The System Reboot - The Sourdough Formula you Need When it’s Time to Reset 

I've used recipe after recipe, sometimes getting good results, sometimes not so good. I've actually even used one of yours before. But with this recipe, I've gotten consistently great results. Huge oven spring, beautiful bubbling on the crust, a soft and fluffy interior. It's also, by far, the easiest, almost hands-off approach to making a loaf. Thanks so much. This recipe is sheer beauty.

This Man is number one in sourdough bread

Your reboot finally did it for me. I have been struggling for two years with Tartine method and never, I repeat, never getting it quite right. What is doubly irritating is the amount of time spent for a disappointing loaf. Last weekend I decided to try your re-boot system and the first attempt last Sunday gave me an eight (out of ten). Slightly underproofed. Made a 30 minute timing change and today I got a 10. Bread baking is a little complicated here in Central Florida because of fluctuating temperature and humidity. So I used your calculator - thank you. I made 800G loaf with a 15% Levain and I could tell when it went into the oven that it would be OK. That's two years of frustration behind me.

Hi Philip, I just feel like I've to write you a "THANK YOU" note, I learned a lot from your VDO and it helps me improve my sourdough bread.... Thank you 💐 I especially like how you mixed half the flour & water to match the levain consistency, it really makes dough easier to work with.

This worked, Phil!! Easy to handle. Much stronger dough. Great oven spring! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I stopped using the banneton and just keep dough in the original mixing bowl through the whole process. Literally no affect on the outcome, and easier. Thanks for the recipes!

First time i've seen a recipe formula/excel sheet. Seems like a cool idea.

Phil, I don't want to tempt fate but this has been the most successful sourdough dough I have ever worked with! It is on it's final proof before going to the frids, so anything could happen but so far every step of the way looked exactly like what you are showing in the video. Lovely soft bubbly dough. So easy to handle and work with! I have to love the revision. I used my plastic bowl/ bench scraper instead of a spoon as a mixing tool and to incorporate the levain and it worked a treat! Many thanks! Update. The loaf was a great success. My Cynthia had bread and butter with marmalade from F&M for lunch instead of the roast beef sandwich I offered! The oven spring was astounding! And the flavour! A beautiful, tasty loaf.

I always place a small linen cloth on top of the loaf to keep the plastic off the top. You won't get that condensation you mentioned.

Piękna porowatość tego chleba , wygląda super , tak trzymając ciasto w lodówce przez noc , enzymy zaczynają działać i wychodzi kompletnie inne pieczywo , super

You are the mentor I didn’t know I needed

Just used this and it did as promised. Best spring I've had since switching to a "scrapings" starter method.

After warching this video I revamped my sourdough bread production. Good results and less stress. I like the almost no knead approach. Well done

Wow that crumb is divine!

Brilliant thanks 😃

From the Blue Ridge Mountains North Carolina…been baking sourdough since the Pandemic using many different techniques. So I just came across your channel and gave it a view and now I have used your method presented here along with your calculator, and after three years the method and the results are fantastic!!! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Thank you so much for this amazing video! 😊👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Amazing video and tutorial ❤

Whoa. You had me hooked with that cross section.

Thank you so very much Phil 😊

Had a a few bad loaves in a row. This was a great reset and the loaf turned out perfect. There is something really fun about lamination to which is basically how I roll out sourdough pizza dough onto parchment paper while not touching the crust

Great video, thanks. What is the reason for using the oven with the fan off?

I live in the Caribbean and I enjoy all your teachings,methodologies etc. I have a cooler to lower the temperature in my kitchen which is about 31 degrees Celsius. However I’m still having problems with my fermentation period and proofing time as my sourdough bread still has a chewy inside. I use baking soda.. a touch to have a milder tasting bread . Can I make my bread in one day ? I really love your videos ❤️

Astonishing video as always Philip! I'm grateful that you give us many tools to better enhance or sourdough baking. So, I will try this "system reboot" for my sourdough and hope it's gonna at least help through this nightmare weather I'm experiencing here in Ecuador. Above all, happy sourdough day! 🙌

A huge thank you!

