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!
3,324 Comments
Hi! I loved making this bread for the first time last weekend. I not only want to make it again, but I want to bake MORE of it.
Any advice on doubling the recipe?
Do I need to increase the size of my starter? ie, not discard as much?
Do I do two batches of what you just wrote out or can I double the recipe and let it all bulk ferment together?
Any advice would be great!
Cheers,
-Alison
So glad to hear that! If you want to double the recipe you’ll do just that: double everything called for. Make sure you have enough starter to cover the levain requirement (i.e. make sure you have enough “mature starter” called for in the Levain Build section) by scaling this up the night/day before — keep the same percentages of what you’re feeding your starter just increase the quantities (i.e. total grams for each).
And yes, just mix everything together, bulk together, and then divide out into 4 loaves instead of two.
I hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions!
Ok – another question then – we noticed our loaves cooking in half the time in the second stage. We take the lid off and it takes at MOST 15 min for the bread to turn a nice caramel brown and reach 210-212 degrees. we left one in longer and the bottom got burrrrnt.
Should we just accept that our oven is different? Are we loosing any quality by having it cook up so quickly? It still tastes delish!
No loss in quality in my opinion. Each environment and each oven is different, adjust as necessary! I live at very high altitude (5280ft) so that would explain why my bake times are perhaps a little longer than others you might see and even your own. You could either reduce the overall temperature to bake longer or keep it as is and bake it in a shorter time.
Hope that helps and really glad to hear it tastes great!
Hi Maurizio.
I have been using your site for some time to get tips on techniques used for handling sourdough bread. It is a great source of information to which I have often directed others sharing the same interest in bread as I do.
I have been experimenting with bread on and off for some years now, and I have tried several different approaches to get my bread exactly the way I want it. I am a very meticulous person which is probably also what causes me to never be fully satisfied with my end result. However, having found your site filled with excellent descriptions, details and pictures I have finally been able to get the bread I want… almost.
I even bought a Lodge combo-cooker since I’ve seen it used by several bread enthusiasts and by you as well. However, I’m beginning to suspect that the combo-cooker is the source of my only remaining problem. But how can that be if you do not have the same problem I have.
My problem is, that the bread I bake seems perfect in most ways: It has the soft, open crumb, the desired hint of sour notes, the delicious thin, crisp crust, and a great taste. But the one thing I can’t seem to get right is, that the bottom of the bread (the bottom crust?) is really, really hard. Its so hard that I have problems cutting through it with my (admittedly quite dull) bread knife, and when I chew the bottom crust I fear that I may break a tooth. Its not really thick though – only a millimeter or so. So it doesn’t seem like the bread has collapsed in any way. And the rest of the bread shows no signs of this either.
I hope you have an idea of what may be causing this if I supply you with a description of my approach – which is very much the approach you describe, only slightly modified.
For my experiments I always make the bread using the same formula for easy comparison.
The bread I make is a 790 g bread of 73% hydration (when I include the flour and water of the levain in the calculations), and the formula is:
100 g (25%) mature levain (risen to 250% in 6 hours)
300 g (75%) wheat flour (12% protein)
100 g (25%) whole wheat flour
8 g (2 %) salt
280 g (70%) water
18:00 – Mix flour and most of the water. Set to autolyse.
19:00 – Mix in remaining water, salt and levain. Mix well.
19:30 – Stretch & fold – until the dough gets kind of tight, not easily stretched. This is usually after 8-10 stretches.
20:00 – Stretch & fold – the same, however, 6-8 stretches is enough
20:30 – Stretch & fold – 4 stretches
21:00 – Stretch & fold – 4 stretches
21:30 – Stretch & fold – 4 stretches or less
At this time the dough is smooth and holding together nicely. In fact I can only stretch a few times before it gets too tight. So I leave it untouched for the remainder of the 4 hours.
23:00 – Pre-shape (no divition since its only 1 bread). Leave on the counter under the bowl.
23:30 – Shape batard, put bottom-side up in floured banneton, retard in fridge (4C / 40F) until next evening.
The dough is great to work with at this time, and shaping a batard is really easy. It still sticks as it should when I fold it, but working on a lightly floured surface, I can work it quickly without problems. I fold the top corners in towards the middle. Then I fold the top in toward the middle – overlapping the 2 corners. Then I turn the bread 180 degrees (not upside-down) and repeat. Finally I fold the top half fully over the bottom half, tightening the skin a bit more if needed, as I press the seam together.
The dough is easily transferred upside down to the banneton, which I floured generously with rice-flour.
The next day at 17:00 the bread has risen to about 150% (that is increased by half in volume). And when poking the dough the mark slowly comes back out in 3-5 seconds.
17:00 – Place Lodge combo-cooker in the oven. Set temperature at 260C (500F).
18:00 – Take the banneton out of the fridge, reverse onto a floured pizza peal (no parchment paper), score bread, and slide into the shallow Lodge skillet. Lid (deep part of the combo-cooker) on, and bake for 20 minutes.
18:20 – Remove the lid (deep part of the combo-cooker), reduce temperature to 220C (430F) and bake for another 30 minutes.
18:50 – Remove the bread from the oven, and set to cool on an oven rack.
20:00 – Eat the bread.
So what do you think? Could the combo-cooker be the cause of my problems? Its easy to suspect that the problem comes from the intense, and constant heat distributed from the very solid cast-iron skillet of the combo-cooker. But why then can I not find anyone else having the same problem?
I tried several ways of accounting for the problem:
– Moving the combo-cooker as high as possible in the oven
– Retarding with the banneton in a plastic bag instead of just covered with a towel.
– Reducing the baking time to as little as 15 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered
– Removing the bread from the combo-cooker completely after 15 minutes, baking the remaining time on the oven rack.
While all of these approaches did help a little, its just not enough. The bottom crust is still too hard for my liking (and for my teeth).
Any ideas will be most welcome as I would be sad to abandon the combo-cooker completely (not even knowing if this would solve my problem).
Jan, thanks so much for the comments about my website and I’m really glad to hear you’re very close to your ‘perfect loaf’ — that’s awesome! Your approach looks spot on to me, I wouldn’t say anything you’re doing there is causing the thick crust on bottom.
