Day One

Prepare the Levain

1. In a small bowl, mix the starter with the warm water to break it up. Add the flours and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Cover with a kitchen towel, bees wrap, or a plate and let rest in a warm place for 4 – 5 hours until doubled.
2. To know when your levain is ready to use, perform the float test by placing a small forkful of levain in cold water. If it floats, it is ready. If it doesn’t float, let the levain rest at warm temperature for 30 more minutes and perform the float test again.

Prepare the Final Dough

1. In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients (levain, water, honey, olive oil, eggs). Add the flours and mix until combined.
2. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough and dissolve with 10-15 grams of water. Use your fingers to work the salt into the dough. If the dough tears, add more water.
4. Cover, and let rest at warm room temperature for 6 hours.
5. Perform two stretch and folds at 45-min intervals. After the final stretch and fold, let the dough rest for the remaining 4 and ½ hours.
6. Cover tightly and place the dough in the refrigerator for 12 hours or overnight.

Next Day

Shape & Proof the Dough

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. Turn the cold dough out onto a work surface sprinkled with flour. Divide the dough into 8-12 pieces, depending on the size you want. My dough weighed 1140 grams. I divided it into 12 pieces, 95 grams each.
3. Shape each piece into a tight ball. If using seeds, brush the tops of the buns with water using a pastry brush. Then, sprinkle the seeds over the top or dip them in a plate full of seeds. Arrange the buns on the prepared pans.
4. Place an ovenproof pot or steam pan on the bottom shelf of the cold oven and carefully fill with boiling water.
5. Cover the sheet pans with a kitchen towel and slide the pans into the cold oven. With the oven off, let the buns proof for 3 hours.

Bake the buns

1. Remove the proofed buns from the oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
3. Brush the buns again with water using a pastry brush.
4. Bake the buns for 15 to 20 minutes until they are golden brown. Rotate the pans halfway through the bake cycle to ensure even coloring.