Easy Everyday Sourdough Bread

I'm beyond excited to share my favorite everyday sourdough bread with you! While I've been making sourdough bread for awhile now, I finally feel like I've perfected my recipe and technique.

There's a lot to learn when it comes to sourdough, and that's why I packed this recipe post with tons of information to help you! If you're new to sourdough, just know that you'll get better and more comfortable with each and every loaf you bake! It's so worth the effort!

What is Sourdough Bread?

Sourdough is bread that is naturally leavened using a sourdough starter, which is a fermented flour and water mixture that contains living wild yeast and healthy, gut-friendly lactic acid bacteria.

This fermentation process makes sourdough bread easier to digest and less likely to spike blood sugar levels because of its lower glycemic index compared to standard white bread which uses commercial yeast to leaven the bread.

What is a sourdough starter?

Sourdough starter is a combination of fermented flour and water and is used to leaven sourdough bread, as opposed to using commercial yeast.

Sourdough starter naturally develops good bacteria and wild yeast that feed on the carbohydrates in flour when hydrated with water and allowed to ferment.

Creating a sourdough starter at home usually takes about 2 weeks. The process involves mixing together water and flour everyday until the starter is active, which means it's ready to bake with.

Once your starter is active, you can continue to feed it everyday if you plan to bake bread everyday, otherwise you can store your starter in the fridge and feed it once a week when you're ready to bake - this is what I do!

How do I make a sourdough starter?

If you do a quick Google search, you'll find lots of great articles online that will walk you through how to make your own sourdough starter. Ideally, I recommend making a sourdough starter when the weather is warm because starters like a warm environment.

But, you do not have to make your own starter. If you know someone who has a starter, ask them for a cup! They will always have extra. Alternatively, you can buy fresh sourdough starter online. Here are a couple links:

King Arthur Live Sourdough Starter

Breadtopia Live Sourdough Starter

What is a leaven?

Sourdough leaven is an offshoot of your sourdough starter, and is a mixture of sourdough starter, water and flour. You make the leaven the same way that you feed your starter. You will use the entire jar of leaven to make your bread.

Leaven doesn't really differ much from the starter unless you choose to do something different with it like use whole wheat flour or change up the water to flour ratio, things you typically wouldn't do with your starter. But, as stated in the recipe card below, you can use 100 grams of active starter instead. I just prefer to keep my leaven and starter separate.

What equipment do I need?

There are a few kitchen tools that I feel are essential when making sourdough bread. I'll share those below along with some fun optional equipment that you can collect along the way to enhance your bread making skills!

Essential equipment

• Kitchen scale
• 5-7 quart dutch oven
• Mixing bowl
• Sturdy spoon or dough whisk
• Sharp knife, razor blade or bread lame
• parchment paper

Optional equipment

• Proofing basket, round or oval
• Bread lame
• Bench scraper/dough cutter
• Dough whisk
• Silicone bread sling
• Bread knife

How to make sourdough bread (step by step overview with photos)

Step 1: Make the leaven.

Baking sourdough bread is really a 3 day process, but don't be intimated! It doesn't require a lot of hands-on time. For example, if you want to bake your bread on Sunday, then you will mix up your leaven Friday night, mix up the dough on Saturday and bake on Sunday.

With the 1.5.5 ratio of starter, water and flour (1 part starter, 5 parts water, 5 parts flour), your leaven will need about 10-12 hours to rise before you mix up your bread dough. That said, I like to make my leaven around 8-9pm and let it sit overnight. The leaven is ready the next morning when it's doubled in size and full of bubbles.

Step 2: Mix the dough.

Mix together the water and leaven until combined and cloudy, then add in the flour and mix again. The dough will look a little dry and shaggy, but keep mixing until no dry flour remains. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes (this is called autolyse), allowing the water to hydrate the flour. Next, you will add the salt and mix it into the dough using wet hands - at this point the dough should be less sticky and more manageable.

Step 3: Stretch and folds.

Perform a series of stretch and folds every 30 minutes for 2 hours (total of 4 times) to straighten the dough. To do so, grab under the top side of dough and stretch it up then fold it over the center. Quarter turn the bowl and repeat until you've performed the stretch and fold series on all 4 sides. Repeat this process 3 more times every 30 minutes. The dough will tighten up as you go along. Alternatively, if you're familiar with coil folds, that's another option.

