This Sourdough Bread has been a frequent request to make from my fam. They love it and I love them so I make it. This recipe is, in my opinion, not hard just time consuming.

Recently I have been OBSESSED with making sourdough bread with my starter. It’s definitely a learning curve with the ratio of water to flour to starter, but once you find that happy medium it’s smooth sailing. If you want a sourdough recipe, but don’t have starter I do have a recipe that uses dried yeast which you should check out. Also, keep in mind that this is the longest recipe I have ever written and I probably ramble at times so bear with me haha.

How to Make Sourdough Bread:

Day 1)

Start by getting your starter up to speed. I normally store mine in the fridge and take it out TWO DAYS before I want my bread. So if you want bread on Sunday, get your starter ready on Friday. I measure out about a tablespoon of my starter and mix it with 100 grams flour and 100 grams water in a clean jar. I use all purpose with my starter, but you can use whatever flour you normally feed your starter with. 

If your starter has been in a cold retard for a while, like mine normally is, then you’re going to want to do this whole process two times before the starter is ready, or strong enough to rise all that dough for you’re bread. So what I normally do, is take out my starter in the morning, let it rise all day, then empty it out that night until a tablespoon remains and then add all my water and flour again. Then, I let it rise all night and in the morning it will be perfectly active and ready to rise your sourdough bread!

Day 2)

That morning your starter should be very bubbly… you may even see a bubble appear when watching it.

I also do the float test (spoonful of starter in bowl of water… if it floats it’s ready!) If it sinks let it rise more and keep checking every 30 minutes. However, if your kitchen is very warm it might have risen to its peak and sunk already… if this is the case empty out your starter again and feed it again. I would keep in eye on it because it will probably be active quicker if your kitchen is warmer!

If your starter is ready, then let’s start your autolyse. This is your flour and water mixture. I always go for a sourdough bread with a 75-80% hydration level. This means for the 1000 grams of flour there is 750 to 800 grams of water. This hydration level is nice because it’s not too sticky to handle and still very moist. 

The flour combination is really based on your preference. I like a country sourdough bread, which has some whole wheat flour. I like the flavor it adds. However, if that doesn’t sound appealing you could just do all purpose flour and that will turn out great too!

The nice thing about sourdough is it’s so easy to personalize each loaf. Some people add chocolate for a sweet loaf, you could add cheese for a savory one… the options are endless! I especially love a rosemary and herb sourdough bread!

Anywho, kinda got off track there… after combining your flour and water let it sit in autolyse for at least an hour. I sometimes do this if I know my starter isn’t ready and won’t be for a couple hours. It makes the dough a lot easier to fold. The gluten strands in the dough relax, causing a greater elasticity.

Then I add my 20 grams of salt and 20 grams of water. I use the crab claw technique to incorporate, which is exactly what it sounds like haha. Then I add my starter! Add 100 grams of active and bubbly starter. Also use the crab claw.

Folding Stage:

The next stage is the folding stage. For around 5-10 minutes, I fold my dough until it passes the window pane test (more on that later). The actually folding is easy (called the stretch and fold), you pretty much use a wet hand and slide it under a section of the dough and hold on to it and bring it toward the ceiling, really stretch it, and then fold it back down over the main section of dough in the bowl. I do this in quarter turn segments, meaning I do one part of the dough and then turn the bowl 90 degrees and then grab the next section of the dough.

I swear it sounds more complicated than it is… and if a visual explanation would be helpful this video on sourdough making is great.

So after you fold for a while, grab a golf ball sized piece of dough and stretch it with your hands and hold it up to the light. If you can see light through the dough, your dough has passed the windowpane test. If not, keep on folding. However, if you are folding for more than 20 minutes and still no luck, move on. The sourdough bread will still taste great!

(please ignore my grubby hands haha but this is what the windowpane test looks like!)

Now on to bulk fermentation!! The best part in my opinion. This is the part when the dough gets all those beautiful air bubbles. This process can take anywhere from 4-9 hours depending on where you live (the temp of your kitchen). After all that folding, let your dough rise for an hour and then repeat one set of the stretch and folds every hour until the dough has bubbles on the surface and feels very (for lack of better word) jiggly. When I shake the bowl the dough will shake too, it just feels very alive. 

Once you are at this point, move the dough onto a lightly floured surface and kind of let the dough pull itself out of the bowl. We don’t want to pop any of the air bubbles we just worked so hard to make! Then I separate the two into two loafs, I really just eyeball this but you could use a scale. 

Shaping:

Once I have my two loafs there, I roughly shape them into a circular loaf by taking the sides and folding it into the center. Then I let it rest seam side down for about 20 minutes. Lightly flour two proofing baskets while waiting.

Next is the shaping, which is done by stretching it out into a rough rectangle. Then, you take the left side and fold it into the middle, then the right side and fold it onto that fold you just made into the middle. So it kind of looks like a log. Then, I grab the end closest to me and roll it up. Let the dough sit on the counter with the seam side down and kind of pinch the ends so there aren’t holes in the sides. Again, if this process sounds really confusing this video is great.

Then I use a bench scraper to gently transfer the dough into proofing baskets.

Let them rest in the baskets at room temperature for about an hour or until the overall appearance has slightly increased in volume. The poke test should also be done, which is when you poke a finger into the dough and if it springs back immediately it needs more time, but if it springs back slowly and leaves a slight indentation, it’s ready.

If the dough passes the spring test then it’s ready to be chilled in the fridge overnight. I normally just use the towel in the proofing basket to kind of cover the top of the dough and then place them in the fridge. 

Day 3)

It’s baking day!! Start off by putting your Dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 500°F. You don’t need the lid on the Dutch oven when it’s preheating. While the oven is getting ready, I get my parchment paper (which I cut so it has a spot for the loaf and handles like seen in pic below), flour, and lame (fancy word for bread cutting/scoring knife) ready. Once the oven is close to being ready, I take one of the loaves out of the fridge. I place the parchment paper over the basket and then invert it. Slowly take the basket and towel off. Then you can make a design! One slash about an inch deep along the side will look perfect, or be as creative as you want to. 

Once your loaf is ready, very carefully remove the Dutch oven and, using your handles of the parchment, to place the loaf inside. Place the lid on the oven and put it back in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes. After the 20 min, take the lid off and lower temp to 450°F and let the dough finish cooking for another 20 minutes.

Remove from the pot and let cool on wire rack. Then, put Dutch oven back in the oven and preheat again to 500°F and repeat whole process with the other loaf. Let the loafs cool completely before cutting into them. I know it’s difficult and I can’t let them cool completely most of the time, but apparently if you let it cool completely the interior won’t be gummy and the crust will be crispy. 

And then you’re done!!! You get to enjoy all of that hard work!! My family loves this with some oil and vinegar to dip in. Or just with butter is delicious.

As always, happy baking!!!

-Emma :))