Introduction

Have you always been interested in learning how to bake your own bread but not sure how to start? Or maybe you’ve figured out baking in your breadmaker using fast-acting yeast, but you want to try your hand at sourdough. Perhaps you’ve heard that sourdough is better for your gut and more easily digested! I’ve been there! But over the last 6 months I have been baking lots and lots of bread and I’m here to share my method and my tips and hints within you that I’ve discovered along the way.

To start making sourdough bread, you need a starter. You can make your own, starting with equal parts flour and water, and you discard a bit and feed it every day (one for another post!). It is much easier to start with a starter from a friend or buy one online. For this Easy Sourdough Bread, I will assume that you have a starter already – you can buy one, live or dried, online! (Example – Breadtopia on Amazon) In addition to the starter, you will need strong / bread flour, salt, oil, honey and semolina flour to avoid sticking to the pan. The type of flour is key – bread flour is higher in protein and breadmaking will not work with normal, all-purpose flour. In the UK it is called “strong” flour; in the US “bread” flour, and in Costa Rica I have found pizza flour at a specialty Italian shop.

Ingredients and Materials Required

Ingredients

• Sourdough Starter – from a friend or order one online
• Strong bread flour (25g + 300g + 700g), plus more for kneading (a lot more if you are in a humid location – up to 100g)
• Water (25g + 300g + 300g)
• Salt (20g)
• Oil (20g)
• Honey (20g)
• Semolina flour (for lining the pan / dusting the loaf – approximately 20g)

Materials

• Large mixing bowl
• Kitchen scale
• Large clean counter surface for kneading
• 2 cake tins (9 inch) or other vessels for baking
• 2 large bowls to cover the cake tins during proving
• Kitchen Aid with dough hook attachment (optional)

Easy Sourdough Bread Timetable

The following table will help you to plan the steps of this Easy Sourdough Bread. It is possible to make the bread in one day! But I often find that I get busy so it’s handy to know I can pop it into the fridge and continue the next day.

Step 1 – Activate Sourdough Starter

First take 1-2 tablespoons of starter out of the fridge in a small container. Put it on the kitchen scale and add 25 grams of water, mix to dissolve. Then add 25 grams of strong flour, mix to combine. Let this sit at room temperature for approximately 2 hours until bubbles form. At the same time, add 25 grams each of water and flour to your starter (this is called “feeding your starter”) and put it back in the fridge. It’s also possible to use up your entire starter and feed it at once – you just have to remember to grab a little bit of it and put it back in the fridge later. (*See note.)

Step 2 – Create Pre-Ferment

Once you see bubbles, it’s time to add more volume. So coax the activated starter into your mixing bowl and dissolve 300 grams of water. Then add 300 grams of flour and combine. Cover with a clean kitchen towel across the bowl. Let this sit at room temperature for 2-4 hours to allow the entire mixture to activate. I have even left it out overnight successfully! A skin may develop over the top but it’s ok. Breadmaking is actually very forgiving. Wait for the bubbles.

Step 3 – Check Sourdough Starter

At this point, you have around 650 grams of pre-ferment. If you didn’t leave some starter in the fridge earlier, you can grab a bit of this and pop it into the fridge. Once you add flavourings, it will no longer be a “starter” so be mindful not to forget! (*See Note for a top tip on not losing your starter!)

Step 4 – Flavour and Autolyse Sourdough

Add 300 grams more water into the mixture and dissolve it well. Then add 20 grams each of salt, honey and oil, mix to dissolve. Then add 700 grams more strong flour and give it a good mix. The dough will be very wet and hard to stir, just do the best you can (this is my favourite place to use my dough hook, but not necessary). Once it’s mostly mixed in, drape a kitchen towel across the bowl and leave it for at least 40 minutes to autolyse. “Autolyse” basically means you’re letting the flour absorb the wetness, after which it will be easier to mix and knead.

Step 5 – Knead Your Sourdough

After the dough is autolysed, it’s time to get to work. Clean a counter surface area and give it a good sprinkling of flour. Dump the dough out onto the flour; it’s very sticky. I like to scrape the inside of the mixing bowl with my fingers to collect all of the sticky dough that stayed inside (I find it hard to clean if there’s too much sticky dough going into the sink later).

Being very liberal with the flour on your hands, start to fold the dough in thirds like a letter, and in half again and again. If you live in a humid environment, use lots of flour to help your hands to not get completely covered in sticky dough. Keep adding flour and kneading, grab an edge and fold it in to the center, press the dough with the heel of your palm and turn the dough around until it is elastic and smooth. Generally, about 10 minutes of kneading is what you’re going for here – but admittedly sometimes I don’t feel like it, and the bread still turns out!

Step 6 – Form Loaves, Prepare Tins, Prove Sourdough Bread

Cut the dough in half and knead each separately, gathering and folding the sides in, so it looks a bit like a shower cap or a jellyfish with all sides curling towards the center. Then flip it over, seam side down, and create tension across the top of the ball by scooping and folding the sides underneath. Roll and pat the ball with semolina flour.

Then take your 2 baking tins out and liberally sprinkle the bottom of each one with a thick coating of semolina flour (it’s like sand – it will prevent your loaf from sticking to the pan). Carefully place each ball on top of the semolina layer in the center and cover each baking tin with a large bowl. Leave to prove for 2-3 hours. Don’t leave them for too long, as the dough may grow too much, stick to the sides, or deflate itself. If the prove goes wrong, you can either bake it anyway and have a flat-ish loaf, or re-knead and re-prove. This method avoids the need for a banneton basket.

Step 7 – Bake Easy Sourdough Bread

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, or basically as hot as it goes. While it’s preheating, check that the loaves haven’t risen to be touching the sides of the pan; if they have, you might try squeezing in a little more semolina. When the oven is pre-heated, make a shallow cut down the center of each loaf (1 cm or less). Throw a big handful of ice into the bottom of the oven, and pop both loaves in to the center shelf. Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees (it will rise more, and start to brown); then without opening the door, turn down to 350 degrees and bake for 40 minutes more.

Well Done! Remove the loaves from the oven. Lift them off of the semolina and onto a drying rack; if you turn one upside down and tap on it, it should sound hollow. If a loaf sticks to the pan, try leveraging it out with a wooden spoon. This bread is magnificent immediately out of the oven; my daughter will even eat the crusts! It is much easier to cut on the second day. So congratulate yourself, dig in, and enjoy!

Note! * If you use your entire starter to activate and create your pre-ferment, you can leave your small vessel (I use tupperware) out in the air and let it dry out. Then you can scrape it off with a spoon – this helps avoid lots of dough getting stuck in your sink, your dish-washing brush, sponge, etc. Top Tip – save the scraped out starter bits! You can pop them into a plastic bag and into the freezer. I’ve actually done this – I accidentally lost my starter (unbelievable as I usually keep 2 or 3 always in the fridge), and I just added 25 grams of water and flour to the scrapings that I had put in the freezer. Lo and behold, it gave me a new starter! Happiness!