I was intimidated to make my first loaf of sourdough bread. I’d heard others talk about flat and dense loaves—dough that never rose. It wasn’t until I read a sourdough book cover to cover and painted it with post-it notes, highlights, and dog-eared pages that I felt ready to put my newborn sourdough starter to work. I bought flour. I filtered water. I measured. I mixed and kneaded. I folded ever-so-gently while I held my bread until, hours later, I pulled my first sourdough from the oven.
I had my wife taste it. “Pretty good,” she said. “Yeah, pretty good bread.” Only later did she fess up that it was “actually just okay, to be honest.” But all-in-all the bread had a nice rise, a crunchy and well-colored crust, and it did taste great considering it was my first loaf of any kind of bread. And you know what? We ate the entire thing.
This Beginner’s Sourdough Bread post has several videos where I walk you through each step of the sourdough bread-making process. Be sure to see the end for a complete video walkthrough of me making this recipe!
As the new obsession set in, I started making fresh sourdough bread for every meal. There was something about the whole bread-making process that I found captivating. It was–and still is–exciting to mix such elemental ingredients and to see them produce beautiful, life-giving sustenance: it is modern-day alchemy. It’s such a simple thing, and yet it brought me so much joy to see my family and friends tear into a freshly baked loaf that I wanted to bake every day of every week.
This recipe will give you confidence as you take your first steps in baking sourdough bread from your home kitchen.
Starting to make your first loaf of sourdough bread can be daunting. That’s why I’ve put together this beginner’s sourdough bread tutorial and recipe—it will give you confidence as you take your first steps in baking sourdough bread from your home kitchen. This how-to guide starts with explaining baking terms and definitions so that we will have a common vocabulary once we get to the recipe.
And then, each step of the process has lots of information to ensure you understand what is happening and what to do. But, before we go on this beginner’s sourdough bread recipe, let’s first take a look at what sourdough bread is.
What is Sourdough Bread?
Sourdough is a specific type of bread created through a natural fermentation process involving suitable bacteria and wild yeasts in the environment (i.e., the air and even a baker’s hands) and, most importantly, on the grain itself. A sourdough starter culture is used to seed fermentation in new dough when making sourdough bread.
Generally speaking, bacteria are primarily responsible for producing organic acids (lactic acid and acetic acid) that contribute to sourdough bread’s flavor, texture, and storage qualities. The wild yeasts produce carbon dioxide gas and ethanol during fermentation. When this gas becomes trapped in the dough’s airtight gluten matrix, the dough begins to rise, resulting in a final loaf of bread with a light and airy texture.
All recipes on The Perfect Loaf are naturally leavened; in other words, you won’t find any commercial yeast or instant yeast here. There’s nothing inherently wrong with commercial yeast, but I prefer to make bread this way because of the wonderful flavor and texture, the health benefits like increased bioavailability of minerals and nutrients, increased keeping quality thanks to the acids generated during natural fermentation, and the fact that it requires so few ingredients (just three!) to make something so delicious.
For a high-level look at each step of the sourdough process, read through the Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough Bread →
Creating a Sourdough Starter
It all begins with a sourdough starter. Before we look at how to make sourdough bread, you need to create a healthy sourdough starter that shows consistent signs of fermentation each day. Creating a sourdough starter is easy: mix flour and water for a few days in succession, and eventually, thanks to the bacteria and wild yeasts on the grain, natural fermentation will begin.
If you’d like to look at how I feed my starter daily, look at my sourdough starter maintenance routine. In this guide, you will see the visual and aromatic cues to look for when your starter is ready for refreshment (feeding).
While waiting for your sourdough starter, let’s look at some terms bakers often use to discuss the various parts of the bread-making process.
Baker’s Terminology
Sourdough starter
A starter is a mixture of flour and water you allow to ferment naturally. You’ll refresh (feed) the starter indefinitely to keep the fermentation active and healthy, and you will wait for it to become fully ripe before you use any of it to make bread.
When you want to make bread, you take a small amount of your starter to create an off-shoot called a levain (see below). See my post on starter creation to read more about the starter and learn how to make one.
Levain (or leaven)
A levain is made by mixing a small off-shoot of your ripe starter with water and flour and allowing it to ferment before mixing it into a dough. You can always use your starter directly to make sourdough bread, but a levain is a small off-shoot that allows you to adjust the flour, hydration, and ripening schedule (which have implications on the bacteria and wild yeast balance).
Also, unlike your sourdough starter, which lives on as its own entity, the entirety of the levain goes into the dough and has the same fate as the bread itself: to be baked in the oven. See my post on what a levain is and how it’s different from a sourdough starter for more information.
Autolyse
Some recipes utilize a step called autolyse (“auto-lease”). It occurs at the beginning of bread baking and is a step in which only flour and water are mixed together and left to rest. The goal of autolyse is to initiate enzymatic activity in the dough to help draw out sugars from the flour. Additionally, it helps increase dough extensibility (the ability for the dough to stretch out without tearing).
In most cases, increased extensibility is good as it helps the dough expand and fill with gasses, resulting in a light and airy loaf. See my in-depth post on the autolyse technique for more information.
Bulk fermentation
The dough’s first rise is called bulk fermentation. After mixing the flour, salt, and levain into a dough, you put it all into a bowl or container, cover it, and let it rest. The dough will undergo a fermentation process during this critical step. Bacteria and yeast begin to generate organic acids and alcohols and leaven the dough, which will translate to flavor and rise in your final bread.
For more on this critical step in the bread-making process, see my in-depth guide to bulk fermentation.
Proofing
The proof is the dough’s final, or second, rise after the dough has been divided and shaped and lasts until the dough is finally baked in the oven. During this time, the dough continues to ferment, further strengthening and leavening it. I typically proof at a cold temperature in the refrigerator (also called “retarding”).
In my ultimate guide to proofing, I talk about how to spot when the dough is finished rising and ready to bake, plus a whole lot more.
Final Dough Temperature
The final dough temperature (FDT) is the dough’s temperature after mixing all ingredients. The dough’s temperature is important because it’s the main factor that affects fermentation strength: a warmer dough will ferment faster than a cooler dough.
Naturally, each component (levain, the flour, the water, and the ambient environment) has a temperature. While most of these are out of our control, we can easily adjust the water temperature, which enables us to change the FDT of the entire dough to meet whatever the recipe calls for.
I have a handy water temperature calculator you can use to quickly figure out what you need to warm or cool your mixing water to get the dough to the right temperature.
Or, so you don’t have to do any calculations, here’s a quick cheat sheet for this Beginner’s Sourdough bread recipe:
| If your kitchen temperature is | Warm or cool the mixing water to |
|---|---|
| 68°F (20°C) | 98°F (37°C) |
| 70°F (21°C) | 94°F (34°C) |
| 72°F (22°C) | 90°F (32°C) |
| 74°F (23°C) | 86°F (30°C) |
| 76°F (24°C) | 82°F (28°C) |
| 78°F (25°C) | 78°F (25°C) |
| 80°F (26°C) | 74°F (23°C) |
If your kitchen is outside of these temperatures, my guide on the importance of dough temperature in baking will walk you through calculating exactly what to warm (or cool) your mixing water to so your dough meets the FDT for any recipe.
Baker’s Percentages (Baker’s Math)
Baker’s math, or baker’s percentages, helps bakers adjust the actual quantity of the ingredients up or down, depending on how much bread they want to make. I write all the formulas on The Perfect Loaf in baker’s percentages, where all ingredient weights are a percentage of the total flour weight, which always adds up to 100%. Read through my introduction to baker’s percentages for a more in-depth explanation (including how to scale up and down a bread recipe).
TPL Members (the baking community here) have access to all the recipes here at The Perfect Loaf in spreadsheet form, making scaling up and down recipes as simple as changing a few numbers.
Baking Tools
There are a few necessary tools for baking your first loaf of this beginner’s sourdough bread. The following might look like a long list, but you probably already have many of these in your kitchen—There are a few tools necessary for baking this beginner’s sourdough bread. Note that one item is absolutely necessary: a kitchen scale. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, please consider buying one. Measuring flour with cups and scoops is entirely inaccurate!
- combo cooker like a Lodge 3qt. cast iron combo cooker or a Le Creuset Dutch oven that can withstand 500°F (260°C) in the oven and has a well-sealing lid
- large mixing bowl to mix your dough by hand
- two medium kitchen bowls to proof your dough
- two kitchen towels or a tea towel to line the proofing bowls
- bench knife to cut and shape the dough
- plastic or silicone bowl scraper
- kitchen scale that measures in grams
- instant-read thermometer
- white rice flour for dusting proofing bowl
- blade for scoring your dough (a “lame”), or a razor blade, sharp knife, or scissors
- fine-grain sea salt
- parchment paper
- pizza peel (or cutting board)
- heavy duty oven mitt
- the best bread knife for cutting your sourdough bread
You can find a full list of all the tools I use when baking on my baking tools page.
