Easy Sourdough Bread

5 from 30 votes

This is your ultimate guide to baking the perfect loaf of sourdough bread! I will take you through each stage of the baking process, sharing tips and tricks along the way and troubleshooting any issues. Whether you're a seasoned baker or a complete beginner, you'll find all the information you need to make your own sourdough bread at home.

Prep Time1

Cook Time45

Fermentation Time1

Total Time1 1 45

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: All

Diet: Vegan, Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 158kcal

Author: Shilpa Kerur

Ingredients

100 grams sourdough starter
500 grams bread flour
375 grams water filtered
10 grams salt
Rice flour for dusting banneton

Instructions

Make the dough:

Make sure the starter is fully active before starting.
Mix water and sourdough starter together.
Slowly add flour and salt. Combine well making sure there are no dry bits of flour. The dough will be quite wet at this stage.
Cover with a tea towel and let it sit at room temperature for 1 to 1.5 hours. This stage is called the autolyze.

Stretch and Fold:

After autolysis, we need to perform stretch and fold. I aim to perform six sets of stretching and folding at an interval of 20 to 30 minutes.
To perform stretch and hold, wet your hands. Gently loosen the dough from all sides of the bowl. Grab a portion of the dough and slowly stretch it taking care not to break it and fold it towards the center over the dough. Keep turning the bowl and repeat the process until all parts of the dough are covered. Carefully flip the dough and round it up. Cover and let it rest until it is time for the next set of stretch and fold. Pinch out any air bubbles that are formed during this process. You can see the dough develop structure and strength as you continue the stretch and fold. The messy and shaggy dough will slowly turn into a well-developed dough. See the pictures below or the video here to see the technique.
You can either do the stretch and fold in the bowl itself or put the dough onto the bench to perform the stretch and fold. If you are putting the dough onto the bench, make sure you mist it with water first. It is important to always wet your hands before handling the dough and handle the dough gently.

Bulk Fermentation:

After the stretch and fold, let the dough sit for bulk fermentation. As mentioned earlier, the time for bulk fermentation depends on the ambient temperature of the place where the dough sits. The bulk fermentation is done when the dough is almost double and has bubbles on top. Gently pull the dough from a corner and see if it has fairly large bubbles underneath.

Shape the dough:

The next step after bulk fermentation is shaping the dough. To shape the dough, firstly dust the banneton or tea towel well with rice flour.
Dust the bench lightly with flour and turn the dough onto it. The dough should gently pull itself down to the bench.
Pick one side of the dough and fold it to the center. Pick the other side and fold it to the center.
Now hold the dough gently and tuck it to form a log.
Carefully place the dough seam-side up on the banneton. Gently lift the sides of the dough and dust some more rice flour.
Take care to be very gentle with the dough and handle the dough as less as possible.

Cold fermentation:

Cover the dough loosely with a clean shower cap or place a cling wrap loosely.
Place in the refrigerator overnight or up to 24 hours.

Bake the sourdough bread:

Place a Dutch oven with the lid on in the oven and preheat it to 450 F (230 C) for 30 minutes.
Once the oven preheats, take the dough out of the refrigerator and carefully flip it onto a baking sheet.
Score the dough with a razor blade or sharp knife. Make the cut approximately ¼ inch deep across the bread. You can score the dough to create designs/patterns you like.
Take the Dutch oven out of the oven and open the lid.
Carefully place the dough along with the baking sheet in the Dutch oven and cover with the lid.
Place the Dutch oven back into the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
Take the lid off and bake for a further 15 minutes.
Turn off the oven and open the oven door. Let the bread sit in the turned-off oven for 15 minutes for curing.
Take the bread out once cured and place on a wire rack to cool down completely.
Slice and serve.

Notes

Use a sourdough starter that is active and mature. Your sourdough starter should be fed regularly and have a bubbly, active appearance before you use it in your bread dough.

Use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients accurately. Sourdough bread is a precise process, and using a scale to measure ingredients will help ensure consistent results.

See the tips section above for more useful tips on baking the perfect sourdough bread.

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