This sourdough bread for beginners is exactly as it seems: the simplest, easiest, no-fuss recipe for a loaf of homemade sourdough bread, designed for the home baker with little to no prior sourdough baking experience.
Translation: there are no pre-req’s for this sourdough course. Come as you are, and leave with a loaf of bread.
I make mine whole wheat, but this recipe works just as well for a standard white loaf, too, if you’d prefer.
We’re leaving behind the fancy terms and techniques and special equipment in favor of a user-friendly, streamlined bread recipe that yields a great loaf of sourdough, every time. Oh, and we’re measuring everything in cups and tablespoons and not stressing out one bit about how precise our measurements are.
Deep breaths, friends, because it’s all going to work out.
Let’s uncomplicate sourdough, shall we?
sourdough starter
Lets get this out of the way right at the beginning: yes, you will need a sourdough starter to make this bread.
Check out these posts for my simple, zero-waste, stressless sourdough starter wisdom:
My recipe below starts from the very beginning, with instructions on when to remove your starter from the fridge and feed it, so it’s active and ready to bake with.
timeline
Unlike most sourdough recipes I’ve read, this recipe follows a 24 hour timeline, one I designed specifically to fit my schedule.
We’re going to take our starter out in the morning, feed it mid-day, mix up the dough before dinner, give it a little attention once an hour throughout the evening, then put it in the fridge before bed. The next morning, all that’s left to do is bake your loaf!
the only technique you need to know
There is only one technique from traditional sourdough baking that I kept in my sourdough bread for beginners recipe: the stretch and fold.
This is essential the simplest form of kneading dough, where you just pull the dough up and fold it over on top of itself. We are going to use this technique instead of kneading, as I found it to not only be easier than kneading dough, but to yield superior results.
I’ll give more detailed instructions in the recipe below, but if you’re more of a visual learner, check out this video to see how simple the stretch and fold technique is!
which type of flour to use
Bread flour: yup, its really the best for baking bread.
Can you bake a loaf with all-purpose or whole wheat flour? Also yes. But, the structure of the bread is noticeably better with bread flour.
Bread flour is higher in protein than all-purpose and helps provide that chewy/fluffy texture that’s so wonderful in artisan bread.
I like to look for organic, unbleached, and/or whole wheat bread flour for baking. This is the flour that’s always in my pantry for bread baking as it’s local to me, stone-ground, whole grain, organic, and super fresh (like, it has usually been milled a day or two before it arrives on my doorstep!!).
I’ve also baked this recipe using straight up store bought bread flour and had no complaints- so use what you can find!
let’s get baking!
Be sure to read the recipe and notes below in their entirety (important for every recipe, but especially so here!), but if you have any questions at all, feel free to leave a comment below!! If you make yourself a loaf of sourdough, be sure to take a picture of it and tag me on Instagram so I can see! I literally spent years off-and-on developing this recipe and it makes me so happy to see it out in the world!
Sourdough Bread for Beginners (simple + whole wheat!)
Ingredients
- 1 cup active sourdough starter
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup or honey
- 1/2 Tablespoon sea salt
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour preferably whole wheat
Instructions
- Sometime between 6-8am the day before you want to bake your loaf: remove your starter from the fridge to let it come up to room temperature. If your starter is young or hasn’t been fed within the last week, feed it once now to start activating it. If your starter is well established and has been used within the last week, you can just let it sit out and come to room temperature before feeding in the next step.
- Sometime between 11am-12pm: feed your starter (instructions in notes below if you aren’t familiar with how to feed your starter).
- Sometime between 5-6pm: measure out 1 cup of your active starter and pour into a large mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. The dough will be wet and shaggy. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature, ideally in the warmest spot in your house. Place your starter back into the fridge for storage.
- Let dough rise for 4 hours, performing three sets of ‘stretch and folds’, about once an hour. So, if you made your dough at 6pm, do a set of stretch and folds around 7pm, 8pm, and 9pm. To do this: wet your hands and reach down under one side of the dough, pulling it up (‘stretch’), and dropping it back down on top of itself (fold). Turn the bowl a quarter turn and do another stretch and fold; turn again and do another; turn again and do another, until you have done the stretch-and-fold on all four sides of the dough.
- Sometime between 9-10pm (or four hours after you’ve made your dough), shape your dough: sprinkle the top of the dough with a handful of flour, lift up and place flour-side down in the bowl, and roll up like a log. Use as much flour as needed to make the dough easy to handle, but know that it’s okay if it’s a little sticky.
- Generously dust your banneton with flour (if you have one) or line a medium-sized bowl with a thin, clean kitchen towel, then dust it generously with flour. Note that this is going to essentially ruin that towel, but you can keep reusing it over and over again for every loaf you bake. You can also line a bowl with parchment paper and very generously dust your loaf with flour before placing it in, if you don’t want to ruin a towel.
- Roll your dough into a log again, this time in the opposite direction (starting from the short end), then lift the dough up out of the mixing bowl and place it in your floured banneton (or other option) seam-side up, then use your fingers to pinch the seam together if it looks a bit rough and craggy.
- Cover (with a towel, beeswrap, plastic, etc) and place in the fridge overnight.
- The next morning, sometime between 8-10am, preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Once your oven is preheated, remove the dough from the fridge and invert it on top of the parchment lined sheet pan. Using a sharp kitchen knife (I find serrated knives are best for this), a razor blade, or a lame, quickly slice a few cuts into the top of your loaf. You can just do an X or plus sign across the middle, a few curved half-moons, or do a quick youtube search for ‘bread scoring’ and see all the fun options out there. Even if you just cut one line down the center, don’t skip this step! Scoring your loaf helps guide the direction it rises in, and usually helps it get taller when it bakes.
- Immediately transfer your loaf to the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 450, then reduce the temperature to 375 and continue baking for another 25-30 minutes, or until deeply golden.
- This step is the worst, but: let your loaf cool completely (or as close to it as you can get!) before slicing! Once cool, store in a bag/sealed container at room temperature for 3-5 days, or slice and freeze for up to 3 months.