An Italian Master variation. Roast a head of garlic first — the smell alone is worth the bake.
Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Italian Master dough | 1 batch | Through salt addition |
| Roasted garlic | 1 whole head | Cloves squeezed out, cooled |
| Parmesan, grated | 40 g | Half folded in, half on top |
Because my starter is fed with organic whole wheat flour, roughly 50 g of the total flour in this recipe is whole wheat (about 10% of the total). It’s a subtle background note, not a wheat loaf — but it’s part of the character.
Weights use baker’s percentage — the starter’s flour and water are subtracted from the totals. Use the calculator to scale.
New to sourdough? Learn how to make your own starter.
Method
1Roast the garlic first
Cut the top off a head of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil. Wrap in foil. Bake at 400°F for 35 min. Let cool, then squeeze out the soft cloves. You'll have about 40 g.
2Build the Italian Master
Follow the Italian Master through Step 3 (salt added).
3Add garlic + half the parm on first fold
Scatter the roasted cloves and 20 g parmesan over the dough. Fold them in — four folds, one per side.
4Continue folds and bulk
Folds 2–4 and bulk rise as in Italian Master. You can also use your oven's proof setting at ~100°F — it'll get there in about 45 minutes. Same target either way: ~50% growth, puffy and bubbly.
5Shape and retard
Shape, into banneton, 10–14 hour cold retard. This IS your final proof. No separate room-temp proof needed before the fridge — the cold and the time do all the work.
6Score and top
One slash. Sprinkle remaining 20 g parmesan over the top.
7Bake
475°F covered 20 min, 425°F uncovered 20–25 min.
8Cool
Wire rack, full hour.
Compared to
The published recipes I studied when writing mine down. Respect to the bakers who came first.
The technique behind this loaf: roasting whole garlic heads, then folding the roasted garlic into the dough during stretch-and-folds and baking in a Dutch oven. She uses rosemary; this loaf swaps in parmesan.