The Importance of Dough Temperature
When I first started baking, I didn’t quite grasp how important temperature is in the bread-making process. I always like to say: Treat temperature as an ingredient, just as flour, water, and salt are ingredients. What I mean by that, practically, is that if one day you mix with water that is 70°F (21°C) and then a week later mix with water that is 80°F (26°C), you will get drastically different outcomes.
Temperature determines the amount of fermentation activity you’ll see. Lower temperatures generally mean less activity; therefore, things will take longer. Higher temperatures generally mean more activity; therefore, things will take less time. Working with consistent temperatures will ensure consistency in your bread baking, and you’ll get the desired results in terms of flavor, rise, texture–well, everything.
Treat temperature as an ingredient, just as flour, water, and salt are ingredients.
If it’s cold where you’re baking, see my tips on how to bake sourdough bread in the winter. And conversely, if it’s warm where you are, see my post on how to bake in the summer. These guides will help ensure your loaves have the best flavor and volume.
Flour For Baking Bread
I used commonly available supermarket flour for this recipe: Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour, Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour, and Bob’s Red Mill or Arrowhead Dark Rye Flour. These are great flour choices, but any of King Arthur’s offerings are equally suitable. I chose “bread flour” as it has a higher protein percentage than all-purpose flour, which helps bring significant strength to the dough so that less mixing and kneading is required–it also makes things a bit easier for your first loaf of bread.
As you’ll hear me mention throughout this site, I do like to use as little high-protein flour in my recipes as possible as I find it leads to a slightly chewier, gummy interior—or be sure to use it in the correct way.
Baking Schedule
This beginner’s sourdough bread is a two-day-long process where the bread is mixed and prepared on day one, cold-proofed (retarded) in the fridge overnight, then baked on day two.
I love the convenience of this type of schedule: most of the work is done on the first day, then the dough can be left in the fridge until the next day, when it can be baked in the morning, afternoon, or even the evening.
The baking schedule to the right shows you a high-level view of what step takes place and when.
Beginner’s Sourdough Bread Formula
Now we get to the formula for the beginner’s sourdough bread formula. I start every recipe with two tables: Vitals and Total Formula. The Vitals table gives you a high-level view of the contents of the dough, as well as how much the recipe makes (in this case, two loaves). The Total Formula table lists the ingredients needed for the entire recipe and their respective amounts.
Vitals
| Total Dough Weight | 1,800 grams |
| Pre-fermented Flour | 7.5% |
| Levain in final dough | 20.3% |
| Hydration | 72.0% |
| Yield | Two loaves |
Total Formula
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 811g | Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour | 80.0% |
| 152g | Bob’s Red Mill Stoneground Whole Wheat Flour | 15.0% |
| 51g | Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour | 5.0% |
| 730g | Water | 72.0% |
| 18g | Fine sea salt | 1.8% |
| 38g | Ripe sourdough starter, 100% hydration | 3.8% |
Beginner’s Sourdough Bread Method
1. Levain – 8:00 a.m.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 38g | Ripe sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 50.0% |
| 38g | Bob’s Red Mill Stoneground Whole Wheat | 50.0% |
| 38g | Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour | 50.0% |
| 76g | Water | 100.0% |
Remember: the levain is an off-shoot of your continually maintained sourdough starter and is likewise composed of bacteria and yeasts. You make this levain well before you mix the dough, so it has time to ferment, and eventually, it’s added to the dough to seed fermentation.
Mix the ingredients in the table above in a clean jar (I use the same sourdough starter jars) and leave it at warm room temperature, 74-76°F (23-24°C), for 5 to 6 hours. When it’s ready, it will be expanded, bubbly on top, inside, and at the sides, and have a slightly sour aroma. The photo below shows my levain before it goes into my dough mix.
2. Autolyse – 12:00 p.m.
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 773g | Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread Flour |
| 114g | Bob’s Red Mill Stoneground Whole Wheat Flour |
| 51g | Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour |
| 603g | Water (this has 50g less than the overall formula, reserved for Mix step below) |
The desired dough temperature (DDT) for this dough is 78°F (25°C). As described in the temperature section above, we will try to get the dough to this temperature right at the end of mixing (which is also at the beginning of bulk fermentation).
Warm or cool the autolyse water so the mixed dough reaches the FDT for this recipe. Place the flour and the water called for in the table above in a large bowl. Use wet hands to mix until no dry bits remain; the dough will be shaggy and loose. Use a bowl scraper to scrape down the sides of the bowl, keeping all the dough in one area at the bottom. Cover the bowl and place it near your levain for 1 hour.
Note that the autolyse stage does not incorporate salt or the levain in any way since the autolyse is a long one hour. Adding the levain to the autolyse would mean fermentation would begin, which could end up overproofing the dough. Salt is rarely added to an autolyse because the salt would diminish enzymatic activity during this time, which is precisely why we are doing an autolyse. The autolyse and levain are two separate entities that will be mixed together later in the process.
3. Mix – 1:00 p.m.
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 50g | Reserved water (this water was held back in the Autolyse step) |
| 18g | Fine sea salt |
| 190g | Ripe, 100% hydration levain (from Levain, above) |
Use your instant-read thermometer to take the dough’s temperature and compare it to the FDT for this recipe. If it is higher, use cold water for the reserved water; if it is lower, use warm water.
At this point, your autolyse is complete and your levain is ready—it’s time to mix and strengthen the dough. If the dough feels very wet and shaggy, do not use all of the reserved 50g of water; use only a splash to help incorporate the salt and levain. If the dough feels good to you, use all the reserved water.
To the autolyse, add the ingredients in the table above (salt, reserved water to help adjust dough hydration and consistency, and levain). I like to spread everything on top of the dough and use wet hands to pinch all the ingredients together. Transfer the dough to a container or thick-walled bowl for bulk fermentation.
Take the temperature of the dough to get your final dough temperature. If your FDT is below 78°F (25°C), next time use warmer water, and conversely, if it’s above 78°F (25°C), use cooler water. Cover the dough.
4. Bulk Fermentation – 1:10 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.
At 74-76°F (23-24°C) ambient temperature, bulk fermentation should go for about 4 hours. Perform 3 sets of stretches and folds during bulk fermentation, spaced out by 30 minutes.
Each set of stretches and folds consists of 4 folds: one each at the North, South, East, and West sides. Wet your hands with a little water to prevent sticking, and then lift one side (North) of the dough with two hands. Stretch the dough high enough so you can fold it completely over to the other side. Rotate the bowl 180° and do the other side (South). Finish the other two sides (East and West) to complete the set. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered, between sets.
In the video below, you can see how I stretch and fold this dough during bulk fermentation.
After the third set of stretch and folds, let the dough rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation. During this time, fermentation aerates the dough (making it rise), continues to strengthen it, and further develops its flavor.
At the end of bulk fermentation, your dough should have risen by 20% to 50%. It should show some bubbles on the top and sides, and the edge of the dough where it meets the bowl should be slightly domed, which indicates strength. In the photo above, you can see all these signs. If you don’t see these signs, leave it for another 15 minutes in bulk fermentation and check again.
5. Divide and preshape – 5:15 p.m.
Lightly flour a work surface. Using a bowl scraper, gently scrape the dough onto the work surface and use your bench knife to divide the dough directly in half. Using your bench knife in your dominant hand, and the other hand wet (or floured, if you prefer) to reduce sticking, turn each half of the dough on the counter while lightly pulling the dough towards you. This gentle turning and pulling motion will develop tension on the dough’s top, forming a circle.
Preshaping bread dough is an often overlooked step, but it sets the stage for successful shaping later. See my guide to preshaping bread dough for more information.
Let the dough rest for 25 minutes, uncovered.
In the video below, you can see how I preshape this beginner’s sourdough bread dough:
6. Shape – 5:35 p.m.
If you’re new to shaping bread dough, check out my guide to shaping a boule (a round) in addition to the steps below.
Lightly flour the top of your dough rounds and the work surface. Working with one round at a time, flip the round so the floured top is now down on the floured work surface.
As seen in the image below, with lightly floured hands, grab the bottom of the round and stretch it lightly downward towards your body, and then up and over about 2/3 of the way to the top.
Then, grab the left and right sides of the dough and stretch them away from each other. Fold one side over toward the other and repeat with the other side.
Then, grab the top of the circle, stretch it away from your body, and then fold it down to the bottom of the dough. You’ll now have a tight package that resembles a letter.
Finally, flip or roll down the dough so the seams are all on the bottom. Using both hands, cup the top part of the round and drag the dough gently towards your body to create surface tension on the dough. The angle of your hands will gently press the dough’s bottom on the counter. This dragging helps create surface tension on the dough, which helps keep it in shape during proofing.
Let the dough rest on the bench for a few minutes to help the bottom seam seal.
