How To Make Sourdough Bread

Sourdough Bread: What makes it Sour?

Wild yeast is used to make sourdough bread. You won't even need commercial yeast. The wild yeast needs a little bit of coaxing to work and takes longer than commercial yeast. Sourdough breads can take up to a day or two to form, shape, and bake. It gives wild yeast the time it needs to complete its task. This long slow process also helps extract more subtle flavors from the bread than the average sandwich bread.

Although the wild yeast is definitely the star of the show it's actually not what makes this bread sour. That distinctive sour flavor comes from two kinds of friendly bacteria Lactobacillus and acetobacillus which grow alongside the wild yeast in the sourdough culture and help ferment the sugars in the dough.

Note that sourdough breads do not always taste sweet. It all depends on how your starter is made and whether you want it to be strong or subtle. This recipe strikes the right balance. It's slightly sour but balanced with a variety of sweet, earthy and yeasty flavor.

Continue reading in The Kitchn's Baking School

Sourdough Starter

A starter is necessary before making sourdough bread. This is the culture that contains flour and water to cultivate wild yeast and develop those bacterias. You can ensure that your starter is fully matured and has a high rise. This will allow for better flavor development.

Your starter can be made in five days. You make your starter by mixing flour and water together and letting them cool at room temperatures overnight. The wild yeast will soon thrive in your culture, whether they are in the flour or in the air. You will need to continue feeding the bacteria and yeast over the following days by adding water and some culture. You'll know it's ready to use to make bread when the culture becomes very bubbly within just a few hours of feeding, and when it smells sour but fresh.

A starter is a recipe that you can use over and over again. It is stored in the fridge and I only feed it once every week. When I want to make a loaf of bread, I take it out a few days ahead and feed it once a day to strengthen it again.

How to make your very own starter

 

What You'Ll Learn

This tutorial will teach you how to make amazing sourdough bread.

It doesn't require any kneading and you don't need a bread machine (hooray! These are the instructions.

This recipe is perfect for beginning cooks. You can do this.

 

Sourdough Faq

1. It is all-purpose flour. Can I still make this recipe?

For best results, use bread flour for this dough. My Artisan Sourdough With All Purpose Flour 2 is a great alternative if all you have is bread flour. Can I add whole wheat flour to this recipe?

It's possible, but not for me. It will make the dough too sticky and hard without increasing water. For more whole-grain goodness, try my Light Whole Wheat Sourdough.

3. Here is your starter recipe. It uses 150g. The Everyday Sourdough in your book uses only 50g. How can you tell the difference? And why is that?

150g starter was all I needed to start baking sourdough bread when I started out. I found it difficult to use the starter, particularly when double or tripling my recipes. I decided to reduce the quantity. So I reduced the starter to 50 grams in most recipes of Artisan Sourdough Made Simple. One amount is neither right or one; it's just a matter of preference.

4. 4.) What is the use of olive oil for this recipe?

The first time I learned to bake was by adding olive oil to the sourdough. It emulsifies and creates a moist crumb by adding natural fat.

 

Sourdough bread without any knead

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe A simple EASY recipe for No-Knead Sourdough Bread made with your own homemade sourdough starter that rises overnight and is baked the next morning. Or mix it up in the morning and bake it at night. All up! You only need 25 minutes of your time. Total time: 14 hours. (3) VIDEOS BELOW or Jump to Recipe Card

Last week, I shared my recipe for simple Sourdough Starter.

The starter will be bubbly by now, ready to bake bread. So, I'm sharing a basic recipe for No-Knead Sourdough Bread. It was a wonderful, easy-to-make recipe that Bee H, my sweet friend (for love) introduced me to 7 years ago.

It's not yet failed me, and I will always be grateful to her for this simple act.

The Sourdough recipe I use is easy and flexible, but it also works well with my busy schedule. This recipe doesn't require much time. However, it does take some effort.

My favorite Sourdough Bread Recipe. The dough is made the day before and proofs overnight on the counter between 10-12hrs. It's then stretched and folded, and formed in the morning. The dough is baked for 35 minutes. I find this bread very useful because of my availability. You can keep it frozen for any changes in plans.

Inversely, you could mix the dough early in the morning and bake it that night. It's up to you.

