In this tutorial segment, the host demonstrates the fourth stage of a sourdough bake, focusing on incorporating a pre‑made levain into a flour‑water autolysed dough, managing hydration with a softening mixture, and evaluating dough readiness with the window test. The levain (20 g starter, 100 g white flour, 80 g water) is added despite its stickiness, producing a tangy, vinegar‑like aroma that signals proper fermentation. The dough’s low hydration is corrected by a softening mixture prepared the day before (salt, 25 g whole‑grain flour, 50 g water at 150 % hydration), which dramatically improves texture. Optionality of the softening step is discussed, as is the preference for a slow, cold proof in the refrigerator to enhance tanginess. The host kneads briefly, adds seeds, and performs the window test—stretching a piece of dough to see if it becomes translucent without tearing—to decide if further kneading or resting is needed. Throughout, the speakers comment on the sensory changes (smell, stickiness) and the underlying gluten development, emphasizing that structure builds over time rather than through aggressive kneading.
Chapters
Okay, go. We have left the dough for an hour. Remember, the only thing we did was mix flour and water, and remember how it was breaking? Look at it now. Look how it stretches.
Okay,
it still is breaking a little bit, but we have the gluten structure built, uh, at least initially built, which we need for the bread. So now we're gonna actually mix this starter to this Dough, which currently is only flour and water, so there's no proofing agent. Proofing agent. Now I mix the levain, which I prepared the day before. Remember, with 20 grams of starter, 100 grams of white flour, and 80 grams of water. So this is our levain. It smells very good. Look at the consistency.
It smells like vinegar.
It's tingy smell. Exactly, vinegar. That's the smell we're looking for. And we're just gonna pour it in. You can see all the bubbles, beautiful consistency.
All of it?
All of it.
That's why it's called sourdough, because it smells like vinegar.
Exactly, it's the vinegar. They call it tingy. That's the taste we're looking for. And the longer, the slower the proofing process is, the stronger the tangy taste will be of the bread. So what do you mean? What I mean is slower is in the fridge, because you can proof out of the fridge or in the fridge. In the fridge it takes much longer. I prefer it In the fridge because I like this taste. And now we're gonna also add the softening mixture we prepared yesterday. But first we add the starter, the levain. We're gonna mix it into this dough. It's not gonna be easy. It's very, very sticky. But if you want to stop filming and then I'll We can start filming again when we're mixing the softener.
Okay.
This is not an easy process to mix this together. You've seen this already. So here's where it's really gonna get sticky.
You do it so well.
Make it look simple.
It still doesn't get sticky, you're
gonna see. This is when they say that eating bread is only fattening if you don't make your own bread.
When you make your own bread, you spend all the energy too.
Exactly. See how sticky it's becoming? This is like really In Portuguese you would say gosma. And the smell, Mario can say, is very strong vinegars.
You just keep on doing it until it's not sticky?
No, this will be sticky almost forever because Of the—
Starter.
Hydration. The hydration here is still very low because we didn't add the softening mixture. When we add the softening mixture, you're going to see kind of a miracle— this becoming a nice smooth dough because of the hydration. So pretty much I'm just trying to incorporate the levain with the flour. Look at it, it's just completely sticking everywhere. Okay, again, as I said before, we're not really kneading here, we're just kind of incorporating most of the Structure is built more through time than through mechanical work. And now we're adding the softening mixture. Remember, it was prepared yesterday with salt, flour, 25 grams of whole grain flour, and 50 grams of water. So this is 150% hydration. So we're adding actually pretty much water into this mixture. And this will be the The game changer here.
And is this optional?
Well, it is optional, but if you don't do it, then the percentage of water you would have added at the beginning at the autolysis would be higher, so it wouldn't get this.
And now you have to lift, left, let it rest.
Yeah, now I'm gonna actually knead a little bit because it's not mandatory, but I like— some people say you should get to the right consistency, which is measured by the window test. It's gonna take a while, but I'll show you what the window test is. And I'm still adding the seeds, remember?
Mm-hmm.
But before adding the seeds, I want to get this back into a decent, decent dough. Look how it's already getting much easier to work with. You can see it's sticking that much. It's amazing how it changes immediately. Look at this.
Wonderful!
Isn't it amazing?
Great job.
Even the smell changed quite drastically.
Yeah, smells bready.
Okay, so I'm gonna show you the window test. The window test is when you raise your— when you stretch your flour and you see transparent. Exactly, you see through it like if it were— it doesn't break, it stretches enough for you to see through. This is probably not ready yet. We can test. If you get it here, well, it is stretching to some extent, but look, see, it breaks quite quick. Yeah. So it didn't pass the window test. It means it needs more kneading or more time. I mean, both do the same kind of the same job, but I'll just knead a little bit more. This is gonna take a while if you want to stop.