I have to say that most times when I use my Dutch oven I too will get a thicker bottom crust than I’d like. When I moved to baking just on stones (or a Baking Steel) the majority if this problem went away for me. I think you might not hear about it much is because everyone has a personal preference for this part of their bread and it may not bother them so much.
The approaches you’ve taken look really logical to me but I’m guessing it’s due to the intense heat constantly applied to the dough from the DO. One thing I’d suggest first off is if you’re using a baking stone in your oven to place the DO on during baking try not using the stone. Just bake with your DO on a rack — this will help reduce some of the heat in the DO.
Another suggest: don’t preheat the DO for as long as you need to preheat your oven. Perhaps try placing the DO in the oven 1/2 or 3/4 way through the preheat so it’s not quite as hot.
Another: try sprinkling something on the bottom of the shallow side of your DO so your dough is lifted a bit above the DO. Something like raw wheat germ/bran or even coarse cornmeal will work really well.
Perhaps a combination of these things will help also.
Those are my suggestions! If you give them a try please let me know how it goes, I know others will ask this same question 🙂
Good luck & happy baking!
Thank you for taking your time to read my post, which I admit was quite long. I just wanted to make sure you had all the details required for you to identify any problems in the process. It is very gratifying to hear that you experience similar results with the DO since I was having difficulty finding any other explanation for the result I get.
I will definately try your suggestions, and then I will report back on the results. However, my next test will be to use the exact same formula and approach as I have described, only instead of using the DO I will use my round mediocre pizza-stone using a wok as a “lid”. I’ve tried this before and the wok actually closes nicely around the pizza-stone so I know it works. It is a bit more cumbersome than using the DO though but that’ll do.
The bread will be shaped and retarded this evening (I’m at GMT+1 so its morning now) and baked tomorrow. I will update you on the result of this approach as well.
Thanks again for sharing this resource and taking the time to respond to everyone even if it must take up quite a bit of your time.
You’re very welcome, Jan, I’m happy to help! Keep me posted 🙂
Hey, Bruce! Almost always having a few, really large holes means your dough is under proofed and needs more fermentation time. Make sure your bulk fermentation step is going far enough (typically around 4 hours) and the dough temperature is warm enough (78-80ºF or so). You want the dough to look really bubbly by the end, it should have risen significantly and generally looks alive and jiggly. After bulk your dough still needs sufficient proof time to fully develop — make sure your bulk fermentation is as described in the post above!
At those temps I doubt your dough would have been underproofed if your starter was lively and your levain was used at the correct time. If you have a picture of the crumb please send it over via email!
Awesome Bruce, thanks so much for the update (here and via email)!
Hi Maurizio,
I’ve been somewhat obsessed with making fresh sourdough since recently watching the “Air” episode of the “Cooked” series on Netflix and decided this was the weekend I was going to have a whack at it using your beginners sourdough recipe. First off, thank you for the amount of detail you provide. I love to cook, and like many others I’m sure, there’s just something intimidating about baking fresh bread … your website definitely helped me get over that hump. I baked this morning and I’d say that overall the bread came out pretty darn good! The color, crust and taste was great … very exciting as this was my first ever attempt! My only complaint (for lack of a better term) is that the bread was a little dense and the crumb was not as open as in your photos, I guess a touch chewy. It certainly didn’t keep us from devouring one of the two loaves at dinner but I’d obviously like to improve. What are your thoughts as to the cause of that? I followed your recipe pretty much exactly, the only place I off-roaded a bit was that I waited 30 minutes to add the salt (from your “best sourdough” recipe) and then did the 2-3 minutes of folds. Other than that I went by the book. I built my levain Friday night around midnight and incorporated it around 1:00 the next day, it looked nice and active. I got me a Thermapen (awesome!, I also brew beer so I could easily rationalize the spend) and paid close attention to the temperature of everything along the way. I even adjusted my water temp as I keep my flour in the fridge and didn’t take it out early enough for it to fully come to room temp. For all the steps where you specify a warmer temperature of 75 (my house is usually around 68-70) I kept things in the oven on its “proof” setting … it seems to keep the temp around 80. The one thing I did notice is that my FDT was a touch high at 82 … although I admittedly have no idea how that impacts the final result. Anyway, I’m now hooked and look forward to your feedback so I can continue to improve. Thank you so much!
Eric — you’re very welcome and I’m glad to hear your loaf turned out great! A FDT of 82ºF is just fine, it just means the dough might ferment faster than what I’ve discussed here. Just keep in mind that higher temperatures (within reason) usually means faster dough development & fermentation, and conversely, lower temperatures slows things down. There are a lot of factors that go into attaining a nice open crumb and usually I find insufficient fermentation the first thing people struggle with, but if you kept your dough at a warm enough temperature and you saw plenty of rise and activity that is a good sign. From there it’ll be focusing on shaping properly (creating a tight skin on the dough but not one that’s overly tight), fully proofing your dough, a proper score on top (enough of a score so your dough opens nicely instead of rupturing) and finally a full bake then you’ll be on your way to a nice and light loaf. I know these are all general terms and advice but it’s very hard to give you any single piece of advice that will lead you down the right path! If you need more specific help after running into a roadblock snap some pictures of your bakes and send them over to me (through the Contact link at top) and I’ll see if I can help you further!
Ciao Maurizio,
I gave your Beginner’s Sourdough recipe a try over the weekend. The end result was a good looking batard loaf with a crust as I expected, but a little too sticky and doughy on the inside. I think I’ve found a mistake already – I used all 200g of the levain build where it looks like I should have included only 184g. I also did not treat temperature as an ingredient as you suggest – I have no idea what my final dough or finished loaf temperatures were. Could you pls share advice on keeping the inside less sticky and obtaining a better rise during the baking process? I should mention this was my second attempt at baking sourdough. I love your blog! Thank you!
Terry
Ciao, Terry! Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. A couple of things could have happened with your bake. First, using all the levain could have over proofed your dough in the end, which would cause a very soft interior with compromised rise. This essentially means your dough fermented too much (or for too long with that much levain). Once your dough ferments too far the structure of the loaf will begin to degrade as gluten strength is compromised. The second thing that could have happened is you might not have baked your loaves fully, which is usually the case when I see a gummy or extra soft interior. If you have an instant read thermometer I’d suggest taking the internal temperature of your loaves near the end of the process to ensure they are around 210ºF.
Work on these two things next time and see if your bread improves. Keep me posted & happy baking!
Ciao Maurizio! I followed your suggestion which resulted in a much improved spring & interior. Also, the internal temp of the loaves finished right around 211ºF. The wife & kids have asked me to produce the same loaves with a lighter (less browned) crust. Any suggestions on this would be much appreciated! I’d also like to mention that your recipes are very easy to follow – structured and logical. I find them easier to use than those from the fancy sourdough books. Thank you!
Super glad to hear that and thank you for the kind words! It’s going to be a balancing act for you, you need to bake the loaves just enough so the interior is cooked but not too far that the exterior colors too much for their liking. Do some experiments and play with finding that perfect bake-point and take note of how the loaves look (and perhaps smell) so you know when to call it done. You could also try reducing the overall bake temperature at the beginning so the loaves don’t color too much too fast. Really the key here will be removing the loaves before they bake too much. Hope that helps!
Hello again Maurizio! I’ve had the chance to practice this loaf a few more times (I am pretty much restricted to baking on weekends). I’d appreciate your help tweaking the crumb – it is a little too damp for my taste. A few details: my final bake temps have been around 210ºF. My oven springs are very nice and my starter is well maintained and looking healthy. I use King Arthur APF for the white portion, and Arrowhead Mills for the whole wheat and rye portions. I live in South Florida just a few feet above sea level in a subtropical humid climate. Also, I notice the lame dragging a little as I score the loaf. Maybe the dough is too wet or perhaps I need to improve my scoring skills. Maybe I need to scale back hydration? Any advice much appreciated!
Hey Terry! Yes, I’d say reduce hydration by 5% and see if that helps. It should definitely dry up the crumb a bit and it sounds like you’re baking it out sufficiently based on that temperature so that’s not a problem. Try reducing that hydration and see how it comes out!
Hi Maurizio! Reducing hydration by 5% improves the loaf, but the bread is still more moist than I would like. I’ll experiment with reducing it a little further. I wanted to know your thoughts on reducing the amount of time in the DO with the lid on. Also I’m open to experimenting with a different flour (currently using King Arthur for the APF and Arrowhead Mills for the wheat / rye parts). Maybe my choice of flour just cannot hold that much water. Thanks again!
Awesome! I’m not sure reducing the time with the lid on will help retain moisture in the end product as there’s still quite a bit of time with the lid off so the moisture in the interior should bake off. The purpose for the beginning with the lid on is to ensure the outside of the loaf stays moist so the bread can rise to its full potential before the outside hardens off, preventing any more rise. What you could try, though, is to reduce the overall temperature in the last, say, 20 minutes and see if you can extend the bake time before the loaf burns. This way you can try to bake out every bit of moisture from the interior of the loaf.
Hope that helps!
I am so, so glad I found you! I’ve been messing around with a high-hydration “easy, no-knead” sourdough (that had good flavor but was sooo dense) because I thought “real” sourdough was too hard! I read these instructions several times over the course of 2 weeks and finally had the time to take the plunge last weekend. It’s a bit time consuming, but not hard at all! And so worth it! Thanks for the detailed instructions!
Thank you so much for the message, I really appreciate that! Really glad to hear my site has helped 🙂 Happy baking Kelly, let me know if you have any questions!
Just made my first sourdough with only using yeast from my starter – thank you so much for your detauled blog and pictures! I ended with a great crust and crumb, so happy. Only issue I had was my dough really stuck to the linens in my proofing basket. I’ve read dusting with rice flour might help, I think I will try it next.
Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!!
That’s so great to hear! You’re very welcome 🙂 Yes, use some white rice flour (or a 50/50 blend of white rice and white wheat) to dust your proofing baskets so the dough will release easier.
Keep me posted on how it’s going and thanks again!
The instructions aren’t clear about how much flour you’re supposed to put in at the autolyse stage. Is it the amount from the dough formula minus the amount used in the levain? Do you have to figure in the 18g of levain you are discarding? Can you make this more clean what the actual measurements are?
All of the flour in the Dough Mix section goes into the autolyse stage.
The levain is built separately and does not affect the Dough Mix. Make the levain as indicated in the Levain Mix section, let it ferment for the called for amount of time, then add the called for “levain” in after the autolyse stage.
Hope that helps. I’ll add some words above to make this more clear, thanks for the message!
Hi Maurizio!
Your bread looks stunningly beautiful – one word- perfection!
I am a beginner here and chose your beginner’s recipe for my first attempt. However, I did push for higher hydration ratio (from your “my best recipe”). So all the ingredients amounts were as suggested in you begginer’s recipe, except for water – to add higher hydration ratio. I used a generic supermarket bread flour, organic arrowhead WW and rye flour. The final dough at the stage of pre-shaping did not hold the shape at all. I did see a lot of bubbles, but it seemed to be it was overgudeated.
About my starter – it is 7 days old WW flour 100% hydration starter. I already made it when I found your starter recipe. So it was different than yours. It was very active at the time of using it, more than doubled and passed a float test. The levain was also very active when I put it in the flour after autolyse.
I would love to make a successful first sourdough read with the recipe but still want to increase hydration ratio; I do agree with your opinion on what house hydration ratio gives to the bread.
Please help me with your advice of what did I do wrong? And what highest hydration ratio is appropriate for this recipe?
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much Allie! Really appreciate that.
Sounds like your starter and levain are/were in great shape — that’s good news. If your dough was overly wet and didn’t have sufficient strength it could be that the flour you are using just isn’t able to take on as much water as you used. I would recommend dialing back the hydration 5-10% and then try again. It’s best to slowly increase the amount of water in your dough until you know for sure your flour can handle it. This recipe can take on only as much water as your flour can support. In other words you could definitely crank it up to 85% hydration or more but your flour has to be able to handle it.
Just reduce hydration next attempt and see how it feels. If the dough feels super stiff and dry add a bit more next time, and a bit more the next, and so on. One thing to keep in mind is as you increase the amount of water you will also need to increase the strength in the dough to follow suit. Add in one or two more sets of stretch and folds during bulk as you go up in hydration.
