How to make Sourdough Bread- Beginner’s Guide

Baking sourdough bread doesn’t have to be intimidating or hard. This beginners guide will help you learn the tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way to make the perfect most delicious traditional sourdough loaf.

Everything I’ve learned was by doing and failing and lots of research. I’ve changed many things from how I bake my loaves since I first started. I’ve learned so much along the way and I’m gonna share it with you!

How to make Sourdough Bread- Beginner’s Guide

I’ll be covering the basics of how sourdough works and what a sourdough starter is. Once you have a full understanding of what a sourdough starter actually does it’ll help improve your baking skills. The thing about sourdough is each loaf is always different and unique.
There’s a lot of science behind how the sourdough starter works and why we do each step that we do when creating a loaf.
As a result, you’ll start to feel confident and hopefully have a beautiful loaf!

What is Sourdough?

Sourdough has been made for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s made with sourdough starter and a slow fermentation process. There’s (usually) only about four ingredients in sourdough bread.
Sourdough starter, flour, water, and salt. When it comes to sourdough bread making, it’s all about your sourdough starter, the fermentation process, and what you do to help your loaf rise and have a strong gluten structure to hold its shape.

Sourdough Starter 101

The secret to amazing sourdough bread begins with your starter! Before you start your sourdough bread baking adventure, you’ll need a sourdough starter.
You can either create your own or buy one already made.

Now, you may be asking yourself, What is a sourdough starter? A sourdough starter is a live fermented culture of bacteria and yeast that makes a natural leavening agent. This is what will help your dough rise and give it the sourdough flour. Sourdough bread doesn’t require store bought dry yeast. Its thrives with live fermented culture of sourdough starter. And it has a lot of health benefits!

How to make a sourdough starter?

A sourdough starter is made with equal parts water and flour. After it’s been mixed a fermentation process will begin. You’ll want to feed your starter everyday of equal parts water and flour. I normally do 50 grams water and 50 grams flour or if you don’t have a scale 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water. Let it rise at room temperature around 75-80º F/ 24-26º C  is ideal. Everyday for each feeding you’ll want to discard half of your starter before feeding it. After a few days you’ll notice the sourdough starter rising and little bubbles.

Using the right flour is also important. There’s a lot of different types of flour’s you can use for your starter and sourdough loaf. I personally use Organic King Arthur Bread Flour or I also really love Trader Joes Organic All Purpose Flour. Be sure to always use unbleached flour for whatever type of flour you choose.

It needs to be at least 7-10 days of discarding and feeding your starter before you can use it to bake. It’s important to stick to a feeding schedule to maintain a good starter.

How Do I know my sourdough starter is ready for baking?

You’ll know you starter is ready because it will become very active! It’ll double in size and form a ton of bubbles all around. This usually happens 3-6 hours after you’ve discard and fed it.

And if you aren’t sure, you can tell by doing a float test. Take a spoon full of starter and drop it into a cup of water. If it floats, its ready. If it sinks, its not ready and you should do another feeding.

Where to store your sourdough starter?

You can either store it on your counter with a loose lid or in your refrigerator. You’ll need to keep your sourdough starter fed everyday if left out on the counter. If you don’t plan on baking everyday you can store it in the fridge then you’ll feed it once a week.

Also, these are the jars I use for my sourdough starter and I LOVE them. They are wide and big enough for my starter to rise.

How To Make A Traditional Sourdough Artisan Loaf- Step by Step, with scheduled time

I’ll be including scheduled times that I stick to for when I bake my loaves. You don’t have to stick to this schedule. This is just what has worked for me.

What you’ll need.

These are the items I recommend having for baking your loaf.

• Sourdough starter
• Organic unbleached flour
• Salt
• Water
• Scale
• Large mixing bowl
• Baskets
• Tea Towels
• UFO Lame
• Flour Wand
• Dutch oven

Step 1. 7-8am-Feed your starter.

The first thing we are gonna do in the morning is feed our starter. Secondly, we want to give our starter time to become active and bubbly before we start baking. I usually feed my starter around 7 & 8 am. So discard half your starter and feed 50 grams flour and 50 grams water and wait for her to become active.

Step 2. 11 AM- Mixing part of the dough.

For the second step we are going to be mixing part of the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour. This is called Autolysing. This is going to help your flour absorb the water and give it a higher hydration and better gluten development. The better the gluten means you’ll have amazing bread!

Get your scale and a large mixing bowl and measure out-

• 500 Grams Flour
• 350 Grams Waters Between 85-95 degrees F.

I find it easier to mix with my hands. Your dough will be very shaggy. Mix it until there’s no flour at the bottom of the bowl.

Once its mixed, grab a tea towel, ( I use these ones) wet it and ring it out and place it over the top of your bowl. This will help with your dough not drying out.