Step 4: Bulk ferment.

Cover the dough and let is rise at room temperature until it's nearly doubled in size. I like to shoot for about a 75% rise to prevent the dough from over fermenting. Using a measuring bowl is super helpful here!

Step 5: Pre-shape the dough.

This is optional, but helps with the structure of the loaf. Scrape the dough from the bowl onto a clean, dry counter. Use your hands to push and pull the dough into a ball. Let the dough rest uncovered for 20-30 minutes, then do the final shape.

Step 6: Shape the dough.

There are many ways to do the final shape, but here is my preferred method for an oval loaf. It is a more complex shaping process, so I hope these images help! I also shared a more beginner friendly shaping method in the recipe card.

Once the dough has rested after the pre-shape, flip the dough ball over. Grab the bottom section, then stretch and fold it up and over the bottom half of the dough. Grab the bottom left side of dough and stretch and fold over the bottom center. Repeat with the right side of the dough. Grab the top and fold over, then stitch the dough all the way down starting with the two top corners. Roll the dough up so the stitching is now inside. Lastly, pinch the ends together.

Step 7: Transfer to proofing basket & fridge ferment.

Scoop underneath the dough ball using a bench scraper or your hands, then flip the dough over into a floured oval-shaped banneton, or proofing basket, so the seam side is up.

If the seam of your dough doesn't seem to be holding together, you can let it rest for 30 minutes then do one final stitching.

Before placing the dough in the fridge for its final fermentation, you need to tightly cover the loaf. Dust the dough with flour, then cover using a bowl cover, plastic wrap secured with rubber bands, or even a tied grocery bag.

Transfer the covered loaf to the fridge to cold ferment for 12-24 hours.

Step 8: Preheat the oven & score.

Place your dutch oven with the lid on into the oven, then preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Once the oven is preheated, remove the loaf from the fridge and turn out onto parchment paper. Score the bread using a bread lame, culinary razor and very sharp knife. I typically do one long cut off to the side. If you're feeling fancy you can score a fun design.

Step 9: Bake.

Carefully transfer the loaf with the parchment paper to the hot dutch oven. Cover and place in the oven. Drop the oven temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until it's a deep golden brown.

Remove from the dutch oven using the parchment paper and let cool completely for at least 1 hour before slicing. While cutting into warm bread is delicious, this will leave you with a gummy loaf.

Commonly asked questions

Troubleshooting

• Not rising? Make sure you're using a good, healthy sourdough starter. Using a weak starter will prevent your bread from properly rising. If it's been more than 1 week since you last fed your starter, try feeding it twice before baking bread. Also, please keep in mind, if your kitchen is cold, the dough will take more time to rise.
• Lacking flavor? Did you forget the salt? You would be surprised how much flavor salt adds to the bread. Do not skip the salt, and if you reduce the amount of salt, don't do any less than 8 grams!
• Burnt bottom? If your sourdough loaf is burning on the bottom, place a sheet pan, pizza stone or piece of tinfoil on the rack below the dutch oven. This prevents the heat coil on the bottom of the oven from sending heat straight up to bottom of the Dutch Oven. And if you can, place the dutch oven on the middle rack.

Storage

Room temperature

Before you cut into the loaf, it can be stored on the counter at room temperature for a couple days. Once the loaf has been cut into, store in an airtight bag for up to 5 days. If storing any longer, I recommend storing in the fridge or freezer. When kept on the counter or in the fridge, make sure you monitor for mold growth since sourdough bread is free of preservatives.

While the texture of the bread is best the first few days, I recommend enjoying the bread within a week of baking. After a couple days, I think sourdough bread tastes best lightly toasted.

Freezing

You can freeze sourdough bread in an airtight bag for up to 3 months. You can freeze the loaf whole or cut into slices first. 

I like to slice the loaf, then I can just grab one or two slices at a time and pop them into the toaster to thaw and toast before eating.

To thaw a whole life, pull it from the freezer and leave it in the bag at room temperature until thawed. You will see moisture inside the bag and that is good. The bread will reabsorb that moisture as it comes to room temperature.