Hope that helps let me know if you have any more questions!
Hi Maurizio! Thank you so so much for the advise – it’s incredibly helpful…when I was analyzing my first attempt, I had a feeling one of the reasons could be – the flour, but did not know about this property of flour – how it takes the water. Intuitively rather, I did reduce the hydration ratio to 78.6 the next time, that happened yesterday, and today, I baked my first sourdough bread! Yay!
I have to tell you that the taste and aroma were absolutely perfect! It was incredibly flavorful and it was a complex taste! So good! So I used this recipe with higher hydration ratio.
It definetly held its shape better, but I still think it did not have enough strength to hold it fully. I used the same flour but now I know I should probably change it (will try KING Arthur).
The loaf has a beautiful open crumb but it did not rise as well as on your picture and possibly due too poor oven spring. I think the steam did not work out for me and maybe together with not being very strong – that’s the result.
I also saw your comment from earlier time to somebody – to make suitable changes, according to your own starter, dough behavior, etc. I have noticed that it took longer to go smthriugh all the stages if I kept the temperature as recommended so I made them a bit higher.
And a few questions based my first experience:
1) The bread was a bit too chewy, it was not dense at all and was very moist, yet too chewy, what should I do to make it less?
2)So with the hydration ratio of 78.6 – I did 4 sets of F&S…maybe I had to do more? And also spaced about 30 min apart?
3) In order to see the dough increased substantially in size, I added one more hour of bulk fermentation, and actually the most increase happened during this last hour. I saw different sized bubbles, but the edges did not have this pronounced dome shape as I have noticed on your dough. Is this because of lack of strength? I saw plenty of bubbles all over. And saw them in the bread after it baked.
4)And the last, the crust was a bit too think, what is your suggestion? Is it related to baking part of the process?
Thank you in advance for answering my questions. You are very very helpful! Your blog and website is like a textbook! Super!
Awesome, so glad to hear that! Answers:
1. Did you bake the loaves out fully? Usually a chewy interior is due to under baking — make sure you bake until the interior is above 210ºF. Another cause of an overly chewy crumb could be the use of too much high protein flour (I find this to be the case, at least) or too much distatic malt (if used).
2. Spacing the folds 30m apart is good. It’s hard for me to say on the number of sets of stretch/folds… It really depends on the flour, hydration and how the dough is that day. Try giving it one more set next time and if the crumb is more closed then back off. It will take some experimentation!
3. Yes it sounds like the lack of a domed shape is because there wasn’t as much strength in the dough. This is ok, but I like to see about as much of a dome as you see here in my photos. To me it sounds like you could have give the dough one more set of s/f like you mentioned.
4. Hard to say on the crust thickness… I like to bake my loaves really hot in the beginning and then back off the heat towards the middle and end, I think this helps. Also I think sufficient steam in the oven also helps prevent the exterior of the dough from getting too thick, too fast.
Hope that helps and I’m happy to give advice where I can! Happy baking 🙂
Thank you so much for detailed answers! They certainly help. I did change the bread flour to KA brand. The next time I’ll bake, I will use it. As to the temperature of the baked bread, I measured and it was 211F, so most likely, that unfortunate bread flour as it was majority of the flour, gave me a bunch of issues. So hopefully my next. Alexandra will be more successful! Again thank you for you help
Hi! Excellent site!
May I ask some questions?
After mix the levain with the autolysed dough can I just dissolve the salt in the 50g reserved water and pour it on the autolysed dough and mix it?
Can I let the bulk fermentation on the same bowl I used to mix?
How to reduce the acid taste on the dough? Mine got a bit more sour than I expected.
How do you keep the parchment paper from sticking at the bottom of the bread? Mine got almost impossible to remove.
Thanks!
Alan — thank you so much!
Yes, you can definitely dissolve the salt in the remaining water and add it to the autolysed dough (after the autolyse period is over). I don’t usually do this (but I do know a lot of bakers will) because I am sometimes pushing hydration and I may not add all the water but I still need to add all the salt.
Yes, you can continue to bulk in the same mixing bowl — not a problem.
To reduce the acidity you can do a few things: reduce the amount of whole grains used, reduce the length of proof in the fridge (this is what I will typically do), and finally reduce the levain percentage in the mix. There are other things that can be done but these three are the easiest to modify.
That’s interesting. My parchment never sticks to my bread, it just slides right off. You could lightly flour the top of your dough when it’s in its proofing basket before you turn it out onto the parchment paper. I would recommend using white rice flour here or cornmeal.
Hope that helps, happy baking!
Maurizio!
I found your blog while searching for a way to make my own sour dough starter. I’m a reasonably experienced bread baker when using dried yeast and thought adding sour dough to my repetoire (sp) would be fun. I followed your directions to make my starter and have mostly followed your directions to make my first batch of sour dough. Thanks! The first two loaves turned our beautifully! I’m looking forward to baking more! Thanks!
Hi there! Thank you so much for the feedback and I’m really happy to hear this! Here’s to more sourdough — happy baking!
Hi Maurizio,
I played around with natural yeast doughs a few years ago. I had more success with a Desem than with a wetter start. Recently my daughter made a sourdough starter which is pretty strong. I came across your website, which is great, and I made your beginner sourdough loaf. I used a stone and created steam similar to you with a large pan filled with lava rocks and a chain. The crumb is the best I have ever achieved, but the dough is a little undercooked but the crust is quite dark, a little darker than I prefer. Any ideas to help get the bread cooked thoroughly with a lighter crust. Thanks for sharing all of your research.
Deb R.
Deb, so sorry for the late reply I’ve been out on travel! That’s great to hear! You could try lowering the heat 15-25ºF from what I’ve listed here so the bake goes longer without scorching the crust. Each oven is different and it almost always requires a modification. Additionally, if you’re baking on a baking stone (or Baking Steel) you could reduce the preheat time or preheat temperature a bit so the stone isn’t quite so hot.
