Sourdough Bread, Simplified
The sourdough process can take a lot of trial and error, but I’ve simplified it for you. Please note that your ideal recipe might vary from mine due to your location, climate, season etc. Every question is a good question and the internet is your friend! One thing is for certain: making homemade bread for those you love is well worth the effort. Enjoy the journey!
Tools:
Kitchen scale
(2) 1 quart wide mouth glass jars with lids
Wooden spatula or spoon
2 proofing baskets
Large mixing bowl
Dutch oven (or loaf pan)
Plastic wrap and parchment paper
Optional: dutch whisk, bread lame, dough scraper
Ingredients:
Starter (reach out to me to get some of mine!)
Unbleached all-purpose flour (I like the King Arthur flour in the red/white bag)
Filtered water (if your tap water comes from the city water supply, consider using filtered or bottled water)
Salt (I like Redmonds Real Salt)
Feeding Instructions:
Gather your two 1 quart glass jars, one with your current starter mixture and the other being clean and empty.
Transfer 30g of the starter mixture into your empty glass jar and discard the remaining mixture in the old jar (or save it in a separate container in your fridge for discard recipes).
Add 125g of room temperature water to the jar and mix well
Add 140g of flour to the jar and stir until combined
Loosely cover with a lid and place it in a temperate location. Watch it grow!
Once the starter has doubled in size (usually between 12-24 hours), it is ready to bake.
Baking Instructions:
Add 250g of active starter to a large mixing bowl
Add 650g of room temperature water (always filtered) to the bowl with the starter
Mix with a wooden spoon or whisk until it is completely dissolved and looks milky
Add 1020g of flour to the bowl and mix it all together. A dutch whisk is really helpful! Complete mixing by hand as ingredients turn more dough-like, spending 5-10 minutes working the dough until it is completely combined.
Cover the bowl with a dinner plate and let it sit for 1.5-2 hours.
After resting, add 24g of salt. Wet your hands and then pinch in the salt with your hands until few to no grains are detected. Knead dough for 5-10 minutes by hand (stretching and folding).
Cover and let rest and rise (about 1.5-3 hours)
Dump the dough onto a clean countertop and divide it in half
Stretch the first loaf of dough into a large rectangle, pulling it taut but not tearing it (to avoid sticking, you can lightly wet your hands)
First, fold over 1/3 from the top and bottom of the rectangle on top of each other (so each third is stacked vertically
Then roll it up into a cylinder shape
To build the tension in the dough, further shape the cylinder into a spherical loaf by pushing it away and pulling it towards you in a counter-clockwise motion. Do that 4-6 times until your loaf is round and bouncy
Repeat the above steps with the second loaf
Leave the loaves on the counter for 20 minutes uncovered to rest
Using your scraper, lift up the first loaf and flip it over. Repeat the whole shaping process with each loaf, being more gentle as the dough will remember its shape.
Place a piece of parchment paper in each proof basket and lay one loaf into each basket.
Cover with plastic wrap and set on the counter to rise (somewhere between 2-6 hours)
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with your dutch oven inside (with lid on).
When oven is preheated, take the dutch oven out, remove the lid, add one loaf of bread (use a bread lame to score your loaf ) and add the lid back on top. The main score for loaf expansion will be larger and deeper on the top of the loaf.
Place in oven for 25 minutes. Then, remove the lid and bake for another 4-5 minutes. Times may vary per oven.
Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Wait 10-15 minutes before cutting into it.
Repeat with second loaf
Sourdough Notes:
Store bread on the counter under a tea towel for ~2 days. Or, slice and freeze sourdough for later. Place frozen sourdough in toaster to warm.
It will take some trial and error to figure out the exact measurements that work for you. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour. If it’s too dry, add a little water. Experiment and find the right grams for you.
The timing of sourdough is the toughest part to figure out. Try a few ways and see what works for you and your schedule. One suggestion is to do all of the steps in the evening, and then have the dough rise in the proofing baskets in the fridge overnight and bake first thing in the morning (putting the dough in the fridge slows down the rise).
A sourdough starter is an active organism. Which means it needs to be fed regularly to stay healthy. After each feeding a mature starter will grow 3-4x in volume in a 12-24 hour period before it starts to fall back down again. I feed mine every 24 hours when I’m baking regularly. I find that my bread turns out best when I bake with a starter that has been fed and reached peak activity, before it has collapsed. If you are traveling, or not feeding every day, then place the starter in the fridge to slow fermentation. An active and well maintained starter can live for decades!
My favorite tip to take the overwhelm out of sourdough: feed your starter and bake just once a week. You can do this by storing your starter in the fridge between uses. Just make sure you pull the cold starter out of the fridge in advance so it has time to warm back up before feeding it!
