Pepper Jack Sourdough

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to share a successful bake I did over the holiday. This one was my second time adding inclusions (first one was jalapeno cheddar a few days prior, but no photos of that one - it got devoured :)). This was maybe my 7th or 8th loaf and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I actually made a normal recipe and just split it into two loaves when it came time to shape since there's only two of us at home and it makes for longer-lasting bread.

In the photos you can't really see the cheese since it was white pepper jack and melted in, but it's definitely cheesy. Here's the recipe:

Levain - Fed at midnight the night before:

• 10g Starter
• 25 AP Flour
• 25 WW Flour
• 50g Water

Young Levain - Refreshment feeding at 8am the next morning:

• 80g Overnight Levain (discard extra)
• 20g AP Flour
• 20g WW Flour
• 40g Water

Ingredients:

• 500g Flour (450 AP, 50 WW)
• 385g Water
• 125g Young Levain (see below)
• 12g Salt
• 150g Pepper Jack Cheese - small cubes

Process:

1. Fed Levain @ midnight the night before, and again the next morning @ 8am - 100% hydration
2. Autolyse all flour and water for 1hr
3. Add young levain/refreshment (discard extra), salt, mix to combine - rest for 45mins
4. Bulk Fermentation - about 4.5hrs-5hrs
   1. Stretch and Fold in 45min increments (3x total). Added inclusions when starting the second Stretch & fold @ the 90min mark
   2. After the first three stretch and folds, waited an hour and did a soft coil fold - rested for remaining bulk fermentation period
5. Divided into two smaller loaves about 580g each, pre-shape and rest covered for 30mins
6. Shape - one into batard and another into boule, but shaping process for each was exactly the same.
7. Put in fridge for overnight cold proof until ready to bake the next morning (it was about 3:45pm at this point)
8. Bake - (9am)
   1. Preheat dutch oven @ 500f
   2. Add loaf and 2-3 small ice cubes to dutch oven, cover and reduce oven temp to 475f for 25mins. Added cookie sheet to bottom rack at the same time dutch oven went back into the oven
   3. Remove dutch oven and put loaf on second cookie sheet (cool, not yet in the oven), and open bake for remaining 15-20mins
   4. Wait 5hrs to slice and devour