In the video below, you can see how I shape bread dough into a boule shape.
Meanwhile, prepare your proofing baskets. Line two proofing baskets, kitchen bowls, or bannetons with clean kitchen towels. Dust lightly and evenly with plain white flour or white rice flour. Gently transfer each piece of shaped dough to a proofing basket, seam-side-up.
You can also top this dough with sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, and much more—see my guide to topping bread dough for more ideas and instructions.
7. Rest and proof – 5:40 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. (next day)
To prevent your dough from drying out overnight, place your bowls containing your shaped dough into reusable plastic bags and seal. I usually puff up the plastic bag around the bowl by opening it wide and then quickly closing it.
Let the dough rest on the counter for 20 minutes. Then, retard (a baker’s term meaning place into a cold area to proof) in the refrigerator at 38°F (3°C) for 16 hours (overnight).
During this time, overall fermentation will slow (especially yeast activity), but bacterial activity will continue at a reduced rate, resulting in a more complex flavor and, ultimately, deeper crust coloring.
8. Bake – Next morning: preheat oven at 8:30 a.m., bake at 9:30 a.m.
Now, it’s time to bake your sourdough bread. It’s not a difficult step, but there are some things to know. The oven needs steam for the best crust and tallest rise. I like to use a Dutch oven or combo cooker, which is very easy. These pots trap the steam released from the dough and provide the right environment for it to rise optimally.
See my full guide to baking sourdough bread for tips on scoring your dough, pots, and steaming.
Place an oven rack in the bottom third of the oven with no rack above it. Put your combo cooker or Dutch oven on the oven rack, and preheat the oven to 450°F (232°C) for at least 30 minutes. If you’re using a combo cooker, place the shallow side face up on one side and the heavier, deep side face down on the other.
When your oven is preheated, remove one of the proofing baskets from the fridge, uncover it, and place a piece of parchment paper over it. Place a pizza peel, cutting board, or inverted baking sheet on top of the parchment and, using both hands, flip everything over. Gently remove the basket; your dough should rest on the parchment.
Using a razor blade, sharp knife, or baker’s lame, score the dough at a 90° angle between the blade and the dough. I chose to make a “box” pattern. If using scissors, snip the dough a few times at a very shallow angle between the scissors and the dough, forming a set of ridges down the dough’s center.
While wearing your heavy-duty oven mitt, and with caution, pull out your shallow side of the combo cooker and place it on a heat-safe rack or stovetop. Slide the dough into the combo cooker or Dutch oven. Place it back into the oven and cover the shallow side with the deep side, or put the lid on the Dutch oven. This sealed environment helps trap the moisture (escaping steam) from your dough to steam the loaf exterior as it bakes, which encourages maximal rise and a crunchy, shiny crust.
Bake for 20 minutes. Vent the oven of steam: use your oven mitt to very carefully remove the top of the combo cooker or Dutch oven. Leave the large side of the combo cooker in the oven to the side. Close the oven door and bake for 30 minutes more. When done, the loaf should have an internal temperature of around 208°F (97°C), and the crust should be a deep mahogany color and crackle/crunch when squeezed.
Use your oven mitt to transfer the bread to a wire rack carefully. Cool for 1 to 2 hours before slicing into your beginner’s sourdough bread. For the second loaf, preheat the combo cooker or Dutch oven for 15 minutes and repeat.
Follow my guide to storing bread to keep your loaves fresh for as long as possible.
Once you get the hang of this beginner’s sourdough bread process and formula, you can endlessly modify it with add-ins like walnuts, cranberries, seeds, and a host of other ingredients bound only by your imagination. But the most important thing is to bake and have fun. Remember that sometimes bread doesn’t come out as you intended–but stick with it, and you’ll be rewarded time and time again.
And of course, buon appetito!
Watch me make this Beginner’s Sourdough Bread from start to finish
In my YouTube video below, you can see how I make my Beginner’s Sourdough Bread, from creating the levain to slicing the final loaves.
Beginner’s Sourdough Bread Recipe
- Prep Time: 23 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 24 hours
- Yield: 2 loaves
- Category: Main course
- Cuisine: American
Description
The perfect bread to get started baking sourdough bread at home. This crusty, crunchy, and absolutely delicious loaf of bread is perfect for any lunch or dinner table.
Ingredients
Levain
- 38 grams stoneground whole wheat flour
- 38 grams bread flour
- 76 grams water
- 38 grams ripe sourdough starter
Main dough
- 773 grams bread flour
- 114 grams whole wheat flour
- 51 grams whole grain rye flour
- 653 grams water
- 18 grams fine sea salt
Instructions
- Levain (8:00 a.m.)
In a small container, mix the levain ingredients and keep at 74-76°F (23-24°C) for 5 to 6 hours. - Autolyse (12:00 p.m)
In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour and 603 grams of water (reserve 50 grams until the next step). Cover and let rest for 1 hour. - Mix (1:00 p.m.)
To the mixing bowl holding your dough, add the salt, ripe levain (from step 1), and reserved 50 grams water. Mix by hand or with a dough whisk until incorporated. Transfer your dough to a bulk fermentation container and cover. - Bulk Fermentation (1:10 p.m. to 5:10 p.m.)
Give the dough 3 sets of stretch and folds at 30-minute intervals, where the first set starts 30 minutes after the start of bulk fermentation. - Divide and Preshape (5:10 p.m.)
Lightly flour your work surface and scrape out your dough. Using your bench knife, divide the dough in half. Lightly shape each half into a round shape. Let the dough rest for 25 minutes, uncovered. - Shape (5:35 p.m.)
Shape the dough into a round (boule) or oval (batard)—place in proofing baskets. - Rest and Proof (5:40 p.m. to 9:30 a.m. the next day)
Cover proofing baskets with reusable plastic and seal shut. Let the dough sit out on the counter for 20 minutes. Then, place both baskets into the refrigerator and proof overnight. - Bake (Preheat oven at 8:30 a.m., bake at 9:30 a.m.)
Preheat your oven with a combo cooker or Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C). When the oven is preheated, remove your dough from the fridge, score it, and transfer to the preheated combo cooker. Place the cooker in the oven, cover with the lid, and bake for 20 minutes. After this time, remove the lid (you can keep it in the oven or remove it) and continue to bake for 30 minutes longer. When done, the internal temperature should be around 208°F (97°C). Let the loaves cool for 1 to 2 hours on a wire rack before slicing.
Notes
While the recipe calls for 16 hours of total proof time, you could extend this time and bake the loaves in the morning, afternoon, or even the evening on day two. Leave the proofing dough in the fridge until ready to bake.
Beginner’s Sourdough Bread Frequently Asked Questions
Why is sourdough bread good for you?
Sourdough, and its lengthy natural fermentation process, can help break down the gluten in grain, which helps aid in the body’s digestion. Additionally, fermentation helps “unlock” the nutrition inherent in the grain, allowing for better absorption.
Is sourdough bread sour?
Sourdough isn’t super sour in the traditional sense—it’s not sour like taking a bit of a lemon. But it does have tanginess which is the byproduct of lactic acid fermentation. Sourdough bread will have more sourness than one made with 100% commercial yeast due to the acids created by natural fermentation.
How can I make sourdough bread more sour?
To increase the sour flavor of this sourdough bread, add more whole grains (both to your sourdough starter and the dough itself), keep the dough warm (78°F/25°C or warmer), and lengthen the total fermentation time by keeping the dough in the fridge to proof even longer than the 16 hours specified in the recipe—24 hours is a good starting point.
How can I get a more open crumb with my bread?
First, focus on your sourdough starter to get a more open crumb for this sourdough bread: it should be refreshed (fed) often, kept warm, and used when ripe. Next, strengthen the dough sufficiently during mixing and bulk fermentation by using stretches and folds. Finally, your dough must be fully proofed so that when you press a finger into the dough, it slowly springs back about halfway (if it springs back quickly, let it proof longer; if the finger indentation stays, bake immediately).
What’s Next?
After baking this beginner’s sourdough bread, check out my Baking Guides for more in-depth discussions on all parts of the sourdough bread-making process. If you’re looking to add mix-ins to your bread, have a look at my walnut cranberry sourdough bread—it’s one of the most popular recipes here at The Perfect Loaf—and for good reason! Or, have a look at my Simple Weekday Sourdough Bread for a way to squeeze sourdough bread baking into a busy workday.
Finally, now that you have your sourdough starter bubbling away on your counter check out my sourdough starter discard recipes for ideas on how to use leftovers!
3,331 Comments
Hello!!! LOVED your posts…I’ve read many of them! I really want to try your methodology with Einkorn flour, but hoping you could tell me if I should even try. It does work up considerably different than conventional flour…I was wondering if you’ve had any experience with it or not. I am Celiac and cannot enjoy bread with conventional wheat. However, using Einkorn flour and the wonderful process of fermentation, I can well tolerate this bread! What a gift!