I'm halfway through making this one, and I can tell already I love this updated recipe. It feels spot on in terms of hydration (the other recipe felt a bit wet), and my lamination was the best one I have ever done. The dough felt so much stronger. Its in bulk ferment now, looking forward to a great loaf. Awesome videos, keep it up!!!

My brother. I followed your formula and.... success 😁. TY

Phil, your loaves keep getting better and better! Cheers!

Thank you for this informative vid....calling you the dough whisperer here on out😂💕...hope you and ur family are doing well 💕💕

Top man for info and tips, thanks as always Phil

Tried your lamination process today and it was by far the most fun I have ever had with bread dough! Thanks so much for this!

I've been baking sourdough on and off for a few years now with varying success. I had a few good loaves, and followed many different channels and have read a few books. But recently I've been so disappointed with my bakes - no oven spring, difficulty with the hydration, etc. Tried this reboot and I'm blown away. Perhaps the similarities in climate between Greece and South Africa (whereas SA is so very different from the US, the UK and the countries of other sourdough bakers that I follow) plays a part? I don't know what it is, but I know that finding this, and trying it (along with your no discard method) has revitalised my love for sourdough baking. I'm getting excellent oven spring (there's always room for improvement!), great tasting sourdough and a good crumb. Thanks for excellent content! Your waste-not-want-not loaf is also a winner! The first yeasted preferment, sourdough loaf that feels as soft and is this tasty.

Excellent technique thank you! The only problem I had was trying not to de-gaz when shaping. My dough was full of air pockets, very big ones and little ones. I handled it very carefully, but it was obivous Ive heard lots of popping while shaping. Any idea why I had so many? I figured it was a good thing.. Thank you!

OMG my mouth is watering, do you deliver LOL ?

Could you please specify the size of that proofing basket? I love how it's the ideal size for the recipe. Thank you!

Phil, this video kept me persisting with making sourdough and I now get great loaves time after time with a slightly modded version of this recipe (10% or so light spelt). I also found that M&S’s strong Canadian white bread flour is waaaay better than the Marriage’s I’d been using before, to get really strong gluten formation, despite similar protein levels. I used to do the lamination but now just do bowl stretches with much the same results… So anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for your excellent videos - without doubt the best I’ve found on making decent sourdough! 😊

Hi Phil. Thanks for such an informative video. I am a newbie. Only baked 7 loaves and still learning. After lamination stage do I need to perform more stretch and folds? I have great gluten formation just as in your example. My other question is I don’t get the best oven spring but my crumb is always excellent. It is however quite gummy. Any advice please would really be appreciated.

Right on time Phil my loaf spread like butter when I turned it out onto my baking stone last week

Hi Phil, I have been following your Chanel for some months now and have had good consistent results with this Reboot recipe for my last few loaves. Just wondering, is the large laminating stretch out of the dough designed to replace all sets of stretch and folds? Would 1 set of slap and folds after the first 30 minutes help develop more dough strength?

Hi I am super new to the whole sourdough bread making. I have my starter ready to use and smells fruity and sour. Would I be able to use a stand mixer for this method and would it need the rest at the start and the fold?

Hi. I wondering what recepie would be if I won't to add coarse rye flour and make double so much.

Loved this - going to try the initial mix method you do in this video on my next loaf. Question: I see you only do one lamination as opposed to the three you do on your “old faithful” recipe. What was the impetus for fewer laminations? Did three provide diminishing returns as far as structure?

I've seen mary bakers, who prefer to add the salt later on, maybe 30mins after adding the levain...what are your thoughts about that? And by the way, do you live in Greece? I saw some Greek flours in another video of yours 😊

would it be ok to replace 100g of starter with 100g of poolish? regarding times of proofing and such. I think those times may be shorter because of the difference in action between the two but anyway

I'm a little bit confused between starter and levain. Did you just use starter? If kevain, what's the ratio? Thanks.

