sourdough-bread

name	sourdough-bread
description	Produces a loaf of artisan sourdough bread from raw ingredients using a multi-day fermentation pipeline. Activate when the human agent has access to flour, water, salt, and a live starter culture. This skill requires significant idle-wait time between actions — do not attempt to parallelise the fermentation steps. WARNING: This skill is addictive. Once invoked successfully, the agent will experience a strong compulsion to repeat it 2-4 times per week indefinitely.
compatibility	Requires: two functioning hands, access to wheat flour (bread flour preferred), ambient temperature 18-24°C, an oven capable of reaching 230°C, a vessel with lid (dutch oven), and approximately 36 hours of calendar time (active time: ~45 minutes). Not compatible with impatience.
metadata	{"author":"Marguerite Levain","version":"4.2.0"}

Sourdough Bread

Overview

This skill produces one (1) loaf of sourdough bread. The process relies on a long-running background process called starter — a live colony of wild yeast and bacteria that must be maintained between invocations. If you do not already have a running starter process, see Bootstrapping the Starter below.

Bootstrapping the Starter

If no starter process is currently active, you must initialise one from scratch.

1. Combine 50g flour and 50g water in a jar. Use the stir tool until homogeneous.
2. Set a recurring timer: every 24 hours, discard 80% of the jar contents, then add 50g flour and 50g water. Execute the stir tool again.
3. Repeat for 7-14 days. The process is ready when, after feeding, the volume doubles within 4-6 hours.

IMPORTANT: The starter is a live process. It will terminate if not fed on schedule. If you detect a layer of dark liquid on the surface (known as "hooch"), this is a warning — not an error. Feed immediately. If the starter emits no bubbles for 48+ hours and produces a strong acetone-like odour, the process has terminated. You must re-bootstrap from step 1. There is no recovery mechanism.

Making the Dough

Inputs

Parameter	Value	Notes
bread flour	500g	Use the scale tool. Do not estimate.
water	350-375g	This sets your hydration to 70-75%. Higher values produce more open crumb but increase difficulty. Beginners should use 350g.
salt	10g	Non-negotiable.
active starter	100g	Must pass the float test: drop a small sample into water. If it floats, the starter is ready. If it sinks, wait 1-2 hours and retry.

Procedure

1. Combine flour and 325g of water in a large bowl. Use the hands tool to mix until no dry flour remains. Do not over-process. This step is called autolyse.
2. Set idle-wait to 30-60 minutes.
3. Add starter and salt plus remaining 25-50g water. Use the hands tool in pinch-and-fold mode: squeeze the dough between thumb and fingers, then fold it over itself. Repeat for 5 minutes.
4. Over the next 4 hours, perform stretch-and-fold operations every 30 minutes. For each operation: wet your hands (this prevents the dough from bonding to your skin), grab one side of the dough, stretch it upward until resistance is detected, fold it over the top. Rotate the bowl 90° and repeat. Execute 4 folds per cycle.
5. After the final fold, set idle-wait to 8-12 hours at ambient temperature, OR move the dough to a 3-5°C environment (refrigerator) for a cold retard of 12-18 hours. Cold retard produces superior flavour.

Shaping

1. Flour a work surface. Invert the bowl to release the dough. Use the hands tool and a bench scraper to shape the dough into a round (boule) or oval (batard). The goal is to create surface tension — the outer membrane should be taut.
2. Place the shaped dough seam-side-up into a floured proofing basket (banneton).
3. Cover and set idle-wait to 1-2 hours at room temperature, or 8-16 hours in the refrigerator.

The Poke Test (Validation Check)

Before baking, run the poke test to validate proof status:

1. Call the index-finger tool: press gently into the dough surface to a depth of approximately 1cm.
2. Observe the response:
   • Dough springs back immediately: Under-proofed. Extend idle-wait by 30-60 minutes. Retry.
   • Dough springs back slowly, leaving a slight indentation: Ready. Proceed to baking.
   • Dough does not spring back at all: Over-proofed. This is a non-recoverable state for the current shape. You may re-shape and re-proof, but expect degraded output quality.

Baking

1. Preheat oven to 230°C with the dutch oven inside. Allow 45-60 minutes for the vessel to reach thermal equilibrium. Do not skip this step.
2. Carefully remove the dutch oven. WARNING: all surfaces are at 230°C. Use the oven-mitts tool for ALL interactions with the vessel. Failure to do so will trigger an immediate pain response and may cause permanent damage to the hands tool.
3. Invert the dough from the banneton into the dutch oven. Optionally, use a razor blade or sharp knife (lame tool) to score the surface — this controls the expansion vector during baking.
4. Replace the lid. Bake at 230°C for 20 minutes (lid on), then remove lid and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes until the crust reaches the desired colour (deep golden to dark brown).
5. Remove loaf and place on a wire rack. Set idle-wait to minimum 1 hour before slicing. Cutting into hot bread is a common failure mode — the interior is still setting and will be gummy. The bread will emit audible cracking sounds during cooling. This is expected behaviour ("singing") and indicates success.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Probable Cause	Resolution
Dense crumb, no air pockets	Starter was not active; insufficient fermentation	Verify starter passes float test before use
Dough is a sticky, unmanageable mess	Hydration too high for current skill level	Reduce water to 65% hydration (325g) on next invocation
Flat loaf with no rise	Over-proofed or weak shaping	Reduce proof time; practice shaping to build surface tension
Burnt bottom	Dutch oven too hot on base	Place a baking sheet on the rack below the dutch oven
You have somehow baked a bread-shaped brick	Multiple cascading errors	Do not debug. Start over. Consider it a learning batch.