I have seen many "simple guides to baking sourdough" so I'm not trying to be unique. I've read books and watched videos that have helped me get a grip on this delicious bread. Links are imbedded below. My favorite resource for making sourdough or any other bread, for that matter, is Bake With Jack: https://www.youtube.com/c/BakewithjackUk/featured.
The starter:
This is where many people lose interest in baking sourdough bread as opposed to regular yeasted loaves. They don't want to have to take care of this living, breathing organism every day. Well, I can understand that. That's why I use the "scrapings method", which I learned from Bake With Jack. You can check out his video here:
Starters need to be fed regularly in order to stay alive. However, if you don't plan to make bread every day, feeding starters involve a lot of waste because you have to throw out part of the old starter before feeding it. I hate wasting food. I make 2 breads every 2 weeks. In the meantime, I stick 50-100g of starter in the fridge with a small layer of water on top so it doesn't dry out. When I'm ready to make my bread, I follow the following formula:
- 100g starter PLUS:
- 100g water
- 100g whole wheat flour
That produces about 300g of starter, enough to make 2 breads and have about 100g leftover for next time, which I just pop right back into the fridge!
IMPORTANT NOTE: When is your starter ready to be used? Every recipe I've read says you need to use it when (1) it has doubled in size and (2) when a small amount of starter floats on water (due to the buildup of gas). However, these signs may still be present in the starter even after it is already too late. To know when to use the starter, you need a third indicator: (3) the top of the starter must be domed and bubbles can be seen popping on the surface. This means that the starter is still growing. If it is concave, that means that it has started to deflate and it's already too late.
This is what it looks like when the starter is ready. You'll notice that it is almost twice the volume of the first photo, and is still domed. It has taken 5 hours and my kitchen is 25C.
Basic Recipe (makes 2 loaves)
- 200g starter
- 650-700g warm water
- 900g bread flour (high gluten content) (you can also replace 20% of this flower with whole wheat or rye flour for a nicer, richer flavor.
- 20g salt
To Autolyze or Not to Autolyze?
To mix the dough, you can follow 2 different methods:
- Autolyze: mix the flour and water first, until no dry spots remain, let sit for 20-30 minutes, then add the starter and salt and mix until fully combined.
OR
- No Autolyze: mix starter with water, then add the flour and salt in one go. Then mix thoroughly.
Everyone has their own preference. I have tried both methods and I have found little difference in my loaves.
Stretching & Folding
Sourdough bread is a very wet dough and it is very difficult to knead in the way you would a regular yeasted dough. So, you need to be gentle. I do 3 sets of stretch and folds, which involves gently picking up the dough from the side and folding it over itself 6-8 times. Between each set, rest the dough for around 30-45 minutes. Make sure to cover the dough with a little bit of water so it doesn't dry out between folds. Jack goes into better detail on how to do this:
Proofing and Shaping
Now that you've completed your stretches and folds, you need to let your dough rest for a few hours. This is called proofing. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, it can be anywhere from 2 hours on really hot days to 4 hours when it's cooler. The dough should be at least double in size, with bubbles coming to the surface, almost popping.
There is a risk that your dough can over-proof. This can happen if you forget about your dough and let it rise too long. The acidity in the dough breaks down the gluten strands that were formed during the stretch & folds. At that point, your dough will look soupy and will not be able to hold its shape. With regular yeasted loaves, you can always degas the dough and re-proof it. With sourdough, however, the presence of lactic acid bacteria means that if you try to degas and re-proof, you'll end up with a very tough, very sour dough. Some people like that. I am not one of them.
The next step is shaping your loaves. For that you need the following items: a scraper and two bannetons, which come in various sizes online:
You can shape them once or twice before putting them in the bannetons. Either way, you need to make sure that you build strength and tension while not completely deflating the dough. You can do this best with the twice-shaping method. For instructions on how to do this, here is Bake with Jack again (although this is not specific to sourdough loaves):
Next, you'll need to rest your dough in the bannetons in the fridge overnight. The next morning, when the dough has filled out the bannetons, you can move to the next step of preheating your oven and scoring and baking your loaves.
Scoring your Loaves
Scoring is tricky. You need to use a very sharp knife or exacto knife. The gasses within the dough will expand up and out, and will burst out through the weakest point. Most people make a simple slash along the side or top of the dough. Jack does this in his videos. But I like to be a bit more creative, and draw sheaves of wheat or specific scenes. Here you can see one such attempt that didn't go so well:
You'll notice that the dove at the top right disappeared and the Star of David became warped. I ended up with an egg-shaped loaf, a bit wonky. Now check out this loaf, where I tried a similar scene:
You'll notice that made large slashes at the four sides of the loaf, allowing the gasses to escape through the sides, without affecting the image on top.
Baking
There are a couple ways to bake your loaves: on a pizza stone or in a Dutch oven. I prefer to use a Dutch oven because using a pizza stone requires the added use of steam, which is not required in a Dutch oven since it creates that steam automatically.
However, if you don't have one, you can use a Pirex casserole dish, which is also much cheaper. Just don't preheat it in the oven as it will crack. This video gives you instructions on how to use a Pirex dish, although I wouldn't follow his other instructions because they are more conducive to making regular yeasted loaves, not sourdough:
If you are using a Dutch oven, you must preheat it in the oven for at least 1 hour. Put it in the oven when it is still cold, then turn the heat up to the hottest temperature, usually around 230C (450F).
I bake each loaf for 25 minutes with the lid on, then I remove the lid, reduce the heat to 200C (400F) and bake until deeply brown, about 20 minutes.
If you're interested in following Jack's Sourdough tutorial, his full video is below: