Try the new and improved recipe!
It’s a much simpler recipe based on all the experiments that I’ve made on my YouTube channel.
You can find the recipe here: Foodgeek Master Recipe for Artisan Sourdough Bread.
Sourdough bread is the bread of bread. Crunchy crust, soft crumb with big holes, and lots of delicious taste. People normally think that it is not possible to make it at home, but it is possible. Here is my sourdough bread recipe for beginners.
I will guide you through making your first sourdough bread. The tools you need. The techniques you need to use to get the perfect bread and everything you need to be aware of throughout the process.
It is actually not very hard to do, but you need to be precise with weighing off the ingredients and following the techniques.
There are no precise timings in the recipe. Instead, I will explain what you need to look for to get bread that tastes fantastic and has a great oven spring.
If you are a sourdough newbie, I hope you will try to make this sourdough bread recipe. You will get off to a great start with this fantastic bread.
If you are just here for the recipe, you can elegantly skip the entire article by pressing this button:
Jump to RecipeYou need an active sourdough starter
To bake a sourdough bread you need an active sourdough starter
You need an active sourdough starter to bake this bread. A sourdough starter is a homemade form of yeast that is made by attracting wild yeast that is everywhere around us.
Sourdough starter is a living organism and needs to be kept alive, but it is pretty simple. I have made a recipe and guide to how you make your own sourdough starter. If you don’t already have a starter, you should go there and make one before you proceed with this recipe.
Tools to make sourdough bread
Before you start following this sourdough bread recipe, you need to know what tools are essential
I have assembled a list of tools that you need when you bake sourdough bread.
Most of these links will give me a bit of commission if you buy it. If you are not interested in doing that, find the tools using your favorite search engine.
Important tools – need to have’s
As a minimum you will need:
- A good bowl – This bowl is incredibly beautiful, but whatever you have in your kitchen that is big enough to hold the dough
- A bench scraper – This is used to move the sticky dough around and also to help shape it
- A dutch oven – You need a dutch oven (basically a pot that can go into the oven), because then you won’t have to have to make steam the oven because the bread will essentially be steaming itself
- A lame – You need a super sharp knife to score the dough. This one uses a razor blade that can be replaced
- A good oven – Preferably one that can get super hot. I have one that can go to 300°C/572°F that can also steam, which is quite basic in features, because I want to do everything manually
Not so important tools – nice to have’s
Other things that are really nice to have, but you can get thing done without them:
- A baking steel – Helps keep the temperature in the oven, even when you open the door. It’s also a great help in transferring heat to the bottom of the bread when you don’t use a dutch oven. If you are serious about your bread baking, this is one of the first things you should consider investing in
- Round proofing baskets – They can absolutely be replaced by bowls covered in a dishtowel
- Flour shaker – Helps you put flour on the table or the dough easily.
- Jars for your starter – Love these Weck jars for my starter. Straight sides and good visibility.
- A spray bottle – Or buy a cheap plastic one at your local supermarket. This is just really sturdy and mists the water really good
- A peel – It makes it a lot easier to get a sticky piece of dough into the oven in one piece
- Silicone gloves – These gloves from Oxo are great. Great grip and can withstand a 260°C/500°F warm dutch oven for literally minutes
- Brød and Taylor Folding Proofer – Awesome way to proof your dough, even when your kitchen is a bit cold in the winter
Flour and types of flour
You can use the cheap flour from the supermarket, but to get spectacular results you should invest in quality flour
What wheat flour you are using to bake with determines how good of a result you will get. The most important factor is the protein content. You need to use bread flour with at least 12% protein in this recipe.
The protein in wheat flour is gluten, and it helps build the structure in the bread. The less protein the flower has, the harder it is for the bread to stay together, and it might spread into a puddle instead of rising up. Especially as you use higher hydrations. Also, less gluten gives a more uniform crumb with smaller holes.
What flours do you use?
For bread flour, I like Canadian Manitoba flour, which has a high protein content and a delicious taste.
In this bread, I’ve used whole-wheat flour from Egeskov mølle, which I bought on my summer vacation to Funen. We visited Egeskov Slot. I’ve been looking forward to trying this flour.