Next, we want to keep our dough at a warmer temperature. My oven has a bread proofing setting but if your oven doesn’t have one just preheat your oven at 200 degrees for a couple minutes and then turn it off. You just wanna make it warm. Put your bowl in the oven and set a timer for 30 minutes to and hour.

Autolysing is optional. If you don’t have a lot of time you can totally skip it and go to step 3. But I promise it makes a huge difference. I’ve made several loaves with doing autolyse and without doing it. I’ve always had my loaves turn out way better with incorporating it.

Step 3. 12 pm- Mixing your dough.

Next, we are going to add our sourdough starter and salt to the dough mixture. Zero out your scale and add:

• 100 Grams Sourdough Starter
• 10 Grams Salt

Using clean hands, mix your dough until its incorporated. Once it’s mixed, place your damp tea towel over the bowl and put back in your warm oven.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and then we’ll begin our stretch and folds.

Step 4. 12:20ish- Stretch and folds.

After your timer has gone off, we are going to do our first stretch and fold.

You are going to take one end of your dough and stretch it over to the other side and then turn your bowl and stretch the next end over to the other side. Turn your bowl and do it again. You’ll do this about 10 times or until your dough becomes less stretchy.
Stretch and folds help build the gluten structure and help with your dough to hold its shape. Your dough will become less sticky each time you do it.

Set a time for another 15 minutes and pop your dough back in your oven with a wet tea towel.

Next, perform another set of stretch and folds.

Set your timer this time for 30 minutes.

Perform another stretch and fold.

Set your timer for your last stretch and fold for another 30 minutes.

Lastly, perform your last stretch and fold. Form your dough into a ball, cover with your wet tea towel, place back in your warm oven.

Step 5. 1:50 pm Bulk Fermentation

This is the easy part.

You are going to let your dough rest in the oven for 5-7 hours. Your dough is going to double in size and rise! I check my dough often to make sure its rising well. This is a slow rise so you may not notice much after the first hour.

*Note- Don’t let your dough over ferment. This will cause your dough to become very sticky, runny, and hard to shape.

Step 6. 5/7pm- Shaping into a boule.

After you’ve notice your dough is at its peak, you’ll want to flour a clean surface. I use a spatula and scrape my dough onto the floured surface. I’ll use my bench scraper to push my dough into a smooth ball.

*I highly recommend using rice flour for dusting your loaf and dusting your counter. It doesn’t absorb moisture and helps make your scoring look so beautiful!

Next, I’ll take the bowl my dough was in and place it on top of the dough to cover it and let it rest.

Set a timer for 15 minute while its resting.

After the timer goes off, uncover the bowl and use a dusting wand to sprinkle some flour over the top of the dough in a thin layer. You don’t need a ton!

Next, set a timer for another 10 minutes. This is going to help our dough become easier to shape as the top dries out a little.

Finally, after your dough has rested another ten minutes its time to shape!

You are going to use your bench scraper to lift all ends of your dough and turn your dough over to the opposite side. (Refer to photo up above.) You are going to take the top end of your dough and stretch it down to the middle of your dough. Next, take the left side and stretch it to the right. Lastly, take the right to the left and the bottom end and stretch it up to the top of your dough.

You’ll flip your dough with the seams to the bottom and we are gonna start pushing our dough forward and back towards you.

Pushing it back and forth is going to help build a tight boule.

Next, we are going to get our basket or banneton ready. If you are using just a normal small basket, place a tea towel in the basket, fold it long ways. Sprinkle flour on the bottom to help your dough not stick to the tea towel or banneton.

You’ll put your dough in upside down. The bottom seam should be facing up. Sprinkle some flour on the top to help with dough sticking to the tea towel. I fold the rest of the tea towel over the basket.

Put your dough in a grocery bag and tie the ends of the bag together to help keep your dough from drying out. I know some people put a plastic shower cap of the top to also help.

Pop your basket into the fridge and call it a night!

Step 7. 11/12 am- Baking your bread.

After all your hard work, its finally time to bake! I usually let my dough proof in the fridge for 15-17 hours. Proofing is what helps your dough get that yummy sour flavor.

Before you get your dough out of the fridge you’ll want to preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit with your Dutch Oven in the oven.

Get your dough from the fridge and put in on parchment paper. You can score your dough any way you’d like. There’s so many different ideas on Pinterest if you are needing some ideas.

After your Dutch oven is nice and hot, place your parchment paper and dough in the Dutch oven. I always pour a couple of tablespoons on water in the side of the pot and put the lid on. This helps with steam and helps your loaf rise nicely. Step a timer for 20 minutes.

After the timer goes off, remove the lid to your Dutch Oven and drop your oven temp down to 425. (This could vary on different ovens. Just be sure to keep an eye on your bread.) Bake for another 20 minutes.

Once your bread is done remove it from the Dutch Oven and put it on a hot plate. Let it cool for an hour before cutting into it!