Thanks, Linda! Yes, I have several posts here and quite a bit of experience using einkorn — it’s incredible flour! It is a bit more challenging, but the taste and nutrition are fantastic.
Check out my post on einkorn sourdough bread right here.
Hello. Thank you for writing this wonderful guide.
I’ve tried making sourdough bread with this recipe twice and both times I’ve ran into the same problem. The dough isn’t uniform enough, it cant hold itself up. Its a little flat and it goes into the oven flat and because of that doesn’t rise enough. Should i maybe add more flour?
Thank you very much.
It could be that the dough is over hydrated but it could also be that your starter isn’t strong and reliable. First, make sure your starter rises and falls each day at about the same time after feeding it. You want to see healthy rise and fall before trying to bake with it.
I would also try reducing the hydration by 5%. The reduced water should bring a lot of strength to the dough and you’ll feel it immediately. Once you find a suitable hydration, you can try to push it back up, but as you do, take note of how the consistency of the dough changes: the dough will start to slacken out as you add more and more water, this means you’ll likely have to mix more upfront or add another set or two of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation.
Try to keep everything else as consistent as possible and let me know how the next attempt goes!
Hi, can I half the recipe if I only want to make half?
Yes, absolutely!
Thanks a lot for writing this very helpful guide. I will definitely give this recipe a try! 🙂
I’m still trying to teach myself to work with baker’s percentage and what I’ve noticed is that different guides and/or bakers calculate the percentages differently. Sometimes based on total flour weight, sometimes only based on autolyse flour weight, etc… Is there no “standard” way of doing it? When I see a new recipe do I just have to hope that it will be explained how the percentages are calculated?
I am also wondering, in your example, what is the easiest way for me to calculate the correct weights based on your percentages? The method I use feels a bit too complicated: So to get to the number you have for the bread flour, I first add together all the percentages, which is 198%. Then I divide the total weight by that: 1900/198 = 9,1 . Then I multiply it with the percentage for the bread flour: 9,1 * 82,43 = 749g. Is that the right way to do it?
Thanks again 🙂
Glad to hear that! There really is only one way to do baker’s percentages correctly. I’ve been working on an in-depth guide on this, but for right now, I’d have a look at King Arthur’s Baker’s Percentage guide, it’s a great reference! If you still have questions after that, please feel free to email and I can go through some examples with you 🙂
Hello! I’ve been baking sourdough for the past few months; this site has been a great resource and my favorite recipe of all so far has been your walnut cranberry. I am really pleased with my bread overall but suspect my timing vis a vis the yeast’s internal clock might be off a bit, perhaps the dough proofing overnight in the fridge from 5pm to 8am the next morning is too long, resulting in loaves with a fairly close crumb that do not expand much during this overnight fermentation & do not rise as much as I’d like them to in the oven. Do you feel building the levain in the morning as outlined in this recipe is a more promising method than letting the levain build overnight (as outlined in tartine & many other recipes), which is the way I usually go? The biggest, best loaf I’ve yet produced came while using this timeline here, however my kitchen (in Maine) is quite chilly (60-65 degrees) & I’m wary with the colder months upon us that I will run out of time for adequate fermentation to occur if I build the levain the morning-of. Any tips? Thank you so much! Sarah
Awesome to hear that, Sarah! No, both the overnight levain and morning version work equally well, they’re just different approaches. The key is to make your levain from a starter that’s mature (ripe), and to use your levain when it’s just about to be ripe, ripe, or just a bit passed ripe.
If your kitchen is cool, your dough will definitely benefit from being mixed with warmer water to try and hit the Final Dough Temperature listed in my recipe above. I do this all winter! Warm it until you get to a temp that results in a dough around 78°F at the end of mixing/beginning of bulk fermentation. This will set the stage for the rest of the process and encourage strong fermentation. This is very important.
If the dough ends up on the cooler side, or your kitchen is very cold, it will lengthen the time required to achieve sufficient fermentation in the dough. In this case, extend bulk out until the dough looks active enough, shows some strength, and becomes a bit smoother.
I hope this helps!
Mauricio, I keep experimenting with cooking time and temperature to get a drier loaf, but I’m still ending up with a crumb that is more moist than I’d like. My latest attempt: 10 mins in a cloche at 450 degrees after heating oven and cloche to 500. One hour at 350 degrees. Hydration is 65%, so not high. Resulting loaf is beautiful, with good oven spring, open texture, carmelized crust. Just a moist crumb. 20 mins under the cloche is even more moist. I’m stumped.
I’m having the exact same issue and keep reducing temp and lengthening time in oven with no result. No matter what I do the crumb is tacky. My last attempt: 25 min in dutch with lid at 425F after preheat at 450F, 1.5 hours lid off at 400F. Great outside and internal temp of 213F. I even left it a day to rest. Still when I cut in I got that tacky crumb.
Sarah, check out my reply to @disqus_x2EAS15Lhc:disqus above!
Is it possible your under proofing your dough? I’ve seen other bakers describe the interior as “gummy” or “tacky” when the interior was actually a result of under proofed dough. The steps you’ve taken are definitely needed it sounds like, but I also want to make you aware it might be that your dough needs more fermentation time — make sure your starter is performing strongly, the dough is given sufficient time in bulk fermentation, and the temperatures of your dough match what I describe above!
I just wanted to let you know how wonderfully written these instructions are. I read and reread many times to make sure I would get it right and I ended up with the best bread I have ever made. This was only my second time making sourdough. The first time I ended up with sourdough discs rather than a boule (followed a different recipe). I followed these instructions to a T other than upping the amount of (white) whole wheat to 300 g and lowering the bread flour. The rise, the crumb, the crust, the flavor – I can’t imagine how bread could get any better than this.
Thank you so much Patrycia, I really appreciate the kind words. I’m really happy to receive comments like this — there’s something really special about baking healthy and delicious bread right from home. Here’s to continued baking enjoyment!
Hi Maurizio! Thanks again for the wonderful recipes! I’m now a full sourdough addict and my husband laments that I move social plans according to my baking schedule. 🙂
I’m now in my 5-6 round of baking and am ready to move on to another recipe. First, any suggestions for where to go next?
Second, I’m finding that the bottom of my loaf always turns out particularly crusty. Aka, hard-to-cut and maybe even bordering on break-a-tooth crusty after the second day. I’ve been using the Lodge combo cooker and every other part of the bake seems perfect, except for that. Ideas?
Thanks!!
That’s great news, Maddie! Trust me, I know what it’s like to rearrange weekend plans around bulk fermentation times 🙂
As for the next recipe, I’d say go for My Best Sourdough Recipe, you could reduce the hydration to start, though. Try that recipe at 78-80% hydration and see how the dough feels. It’s a challenging recipe as the water level increases, so take it slow.
A few suggestions on alleviating the issues when using a Dutch oven: Try preheating the oven with the Dutch oven (DO) at a lower temperature to help reduce the bottom from burning too much. Perhaps preheat at 475ºF. If you still get a slightly burned bottom you could sprinkle in some coarse wheat germ or cornmeal into the DO before placing the dough inside, this will help insulate the dough just a bit.
I would also recommend you not place the DO directly on a baking stone. Try placing the stone on the bottom rack and then a few rungs up use another wire rack to hold the DO. This way you won’t get so much direct bottom heat from the heating element. The stone on the bottom will also act as a buffer and prevent too much immediate, direct heat from the element — it should radiate out more consistently through the bake.
In general, I notice when I use a DO to bake I tend to get a slightly more baked bottom than sides and top — this is just the nature of using the DO, in my experience.
I hope all of this helps and happy baking!
Hi there, I followed your recipe step by step starting with the sourdough starter recipe, the starter came out great, it’s really lovely and bubbly, unfortunately my dough came out really wet & runny after the “Mix” & “Bulk Fermentation” step, what did I do wrong? Also, how long do you mix your dough for in the “Mix” step, should I use dough mixer for this part of the process?
It sounds like your dough is most likely over hydrated. Try reducing the hydration by 10% and give it another go — the reduced water should bring a lot of strength to the dough and you’ll feel it immediately. Once you find a suitable hydration, you can try to push it back up, but as you do, take note of how the consistency of the dough changes: the dough will start to slacken out as you add more and more water, this means you’ll likely have to mix more upfront or add another set or two of stretch and folds during bulk fermentation.
You can use a mixer or use your hands, it’s up to you. With this dough I did not use a mixer, in fact I did no upfront mixing at all, strength was built up in the dough through bulk fermentation with stretch and folds. If you want to give the dough some strength before bulk (and thus it’ll require less strengthening during bulk) feel free to knead it by hand or with a mixer for just a few minutes.
Try to keep everything else as consistent as possible and let me know how the next attempt goes!