I haven’t baked with these flours myself, but they come recommended on forums and in Facebook groups by people who post their delicious bread:
People in the US can use King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour and King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour for great results. If you are in the UK, you can use Marriage’s 100% Very Strong Canadian White Flour and Marriage’s Organic Strong Stoneground Wholemeal Bread Flour for great results. Let me know of excellent flours in other countries, write me and I will add them to this article.
The recipe for this sourdough bread
Good bread comes from having ingredients in the right proportions. I have created a recipe with high hydration but not so high that it would be very hard to handle for a beginner.
The first part of the recipe is a levain, which is essentially a young sourdough. We will use a levain, so we can better use the yeast in the starter at the most opportune moment in its growth cycle.
After mixing the dough, the yeast in your sourdough starter starts eating all the food you’ve put in. When it has grown to double size, it’s ready to be used in the dough.
The formula of the levain
The hydration in the levain is 100%. There’s a total of 80 grams of flour and 80 grams of water. Since the sourdough starter is 100% hydration as well, it does not change the hydration of the levain.
The proportions are as such:
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker's Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 37g | bread flour | 50.0% |
| 37g | whole-wheat flour | 50.0% |
| 37g | sourdough starter (100% hydration) | 50.0% |
| 74g | water | 100.0% |
I’ve made the levain larger than what you need for the dough; that way, you don’t have to scrape the sides of your container to get enough.
The formula of the bread
The formula of the dough can be seen here. There’s a bit below 20% whole wheat flour, bringing taste and texture to the loaf. There is enough bread flour in the dough to have lots of gluten. That will help the dough to stay together.
There’s a good amount of salt in the dough. That helps bring out more taste. If you want to change it, I wouldn’t recommend you go below 1%.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker's Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 686g | bread flour | 81.9% |
| 152g | whole-wheat flour | 18.1% |
| 559g | water | 66.7% |
| 19g | salt | 2.3% |
If you want to change the dough’s hydration, you can use my Bread Calculator™️ here.
The secret behind fantastic sourdough bread
It is not difficult to make fantastic sourdough bread, but there are a few things you need to know
The most important things to making beautiful, tasteful sourdough bread can be summarized into these five rules:
- To develop a fantastic taste, you need to proof and rest the bread for a long period of time. You do that by using autolyse (where only water and flour are mixed and rest for a while) and by letting the bread retard overnight in the refrigerator
- You need to develop the gluten in the dough to get a crunchy crust and soft crumb. That is (also) done by using autolyse and by stretching, folding, and fermenting the dough.
- To get a great oven spring where the bread opens up and out, you need to build a membrane of gluten on the outside of your shaped dough
- You need to bake the bread very hot and with steam for the first 15-20 minutes so that the dough can expand greatly before the crust gets hard
- Last but not least, you need to have the courage not to take the bread out of the oven too early. You don’t want it to get burned, but let it stay long enough to be nice and dark, super crispy and crunchy
Development of gluten in the dough
A strong gluten network is one of the key elements to getting a fantastic oven spring
After you’ve mixed the dough, you need to stretch and fold the dough. This aids the development of gluten but also helps incorporate air into the dough, which gives you those sought-after holes in the crumb. Normally three times is enough, but it is important you check if the gluten is properly developed.
When you’ve done the last three stretch and folds, you need to check the gluten development. If it is not strong enough, you need to perform additional stretch and folds.
To test the gluten development in the dough, you should perform the windowpane test. The goal is to have a dough that is strong enough so you can pull a very thin membrane without the dough breaking:
Shaping of the dough
Another key element in the oven spring is the shaping of the dough. You need to move the dough around on your table using a special technique
When you have good gluten development in the dough, you need to stretch the top of the dough so it forms a tight ball.
To shape the dough, you use your bench scraper, as it helps with the dough not sticking to your hards. With the 70% hydration dough, as we are working with here, it’s not overly difficult, but as you go into the 80s, it gets harder and harder, so I really think you should learn to do this the right way.
As it can be difficult to figure out from a description, I’ve made a video so you can see how it is done:
The scoring of the dough
The scoring of the bread is important because then you get to be the one who decides where the bread expands during baking
When you score your bread, you need a super sharp knife. I use a lame that fits a razor blade, which I replace quite often.