I’d try reducing the overall baking temperature first, that’s usually what fixes the issue for me! Happy baking 🙂
Maurizio,
I made my first loaf of this bread the other day. It ended up coming out fairly well in terms of taste, but I had to make adjustments because the dough hardly rose at all by the end of the time in the refrigerator. I had to let it sit out at room temperature for 2 hours to get to the point where the traditional poke test (minimal spring back after poking with a finger) said it was ready to bake (straight out of the refrigerator it didn’t hold an indentation at all, but sprang back immediately). Even then, there was not a lot of oven spring, and the crumb was not as open as yours.
I’m wondering what may account for my problems. One thought is that my starter is 100% AP flour. Given what you have said about starter liking to have the same ingredients all the time, I wonder if using it in a recipe that includes whole wheat and rye made it unhappy, and not as active as usual. Another possibility is that I may have overdeveloped the dough with my stretch and folds — it was fairly resistant to being stretched by the last fold. A third possibility is the flour I used: King Arthur bread flour and generic supermarket whole wheat flour. I’m thinking of buying some Giusto’s artisan bread flour and their stoneground whole wheat, based on the good reviews you’ve given it.
I plan to try it again, of course. I’m wondering what you would suggest trying this time?
Thanks for any suggestions you can give me.
Stan
Stanley — good move on making those adjustments, it’s a good example of “reading the dough” and changing what’s necessary for your bake.
There could be a bunch of reasons why your dough wasn’t as active as it could be. First is to make sure your starter and levain are in top shape and actively fermenting before you use it — this is critical. You want to build your levain from your starter when it’s mature and well expanded. Likewise, you want to use your levain when it’s well fermented (it’ll smell like ripe fruit, slightly sour but not sharp).
I like to gradually change feeding flour from type to type but it’s not absolutely mandatory, as long as your starter is strong it should be fine. Feeding your starter all purpose is totally fine, but you could try a mix of all purpose and whole wheat or all purpose and rye if you want to see even more fermentation activity.
A few ideas: make sure your dough temperature is warm enough. I always shoot for a final dough temp between 78-80F, and I try to keep my dough there during the entire bulk fermentation. Keeping the dough warm helps increase fermentation activity significantly. Lengthen your bulk fermentation until your dough looks similar to mine in the photos above. Your dough should have risen significantly, jiggle in the bowl and potentially have bubbles on top — you can really push bulk, especially with strong flour like the ones used here or King Arthur Bread Flour.
I love Giusto’s flour, it’s an incredible product, but you can definitely get some great bread with King Arthur (also love their stuff!).
I hope these suggestions help! Let me know how it goes the next bake — happy baking Stanley.
Hello Maurizio, Many thanks or our great blog!! I am making your beginner sourdough and I have followed your instruction, my dough is quite soft and when I put it on the floured surface it was hard to follow your instruction from there so I just put it in a proofing bowl and transfer it to the fridge, have I done something wrong? what will you suggest me to do for the next time? Many Many thanks!
You’re very welcome! Maybe your dough didn’t have enough strength to it? If it spread out and was very slack and weak feeling just make sure next time you do the listed stretch and folds to add strength to the dough as described above.
Additionally, make sure your starter (and levain) are in strong working order. The key to making great sourdough is a strong starter! Follow my starter guides on my Recipes (link at top) page on how to get it fermenting and performing at its best.
Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions!
Hi Maurizio
Amazing bread,mthanks for the inspiration.
I was wondering how you could incorporate a mixer with a dough hook into your process and still achieve the same results.
Do you think this would be possible? Have you experimented wih a mixer or have you always baked with a manual process?
Thank you!
I’ve never used a mixer for bread only for brioche or other baked goods. You could certainly use a mixer for the upfront mixing process. Just mix the dough in your mixer to the same level of development as you would by hand, that is, not full development but more like “medium”. Then you can finish adding strength in the dough during bulk fermentation with stretch and folds.
It’s hard to give guidelines on just how long to mix, but I would typically stick with first speed and go for maybe 5 minutes or so. That will require some tweaking.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the prompt response, I will continue experimenting.
Keep up the good work on this blog as your work is amazing.
Appreciate that!
Hi, I’ve been wanting to bake sourdough bread for a long time and finding your blog has been an inspiration. I just have a few questions, if I dont have a combo cooker or dutch oven, what else can I use? Also, for the steam you mentioned happens in the combo cooker, could i spray water inside the oven? Thanks a lot, wonderful blog!
Really glad to hear that! There are a few things you could do, spraying water inside the oven is the first thing. Just get a (clean) handheld mister and spray in the oven when you load and 5 minutes after. Perhaps another 5 minutes after that.
One better would be if you have a baking stone to place your dough on the stone then invert an oven-safe bowl on top (one that is tall and wide enough to let the dough expand) — this bowl will trap the steam generated in the same way a Dutch oven will.
Finally, the one I use, is to have a pan on the bottom of your oven where you throw 1-2 cups of ice into when you load your dough. If you look at my Recipes link at the top, scroll down to my article on How to Steam Your Home Oven for more information.
On all of these please be careful! There’s a lot of heat in that oven and steam can burn. Get a good pair of oven safe mitts, preferably ones that extend up your forearm.
Happy baking!
Dear Maurizio, Thank you very much for your wonderful blog. Yesterday I started making my first sourdough bread and everything went very well. But this morning when I took the bread out of the fridge and tried to remove the bowl and floured towel, the towel would not come off! I am so sad! Why is the towel not coming off?! Any ideas?
Hi, Alexandra! You’re welcome, thanks for the kind words. Did you dust the towel with white rice flour? Using a light coating of white rice flour will help absorb moisture and let your dough easily fall from the towel. You don’t need a lot, but make sure you use enough to let the dough come off cleanly.
Hope that helps!
Hi Maurizio,
Thanks so much for this site. It has given me heaps of confidence to get started.
I baked my first batch of “Beginners Sourdough Bread” yesterday – I was so nervous to get it right and excited to take the lid off the cooker to see the loaf having cracked open and looking quite beautiful. The result was amazing and I can feel this is going to become an obsession!
I have been working with an Alaskan Sourdough starter for the past few months and whilst the taste is great the loaf is dense and heavy. It was such a thrill to cut into my loaf yesterday to the snap/crackle of the crust and see the big open crumb.
