My Sourdough Bread recipe, as requested

non-baker + requested on twitter/X from my most popular post

My twitter/x post, fresh baked sourdough bread dinner, inspired writing of this food story.

Heart shaped sourdough loaf: Pre-bake, Mid-bake, Final-bake

Baking and free style cooking do not usually go hand in hand.

I have learned this the hard way. While I can free style any dish on the stove as my head and heart desires and my intuition guides, it all quickly fails as soon as a baking enters the picture. I suppose baking is a science while cooking is an art, as they say. And I was naturally drawn to the art side in the kitchen.

However, I have dabbled in baking here and there in my life. In graduate school I baked cakes to cope with the stress. I failed at many because I tried to take creative liberties with the recipes, resulting in flattened cakes or disastrous flavors. When I met my husband we baked cookies together since he enjoyed eating them (I am indifferent). At some point baking & I grew apart because eating all those sugary treats was not doing my body any favors. I never fell in love with baking.

That is, until sourdough bread baking came into my life. As with many others, this was inspired during the pandemic. I had baked instant yeast bread here and there prior but it was never amazing or delicious enough to continue.

But sourdough, oh man, this bread has magic. Flour, water, salt, & yeast create magic.

The concept of natural microbes fostering slow fermentation of flour, breaking down the sugars into tasty and aromatic flavors along with visually compelling bubbles was awe-inspiring. I could not contain my curiosity and had to make this magic happen myself. A coworker got me started by handing me a jar of her sourdough starter culture and instructions jotted down on a piece of paper.

I remember nervously handling that culture, convinced I was going to kill it within the week. I followed her notes diligently, baked ok initial breads, all while marveling at the fact that making a loaf was a 2-4 day process. I thought this would discourage me, but it had the opposite effect. I got fascinated by the timeline, by the needing to take things slow, letting the slowness develop flavors for that ultimate bite of comfort. I suppose in someway it mirrored what I was craving in my professional life - a slow down of the rat race.

Since the pandemic I have baked many sourdough loaves that were sometimes ok, sometimes good, and sometimes excellent. I have also neglected my sourdough culture, begged my coworker to give me another one, and experimented with sourdough cultures from bakeries that would generously share some. Today, my loaves come from a low-maintenance culture I continued from a local bakery.

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Sourdough Starter (microbe culture)

I have never made my own culture from scratch. There are many places online to get instructions to do so. But I think for a first timer perhaps it’s best to ask friends or coworkers or local sourdough bread bakeries to see if they would share some. If all else fails, you can also buy one from amazon (note: this one wasn’t robust in my kitchen, maybe due to my high elevation). Below is how I keep my starter low maintenance. I typically keep two jars going in case one fails. I leave the stock in the fridge and use a portion of it to prepare the the levain I will use for the loaf.

• Stock is fed once a week in the fridge. Starter feeding ratio is:

  1 tbsp starter + 1 tbsp white bread flour + 1 tbsp whole wheat flour + 2 tbsp water

  • Mix well and keep loosely covered.

• Levain prep when ready to start a loaf: Using a portion of the stock, do two feedings at room temperature (ex. night and then morning) before making the levain (see below).

• Fermentation after feeding will be visible when the mixture rises and has trapped air bubbles throughout. If not, the starter is likely not ready/bad.

My sourdough starter setup in glass jars, airy bubbles after fermentation.

Sourdough Flours and Ratios

While you can use all purpose flour, I prefer to use bread flour. I want to give my bread the best chance of getting that stretch and crumb from the gluten so a high protein bread flour is the best bet. I have used several brands but regularly go back to King Arthur’s. You can also add wheat flour or other flours (rye, spelt, etc.) to provide different texture and flavor to the bread. My breads are typically ~10% whole wheat flour (Bob’s red mill stoneground red wheat, specifically) which I sometimes increase to ~30%.

My 4-ingredient go-to Sourdough Bread ratio is:

1. Flour, combined: 500g

   1. Bread Flour: 450g (regular) or 350g (whole wheat)

   2. Whole Wheat Flour: 50g (regular) or 150g (whole wheat)

2. Warm Water: 400ml (375ml first and then 25 ml)

3. Salt: 2 tsp

4. Levain (all of it)

Sourdough Process

• Day 0-1: Start the Levain

  • Wake up the starter from stock and prepare the levain, which is basically a starter to ferment the whole loaf

    • evening: feed starter, let ferment at room temperature overnight

    • morning: feed starter, let ferment at room temperature over the day

    • evening: prepare the levain

      • Combine 100g flour (50g white flour + 50g whole wheat flour) + 100ml water + 1 Tbsp starter

      • Mix well, cover with loosely (cloth/wrap/lid), and leave at room temperature overnight (~10-12h)

• Day 2: Prepare the Dough

  • Homogenize levain: A healthy levain will have bubbles visible now, otherwise it may not be ready (or dead). In a large bowl add the entire levain and 375ml of lukewarm water. Mix to break up the levain.

    

    Levain that is bubbly ready to ferment the dough.