It’s a good idea to know how you want to score the bread before you start doing it. You need to score relatively fast and with conviction to get the best score.
I’ve made two different patterns in my two loaves:
- A diamond-shaped pattern. You get this by scoring three parallel lines and then three other parallel lines that are turned about 30° from the first cuts
- A long cut in the edge of the bread helps the bread open when it’s being baked. This cut is one that creates an ear. Although I find it looks more like an eye
You can see how I perform the long cut here:
Baking of the sourdough bread in this recipe
Here are a couple of tips to bake the perfect sourdough bread in your home oven
To bake beautiful sourdough bread, you will need steam. Professional ovens can inject steam into the oven chamber, but that is still pretty new for domestic ovens. You do not need a steam oven to follow this sourdough bread recipe.
The steam helps the crust stay moist so that the bread can expand more than it would otherwise be able to. That means the bread will rise more before the crust sets, and all those beautiful holes can expand properly.
The dutch oven helps the bread steam itself
The bread in this recipe will be baked in a dutch oven (basically a pot that can go in the oven). When the bread is warmed up, the water in the dough evaporates and becomes steam. Because the dutch oven is a confined space, the steam stays directly around the bread and helps the bread rise during the beginning of the baking.
After about 15-20 minutes, the effect is over, and the wild yeast in your starter cannot help the bread expand further. Then you take off the lid of the dutch oven so the steam can dissipate, and the heat in the oven can dry out the crust and make it super crispy.
Cooling the bread is essential to the shelf life of the loaf
I think we’ve all tried cutting into a warm loaf of bread and eating it with copious amounts of melting butter. There are good reasons to wait until the bread has cooled completely, though
When you take your piping hot bread out of the oven and put it on the wire rack, it isn’t done yet.
While the temperature is declining in the bread, the texture is still developing because the starch molecules are releasing some of the water that they’ve absorbed during fermentation.
Furthermore, the water that is still in the steam form in the bread will disappear from the bread if you cut a large hole in it while it is still cooling. The bread will then become dry faster, as there is less moisture in it.
What happens when I cut it too early?
If you cut the bread while it is still warm, you risk turning the crumb rubbery. The bread can also be hard to cut without it falling apart.
When the bread has finished baking, it is important to store it correctly. It needs to cool at room temperature and not be covered by anything. If you trap steam from the bread, you risk making the crust soft.
What is the best way to store bread?
When you’ve baked the perfect sourdough bread, it will suck if the bread turns stale quickly because you haven’t stored it right.
- Don’t put the bread in the refrigerator. It becomes stale more quickly that way because refrigerators are a pretty dry environment.
- Don’t put your bread in a plastic bag, either. The crispy crust disappears because of the evaporation of water in the bread. It’s the exact same principle that you use in the dutch oven during baking but in reverse.
I have some bread bags that are made for storing bread, but you can just also wrap the bread in a clean dish towel for the same effect. Last year for my birthday, I got a retro bread box, which also has the same effect and looks a lot cooler.
Can you freeze the bread?
Sourdough bread is very well suited for freezing. They stay good for at least three months, but I’ve had some that were frozen for 6 months with no ill effect.
I usually cut it into pieces and put some parchment paper in between. Then you can grab the number of slices you need without having to completely thaw the entire bread.
I have this KitchenAid toaster which does a great job at both defrosting and toasting. Absolutely the best I’ve owned. Using this method also makes it possible to put the toaster on the defrost function, and you get delicious bread in a manner of minutes.
To sum up, this sourdough bread recipe
This sourdough bread recipe is what is called high hydration (anything above 65% relative water content) but absolutely at the low end of what is possible to make. The more water relative to flour, the larger holes and the softer the texture.
When you put more water in the dough, it gets harder to work with (think pancake dough), so this recipe is an excellent place to start. After mastering all the techniques, you can start changing to even higher hydration doughs.
Here is a picture of the crumb in this bread:
The conclusion
The taste is fantastic. The overnight retarding helped develop a great taste. A bit of a sour note from the starter, but not overwhelming. The whole-wheat flour brings a nutty aroma, and this bread can be eaten just by itself, and it is a pleasure.
The crumb is nice and soft, with medium-sized holes. The crust crunches ideally and is super crispy. It is delicious bread.
Start making fantastic bread at home.
You should try this sourdough bread recipe even if you are a beginner baker. You now have all the knowledge that you need after you’ve read this article.
If you bake this bread and post it on Instagram, please tag me with @foodgeek.dk. So I can see what you’ve made. It would make me very happy.
Sourdough bread for beginners
Ingredients
Levain
- 40 g bread flour
- 40 g whole wheat flour
- 40 g sourdough 100% hydration
- 80 g water
Dough
- 686 g bread flour
- 152 g whole wheat flour
- 559 g water
- 185 g levain
- 19 g salt
Instructions
Levain
- The night before you make the levain, feed your sourdough starter. I usually take 50 grams of sourdough starter and mix it with 100 grams of bread flour and 100 grams of water and mix it well.
- In the morning, you should mix the levain. Mix all ingredients and put it into a tall see-through glass. Put an elastic band around the glass to monitor the growth of the levain.
- Cover the glass and put the levain somewhere warm. Preferably around 25°C/77°F.
- When the levain has grown to around 175%, go to the next step.
Autolyse
- To do the autolyse, we need to mix water and flour.
- Measure out all the flour in a bowl and all the water except 50 grams that we reserve for mixing the levain and salt later. Mix it but don't knead; get all flour hydrated
- Cover the flour and leave it until your levain has doubled in size. It took about 1 hour for my levain.
Mix the dough
- Put 185 grams of levain on top of the dough. Spread the salt over the top and add the reserved 50 grams of water.
- Mix it all very thoroughly. I usually use my fingers and push the levain through the dough and do some light stretch and folds. I keep repeating it until I feel like it's been mixed very well.
- Cover the dough and leave it to rest 30 minutes somewhere warm.
Bulk fermentation
- It's time for bulk fermentation. We develop the dough's gluten during the fermentation. With this dough, three stretch and folds are usually enough.
- Wet your hands so that the dough doesn't stick to your fingers.
- Grab the size of the dough furthest away from you with both hands. Grab hold and strech the dough upwards as long as it can go without breaking. Then fold the dough down towards yourself.
- Turn the bowl 180° (a half turn).
- Do another stretch and fold.
- Turn the bowl 90° (a quarter turn).
- Do another stretch and fold.
- Lastly, you should turn the bowl 180° (a half turn).
- Repeat the last stretch and fold.
- You have now stretched and folded the dough from all four sides. Leave the dough to rest somewhere warm, covered, for another 30 minutes.
- Repeat this process two times more.
- After the third stretch and fold, I will do a windowpane test. Lift and edge of the dough and stretch it with your fingers. You should be able to make a thin membrane without the dough breaking. Look at the video in the article.
- If the dough isn't strong enough to pass the test, I do a 4th stretch and fold and repeat the test. Do this up to the 5th and 6th stretch and fold.
- After the last stretch and fold, you should leave the dough until it's grown by 20-50% (usually 1½ hours).
Preshaping
- First, we are shaping the dough to build a gluten membrane on the outside of the dough. That will help the oven spring during baking.
- Pour the dough unto an unfloured table and divide it in half. Put a sprinkle of flour on top of both.
- Grab a lump of dough and flip it using your bench scraper so that the floured side is now on the table top.
- Grab the part of the dough that is the furthest away from you. Stretch it and fold it down in front of you.
- Repeat with the part that is right in front of you. Grab the dough with both hands, stretch it and fold it away from you. Repeat with the right and left sides of the dough.
- In a swift motion, invert the dough so that the part you previously floured will be facing upwards.
- Put your bench scraper behind the dough and pull it towards yourself. I hold the scraper in my right hand, guiding the dough with my left. The front of the dough should be pulled underneath, and the top of the dough should tighten.
- Now put the scraper in front of the dough and push it forward while twisting so that the scraper ends up behind the dough. You can now repeat the process in the previous step.