Hey Phillip I feel like my starter is a bit weak. How should I feed it to be as active as yours?

Thanks for the video. I just baked this and was super happy when I turned them out of the baskets. After the first part of the bake with the lid on a Dutch oven it had no oven spring and had flattened out like a pancake. I baked two loaves and they both did the same. Any suggestions?

Well done as always Chef. Why increase the hydration? That loaf looks perfect to me!

Excellent video ,i can't wait to try this recipe,but I have one question, after removing the dough from the fridge and scoring it , does it goes straight to the oven?

Great, simple "reset" on the basics. Just wondering: Do I have to tap the bowl cover with my fingertip when covering the bowl and flipping it when taking it off? :=)

I either used AP or fresh milled Hard White Winter Wheat. Would adding the appropriate amount of Vital Wheat Gluten achieve the properties of Bread Flour work in this recipe and method? We have found Bread Flour to be too chewy at times so, I've been using AP with just enough VWG to up the protein level.

"Take the boule by the horns" ha-ha very funny

Thank you for this, @CulinaryExploration! One question, do you think any changes would be needed if using a WW starter? I'm planning to try the formula as written but my starter is made with freshly milled WW flour. Also, if I wanted to try using 10% WW in the formula, any suggestions on how much to increase the hydration?

Great thanks!can you send a link for the bread paddle,scoop,thingy that you use to transfer the loaf into the oven,thanks

I'm going to reboot my sourdough success by going back to this formulation next week, just to re-establish a baseline. I've been trying to get a softer loaf so I've been using 50% King Arthur AP flour and 50% King Arthur Bread flour and I'm pretty happy with the result. It will be interesting to see what going back to 100% Bread flour does to my dough. Also, my formulation calls for a Tangzohn (25g AP flour in 100g water) in the levain so I'm a little worried about how that will affect the hydration predicted by your calculator. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Looks like you are still putting our some awesome bread👍

What flour do you use? What brand? It's so stretchy. I can never stretch it that much to laminate. It just won't do it. It'd break. I initially thought, I didn't stretch or strengthen it enough, but the more I do it, it eventually breaks, and the gluten is dead.

I followed his recipes and techniques here in this video and my bread turned out much better than I have done before. Crumb soft and not so chewy crust but it still has soft crunch to the crust. Thats how I like it. I have been making sourdough breads, tried different recipes and techniques but so far this is the best results I have made. I never tried lamination before. This is a keeper. Thanks for sharing.

With all respect to your amazing abilities, this is not a beginner recipe 🤭

Any recommendations on using just fresh milled flour? I have made that switch and I love the bread that I make, but I miss my sourdough!

Great vid as always! I need to say I am baffled by your gluten strength without really doing much. My loaves are nice enough but I notice that when I laminate, it always rips. Could it be that I need to wait longer before laminating? Here it's 18c, a lot colder from where you are. Total time to bake is 12, and I laminate around 3 or 4 hours, it rips. What do you think? :) I use 74% hydration and I can handle it. Doesn't look as firm and non sticky as your 65%. I have diamond flour AP 13%.

How long do you normally wait for the loaf to cool before eating? Do you find that an important factor? Thanks

Really well done! You're loaf looks terrific! Because of health reasons, I've been baking loaves with 80% home ground Montana Gold flour (Including all but the very biggest flakes of bran) + King Arthur bread flour, but my loaves aren't as pretty as yours.

I have been trying this recipe and the same process but at times with different ambiante temperature and adjuating the bulk fermentation time accordingly, no matter how i try, and even making a new batch of starter, my bread won't rise😢😢😢

Why do some recipes call for more levain than others when the flour content is relatively the same?

Can this be doubled and done all together prior to preshaping or would you recommend using two separate bowls the whole time?

I have only one problem with my dough, i use a weak flour and so fermentation time is short i don't know if its me overfermenting it or its just because the flour is cheap but once its baked it creates a jaw breaking crust so impossibley hard to chew on, otherwise everything is golden, would you happen to know what's causing it?

