A weekday sourdough schedule

Weekend baking is easy. Weekday baking is a scheduling problem. This is the timeline that finally worked for me with a fairly sleepy starter and a cool kitchen.

Timeline

Evening, day one: feed the starter 1:5:5 before bed. Morning: mix the dough at 72% hydration, rest, add salt. Short stretch-and-folds before leaving for work, then into the fridge. Evening: take it out, let it warm for two hours, shape, and back into the fridge overnight. Next morning: bake straight from cold.

Notes

The cold overnight proof does most of the work and makes scoring much easier. If the kitchen is warm, cut the evening rest to an hour.