- Repeat until you have a nice round and tight ball. Pop any bubbles you see on the surface.
- Repeat with the other lump of dough. Let the dough balls rest for 15 minutes under a cloth.
Prepare the bannetons
- Make a mixture of half bread flour and half rice flour.
- Put a dishtowel in the bannetons. If you don't have one, you can use a bowl.
- Put some of the flour mixture in a strainer and flour the bannetons. It's better to use too much than too little.
Final shaping
- We do the final shaping to make sure the dough is super strong.
- Take a boule and sprinkle it very lightly with flour on the top.
- Flip it using your bench scraper, so the floured side is against the table.
- Repeat the process from the preshaping.
- When you have finished the shaping, grab the boule with your scraper and invert it into the banneton. The bottom should be up.
- Repeat with the other boule and place it in the banneton.
- Sprinkle the dough with rice flour and put the bannetons into separate bags. Make sure you get some air in there so that the plastic does not touch the dough.
- Place in the fridge overnight. Your fridge needs to be cold, so the dough doesn't continue fermenting. I have mine set to 2°C/35°F,
Heat the oven – next morning
- Place a baking stone/baking steel in the oven and put your dutch oven on top. Turn the oven to 260°C/500°F. If it doesn't go that high, put it to the maximum.
- Heat the oven for at least an hour. We want the steel/stone and dutch oven to be thoroughly warmed.
Bake the bread
- Take a banneton out of the fridge.
- Put a piece of baking paper on top of your peel and put it on top of the banneton.
- Turn it over and carefully lift the banneton off the dough.
- Slash the dough using a super sharp knife.
- Open the oven and move the dough to the dutch oven.
- Spray the top of your dough lightly with your spray bottle.
- Put on the lid and close the oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove the lid so the bread can get some color. Turn the oven down to 230°C/450°F. I usually bake it for another 20-25 minutes for this bread. I love it when the crust gets dark and crunchy.
- Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for at least one hour, but preferably until it is COMPLETELY cooled off.
- Turn the oven back up to 260°C/500°F. When it is hot, repeat the procedure for the other bread.
- All you have to do is wait until the bread are completely cooled off, and get yourself ready for the best bread you've ever baked.
Video
Noter
The hydration of the sourdough starter
I assume that your sourdough is 100% hydration. That means that when you feed it, you use the same amount of flour and water (by weight). If you use a lower or higher hydration, you need to recalculate the levain. It’s a bit over the level of what we are going through here, because this recipe is supposed to be for beginners. If you want play with the breads recipe, you can use my bread calculator here.The hydration of the bread
The hydration of the bread is 70%. That means there is 70% water to 100% flour. You calculate it like this:- The levain is 100% hydration, which means there is 50% flour and 50% water
- Total flour by weight = 686 grams bread flour + 152 grams whole-wheat flour + (185 grams flour / 2) from the levain = 930.5 gram
- Total fluid by weight = 559 grams water + (185 grams water / 2) from the levain = 651.5 gram
- Percent = 651.5 grams water / 930.5 grams flour = 70,01%
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Thank you SO much for your very detailed instructions. I posted my results on Pinterest . My screen name there is Newvillemom. The results were amazing, especially considering this was my first attempt. I had one small problem. The day after, I could barely cut the bread. I remedied this by popping it in the oven at 250 degrees, wrapped in a damp towel, for about 5 min. Is there anything i can do to insure that my crust stays crispy, but not so hard to cut the next day??
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Brilliant explanations, am making my first sourdough today and tomorrow.
Best of luck 😀 Let me know how it goes 🙂
Amazing recipe. I made pretty good sourdough before but im trying to learn new techniques every time. When you take dough from the fridge do you first let it warm up a bit on room temperature of you basically put it in the oven straight away?
Thank you 🙂
Yes, I take it out, score it and put it straight into a piping hot oven 🙂
Hi, We would like to thank you very much for the great instructions for baking sourdough bread, the first attempt was eaten and now we bake twice a week, combine flour and enjoy fantastic bread, which unfortunately has not been sold in the shops long ago. It is very useful in this difficult time and we try to spread your recipe further, thanks again, we wish you good health, best regards Petr and Martina from Prague
Thank you and great that you can make fantastic bread at home.
