Instructions: The day before making the bread add 2 cups flour and 1 1/4 cups warm water to 1 cup of saved sourdough starter in a glass/pyrex/ceramic bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, or lid and let stand at room temperature until the next day.

Day 2, stir down the sourdough sponge and save off all but 1- 1 1/2 cups of the starter, for next time. Add the remaining sponge (about 3 cups) to a mixing bowl and add the water, flours, salt, seeds, butter, and sugar. Mix well, and start kneading when mixing gets too difficult (if you start mixing with your hands, there is not really a transition at this point). Knead in additional all purpose flour as needed to form your proper consistency dough.

Let the dough rest for a bit (about 10 minutes), while you butter a bowl, etc...
Now, butter the ball of dough and place in the buttered bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. (The buttering of the bowl and the dough is not absolutely necessary, if you have a container in which to place the dough so that it doesnt start to dry out.)

When the dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down and knead it with as little flour as you can get away with. Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into round, oblong, long, vienna, etc... loaves as strikes your fancy.

Place the loaves on peels sprinkled with cornmeal.

If you dont have peels, place the loaves on bake stones sprinkled with cornmeal.

Cover and let rise until they look right (about doubled in bulk).

Preheat oven to 375 with a pan of water on the bottom of the oven (those of you with electric ovens, try placing the pan of water on the shelf as close to the element as you can, we want the water to become steam during the baking process)

Brush with egg wash just prior to placing in the oven.

If you have peels, preheat your bake stones in your preheating oven. Then just slide the loaves onto the bake stone (just seconds after sprinkling the bake stones with cornmeal)

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until done. (done may be a certain brown color, or when you rap the loaf with your knuckle, it sounds hollow) Cool covered with towels if you prefer to keep the crust soft.

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