  • Add 500g flour (450g bread + 50g wheat for regular or 350g bread + 150g wheat for whole wheat). Mix the flour into liquid using a spatula. It doesn’t have to be completely well mixed, as long as most of the flour is wet. Let rest for 15-20 mins, loosely covered (cloth/wrap/lid).

  • Add salt: sprinkle 2 tsp of salt over the wet dough and then 25ml lukewarm water to dissolve the salt. Knead it into the dough for 3-5 mins to combine everything well, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed with a scraper. Let rest covered for 30 mins.

  • Series of folds: The dough should now be easier to manipulate all together and is ready for folding inside the bowl. Wet both your hands, reach the bottom from both sides, and fold it in half. Repeat such folds a few times from various sides. Let rest 30 mins, loosely covered.

    • Repeat this fold-and-rest 2-3 more times for a total of ~2 hours.

      

  • First fermentation: Let the dough ferment at room temperature for 3 - 6 hours (or if out of time do this overnight in the fridge).

  • Second fermentation: The dough should have doubled in size by now. Dust a new bowl or basket or a towel in a bowl/basket with flour. Deflate the dough and fold it a few times, packing it into a small ball. Typically this is done on a countertop but I am lazy and do it in the bowl (for beginners I recommend watching some videos to understand what this step entails). Transfer the compacted/shaped dough upside down into the flour-coated bowl/basket, cover loosely, and place in the fridge overnight for the slow fermentation to happen.

    

    Dough shaping on the flour dusted counter prior to 2nd fermentation in fridge.

• Day 3 or 4: Bake the Dough

  • I prefer to bake mine on Day 3 but the dough can be left in the fridge for an additional day for a Day 4 bake. It will get more sour with each passing day. If left much longer it will over-ferment, collapse, or be very sour.

  • Take the dough out of the fridge ~1 - 2 hours prior to baking so it has time to warm up a bit.

  • Preheat the oven to 500F with the dutch oven (with the lid) inside.

    • If you are not using a covered dutch oven it does get more tricky to get the correct texture and crust; the steam created in the dutch oven will be missing. One trick, a bit suboptimal, is to place ice cubes in a tray at the bottom of the oven to create steam (add more while baking).

  • Reduce temperature to 475F. Transfer the dough onto a parchment paper, score the dough, place inside the dutch oven, and bake for ~30 mins with the lid on to reach mid-bake.

    • Scoring is important for hot air to escape during the bake. The most basic scoring is just a long cut ~0.5 inch deep anywhere (side or middle). Scoring art is quite popular and all kinds of designs can be made. With practice, this will become easier and quicker.

      

      After the second fermentation, bringing to room temperature and scoring

  • Reduce temperature to 450C. Remove the lid and bake for ~15-25 more mins until desired color on the crust is achieved, without burning. Bread is fully baked inside when you tap the bottom and it sounds hollow (this is tricky to do while bread is hot so I rely on bake time through practice).

    

    Fermented dough in dutch oven: pre-bake, mid-bake, final-bake

Sourdough Loaf to enjoy

• Rest the loaf for ~10 mins until it is cool enough to handle.

• Slice or break a piece and enjoy warm with butter. This is basically heaven.

• Admire the crumb with airy pockets, the pillowy softness on the inside, the crunchy crust on the outside, the caramel color coming from whole wheat flour, the wonder of the fact that you (and some microbes) created this magical phenomenon before you.

• Keep the slices at room temperature, in the fridge, or in the freezer depending on how fast your household eats bread.

Sourdough bread with airy pockets cut into half, a slice with butter, many slices.

More Sourdough Thoughts

I am not a baker. But I fell in love with baking sourdough bread. I made many mistakes when I started baking this bread. Some loafs were under-fermented, some were over-fermented and way too sour. Some loafs were not cooked properly in the middle and some loaves had burnt crusts on the outside. Some loafs would look deflated and some loafs would barely have any crumb (airy pockets). All of this never discouraged me because I fell in love with the process.

Now I bake this bread about once a month (that’s how fast we eat bread in my house). I came up with ways to keep this very low maintenance for me:

• My starter lives in the fridge, maintained weekly rather than daily.

• My process keeps the dough in the bowl to fold and compress rather than do it on the counter surface (I don’t want to clean one more thing).

• My scoring is usually minimal now (I got the fancy scoring fun out of my system a while ago)

I wrote this post due to many requests from my readers and my twitter/X community. But this post is in no way know-all, end-all, or expert when it comes to sourdough bread baking. There are numerous resources on Substack, YouTube, Instagram and the general internet to learn the nuances and techniques of sourdough baking. I learned from many of these and came up with a process and recipe that works for me.

Perhaps you are inspired to start dabbling in sourdough bread baking yourself. If so, I wish you happy baking, full of magic!

Baked sourdough loaf inside a dutch oven.

Dish Debrief:

• Is this my winner or disaster? win

• How would I rate this dish out of 10? 9 out of 10

• What would I change next time? Try with different types of flours like rye, spelt, etc. and improve folding technique some more (which comes with practice)

• Would I make this again? Oh yes, regularly, once a month