I honestly think that you can make better bread than most bakeries, with a little bit of practice 🙂
Hi Sune,
What size bannetons should I use for this recipe? The Amazon link you included has various sizes, but my guess is that you used two 7.9 inch or 8.6 inch bannetons?
Thanks!
Ben
They are the 7.9 inch 🙂
Hvad er “bread flour” på dansk?
Hvis du læser artiklen på dansk kan du se at der står manitoba mel. Det er mel med en protein procent på mellem 12% og 13%.
Til dette brød har jeg brugt manitoba mel fra Valsemøllen (før Finax).
Been binging your sourdough stuff on YouTube and am finally doing my first loaf today! Thanks for the advice / help from afar. As it turns out I am from Manitoba and am wondering what type of Manitoba flour you use (I had sworn I had seen it in the background of one video, and this article confirmed it!). It is difficult to actually locate local products here, as most are generally stated as “Canadian”, so I was intrigued to know what else you know about it…
I honestly don’t know if the Manitoba flour I am using is Canadian, although that would be cool.
The site of the company doesn’t state it, they just state that it has a higher amount of gluten than regular flour, and that makes it good for making bread. Essentially it’s bread flour, which until recently, we didn’t have any flour like that in Denmark 🙂
I made this today and the flavor is there but my bread didn’t rise much and is quite dense. I’m wondering if it’s because i used AP flour instead of bread flour, which is difficult to find at stores currently. I’m curious, have you tried AP flour mixed with vital wheat gluten as a bread flour substitute?
It can absolutely be the AP flour.
Mixing in Vital Wheat Gluten is a very good way to strengthen your AP flour.
Use my calculator to figure out how much to add: https://foodgeek.dk/en/vital-wheat-gluten-calculator/
Also make sure you check gluten development with the windowpane test and add more sets of stretch and folds as needed 🙂
Takk Sune for this detailed recipe and video. However, while the it tastes great, my bread comes out of the oven flat (no oven spring). With the exception that my starter is 100% whole wheat, I followed your instructions to the “T”, including the levain – i.e. equal parts WW and BF. Any ideas what is going wrong?
After feeding your starter, how high does it grow?
Hi Sune, congrats on your fantastic channel. And thank you for your brilliant work and explanations.
I would like to ask you what the average temperature in your kitchen is. I’m not sure if you’ve said it at some point in any of your vids. I think it would be a useful bit of info. Perhaps you could add it to your vids? My average kitchen temperature where I do my bulk f. is about 21c. Maybe I should do this longer than you if I dunt have see through containers to see the dough double. I’m rather new at this great and your videos were the best find so far.
Thank you!
My kitchen is normally around 21C, but commonly I put the dough in my proofer set to 30C 🙂
I made the best sourdough bread yet by following your instructions and watching your super helpful video, thank you. The shaping is going to take some time to really learn, but I started to get the hang of it by loaf two.
Sourdough is not a destination, it’s a never-ending journey <3
Hi , is it possible to use 11% protein flour instead of 12% ? Is it just a matter of reducing the water slightly for a stiffer dough ?
You can use a flour with less protein. You do not need to change the hydration, but you may need to do more sets of stretch and folds to get a windowpane 🙂
Sune,
Great site! I love your empirical approach to bread baking. A math question for you in this recipe. You say let the levain grow to 175% before starting the autolyse and then once the autolyse is prepared to let it double. Does this mean doubling from the initial point, so another 25% increase, or doubling from the 175% point, i.e., a 350% increase. I did a simple doubling and ended up with great tasting but flat bread. I used an 85 parts high extraction bread flour from a local mill, which is described as working like a mix of bread flour and whole wheat flour. Otherwise, I followed the recipe to the letter as far as I could tell. I started the levain in the morning at about 06:30 The boules went into retard at about 11:30 and came out the next day for baking at about 08:00. Was this too long en retard?
Thanks again
I do things a lot less fussy these days. I just mix the autolyse as I mix the levain. When the levain peaks I mix it into the dough 🙂
As long as your fridge is cold enough (below 4C/39.2F) there’s a very long period where the bread stays good. It goes into hibernation, sort of 🙂
Wonderful article and recipe! Thanks for all the detail, great pictures and videos. I’m going to revisit this recipe many times.