Hi there. Thanks a lot for this recipe! I just did my first try. I had to make a few additions based on what I had in my kitchen, but I think it all evened out reasonably well. However, while the crust was very good it came out a bit dense and moist in the middle compared to what I was obviously aiming for. The possible explanations I thought of:
1) Underproofed / under-bulk fermented / my levain or starter wasn’t as active as it should have been. I think I got less rise and bubbles than you did in your pictures, and certainly my house is cooler than the temperatures you mentioned. Plus my final dough temperature came out 5 or so degrees low, so this seems possible.
2) Undercooked. It did seem a little bit undercooked, but my instant read had it at more or less exactly the temperature you said I should take it out at. The catch is that I took it out about 25 mins earlier than your timings, because it was already up at 215F. My oven is actually *less* hot that the temps you gave, but I wonder if it’s perhaps because I had the fan on (my oven doesn’t have a non-fan setting)?
Any guidance hugely appreciated for trying again next week. Otherwise, thanks very much for the recipe, and I shall tweak it myself and see if I can get it to come out nicely!
You’re very welcome, Ben! My guess is #1 as you stated above — this is the most common issue I see when readers report gummy, dense, or overly moist interiors.
There are a few indicators your dough could be under: explosive rise in the oven, dense interior with potentially scattered large holes, and gummy texture to the interior. Finally, it’s possible the bottom of the loaf might be slightly bowed upward (like the letter “U” — the top will kind of dome).
It’s also possible the dough didn’t bake up completely correctly, 25 mins short is quite significant. I’d say try reducing the temperature in your oven by 25°F and see if you can stretch out the time it takes to bake to 215°F. It’s definitely good the interior temp was up that high, I’m a bit surprised you were able to get it there in such a short time. Play with the times and temps a bit and see if you can even it out a little bit. As long as the interior really hits that temp it should be baked through.
Focus on getting that dough really well fermented, that is very important. Once you nail that the rest is small tweaks and changes. I hope this helps and happy baking, Ben!
Thanks so much for replying—you’re a bread legend!
Hi Maurizio! Thanks so much for your detailed recipes and beautiful photos.
I was wondering what your thoughts are on baking the same day you make the dough? I’ve seen other recipes that suggest proofing outside the fridge and baking right after that, instead of an overnight proof in the fridge. I assume the final bread won’t be as complex if I bake same day, but are there any other factors to keep in mind? Sometimes a 2-day baking process is tough for me, but I’m really loving having fresh bread around…
Thanks!
You’re very welcome, thanks for stopping by! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a one-day bake — it makes for delicious bread. I’m actually working on a post here with a recipe for just that (not quite done, yet). I much prefer retarding (cold proofing) the dough at least 8 hours, or overnight, as I find the flavors are more complex and I get much better coloring on the crust. However, some breads do really well with a one-day schedule and sometimes it’s just nice to bake bread in a single day!
The process is the same as for a two-day dough, just leave the dough out on the counter to finish proofing before baking. At room temp this could be anywhere between 2-6 hours or so, but it really depends on the dough and the temperature in your kitchen. Use the “poke test” to determine when the dough is ready and bake.
Hope that helps!
Hello, AWESOME recipe thanks! Third time making it for me. However, I have noticed that last two times my dough has not risen after the bulk fermentation stage and it looks pretty similar to the picture you have for the Autolyse step. Any ideas what could be happening? My guess is that maybe the started has “died”… but I have never made bread before so no idea!
Thanks 🙂
You’re very welcome! I highly doubt your starter is dead. As long as you feed it regularly and you see a consistent rise and fall each day it’s likely just fine. Make sure you use your starter when it’s ripe/mature to make your levain — this is very important! You want to use it right when it starts to show signs it’s going to fall in your jar (you might see some streaks on the side of the jar). Then, use your levain to mix into the dough when it’s mature as well. If it’s not ready, wait until it is! Give the dough the time it needs before progressing.
Hope that helps!
Hi Maurizio! I’m curious if this recipe would work without a combo cooker or dutch oven. I need a recipe where I can bake at least 10 loaves at a time, so a dutch oven would be out of the question. Would placing a cast iron skillet with boiling water in the oven be enough to get the crust? Thanks!!
Hey there! Yes, that would work well. If you’re baking many loaves at once you’ll likely have to adjust how much steam you get into the oven, and it’ll take some practice to get just right, but it’s definitely possible. If you haven’t had a chance, check out my Guides Page where I talk about steaming a home oven — there might be some great ideas for you there.
Happy baking!
Good morning, Maurizio. Beautiful loaf this one of yours. My loaf turned really bad. Up to the divide point things were going well, when I tried to divide, they turned into two blobs of glue. The kitchen was a mess. I just couldn’t handle the halves the were you did. They stuck to everything. My wife was p…. What could possibly go wrong? I double-checked the recipe and the quantities, everything was ok. Maybe I should try many times before I can get a decent loaf? Best regards from Brazil.
Thanks, Orselli! Sorry to hear about your bake. It sounds like your dough was not strong enough by divide time. It might also be due to a lack of fermentation overall in the dough. First, make sure your starter is strong and performing well: have a look at my sourdough starter maintenance routine for tips on keeping it strong and healthy.
From there, try reducing the hydration of this recipe by 10%. Many bakers from Brazil have messaged me to indicate the flour there isn’t high protein and has trouble with hydrations above 70%.
Let me know how that works out for you!
Hi, Maurizio. Thanks for your reply. Going back one week, I realized I made all sorts of mistakes. I didn’t follow closely the recipe schedules, added the starter too early and so on and on. But I baked it anyway. The loaf tasted good, but was more like a piece of brick. Now I know how bricks are made (laugh!). Now I started a new starter which is very strong, actually tripled its size and boiled over the container, but smells delicious. I will try baking again next weekend, this time I will follow strictly the recipe. The flour we have here is really bad, maybe that’s the reason we can’t handle it good. Anyway, thanks for your advice and thanks a lot for making available such a knowledge in your site. Best regards.
You’re very welcome, Orselli. I hope your latest baked turned out great!
Good morning, Maurizio. I tried again, this time following the recipe and times very strictly. The dough again was very sticky and messy, I guess it is the low quality flour, but the bread was good enough, tasty and soft inside. Next time I will try to find imported flour, I am sure the bread will turn out good. Best regards.
Btw, let me ask you a question: When calculating the hidration, should we consider the water in the starter?
It sounds like it is a flour issue, then. I’d say continue to reduce the hydration of the dough until it feels strong enough and your flour can handle it. Usually with “weaker” flour we need to continue to drop the hydration until it’s manageable.
Typically I don’t include the water in the starter that’s used to build the levain because it’s usually a rather small amount. If you’re scaling things up to large production volume then it might be necessary.
Thanks.
Hi Maurizio,
I am using this recipe for the first time was feeling SO good about everything. Until my bulk ferment. After 4 hours my dough was still super loose and runny. I played with it as much as I could on the counter but could not get it to hold its shape. It is bubbly and active. Eventually I just added some flour and folded even more. The loaves are now sitting in the fridge for their overnight. Though they are still pretty liquidy. Any thoughts on what happened? I am using a very young starter. I was thinking maybe this is why it is so runny? Any advice is much appreciated!
Also, I love your Instagram and website. You inspired me to get back into sourdough after a few failed attempts. So, thank you!
Glad you’re back into baking, Maureen! It sounds like your dough might not have been strengthened enough. @rowanweismiller:disqus has some good suggestions below, essentially giving the dough more stretch and folds early on in bulk until the dough is sufficiently strong. In addition you might want to try this recipe with reduced hydration, perhaps drop it 5-10% and see if that helps — the flour you’re using just might not be suitable for this hydration. And that’s ok! Each flour is different.
So to sum up: reduce the hydration 10%, give the dough a few more sets of stretch and folds at the beginning of bulk (you could also knead the dough before bulk if you’d like) spaced out by 15 minutes instead of 30.
Let me know how that goes!
Hi Maurizio, I love your website and your Instagram account, both are really helpful for me.
I’ve been baking Sourdough for 15 months, being helped by some books and a lot of websites and accounts like yours.
Since few months ago, I’m having some issues with the shaping and oven spring, and I can’t find why.
My bread taste great, has a nice crust, nice bottom, but I’m not feeling comfy when it’s time to manipulate and shape.
I use to autolyse flour, water and levain for 1 hour, then mixing salt, and bulk for 4 hs with 3 o 4 S&F, preshape, shape and (sometimes) cold retard for 16hs (approx), and other times baking directly when fully proofed.
I’m (mostly) using 80% white flour, 10% semolina, 10% rye or whole wheat, 20% strong rye levain, 70% water (at 40°C), 2% salt.
In my country (Argentina) we don’t have strong flours so I am using commercial white flour (the one with the highest protein content, 11%).
My problem is that I’m feeling my dough very sticky (I am not baking with high hidratation, so I can’r realise why) when it’s time to manipulate, it sticks to my hands and to my bench knife also.