You’re very welcome and I’m really happy to hear that! Glad to hear that first attempt was such a good one. Baking sourdough does quickly become an obsession, trust me I know all about it 🙂
Usually a dense/heavy crumb is do to insufficient fermentation in the dough. Try letting your dough sit out on the counter after shaping and in their baskets for an hour or so before you place it into the refrigerator, this will let fermentation continue for a while longer before slowing.
if you’re still having issues shoot me over an email (through the Contact link at top) and we’ll get to squared away.
Happy baking and thanks for the comments!
Maurizio,
Many thanks for such a great site.
I’ve just baked my second batch of “Beginner’s Sourdough bread” and really enjoy the taste and texture. However, can you help me with the texture of the dough at the start of the bulk fermentation. I’ve used far less water than your recipe but have still ended up with a “wet” dough. I assume that the quantity of water required will depend on the flour used and, in my case, it has been strong white bread flour.
Can you give me an indication of the recommended feel and texture of the dough at the point of bulk fermentation?
Your help would be appreciated.
You’re very welcome, thanks for the kind words!
Conveying the “feel” of the dough at each step in this process is a difficult thing without actually touching the dough, I try and take as many photos of the process as possible to help with this, but the absence of true tactile interaction is tough. At the beginning of bulk the dough should feel shaggy, wet, weak (but still extensible due to the autolyse). If you fold the dough over itself it will want to spread back out, it won’t hold it’s shape very easily. As you (and fermentation) strengthens dough over the span of the bulk fermentation step you’ll notice the dough gets stronger, it will hold its shape more readily when folded, and if you tug on it you’ll notice some resistance, the elasticity of the dough will increase.
This strengthening is crucial, and developing that sense for how the dough strengthens during bulk is a very important thing. Next time you bake this really observe the dough during this 4 hour (or so) period, take note of how it feels in your hand when you stretch it and how it’s texture changes (smooth vs. shaggy). Once you step back and really observe the dough you’ll begin to develop that intuition for when your dough is not strong enough and perhaps needs another stretch and fold or a longer bulk.
I hope that helps!
Maurizio
That’s really helpful and many thanks for taking the trouble to respond.
Hi, Maurizio!
Today I baked my first sourdough bread with this recipe. How exciting. Thank you for your very informative and helpful site and for being able to comment and answer questions! It makes the process less intimidating.
That being said, I have a handful of questions about the bake that may help make it better the next time:
It tasted great and had a lot of great holes, but it was gummy in texture. What makes it gummy?
Additionally, it didn’t seem to rise as much as in the picture. It definitely hadn’t doubled in size in my bulk fermentation and I don’t know why, and it didn’t rise at all overnight in the fridge. It barely rose when it baked, so it was more flat when it came out of the oven. The crust didn’t turn the beautiful color like in the pictures, but it was still crunchy and tasty.
My kitchen temperature is probably between 80 and 84 degrees fahrenheit.
Finally, I put my starter in the fridge until next week, however, it still does not fall. I know I had asked you about the rising/falling in the 7 steps post, and you said it should fall eventually, but it never does. It will rise and rise and just not fall and if it does fall it will only fall about 1/8 inch.
Any advice is so helpful for my beginning bakes. I want to get good at this, and am willing to put in all the work and attempts!
Thank you again
Katie
My other questions:
What does it mean when you say 100% hydration or 50% hydration?
Additionally, do you have any sourdough books you recommend for beginning sourdough bakers? I think where I struggle and get intimidated is the lack of understanding and lack of knowledge regarding the science behind how sourdough works. I know a lot of it is trial and error but I feel as though I lack a basic knowledge so it is hard for me to understand why things are/are not working.
Thanks!!
100% hydration means we are using as much water as flour. Everything is calculated in relation to the amount of flour used. For example 100g water and 100g flour = 100% hydration (100g water divided by 100g flour times 100 for a percentage).
Similarly, 50% is: 50g water and 100g flour (50g water divided by 100g flour times 100 = 50%).
I’d say the best beginning book is Ken Forkish’s Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. It has a great intro to baking bread in general as well as plenty of recipes and more advanced material.
Let me know if you have any more questions (email me or comment). Happy baking!
Katie, sorry for the late reply! I’m really happy to help 🙂
Usually a gummy interior is due to insufficient fermentation in the dough. Make sure you’re going for a full 4 hour bulk at around 78ºF – 80ºF. The warm temperatures are really key here with this recipe. It sounds like your kitchen is nice and warm so that’s a good thing. It’s ok if you didn’t notice much rise in the dough overnight in the fridge.
I’m worried about your lack of rise during bulk, though. It might be that your starter needs a little more TLC before we attempt the next bake. Try to keep it out of the fridge for a week and do consistent feedings (2x a day if possible, once in the morning and once at night). I know you mentioned a few times now that it doesn’t fall but that’s ok (although I’ve never experienced this myself), let’s try to use other cues for when to feed it. It should start to smell more and more sour, acidic, alcoholic (slightly) when you need to feed it again, typically for me this is 10-12 hours after I feed 15g starter with 100g flour and 100g water — usually at around 77ºF.
Keep this up for a week and see if your starter gains strength and maybe, just maybe, it might start to fall as well 🙂
Also, if you could send me over a photo of your starter when you feed it that would be awesome. I want to see what it looks like from the top and side after 12 hours or so. Email me: maurizio (at) theperfectloaf.com.
We’ll get you up and running here!
What a great site. Thanks. My question has to do with the lack of “bounce” I get. The last loaf I made rose really well in my proof basket and was quite high. As soon as I removed it and sliced the top it began to fall. As I put it in a steam oven, it just rose a bit, but not enough for a really open crumb. Am I letting it rise too much before baking? The shaped loaf held well during final proof. Thanks for your help.
Thanks! It does sound like the dough has over proofed (too much time in final rise). There could be other causes for this (including insufficient strength in the dough through mixing and/or fermentation) but when I see this type of behavior it’s almost always the case. Try reducing your proof time a couple hours and see if that helps next time. Also, if you push your proof like this you have to score a little more shallow than normal, if you score too deeply then you could cause a collapse as well. Pulling back on your proof time will allow you to score deeper.
Hope that helps — let me know how it goes!
