Sourdough Loaf Recipe

Let's bake some bread! It's not as scary as you may think. On our Instagram page, we have a sourdough highlight that goes through this whole process from start to finish!

Supplies You'll Need

Big bowl for your dough
Banneton basket*
Blade for scoring*
Dutch Oven
Food scale
All-purpose flour
Water
Your starter

*If you're just getting started, this is a great proofing set with all the tools you'll need!

Let's Bake!

This recipe makes one loaf. You can easily double it to make two loaves (PSA - sourdough loaves freeze well!)

If your starter is in the fridge, take it out about 12-24 hours before starting your bread (you want your starter at room temperature).
Take out two jars
1. One jar will be used for feeding your starter,
2. The other jar will be used to create your leaven. Your leaven is what you are going to use in your bread recipe.
In your starter jar, feed your starter as normal.
In your other jar, your leaven jar, measure out:
- 15g starter, 75g flour, 75g water
- Mix and set aside
- If you want to do two loaves, just double this.
Now we wait! At this point, you need your leaven to "ripen" before baking with it. I usually let mine sit out on the counter for about 8 to 12 hours. The timing will usually depend on how warm your house is. You know your leaven is ready to bake with when it’s doubled in size, and you can see lots of bubbles.
Fast forward 8 to 12 hours and your leaven is bubbly and ready! One way to test if your leaven is ready to bake with is to drop some into water. If it floats, its ready. If it sinks, it either needs more time or it’s too ripe (aka too much time has gone by). You can still use it, your loaf just may not rise as much.
Take out a big bowl and measure out:
- 280g water
- 125g leaven
- 400g flour
Mix all together! It will be sticky.
Cover and set aside in a draft-free place for 30 minutes (I like to put my in the oven with the oven light on. NOTE! The oven is OFF!! It’s just the oven light that warms up the oven just enough for proofing).
- This process is called autolysing. It’s allowing the flour to absorb all the water before you add salt.
Add 7g of salt, mix, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
For the next 3 to 4 hours, you are going to fold the dough every 30 minutes to an hour.
- During this process, you are building tension in the dough and helping it take shape.
- You can fold the dough right in the bowl. I find it easier to fold with wet hands because the dough is less likely to stick to you. Google how to fold sourdough if you’re not sure!
- Make sure your dough stays covered between folds. You don’t want it to dry out and develop a ‘crust’ on top.
After folding for 3 to 4 hours, put covered dough in the fridge for 6 to 18 hours.
- This process is called bulk fermentation. You’re allowing the dough to continue fermenting but at a slower pace because it’s in the fridge.
- You could also keep it in the fridge overnight at this stage if needed.
After bulk ferment, take out of fridge and let the dough come to room temp for 1-2 hours.
Once dough is warmed up, dump dough out on lightly floured counter and stretch out into an oval. Kind of like making pizza crust.
- This is called laminating the dough. It’s helping add tension to the bread.
- Again, Google laminating sourdough and there are some good videos!
Fold back up and shape the dough into a ball!
Let dough ball rest for 10 minutes
Shape again and put into banneton basket
Put dough in fridge for a few hours or overnight
- OR! You could bake it at this stage if you wanted however, it’s easier to score your bread when it’s cold.
BAKING! Put your dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 450*
Once your oven has come up to temp, take dough out of the fridge, turn it out onto parchment paper, score, and put dough in your dutch oven with the lid on.
Bake for 25 minutes
Remove lid and bake another 20 minutes
Boom! Now you have fresh sourdough bread!