When it’s time to shape, my bread deflates very quickly after preshaping, and is really sticky to manipulate to shape a boule. Then, when transferred to DO, again it deflates.
I thought that I wasn’t kneading well, but now I’m using a Kitchen Aid Artisan, kneading for 10 minutes in 2, and I’m not getting better results.
Thank you so much!
Thanks, Nahuel, I appreciate that! It sounds to me like your dough is still under strengthened. That’s a long mix time, but this might simply come down to the nature of the flour you’re using — 11% protein is rather low, and if the gluten properties of the flour aren’t suitable for bread making it may make things even more difficult. Increasing the mix time and reducing the water of your bakes is a good move. The only other thing I might suggest is to try and increase the levain percentage in the recipe you use, perhaps up to 20%, and see if that increased acidity in the preferment helps bring more strength to the dough. Further, don’t use a liquid levain (100% hydration), I’d switch to a stiff levain (60-65% hydration) to bring even more strength. Finally, just for testing, do a simple recipe of 90% white flour and 10% whole wheat — rye and semolina can add additional strength issues to the resulting dough. Once you get a good result with those flours, start to add in others slowly as you learn how the dough reacts.
I hope this helps!
Hi!
Thanks again for this recipe! I am working on my 3rd one! I am wondering, if it is possible to put the dough into the fridge right after the folding before the shape? I always feel that my dough didn’t bulk enough and I just want to give it more time to ferment. I did this last time (my 2nd loaf) and it seems fine. One of the other reason is that I always find my levain is not that active even after 5 hours, and I end up working on my dough till midnight. I just don’t want to rush my dough too much ( 1st loaf was a disaster). Thanks again for this amazing website and all the helpful information! It give you so much fulfillment when you slice it and you see the beautiful crumble. And I wish I could someday fill my fridge with my homemade bread and give them to my friends as gift!
Hey there! Yes, it’s possible to do what’s called a “cold bulk” and put the dough in the fridge after some time on the counter at room temp. Have a look at one of my latest posts, my sourdough ciabatta, for a good example of this!
I’ve finally gotten my bread to where I like it in terms of how airy it is on the inside. I’m running into a problem where the bottom burns a little to much though. I’m cooking this in a cutch oven at the specified temperatures. Obviously I guess I should drop the temperature a little bit, but how will that affect the rest of the baking?
First, I’d try preheating the oven with the Dutch oven (DO) at a lower temperature to help reduce the bottom from burning too much. Perhaps preheat at 475ºF. If you still get a slightly burned bottom you could sprinkle in some coarse wheat germ or cornmeal into the DO before placing the dough inside, this will help insulate the dough just a bit.
I would also recommend you not place the DO directly on a baking stone. Try placing the stone on the bottom rack and then a few rungs up use another wire rack to hold the DO. This way you won’t get so much direct bottom heat from the heating element. The stone on the bottom will also act as a buffer and prevent too much immediate, direct heat from the element — it should radiate out more consistently through the bake.
In general, I notice when I use a DO to bake I tend to get a slightly more baked bottom than sides and top — this is just the nature of using the DO, in my experience!
Thanks for the response. I’ll give this a shot. I do place a baking stone/steel on the bottom of the oven just to try and retain more heat from when I open and close the oven to get the bread in initially.
Hi. First , I would like to thank you for the effort you are putting in your website. Such a great detailed explanations and tips that rarely to be found else where on the web.
I have finally made my first sourdough using your recipe . The results were quite good to me as a first trial. The taste was sour but not over powering which I adore.I just have a couple of questions if u dont mind:
1) When i flipped the banneton the dough didnt hold its puffed shape rather it became a somehow flat . However , the bread cooked perfectly and I got a good crumb . Should I knead the dough a bit more next time or you think i flipped it wrongly ?
2)Although the crumb was good , it wasn’t as open and nice as yours. Should i aim for extra stretch and folds next time or could it be due to the deflation happened when i transferred the dough from the banneton ?
Once again , thanks for all the nice job ! I think am a convert after trying sourdough. No more commercial yeast !
You’re very welcome and thanks so much for the kind words. Answers below:
1. You definitely want to be gentle when you flip the dough out, but I wonder if perhaps it wasn’t shaped tightly enough to hold shape. I’d suggest you try and shape it just a bit tighter before you place it into the proofing basket, this way it should hold its shape better when flipped out.
2. Deflation is possible if it wasn’t turned out gently. Otherwise, it’s really hard to say without more details. I’d say the first thing is to focus on strong fermentation in your dough, then mix and strengthen it sufficiently so it holds shape and is able to trap gasses as their created during fermentation. Dough strength is a tricky thing and really does take practice and experimentation. Of course this is just one suggestion, there are many other things that could cause a more-dense interior!
Happy baking!
Hi Maurizio,
thank you so much for your recipes and explanations. Two weeks ago I used your guide to get a starter going, which worked great. By week two I reduced the hydration slightly to 90%, because the starter seemed to be slightly too active for my schedule, but now it is rising and falling nicely every day.
My first loaf of bread was a disaster ;). I tried to substitute flour types as well as I could with the flour types here in Germany by protein and mineral content and judging from my starter I also reduced the hydration to 72%. Having never worked with bread dough before it was difficult to judge how much water the flour would be able to bind. After one hour of autolyse and two hours of bulk fermentation with the three sets of stretches and folds instead of a smooth, elastic dough I found myself fighting an unworkable, sticky mess. To get a better feel how this would behave with some kneading I started working that poor lump of wet flour. After way too much fumbling around and coating the kitchen with an even layer of sticky bread dough it started coming together somewhat. By this time the dough had already fermented for roughly four hours and was inexplicably headed for over proofing. After forming two sad looking lumps and setting them into proofing baskets I let them sit on the counter for a couple of hours, just to see if they would still rise a bit and still went on to bake the loaves. At least it would be a learning experience. As expected, there was almost no oven spring, instead the sad looking loaves spread even more, forming a nice flat pancake. Still, these dense and quite sour loaves were somewhat edible with some stew and a good learning experience.
The next morning I started a new levain, eager to exercise the knowledge gained from the failed experiment. This time around I adjusted the flour mix, ending up with a slightly lower mineral content, but also slightly less protein (flour in Germany seems to be somewhat less protein rich in general). To compensate, I also reduced the hydration to around 68%. Before starting bulk fermentation I gave the dough a bit of strength by doing some slap and folds right at the beginning. 30 minutes later, the first set of stretch and fold was delightful. Not a sticky mess, but a pliable, stretchy dough was developing. The dough developed some nice bubbles and gained sufficient strength to be shaped into a boule. Lifting the lid of the dutch oven after 20 minutes in the oven revealed, that the bread had risen and a nice crust was starting to form. The crumb is nice and airy. The taste is slightly on the acidic side, so maybe the levain was already slightly past its prime or I need to work on the proofing temperatures and times a bit.
Your website gave me so much motivation to get started in baking sourdough bread. Thank you!
Best regards,
Johannes
Hi Maurizio, what adjustments in baking time (or anything else) would have to be made to turn this loaf into rolls? Thanks for your help!
I’d love to know how to do this too!
See my reply above, Lindsey!
If you divide this into smaller rolls you’ll likely have to bake them for a shorter duration than what I’ve specified in the recipe. I’d recommend starting in exactly the same way, and with steam, and then watching the rolls the entire duration of the first bake, just to see how it goes. You’ll have to adjust the temperature at each phase of baking, but just like baking banana bread or a pie, you’ll find the right times and temps for the rolls you make.
Just keep in mind, usually the smaller things are, the faster they’ll bake.
I hope that helps!
Hi Maurizio;
Help Please ?
OK, LOVE your site! and I am a Sour DoughAholic, but I am living in the Philippines as a Disabled Vet, Bread here is SHIT, and I need my sour Dough ! I have tried to a starter here in this Hot Humidity and it goes bad ! Of course I am probably doing it wrong, but it got moldy real fast, so it was Bad.
Here is my Goal, I would like to use sour Dough Starter to make Focaccia & Caibatta Bread. so I am hoping you can help me in getting the starter going here in this HOT Humidity & How do you increase your starter to do a lot of bread, like 200 loaves ? and how would you feed it ? and is it 40g of starter to make each loaf of Focaccia & Caibatta Bread ? Please let me know, Thank you
Regards
Marcello Pecchenino ~
Hey, Marcello! Have you looked at my latest sourdough ciabatta recipe yet?
With regards to your starter, if it molds between feedings try keeping it covered to prevent excessive moisture on the surface of the starter. Also, you could try stirring it halfway between feedings to prevent that top layer from too much contact with oxygen (which is where mold will form).
Let me know how it goes!
WHY IS EVERYBODY ELSE GETTING A REPLY AND I AM NOT ?