Hi Maurizio, I am attempting my second batch of sourdough and I have realized, I don’t have room in my fridge for the bowls of dough to proof. How long should dough proof for if it’s not in the fridge? Obviously a lot less time, but is there a calculation of hour equivalency at room temp? It’s quite warm here at the moment, should I just look for physical signs like height, bubbles etc instead? Many thanks, Carole. And also, thanks again for your wonderful, informative blog!
Oh no! Yes, definitely look for physical signs for when the dough is ready to go in the oven. If you’ve never heard of the “poke test” Google that and it’s a great method for room temp proofed dough. I find that it’s usually around 3-4 hours, but again, very temperature dependent!
Glad you’re enjoying the site and thanks for all the comments! Happy baking 🙂
Maurizio,
First, great page and I am leaning on you heavily for bread techniques and recipes since finding your site. I followed your 7 day starter to the letter and then made my first ever attempt at bread with your beginner sourdough. Mine came out great for the first time but I noticed some differences between yours and mine.
1. For cooking the same amount of time, I didn’t have the crust or dark brown color that you developed. Mine was more of a honey brown and the crust had a crackle to it but pretty thin. Do I need to cook longer uncovered to develop that?
2. My interior, while tasting great and my wife loves the soft sponge of it, is not as airy and pocketed as yours. Is that from a weak starter? I had some scheduling conflicts with work so my bread was in the fridge for over 16, maybe closer to 20 hours…could that have impacted? What does being in the fridge longer/shorter do to the bread?
3. I cut into it while it was slightly warm to the touch, after about 2 hours of cooling on the wire rack. I didn’t see in your instructions how long to wait for the interior to set. Can you amend?
Any advice for my second batch?
Thanks, glad you’re enjoying my site! Answers below:
1. Yes, bake longer if you want a darker, more well-done crust. Baking times and temperatures are very dependent on your oven, altitude and environment. Adjust things as necessary, most likely you’ll just need to bake longer.
2. Achieving an open crumb is the result of many things, your longer proof was probably fine. I wouldn’t say it was due to a “weak starter”, as long as your starter is rising and falling predictably after feeding it then it should be strong enough. You want to let your dough ferment fully during bulk, shape with sufficient tension so your dough will have a tight skin on the outside (but don’t shape too tight that you press out all the gasses in the dough), and let your dough fully ferment during proof. I realize these are all general statements but really it’s a combination of all these things that result in an open interior! I’d say just keep practicing and your interior will open up more and more each time, especially as you become attuned to the subtle signs through the entire process. The longer you proof your dough in the fridge the more acidic tasting your bread will be, the more tender it will become, and eventually when the gluten breaks down the rise in the oven will be sluggish. There’s a balance there between proofing just enough to where your dough is properly fermented but not so far that your loaves fail to rise in the oven. With this recipe you should be able to go 20 hours no problem.
3. You can cut it any time you’d like, really, but if you wait to let the interior set it’s easier to cut without crushing the bread. 1-2 hours is fine, but I usually wait until later afternoon or even dinner before cutting. Again, totally up to you! I know cutting warm bread is an amazing thing 🙂
I hope those tips help!
Maurizio, what about bake time, temp, and the final result of the bread. I’ve been trying to find it online but I’m probably asking the wrong questions. What does the crumb feel/look like when under/over cooked? Many thanks!
Usually when it’s undercooked the crumb will be very gummy and chewy. You can actually see it, too, if you look at the cross section of the loaf.
If it’s overcooked then it will be very dry inside and the outside will be, well, pretty much burned. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this wealth of information!
What adjustments do you recommend for a 2.5qt Dutch oven?
You’re very welcome!
If your Dutch oven is smaller then I’d say just reduce the total quantity in the recipe to make a smaller boule (leave the percentages the same, though). You might still be ok, but it could be a tight fit!
HI Maurizio. I’ve spent the day attempting my very first sourdough bread! I’ve done so much reading in preparation (Tartine of course, Peter Reinhart’s books, The Bread builders etc)…Practiced with breads made from poolish and bigas while I waited for my starter to be ready for baking… looked at countless YouTube videos… but after coming across your website, I chose this recipe for my very first attempt! Your articles are so easy to read and so full of information. Thank you!
The dough are safely tucked into the refrigerator for the night. Things went well until I got to the shaping. As I mentioned in another comment, my kitchen is quite warm as I live in the Caribbean and I found that during the bulk fermentation I got so much rise out of the dough! The dough completely filled the bowl I was working with and was about to overflow. So I cut the bulk short by half an hour. I thought since i saw the domed shaped you mentioned and air bubbles that it would be okay. I had also added one extra set of stretch and folds than the directions here called for because I thought the dough didn’t seem as ‘strong’ as I’ve seen and read described before.
When it was time for the shaping the dough was basically a goopy mess. For the preshape I resorted to doing this swift, circular, swooping motion with just the bench scraper because my hands, wet or floured, were sticking to the dough way too much. They both flattened out a lot in the 20 min rest phase. I managed with the final shape after a couple attempts but I am sure I did not develop as much surface tension as I have with other dough in the past.
Is the reason for my problems with the shaping that I cut the bulk fermentation too short? Should I just use a larger bowl next time and allow the dough to rise however much it wants to or can my warm kitchen make the dough ferment too much during a 4 hour rise?
My fingers are crossed that I get some decent loaves in the morning when I bake. Can’t wait! I feel like it’s Christmas eve night!
Thanx in advance for any helpful tips you can offer.
Wow that’s great to hear, happy you chose one of my recipes from all those excellent resources. Happy about that 🙂
How did they turn out?
The goopy mess could be caused by a few things. First when I hear that I usually think the flour has been over hydrated and/or you haven’t built up enough strength in the dough through mixing or during bulk fermentation. Because your environment is probably much, much more humid than where I live you might want to try to reduce the hydration of this recipe by 5-10%. If you don’t want to go that route you could try to strengthen the dough a little more during mix time by stretching and folding the dough a few more minutes in the bowl before entering bulk. Or you could also add 1-2 more sets of stretch and folds during bulk. Ultimately all these changes do the same thing: increase strength in the dough.
Next time you try this give the dough a little tug with a wet hand when you think bulk should be over. The dough should resist your pulling on it, it should feel stronger than when you started bulk. That strength is a result of proper fermentation in the dough.
