I did the cold start on my sourdough bread this morning and it was amazing! So much easier (you put it in your cold Dutch oven, score it, close the lid and put it in a cold oven, then turn the temp to 450F and start it - bake for 55 minutes, covered the entire time).

That looks delicious!

I've been finding that sourdough breads are pretty forgiving. The recipe I started with has you preheat the oven to 450, but you put the shaped loaf in a cold baker rather than preheating the vessel ahead of time. Turn the temp down to 400, bake 20 minutes with cover on, 40 minutes with cover off. Perfect every time.

I've also started doing the final rise of a shaped loaf overnight in the refrigerator. Works great, too.

Am still experimenting with rye flour. Love the results but the dough is always a sticky mess to work with. I did one recipe with a combo of rye, whole wheat, and bread flour that had you work the dough in the Kitchen Aid with a dough hook. Have to admit it was much easier to handle, not so sticky.

Are you winging the recipe without specific measurements, jodi? Or do you have some good written recipes to share?

I make the bread in the afternoon - let it rise and do some sloppy stretch and folds while it is rising, then shape it and put it in a banneton basket (using rice flour) and put it in a plastic bag in the fridge overnight - it always rises more in there. I don’t use a recipe - I do between 1/2 and one cup of starter, about a cup of water (not really measured) and enough flour to feel right (ends up being 2+ cups flour). Between 1 and 2 teaspoons of salt (again, just tossed into my palm) and about 2T of honey (I don’t always do honey, but it does make things taste nice). This is the first time I’ve done the cold start, I usually heat it up to almost 500 with the Dutch oven in the oven, then take the Dutch oven out, load the bread, reduce the heat, bake for 20 minutes with the lid on, then 10 minutes with it off. The cold start was MUCH easier - no handling a hot Dutch oven, and the ability to place the bread into a cold Dutch oven and then score it was nice.

Interesting. may try that.