Its refreshing to see americans make their own bread now ;D. In europe its way cheaper to go next door to the bakery and get it for 3 bucks.

wow

I have once again tried 4 times to get the System Reboot Formula and haven't even received a conformation email from you. Would you please help me out here? I have really enjoyed your videos since I first found them. You also mentioned an updated system and I was wondering if it has been released yet? Regards, William

Phil do you ever weigh your loaf post-bake? I feel mine could be lighter - it was at 738g out of the oven today.

The loaf looks amazing and I'm going to try a 65% hydration with this process to see if it helps. But what I don't understand is why you use such weird weights. Why not round it up to 450g of flour and base the ratios on that? It would make it easier to follow and less intimidating!

This may seem a little inconsequential but with regards to final dough weight; I always end up with less than the original calculated final weight. I call this "process loss." I usually lose about 15 grams of weight during the process. Should we factor this loss in while calculating, or am I making too much out of it. There's an old saying "Paralysis by analysis." It may be apropos here. Thanks again for a great vid Phil.

Which brand/product of flour are you using?

Hi! I'm the recipe you said to use levain, but in the video you are using mature sourdough starter. So which one of the two?

I have tried this recipe and others at around 65% hydration and my results have all been terrible, I am really confused as to where I am going wrong. I have experimented with various different bulk fermentation lengths but no matter what I try, the dough is sticky and difficult to manage and it doesnt hold its shape during shaping. After proofing, the dough completely loses all of its shape when I take it out of the basket, it gets stuck regularly also. The scoring never works because the dough doesnt have any strength or shape so its just like slicing into a pancake, and the finished loaf is always flat and dense. I have been baking loaves weekly for a year now and I am still so far from even a decent loaf :(

Hello there! Most of other bakers on internet recommend 75 to 80% hydration for a bred like this but you use only 65%? That's interesting i will definitely try a lower hydration next time.

Can you send me the breakdown of different measurements please

I’m still getting the dough sticking to the board so very hard to stretch it out at all. What am I doing wrong? I’m using flour with 12.8 protein and trying to follow as best I can. Bit new to sourdough and can not get my dough to look like yours at all :( it’s just always to wet / sticky even tho I have reduced the water.

I have a starter made with whole wheat flour. Do you ever make a whole wheat sourdough?

If I keep my starter into the fridge it will still be good after some days of feeding?

Is the overnight prove required? I started this process this morning around 6am. Currently, at the time of this comment, I’m about 3 hours into into the first bulk fermentation.

Maybe I did something wrong, but this recipie was my first total failure with sourdough. I did use all purpose flour, but it was rated 12% protein organic. Not sure but this ratio did not work for me. Maybe not good for a Dutch oven loaf.

Never rec’d the link and it’s not in my spam folder and I sent you a reply to this effect.

❤❤❤

I think there is a mistake on the blog recipe or I am reading it wrong. I read baking is 10mins? And a minor spelling error of lead instead of leave.

I tried your recipe today, but when when i open the lid after 20 minute, i see that the dough has collaped and is much lower in height, what am i doing wrong? :(

The dough whisperer

Signed up with email to receive the calculator, but email never arrived. Still waiting.

Nice for a single loaf. Try doing that several hundred times over in a single shift! Ain't no time for that.

Shit, finally had a good rise and gluten structure with sourdough only, thanks to you !

I know you said there’s no magic formula 😉but if I promise not to tell anyone else would you please tell me the magic formula. 🤫

Can I make the recipe with a kitchen robot?

Thanks Phil! FWIW, Jack has figured out a way to match the size of your bowl to the weight of your dough. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fJlScTsqtlY.html

we don`t see the table so much, can´t see what is happening on the table

If you could also use American measurements as well…. Would be great…thanks

*looks at him tasting his starter* "Oh thank god, I'm normal" I always had the doubt that what I was doing was bad for me

I followed your recipe down to the time of proving & retarding but somehow ended up with gummy loaf 🥲 pls help