I would suggest next time to try and use a larger bowl for sure, this will give you some space even if you still cut bulk at the same time. It’s good to have the option 🙂 Also, try to go for the full 4 hours and see if it makes a difference — if the dough is still way, way too sticky and slack then you should either reduce hydration or add more stretch and folds to increase strength.
I hope that helps, let me know how it goes!
Thank you so much for your tips. I’ve been baking at least twice a week and been trying your suggestions. I reduced the hydration to 70% and added a few minutes of stretch and folds before the bulk fermentation. This has helped greatly and has also allowed me to practice my shaping technique. I’ve since increased to 72% and plan to work my way up to 75% then 80% (although i think it will be some time before I get all the way 80%! But I’ll get there! )
Quite out of necessity one day, I ended up mixing a dough in the late evening, letting it bulk ferment for 4 hours, with 5 sets of folds at 30 mins intervals then left the dough in the fridge overnight before dividing and shaping. The following day, after about 12 hrs in refrigerator, I divided and shaped the dough immediately after removing it from the refrigerator, let them proof at room temperature and baked them. The thing i really ended up liking about this method ( i’ve used it several times so far) is that I’m shaping cold dough which i find to be a lot easier. However, when the loaves are going through the final proof, they sometimes don’t proof uniformly. As in, the poke test yields different results at different spots. And when I bake them, i get an incredible oven spring in half of the loaf, but the other side is noticeably lower. Should I let the entire mass of dough come to room temperature before I divide and shape? If i do, would that then mean that I’m extending the bulk fermentation to much? If so, could I instead let the dough bulk ferment for a shorter time after mixing, say 2 hours, then refrigerate, then it gets it’s extra 2 hours of bulk fermentation the next morning while it comes to room temperature (which would essentially take away the pro of my getting to shaping cold dough….) I’m interested in this method because it works well with my daily schedule and allows me to stay out of my kitchen during the hottest part of the day here – between 2pm and 6pm. I can mix and bulk ferment after 6pm, go to bed at a relatively decent hour, wake early the next morning and shape, proof and bake then be out of the kitchen. What are your views/ experience with retarding after bulk fermentation as opposed to after the final shape?
Oh and i should also mention- the quality of my loaves has consistently improved . The crust is divine! the crumb is a lot more open than before. Oven spring is improved except for the when i overproof, and the overall aesthetic (ears etc) has also gotten better. I think for now my issues are really with the final proof- getting an even proof throughout and figuring out exactly when to stop the process so they aren’t over or under proofed- and my scoring needs some work too!
That’s great news! Glad my tips have helped.
Sounds like a great method! I’ve never retarded my dough at that step in the process but it should work out just fine — I know many bakers do this for varying reasons. I’m wondering, could the area you placed your dough have an uneven cooling effect on it? Perhaps the back section of the dough is near the cooling vent or some such thing? I’m guessing that since the dough is one mass it must not be getting equally cooled due to some external factor.
I wouldn’t let the dough come up to room temperature before dividing, but you could try it out and see how it works. Shaping cold dough is definitely much easier! I’d say divide the cold dough and preshape it. Let it rest in preshape for a while until it spreads out and relaxes, then shape and place into baskets for final rise before baking. If you keep the dough at the same temperature everything should equalize to room temperature.
Really great to hear about such improvements! I’d really like to hear if you try any of my suggestions above and how they work out. I actually keep meaning to bake this way myself, like you said it could provide for a really convenient baking schedule some days!
Please keep me posted & happy baking 🙂
Hi Maurizio. So a quick update from my last message- after dividing and shaping the cold dough following the overnight cold retard immediately after the bulk fermentation, I placed it in the microwave as I figured that would provide a more controlled environment for the proof and would be away any drafts of air. This worked well so once I’m only doing one loaf at a time I use the microwave for the final proof.
Some other developments – after baking just about everyday last week I feel like I’ve made some breakthroughs. Firstly, I’m now doing the slap and fold for about 15-20mins after mixing to develop strength in the dough and it works wonders! So exciting! I was using the stretch and fold in the bowl before and never got the same results. This has definitely helped with shaping! Especially when I follow the regular steps and don’t do a cold retard after bulk fermentation. Even scoring is easier and I’m consistently getting more oven spring and more pronounced ears. It’s seems like a lengthy slap and fold time but I know the flour I’m working with isn’t near the standard of what you use. The only unbleached flour sold here is organic and it’s very pricey so I use a mixture of organic unbleached bread flour and local bleached baker’s flour (I know! The horror! Such sacrilege!). I stick with the organic brands for my rye and whole wheat flours. Seriously considering importing some King Arthur’s and trying it. Secondly, someone with a small cafe asked me to do some small sourdough rolls for her to try. She wanted them to be 120g before baking. Way too small to be proofed in a banneton. After much deliberation I opted to go with my overnight retard after bulk, shape the small rolls and use a floured linen towel to proof them in the way baguettes are proofed. I also reduced the hydration to 67% for the rolls as they were going to be proofed almost free-standing. I’m happy with the results thus far. To bake these I steamed the oven using your method of soaked wet kitchen towels at the bottom of the oven and sprayed some water into the open immediately after loading as well. Got some good oven spring on them so I will continue to use that method. I’m really liking these mini sourdough boules!
Thanks again for your help!
One question – have you had any experience with ciabbata and baguettes?
Sorry for the late reply! Somehow I missed the notification for this message.
I really love the slap and fold method for building strength in dough, it does help significantly. The key really is to develop just enough at the beginning to still allow for a few sets of stretch and folds during bulk — a good combination of the two.
No worries on not using organic flour, we have to use what we have available!
Excellent modifications for the rolls, I would do the same thing. There’s no real way to have baskets that small for proofing, it would be impossible. Proofing on canvas or even on a baking sheet would work really well (this is what I do with brioche rolls). I’ve been working on mini-sourdough rolls as well, I hope to have a recipe up here at some point.
Unfortunately at this time I don’t have much experience with ciabatta and baguettes, but I will get there. Baguettes are kind of a very special bread and I haven’t had the opportunity yet to significantly focus on them — soon 🙂
Really glad to hear your progress, thanks so much for the update and happy baking!