About the loaf.
One recipe, 36 hours, four ingredients, zero shortcuts. This is the sourdough everything at Breadiful CATastrophe is built around — a dark, blistered crust over an open, chewy crumb that is loud when you cut it.
Order the Classic Sourdough →Four ingredients. That’s the whole list.
Flour
Unbleached bread flour with a little stone-ground whole wheat for flavor and pull.
Water
Filtered, and a lot of it — high hydration is what gives the crumb those big holes.
Salt
Fine sea salt. Enough to make it taste like something, added after the autolyse.
Time
Wild-yeast starter and a long, cold ferment. No commercial yeast, no rushing it.
How one loaf takes its sweet time.
Feed the starter
The night before, the starter gets fed and left to double. If it doesn’t float, we wait.
Mix & autolyse
Flour and water rest together so the dough hydrates fully before salt and starter go in.
Bulk ferment
Four to five hours of slow rise with a set of stretch-and-folds instead of kneading.
Shape & cold proof
Shaped into a boule and sent to the fridge overnight — that long cold rest builds the flavor.
Score & bake
One long score down the middle — a leaf pattern when there’s time — then baked screaming hot in a covered Dutch oven so it steams itself into that crackly crust.
Cool (the hard part)
It has to rest a full hour before slicing. This is where Sugarbee steals one.
The nerd stats.
Every loaf is a little different, on purpose.
Wild yeast reacts to the weather, the flour, and how the day went. Two loaves from the same batch will never be identical twins — that’s the trade for real fermentation and real flavor. If yours ever shows up wrong, tell us and we’ll make it right, usually with more bread.