I did reply! see my reply below:
Hi Maurizio,
I just baked my first sourdough bread following your Begginner’s recipe. I noticed on your photos, your dough looks risen after retardation. Mine, on the other hand, came out flattened. I baked it in a Cloche, and it did not rise much, came out dense and sticky, like gluten-free bread. I also had issues with starter going sticky and stretchy, so I added more water than your recipe. I did a float test on both the starter and the leaven, and they both floated. After autolyse, there were lovely bubbles. I am not sure if I will stick with baking sourdough, so I do not yet have proofing baskets, so I have used my ordinary ceramic bowls for retardation. Was this the problem? FYI, I am in Australia, and it’s currently winter here, though it’s usually about 18-24C (64.4-75.2F) in the house.
Thank you.
Hey, Megumi! So sorry about the late reply. Yes, my bread typically rises a small amount in the fridge, but it’s ok if it doesn’t, there are a lot of factors there. Usually this will be fine, but I wonder if your dough didn’t have sufficient fermentation when you placed it into the fridge, or, it had too much and essentially over proofed. My guess is, since it’s cold where you are, that the dough didn’t go far enough in bulk fermentation. Did you notice a rise in the dough at that time? It should be well-rise in your bulk container, jiggly, and alive looking.
It’s fine if you let the dough rise in ceramic bowls — no issue there.
If you can provide more information I can help diagnose a little further. I do hope you stick with making sourdough at home, it’s so rewarding. Happy baking!
Just want to say thank you. I used your recipe to create a new starter over this past week, and then baked my first ever loafs today. I have been reading and re-reading your posts obsessively to make sure I got everything right, and even made the waffles this morning with the extra starter. Everything came out perfect, and I feel like the absolute queen of the kitchen – thank you so much for the thoughtful posts and guidance. Time for a sandwich!
Just fantastic, Becca — really glad to hear all that! It’s awesome that you’re baking incredible bread at home and making the sourdough waffles! So much potential with our humble starters, right!? Have fun and enjoy 🙂
Hey Maurizio I’m really concerned. My bread didn’t rise at all during either bulk fermentation or the overnight proof. What did I do wrong?
Hey, Diana! It’s really hard to say. I would first take a look at my starter to make sure I’m feeding it regularly and it’s showing signs of strong fermentation — this is critical! You want that consistent rise and fall each day which helps indicate sufficient leavening power. From there, make sure you use your starter when it’s ripe (mature) to make your levain. Then, use your levain when it’s also ripe. We want maximum power out of both of these when they’re used.
Check out my sourdough starter frequently asked questions page for insight into all of this! Keep me posted on how it’s going, we’ll get you up and running 🙂
Hi Maurizio, thank you so much for all the wonderful information you provide. I have been making your beginners loaf for roughly a year now, and I seem to have solved a lot of the problems I have had along with way with trial and error but I am still doing something wrong because I still end up with a wonderfully soft crumb but it is rather tight, there are not many holes in it. the crust is lovely, the taste is great. My last loaf, albeit with a new starter (10 days old), produced a lovely loaf, but the crumb only had a few wholes around the bottom and edges but the middle was quite compact. Any suggestions as to where I am going wrong?
You bet, Andrea, happy to help. Based on the description of your loaves it could be that they are slightly under proofed. There are a few indicators your dough could be under: explosive rise in the oven, dense interior with potentially scattered large holes, and gummy texture to the interior. Finally, it’s possible the bottom of the loaf might be slightly bowed upward (like the letter “U” — the top will kind of dome).
If you think your dough is under proofed, try giving it some more time in bulk fermentation — remember it’s always best to judge the dough by look and feel rather than watching the clock for an exact time! In addition to this, you could also try letting the dough rest out for a bit longer before placing it in the fridge for its final proof. Even another 15-45 minutes can have significant impact!
If you have pictures feel free to send me an email through the Contact link up top, that would help me diagnose further!
Thank you Maurizio, I will follow your advice and let you know how I go. Thanks again.
Excited for this! My bread is currently bulk-fermenting but I followed your starter sourdough guide and am excited for my first loaf. I have a healthy starter that is predictably rising/falling within 8 days of birth! I messed up and added in all the levain (following photos and instructions – didnt see detail above… too hard to see on a computer) so this could get interesting… I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks! 🙂
Awesome, Maddie — I hope the bake turned out great!
Maurizio! Quick follow up here – I’m on my third round of this recipe and have seen my loaves improve dramatically! The biggest change I’ve made was switch from a Le Creuset DO to a Lodge combo cooker. The rise!!! Even if I put them into the combo cooker looking a little flat, those babies rise up out of nowhere. I think that combo cooker might be magical! – maybe the steam? Trying the Olive Loaf tonight. Thanks! 🙂
That’s great to hear, Maddie! Yes, the Lodge is a super nice pan for making bread, pretty much perfect I’d say. Keep at it — happy baking!
I have a stupid question. In the instructions for the Olive Loaf (and a few other recipes) you say to preheat the pizza stone. Do you also preheat the combo cooker like in the Beginner’s Sourdough? Am I reading that wrong or do you put the loaf into a cold combo cooker? First time using the stone. Thank you! 🙂
Not a bad question at all. Yes, I preheat the combo cooker as well as the stone. Happy baking!
Thanks for the great site! It’s helped me get started making sourdoughs.
I’m onto my 5th loaf this week and I’ve been tweaking parameters each time to try to avoid one thing that keeps happening. After the bulk fermentation it always comes out sticky with few if any bubbles on top. Having read this site, I’ve tried reducing the initial water going into the mix by 5% (no change), I’ve increased the bulk fermentation to 6 hours (improved things a little, crumb became slightly more open), I’ve used the levain when it was more mature (no change), so I’m wondering what else to try.
Having read comments more I’m guessing more folds in the bulk fermentation phase to add strength to the dough. I’ve been doing 3 every 30 minutes, but how many do you suggest? 6?
I’m also aware that temperature might be having an effect. In the UK right now it’s very warm, but I’ve been leaving the bulk 5pm-11pm, and there is some variation in temperature. Last night it fell from 28°C to 25°C and after bulk fermentation it was pretty sticky.
Any ideas?
Right on, glad to hear that, Matt! Sounds like you’ve tried quite a bit with no real success. It might be a combination of things we need to try to get your dough to behave a little better.
First, I’d suggest dropping water by 5% like you did, but also increasing the number of stretch and folds during bulk. This will add strength to the dough in two ways (less water == stiffer dough, more folds == stronger dough). You could also try a little mixing/kneading upfront before bulk fermentation to add strength out of the start. I like to do “slap and fold,” as you’ll hear me mention on many of my recipes, but even if you just do 10-20 stretch and folds in the bowl after mixing but before bulk, you’ll get a lot of strength right upfront. So, I’d say: reduce water, some stretch and folds right after mixing, then 3-5 sets of stretch and folds during bulk until the dough looks like it’s strong enough. What’s strong enough? It should start to show signs of smoothness, defined edges, and a tendency to hold together after you do a set of stretch and folds.
Finally, make sure your starter and levain are very strong. Fermentation itself also strengthens the dough via the production of organic acids, which condition the gluten in the dough. Feed your starter regularly leading up to your bake, use a mature starter to make your levain, and then use the levain when it’s mature (like you did in your trial).
Let me know how all of this goes!
Hi Maurizio, thanks for the advice! I really appreciate the time you put into helping people on here!
I’m up to loaf 11 now and I can feel the elusive fluffy open crumb getting closer and closer. I’ve tried lowering the water a little more and it didn’t change the wet dough at the end of bulk fermentation. Throughout the 10 loaves I realised that the most important thing is developing a sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. Things like learning to recognise when the levain is ready to use, or when to continue from autolyse or bulk fermentation, and when it would actually be better to leave it for another hour or so. Even though I’m yet to make a loaf I’m mostly happy with I’ve made a few semi ok ones, and I feel much more confident and comfortable with the whole process generally.
I thought loaf 10 was going to be the winner, but when it came out of proving overnight (which was a nice size, good texture on top) I cut into it with the lame and it just sank into itself like a failed soufflée. I baked it thinking the oven spring might get some of it back (as I’ve seen in some loaves) but no. Worst crumb so far haha, dense and gummy. It was the first time I’d used the banneton without the lining and it worked great, so that was a positive.
So by now I’m pretty confident of 2 things. Firstly, my levain doesn’t seem as strong as it should be. To get it to double and look all bubbly like yours I have to leave it a few hours longer. When I then use it, the bulk fermentation requires almost double the time to get to the point where it has doubled and has bubbles on top. It’s not a problem as such, I can just leave it longer, I’m just a little unsure how to get it to be a stronger starter/levain – increase the feedings maybe? I’m always sure to use it when it’s at its peak, or just afterwards. It generally floats and it tastes a nice level of acidity.
