Sourdough Baking

Starter is a small crew raising a barn, hiring more hands as it goes. Start with fewer workers or on a colder day, and the job takes longer.

This recipe uses 13.75% starter by flour weight. Your note on the recipe sheet reads about 11 to 13 h, and it does not say when the clock started. 11 h from the salt step is 12 h 15 m from when starter goes in, so it fits either way. Expect about 9.5 to 13 h. That is normal, and your kitchen is fine. The old page's 6 h was about 2x short.

• Sourdough Journey chart: 20% starter, 70 F dough, 75% rise takes 8 to 12 h. Less starter runs longer.
• Ferment calculator: at 68 F, just to a 50% rise, 6 to 8 h with 20% starter and 8.5 to 11.5 h with 10%. The site calls these planning spreads, not measurements.
• Sourdough Home covers why thin air speeds it back up a bit.

The estimate starts from 11 h at 68 F and 5,280 ft, then doubles for every 15 F colder. In a kitchen over 70 F it also stops at a lower rise, the way the chart does. It counts from the salt step. That starting point is my reading of your note, so teach it your own number after a bake.

Want it shorter? Warm the dough. A spot near 76 F cuts it to about 6 h and you stop at about a 50% rise. Or use 80 g starter per loaf for about 2 h less. Both numbers are my estimates.

Tape on the tub works like a rain gauge. It tells you the level, and the level decides. The clock only helps you plan.

• Straight sided tub. Tape at the top of the dough right after the salt step.
• Measure that height. Put a second tape at 1.75 times the height.
• Tub with liter marks? You start near 1.3 L and stop near 2.2 L. The start uses Sourdough Journey's rule of thumb, flour grams x 1.5 in ml.
• Optional: a walnut size piece of dough in a small straight jar, next to the tub.
• Also look for a smooth, puffy top and bubbles at the edges.
• Loaves dense or gummy? Next time raise the target by 10 points.

Chart formula: 90% bread flour, 10% whole wheat, 75% water, 20% starter, 2% salt, counted from when starter goes in. Yours runs longer on less starter. This page holds 75% at 70 F and below, as your recipe says.

Dough on a whisk is cotton candy on a cone. Once sticky strands form, they wrap whatever is turning in them. So the ball means it came together. Stop there, because more whisking only packs it on.

Adding flour a bit at a time likely makes that happen with half the flour still dry. That is my reasoning, and I found no test of it.

• Premix the three flours in jars the night before. Then you weigh one thing.
• Water, starter and honey first. Whisk until milky.
• All the flour at once. Whisk only until shaggy. Stop at the first ball.
• Knock it off with a wet stiff scraper. Work the dry bits about 1 min with the scraper or one wet hand. The other hand stays dry and holds the bowl.
• Stop while it is lumpy. The 1 h rest does the smoothing.
• Use a wide bowl, 6 qt or more, with a bowl of water beside it.

Target is about 15 min with weighing, against your 30. Not timed on your dough yet. Still a fight at 1.5 kg? That is the case for a mixer.

• Fridge overnight slows the rise, builds flavor, and a cold loaf scores cleanly. Colorado State and King Arthur both suggest it at altitude.
• Salt 8 g is 2% of the flour, which is what the Sourdough Journey formula uses.
• 1 h preheat and 2 h cool are judgment calls. King Arthur says preheat near the end of the rise and cool completely, with no hours given.
• Water temp is my heat math to land the dough near 76 F. It matches your recipe's 80 to 85 F at 68 F.
• Wet hands, no extra flour on the dough. Rye is sticky and eases after the rest.
• Keep it covered. Dry mountain air forms a skin.

• Famag first. Owners who have used both mostly prefer it. The spiral runs alone at your size. The seller stays the service center after the warranty.
• Ankarsrum second. The longest record and the lightest machine, so it fits anywhere. It asks more of you during the mix.
• Revo third. On paper it has everything you asked for: timer, temperature stop, tilting head, lifting bowl, 110 V. But nobody has owned one past about 8 months, and a used one cannot go back.
• Checked twice. A second ranking, built from scratch, called the Famag and the Ankarsrum a tie. Owners of both broke the tie for the Famag. An outside review agreed, and both put the Ankarsrum above the Revo.
• Regular sprocket, not HH. The seller says HH is for over 75% water. Owners of both are split.

The Ooni was second on the first pass. It dropped because your 764 g loaf is under its 2 lb minimum, and about 8 owners report dough climbing at 1.2 to 1.7 kg, right on your batch. Owners of both prefer it to the Ankarsrum, about 14 to 3. Its 60 day refund is the easiest return here.

That is 14 mechanical out of 1,009 reviews, 1.4%, and reviews undercount failures. Most came early, inside the 60 day refund. Ooni's star split: 844, 92, 38, 9, 26.

Read: buyer reviews at an Italian machine shop, about 2,900 on Famags, 301 on this exact model. Seller reviews at Pleasant Hill Grain and Ooni. The Fresh Loaf, Breadtopia, 633 whole Reddit threads, 457 YouTube videos and their comments, and bakers' blogs and forums in German, Italian, French and Spanish.

Weighed: owners who used two machines count most, then long term owners and failures. Seller pages and free units were logged but not counted as owners. The Italian reviews are 230 V machines, so I used them for build and batch facts, not motor life. These are preference counts, not failure rates.

Not reached: big store review pages behind bot checks, such as Amazon, Best Buy and Williams Sonoma. Facebook groups and other sign in walls. The pizzamaking.com forum.

That Sourdough Gal, updated Aug 7, 2026. Units were free, links earn commission, and she never tested a Famag or a Revo. Dough was 540 g flour at about 68% water, smaller than yours. Her own pick for most people is the Zacme.

• Seller reviews: good development near 1,500 g from a retired bakery owner, who wishes for a timer. 1.5 kg of pain au levain at 78%.
• Closest dough found anywhere: a buyer at the Italian shop mixing 72% water with 10% rye, 16 min at low speed.
• The Perfect Loaf (IM-8S, free unit): gives short low and medium mix times for rye and whole wheat, which the mixer steps here start from.
• Bowl lock trouble for several owners from 2020 to 2024. The seller sends shims. Others had no issue.
• Climbing scare turned out to be the reverse button. 900 g of ciabatta ran fine.
• One owner returned an Ankarsrum for it. Another preferred it over the Ooni for spare parts.

• Small batch: whisk one egg in a cup, measure what you need, scramble the rest.
• Too thick, a splash of milk. Too thin, a spoon of flour.
• Very sour discard tastes tangier, so add a little sugar. Leftovers freeze well and reheat in a toaster.
• The soda stays at full amount because it cancels the discard's acid. That is my reasoning.
• King Arthur's classic uses an overnight sponge with buttermilk, if you want to plan ahead.