allow to cool.

Final dough

The morning after mixing the stiff levain.

Autolyse: Mix flour, water with or without the levain and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Add the salt and levain (cut into big chunks) and mix for 10-15 minutes.

Add linseed soaker and sunflower seeds and mix for a couple of minutes to evenly distribute the seeds.

Bulk ferment:

Desired dough temperature - around 24.5 to 27 C.

Ferment for 4 hours. Stretch and fold after 1, 2 and 3 hours, depending on dough strength. The wholemeal flour weakens the dough a little and benefits from extra folding.

Divide into two equal-weight dough pieces and pre-shape.

Bench rest for 20 minutes, while you prepare your proofing containers. I rested the dough seam-side down, to prevent unraveling!

Shape as you like. I pre-shaped round and shaped into boules. Again, I proofed the dough seam-side down, to prevent it unraveling as it rose!

Final proof

I proofed into 2 stainless-steel bowls, lined with linen dusted with combination of rice and bread flour.

Proof at room temperature (24.5 C) for 90 minutes, then place in the refrigerator (6.7C by my thermometer) overnight. I had them in the fridge for 9 hours.

I put the bowls with the dough into a plastic tub (that fits on one of the shelves in the fridge).

I covered the two bowls with cling film, sprayed with oil. The film was touching the dough and covering it, to prevent the surface from drying.

Another piece of cling film covered the top opening of the tub.

The lid sealed the second piece of cling film in place.

Bake

Remove from the fridge and either bake straight away, if ready, or let stand at room temperature until the dough is ready for baking.

Oven pre-heated to 260 C and pre-steamed (pan at the floor of the oven, heated with the oven and boiling water poured in prior to loading the bread). I have a thick, unglazed tile acting as the "hearth".

I up-turned the dough onto baking parchment (my oven tile was crusted with bits of burnt tart I baked on a previous occasion) and slashed with a razor blade then loaded into the oven.

I sprayed water on the walls of the oven with a garden mister every 1.5 to 2 minutes for 3-4 times, during the oven spring.

I then lowered the temperature to 230 C and baked for another 30 minutes. I opened the oven a little, with a tablespoon jammed in the door, to vent the steam in the last 10 minutes of baking.

During the bake, I rotated the loaves to bake evenly.

Cooling

Allow to cool thoroughly before cutting and enjoying.