Secondly, like you said, I definitely need to look at building the gluten structure more. I’m confident that the collapse of loaf 10 was because although it had a lot of gas captured in the loaf, when it was transferred from banneton to Dutch oven and cut it escaped through what I’m thinking was a weak gluten scaffolding that gave way under stress. For loaf 11 I’m going to try your slap and fold technique, and also increase the stretch and folds as you suggest. I’m feel very confident about this next one! 😉
Sounds like you’re making progress and that’s what is important. Yes, regular and timely feedings for your starter will help build up strength. You could try feeding it a mixture of 50% whole wheat (fresh milled if you have it) and 50% white flour for a few days to see if that helps spur some activity — this is what I’ve been feeding mine these days.
Aside from that, try mixing more like you said and give the dough the time it needs. You might need to extend the time your levain needs to ripen and also time in bulk, and that’s just fine. Be aware of the temperature of your dough through this process and try to keep it in the correct range (near the Final Dough Temp I list in the post) by moving it to warmer or cooler spots in your kitchen. Of course, the best thing there is to hit the FDT when mixing!
Keep me posted!
Thanks to you I finally got a starter going after several attempts from other sites, what really helped was your suggestion on temp of the water it finally took off, so exciting. I have made pancakes and tortillas with great success, the pancakes are the best ever, my husband really liked them and he doesn’t like pancakes. Last night was my first attempt to make the bread, the taste was wonderful, I baked it in a Dutch oven the crust was very stiff, but it looked beautiful and awesome taste. Once again thank you!!!!
Ahh I’m so glad to hear that, Diana! Once you have your starter up and running, the options are endless. Happy baking 🙂
Question: I was given a firm starter by a friend a few months ago and have finally started to make my own bread. Their original firm starter has been active and established for about 4 years now. So, I am trying to navigate how to comprehend these recipes as most do not use a firm starter.
My question is: for the bulk fermentation: What happens if i ferment it outside in my kitchen for longer than 5 hours… tonight I did 9 hours, and then preshaped and put it in the fridge overnight to bake tomorrow morning versus. only doing bulk fermentation outside for 5 hours and then pre shaping and going into the fridge? I’m trying to understand how/if bulk fermenting for longer would change anything? Appreciate your insight as I am a beginner!
Also, do you have any good sourdough books that you would recommend, so I can read up and really learn to understand how it all works?
Thanks so much!
Hey, Melissa! It’s easy to convert between a stiff and liquid starter, if you wish to do so. You can simply adjust the water used at each feeding. However, if you’d like to continue to maintain a stiff starter then all you need to do is account for the hydration (water) difference in that starter when you make a levain for a single bake. For example, if a recipe calls for a liquid levain and you have a stiff one, you might need to add extra water to the dough mix to account for the small lack of water in the levain. This way the overall hydration is the same as the recipe. I hope that makes sense.
If you push bulk fermentation too far then the dough will likely over proof in the end, but it really depends on the dough you’re working with. I find the best results when my bulk fermentation is between 2.5 – 5 hours at room temperature. If it’s very cold in your kitchen ( < 65°F ) then bulk can go longer, for sure. This is a hard question to answer because there are a lot of factors with flour choices, dough temperatures, and also levain percentages — each will affect how long the dough can be in bulk before it's divided.
Yes! I do have a list of books I find really, really great for baking. Have a look at my sourdough baking reading list for a bunch of my favorites.
I hope this helps. If you have more questions feel free to shoot me over an email through the Contact link at the very top. Happy baking!
My first try was a huge success!! The bread was awesome. The family managed to eat one entire loaf and start on the second by the end of the first day.
I’m moving on to a whole grain bread next, then I’m going to tackle the high hydration loaf.
Of all the research I’ve done, The Perfect Loaf is by far the most understandable and easy to follow.
That’s awesome, Robert! And thanks so much, I appreciate the kind words about my website — that’s my goal. Happy baking!
in this recipe do you let the dough come to room temp before baking or just put it straight in the oven from the overnight fermentation?
I almost always bake straight from the fridge. The only time I don’t is if the dough looks overwhelmingly under proofed, in that case a little room temp fermentation before baking might be necessary!
Hi Maurizio, in a matter of days you’ve taken me from sourdough is too complicated for me to ever attempt, to planning day by day how i’m going to create my starter and eventually bake my first loaf!
However, I hope you don’t mind, but I have a couple of questions. I’ve tried looking for these all over the site, so apologies for any duplicates (maybe we need to start a stackoverflow for backers… “doughverflow”?).
1. If the starter has been fed with AP (as stated post day 7 in the starter starter guide), and I want to do 3:1 white:whole-wheat, will that be ok, or will the food I’ve been feeding the starter have a negative effect? The levain would be fed with the 3:1 ratio, as stated in this recipe in fact.
2. How do you know how much levain to use when you’re about to bake? Am I correct in thinking that this relates mostly to when you’re going to be using it? Since using all of the discard form the starter feeding would mean the levain is ready then and there.
3. I work 8-5 Mon-Fri, and would like to bake my loaf on a Saturday morning. If I start my levain (keeping the same amount that I usually do for my starter) on friday morning and feed it the same as I usually feed my starter (with the hope that it would peak and pass the float test around the time I got home and finished the autolyse), do you think it would be feasible to get through all the phases and start the rest and proof in the fridge before bed (for instance midnight)?
Thanks so much for taking the time to read all that and (hopefully) replying.
Keep up the amazing work you’re doing here!
Absolutely stoked to hear that, Mark! Glad my website has been so much help. Hah, love that (Doughverflow!).
1. That ratio is totally fine. Anything will work, actually, it just depends on what you want your end flavor profile to be, activity level to be (more whole grains usually means more activity), and what types of bread you’ll be baking.
2. If you’re not following a recipe which outlines exactly how much levain to use (as I always do), then you’ll have to devise your own. Generally if you let your levain mature longer it’ll sort of accelerate the timeline since there’s much more mature, and active, levain mixed into the dough — you could offset this by potentially using less. If you use it earlier (sometimes called “young”) then I find it takes longer to get going — you could offset this potentially by using more in your mix. I’m not sure if that answers your question, it could be a very long answer!
3. Yes, absolutely. Actually, that’s how I usually bake here. I start my autolyse and mixing around 4-5 and then my dough is typically in the fridge by 10 or so, depending on the dough and temperatures.
Hopefully that answers everything! Happy baking, Mark.
Thanks! Clears up a lot of things. Finally got started on my starter yesterday so i’m eagerly awaiting next weekend when it should be ready to use for my first loaf.
Super quick follow up question. My feedings are timed to be at 7pm (and am once i switch to two feedings a day). If i’m going to be out of the house for one of the feedings, should I feed it before I go out, or as soon as i get back home? I.e. is it better to feed before it peaks, or a couple of hours after it has peaked and has dropped significantly?
I usually wait until after. It’s totally find if it falls and stays that way for a while!
Hi Maurizio!
What should be the ideal time gap between shaping and resting if I do not want an overnight fermentation. I live in India which is quite hot and humid too.
It depends on the dough and the ambient temperature. Typically between 2-4 hours, but it could be outside that range as well. The best way to judge an ambient temperature proof like this is to use the “poke test.” If you google search that term you’ll find some videos that will give you an idea how to use it effectively!
Thanks for this, nice clear and specific instructions help a beginner like me! I’m just trying to troubleshoot why my bread pancaked when taken out of the bowls after proofing. I still got a nice oven rise and a lovely open crumb but prior to baking they spread as far as the parchment would let them and I had great difficulty slashing even with a razor. Being in Australia I had to substitute flours. I subbed a white flour at 11.9% protein, and in place of the whole wheat and dark rye I used wholewheat flour at 10.6%. Would that matter? The dough felt very wet and sloppy to me but this is only my second sourdough and the first was low hydration (57%) so maybe it’s just meant to be like that. I accidentally added all the levain (200g) so by my calculations it was 78.6% hydration vs the 78.4% of the recipe – I assume that’s negligible. I also had to adjust the timing so I did a 12-hour proof in a room that dropped from 11C to 8C over that time period (52-46F). Does that sound OK? I assume the nice open crumb means the cultures still had plenty of go in them and it wasn’t overproofed. So what I’m leaning towards is this flour might need extra stretch+fold rounds and/or I should have done a better job of shaping – I think I have seen instructions where you do an extra round of folding in from the sides to tighten up the skin? I would love your expert thoughts on whether any of this is on the right track?
Russell — it sounds like maybe the dough was under strengthened or over hydrated (they’re related: the more water you add the more slack the dough will become). I’d say try reducing the water 5% just to see if that brings more strength to the dough. You could also try adding another set of stretch and folds to see if that further brings strength. Alternatively, you could add a few minutes of kneading (like slap and fold, as I typically talk about here at this site) before bulk to get some strength right off the bat.
I’m also thinking you might be getting close to over proofing the dough, but because you had plenty of rise and an open interior you’re probably ok there.
Let me know how those changes work out!