How to Make Sourdough Bread for the Beginner

This beginner-friendly guide breaks down the process into simple, easy-to-follow steps. Learn how to make delicious sourdough bread from scratch with minimal ingredients and no fancy tools required. Perfect for first-time bakers who want to enjoy homemade, wholesome bread with ease!

Sourdough seems to be quite the trend over the past couple of years, as we’ve seen throughout the internet. And if you are anything like me, the thought of even attempting to make sourdough bread was beyond overwhelming. I’d see a recipe on a blog that would tell me everything NOT to do while making sourdough. Then I would find another blog post. This post listed 10 different gadgets. It also listed kitchen items I would need for success in my sourdough journey. We’ve all seen those kind of posts circulating around…

Sourdough bread is far less complicated than it’s made out to be. I sat back and procrastinated making it for years because I was convinced it was too overwhelming. I’m here to say it’s one of the easiest recipes you can add to your kitchen. It will yield many different variations of sourdough treats for you and your family.

All you need is unbleached flour and water. Yes. I said it. This is all you need to make a sourdough starter.

Before all the sourdough enthusiasts come at me for that statement, I will say this. Yes, there are better options than others out there. This is especially true when it comes to flours such as AP, bread flour, einkorn, rye flour…whole grain, even. HOWEVER, when you’re starting out as a beginner, those two ingredients are all you need.

Other factors will play a part, such as the temperature of your kitchen and the water you use. However, the basics are all you need to begin this journey.

For those that are new to the sourdough world, sourdough bread is a naturally leavened bread. In other words, is a bread that does not use commercial yeast for the bread to rise. It uses sourdough starter which is a mixture of flour and water that naturally ferments from wild lactobacilli and yeast.

The benefits of sourdough bread are also a great plus for spending the time to make it. These benefits include:

• Easier to digest
• Has a lower glycemic index
• Contains fewer preservatives than store bought bread
• More nutrient-dense
• Provides healthy bacteria

The first thing needed to make sourdough bread is making your starter. This process could take 1-2 weeks, depending on the environment of where you keep the starter. A good thing to note is that the longer you let the starter ferment, the better sourdough taste your bread will have. If you have the time and patience, I recommend trying to shoot for 2-3 weeks. But it can easily be done in a week.

Once you have an established starter and your starter is active, fed, and ready to use, all you need to make your dough is:

• Sea salt or Celtic Salt
• Bread flour (I recommend King Arthur)
• Water

Step 1: Add starter to your water.

Combine 60 grams of starter to 350 grams of lukewarm water. I highly recommend mixing them together with your hands rather than a whisk. Once well mixed, you will have a water mixture that is milky in consistency.

Step 2: Add bread flour and salt.

Once your sourdough starter and water are mixed, add 500 grams of water and 20-25 grams of salt. I find mixing with my hands to be the easiest for this part. It can be messy, but it’s worth the process. Once your dough is well mixed, it will have a shaggy consistency at this point.

Step 3: Rest for 1 hour and begin stretch and folds.

Cover your shaggy sourdough dough a damp tea towel or plastic wrap. Either one will work. Let it rest for one hour.

After the first hour, you will begin your stretch and folds every 30 minutes to an hour thereafter.

To complete a stretch and fold, wet your hands so the dough does not stick to your hands. You will grab one end of your dough and stretch/pull upwards to start activating that gluten. Once you stretch it upwards, without the dough breaking, you’ll fold it over the dough.

You will turn your bowl 3 more times, a quarter turn each time, to complete a full stretch and fold cycle. Once you’ve completed one round, cover the dough back up and let rest for another 30 minutes to an hour.

You will repeat the stretch and fold process 4 times, once every 30 minutes to an hour. As the dough rests and you complete more stretch and folds, the dough will become less shaggy and more smooth in nature. You will also notice the dough becoming more “stretchy” with each stretch and fold.

Step 4: Bulk ferment for 8-12 hours.

There does come a point where part of the bread making process can take some time. Once all stretch and folds are complete, cover your bowl of sourdough with a wet tea towel or plastic wrap and let it rest on your counter for 8-12 hours or overnight. The dough will rise about 75%.

Step 5: Shape your dough.

The fun part. Pour your dough out onto a floured surface so it does not stick.

There’s many ways to shape your sourdough, but the way I have found that works best is by laying or stretching the dough out to look like a rectangle. Do not use anything but your hands.

Once it is stretched out, fold in opposite edges at a time and starting rolling up to create that “loaf” shape. Sometimes I will roll my sourdough towards me once it is in a loaf shape to create some tension in the dough. This is where you’ll see the nice smooth outside to your sourdough loaf.

Transfer the shaped sourdough loaf into a flour lined tea towel in a bowl or banneton, either one will work.

Cover the banneton or bowl (I used a plastic grocery bag around it and tie it to keep air out) and place in the fridge for 6-8 hours.

This continues the bulk ferment.

Step 6: Bake your sourdough bread.

After the second bulk ferment is complete, remove your dough from the refrigerator.

Tranfer the dough to a floured piece of parchment paper or bread silicone bread sling.

Place your dutch oven in the oven with lid on while it is preheating.

Once preheated, place the dough into the Dutch Oven and bake with the lid on for 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, remove the lid and bank another 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Remove your bread from the oven and place on a cooling rack for at least one hour before slicing into it.

Enjoy!

If you try this recipe and love it, please leave me a comment and share! I love to see how they turn out for you!