 

Notifications

It is best to bake your starter right after it has reached its peak. This will help ensure the bread rises evenly. Make sure your starter is healthy, hungry, and strong, able to double in size 4-8 hours after feeding. If the starter was last fed more than one week ago and is in the refrigerator, it should be fed the next morning. You can make bread even if your starter has not been fed in 3-7 days. Use a 1/3 cup starter for your bread dough and place the remaining back in the fridge and feed a week after the last feeding. BUT if it has been a week after your last feeding, pull it out of the fridge, discard (or save for pancakes waffles , or give away) all but 1/2 cup. You can feed it. The bread should take 4-8hrs to fully metabolize. For the bread use 1/3 cup starter (90g) and let it rest for a week. For a more "sour" flavor, use starter that has been in the fridge 4-6 days. Never feed your starter. The sourdough starter is the sourest the longer it goes without feeding.

FLOUR. I strongly recommend weighing your flour for the first time. Use mostly white flour for your bread. While it might seem tedious, there are many options for adding whole spices and even seeds. Try substituting 1/2 cup flour instead if you have to. Three and a half cups of whole wheat flour would work well. Your loaf might become too dense and heavy if you use more flour than this. This will not be your first loaf. Neither do you! You want it to be amazing so you feel inspired to make it again and again. A few practice loaves will help you get comfortable playing the violin.

Hydration: Wet dough produces a lot more air pockets than dry dough, but is harder to work on in the beginning. A dry dough will yield a slightly denser, less airy loaf but will be easier to work with, in the beginning. You will find this one is closer to the latter, at 75% hydration. But you can always adjust it down the line as you get more practice. The 385 water grams are divided by the flour grams to determine the hydration level. The result is.75 or 75% of the 385 divided by 502.

Bread Baker

: Make sure your dutch oven bread baker can handle a 500F oven. If this is the case, use 450F. For a quick bake, take off the lid and let it cool for about 25 minutes. Make sure to broil your bread to 200F before you leave it out. The bread maker (clay) in my kitchen cracked at 500F. Make sure to read the instructions. Plastic handles will often melt at 500 F DUTCH OVEN. To keep your steam from escaping, you could bake the bread on a sheetpan covered with large, metal or pyrex dishes. It will yield a flatter loaf but it does work. After baking for around 25-30 minute, uncover the bowl. Continue baking 10-15 minutes more until the bread is golden. It may take a few practices tries to perfect this.

Smaller Loaves: If you would like to create two smaller loaves bake each at 450F for 18 minutes (or until internal temp is 200F) uncover, lower heat to 425F and bake until golden and internal temp is 204-208F. It is possible to adjust the timing.

PRACTICE: You can practice baking your loaves. It is fun and will give you a better understanding of the dough. Also, you will notice how seasons and changes in temperature affect the loaf and the proofing time. I suggest making the exact same loaf repeatedly several times. The proofing time will be shorter for warmer temps. It takes longer for colder temperatures. The starter quantity can be adjusted to alter the proofing times. If you want a faster rise, add some starter to the mixture, such as 1/2 cup or 2/3 cup. If you want a shorter cooler rise that lasts 36 to 48 hours in the fridge, reduce the starter by 1/4 cup. It is possible to adjust the ratios so that you get the exact proofing time. Keep taking notes. You can also adjust the hydration for an airier loaf, either reducing flour or increasing water. There are so many variables!! You have so many variables. The most important advice I can give you is to pay close attention to your particular "creature", observe it carefully, and look for signs- it is communicating with you. Be attentive. Do not fight it. Take your time, be patient and respond with thoughtfulness

 

Troubleshooting Guide

How can you tell whether sourdough was over-proofed or under-proofed.

It is possible to overproof your dough after the bulk rise. If it becomes super sticky, or is difficult to shape, then you have probably over-proofed the dough. Sourdough can easily overproof in warm and/or humid climates, so a warm kitchen is the most likely culprit. Take note of the temperature of your kitchen and reduce the rising time on your next bake accordingly.

Dough that is underproofed: Use your thumb for a 1/4 inch indentation. If the indentation quickly springs back all the way, or almost all the way, it's still under-proofed. It's ready for baking when the indention takes a while to rise back. It's likely that it was over-proofed if it doesn't rise back. If bread becomes sticky after baking, this is usually an indication that it wasn't properly proofed.

Is it because my sourdough is too sour?

If your starter is not fed regularly, it can take on a more sour flavor. The starter can develop lactic acid. To get a less sour flavor, make sure to feed your starter more frequently before you bake. In order to balance out and lower the amount lactic acid in your starter, it may be necessary to give it food for up to 2 days.

My dough is not rising.

Is your kitchen cold, less than 65degF (18degC)? In cooler months, it can take much longer for sourdough bread to rise than in warmer months. There are two options: let the dough rise more or add starter to the dough.

 

.How To Make Sourdough Bread