I would like to thank you for the recipe of this wonderful bread. It is truly delicious. I did not have spelt flour, so I have substituted that by the whole wheat flour. And I baked the bread on the baking stone. That was on Sunday, and today, Thursday, it is still very good.

I am not new to your site, having previously used your recipe for sourdough pizza. Which, by the way, also turned out perfect.

So I thank you for this wonderful site and the recipes!

The sourdough starter contains the yeast. Starter is wild yeast or natural leavening.

Regarding the dough sticking to the basket, I assume you’re referring to the above recipe. The dough should release with enough flour but since it’s not, you can try using rice flour or a mix of regular flour and rice flour. Rice flour doesn’t absorb moisture very well and works very well. Works like tiny ball bearings.

If you’re still having problems with it or if you’re referring to wetter dough recipes like the no knead recipes, then using parchment paper is a sure bet. The best explanation of it is here: Margaret’s parchment paper transfer technique. I would use parchment paper instead of aluminum foil where you refer to it in your comment.

I have some questions.

I just got my starters going today. I did two. A yeast starter and one all-natural with pineapple juice and KA all purpose flour.

From the comments I’ve read, it seems that people are proofing the bread in a banneton and then are able to transfer it. Being that the dough is very sticky, I find it very hard to transfer to a baking stone when the loaf is ready to bake, even when the surface under the loaf is liberally coated with flour.

Yesterday, I made two loaves and proofed them on tin foil. Then I put the loaves, tin foil and all, on the baking stone After about ten minutes, when the loaves had baked up some, I slid them off the foil onto a hotter part of the stone. I was not happy with the results. Though cooked on the bottom, it did not have the deep, rich brown color the top had. Any tips or tricks on transferring the loaves onto a stone? I would like to be able to transfer them to a heated dutch oven so they don’t spread out so much during baking.

Also, I have been preheating a sheet pan along with the stone on the bottom rack of my oven and dumping about 10 ounces of hot water into it when I put the loaves into bake. It results in a very nice chewy, baguette like crust that you get at artisan bakeries. Is this the correct way to achieve the crust?

Hans

*Click to enlarge

I used whey for the first water addition, from yogurt.

Thanks for the instructions, and for the prompt shipping!