Evening before you plan to bake

1. Refresh your starter the evening before you plan to bake, and let it rest on the counter at warm room temperature overnight, 8 hours, or until it is active and bubbly. If you’ve fed your starter recently, it may only take 4-6 hours before it’s active.

Bake Day

1. Soften the butter. Take a stick of butter out of the refrigerator and weigh out 85 grams, or 6 Tbsp. Cut into squares and place on a plate. Note: Keep the butter wrapper, and use the excess butter to grease the pan. You can also use a paper towel.

Mix the dough: 15-20 minutes

1. Measure/weigh your ingredients before you begin. If you have everything measured and ready to go, it should only take about 15 minutes to incorporate all of the ingredients using a stand mixer.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the flours, salt, milk, honey and starter. Reserve the butter. Using the dough hook, mix on low speed 2-3 minutes until there are no dry bits of flour.
3. Switch to medium speed and mix 2-3 more minutes until the dough begins to get smooth and clings to the hook.
4. Turn down to low speed and mix again about 2-3 minutes to allow the dough to gain more strength before adding the butter. At this point, the dough should cling to the dough hook, but it won’t clear the sides of the bowl.
5. With the mixer still running, at low speed, add the pats of butter, one at a time, and mix thoroughly before adding another pat. Adding the butter will take about 5 -8 minutes. The dough will be soft.

Bulk ferment: 3-4 hours

1. Remove the dough from the mixer bowl to a proofing container or large bowl.
2. Cover and let the dough proof for 3-4 hours, depending on the temperature in your kitchen and how active your starter is.
3. During the bulk ferment, stretch and fold the dough 2-3 times, at 30-minutes intervals during the first hour to hour and a half. After the final stretch and fold, let the dough rest for the remainder of the bulk ferment.

Shaping and final proof: up to 4 hours

1. Remove the dough from the bowl, form into a ball, cover, and let it rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
2. Shape the loaf and place seam side down in the pan. Cover with the lid and let the dough rise until it has reached about an inch below the top of the pan. Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, it could take up to 4 hours for the final proof.

Preheat oven

1. To 375 degrees F. about 20-30 minutes before you plan to bake the loaf. If the dough is fermenting slowly, wait until it is almost fully proofed before preheating the oven.

Bake the loaf: 40-45 minutes

1. Bake the loaf 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
2. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees and let the loaf bake for 25-30 minutes with the lid on.
3. Remove the lid and bake the loaf another 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Move the pan from the oven to a wire rack and let the loaf rest for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.
5. Remove the loaf from the pan and place on the wire rack to cool completely, about 2 hours.