Mixing the dough comes together so fast it is barely a technique!  Again, I am riffing off of Hertzberg and Francois methods from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Please access the master recipe here so that you can follow along with me in the video if you want.  You can make the recipe as they recommend with commercial yeast and it will be wonderful.  You could even use it right after you mix it up and let it rise, although they do recommend a period of refrigeration to make the dough easier to handle. 

However, since we are using sourdough starter (wild yeast) we need more time for our rise period than the two hours or so that Hertzberg and Francois recommend.  I usually mix mine up before bed (using the original recipe plus 200g of sourdough starter and about 150g extra flour to get the right consistency).  If you are using a marked dough bucket like me (mine is a 6L bucket) it will rise from around the 2L mark to the 4L mark and then you will know that it has risen completely.  Temperature of your kitchen and the vitality of your starter do probably matter in some way.  You can add 1/4 tsp of commercial yeast when mixing for extra insurance if you like.  

A word on order of mixing.  Now I use my dough bucket every week and I don’t wash it.  This adds to the sourdough process so why not!  Once the water is added, I scrape down the old dough into the water, add my starter, and give it a good mix.  This helps make sure the sourdough is evenly distributed and it definitely makes a difference.  Then you add the salt and flour, mix again, put the lid on, and let the dough rise.  

Check back in another post for shaping, baking, etc!