Thank you <3
I have found that autolysing for longer, up to two or three hours helped to make the dough more pliable, less sticky, and better oven rise
Different flour will act differently. I always encourage experimentation! 😀
Hello Sune,
Thanks for your work. It’s really appreciated!
I’m making sourdough bread at home, but I’ve always wondered what kind of parchment paper you use. I’ve watch a lot of people on youtube using it to transfer the dough to the dutch oven and then place it in the oven, but parchment paper typically can’t go over 425 F and we’re using baking temperatures in the 450 – 500 F range.
Is there some kind of baking paper I don’t know about?
Thanks!
I am just using the regular kind. It does get a bit charred 🙂
Hello! I love your detailed instructions and video. Thank you so much. Quick question – can I proof my dough in the fridge in the same container I will use to bake in? Or must I proof it in a bowl, then transfer to the baking container?
You should proof in a banneton or a bowl lined with a dish towel and then turn it out, score it and then bake it free standing 🙂
Is it possible to bake the bread the same day without putting it into the fridge? If so, how long would I need to wait before baking?
It is possible. Leave it on the counter for 30-60 minutes and bake 🙂
Be wary that the second bread may over proof while the first is baking.
Very nice videos indeed! I do have a few questions that may apply to others : 1) if the ambient temperature is low in my kitchen (around 12-15C), how does that effect the bulk fermentation process? Could it possibly take 4-5 hours of stretch & folds every 30 mins until I see any bubbles or rising? (even if it passes window pane test earlier), or am I over – bulking? 2) I live at high altitude (1700 meters above sea level) so how does this affect my hydration (less or more H2O normally?) and what about fermentation and actual baking times (in Dutch oven) sorry for the detailed comments, but perhaps they will apply to others? Lastly, what’s your opinion about IODIZED SALT? Can it really ruin the entire loaf? I just cannot find non-iodized salt now, better to use nothing or use IODIZED BUT DISSOLVED in a bit of H2O before adding? Thank you in advance and wish you a great day!
Your fermentation isn’t over until you see a rise. I usually go for 25% for good oven spring later 🙂
I use iodized salt. It doesn’t ruin anything 🙂
For those of you who don’t have a proofing box, I came up with a solution with things I had on hand.
.1. card board box 2. heating pad. 3. Thermo Pro temperature probe 4. wool blanket.
Put the heating pad inside the box, place a hot pad on top of pad (just in case), place levain top of pad, lay the probe inside the box. Turn heating pad to high. Cover box with wool blanket.Monitor the temperature. Mine stayed at 82F. degrees
Even though I created a warm environment for my levain, it took almost 3 hrs for it grow to 175%.
That’s a great idea 🙂
Dear Sune,
Thanks for the recipe – it was indeed a great recipe for a beginner judging by the beautiful bread I produced from it. Can I substitute rye flour for the whole wheat flour?
Karin
Yes, rye is a wonderful addition to this bread 🙂
Hi Sune, thanks for your awesome videos and recipes and technique demonstrations.
In fact, I baked my first successful sourdough bread last weekend following your video. I just wanted to ask where did you get your transparent container for the bulk fermentation? Where can I find something with similar shape and size?
Thanks.
Those are made by a Danish company called Condi and are called Condibøtter (Condi containers). I don’t know if you can get them outside of Denmark.
Write them an email at [email protected] and hear what the possibilities are 🙂
Thank You for the wonderful recipe and very detailed description. Today I baked my best loafs so far and yesterday’s work to get them was easy and breezy. Also, my starter is more active than ever before since I switched from 1:1:1 to 1:3:3. You are my guru now.
That’s great to hear. Thank you <3
Thanks Sune! Great recipe!
After a few failed attempts with some other online recipes, I followed this one and had the best results yet. Very well written recipe and I found the descriptions or the processes very helpful.
I don’t have a dutch oven , so I use an inverted Pyrex casserole dish as a kind of La Cloche baking dome. I dialed the temperature down to 210 C and baked 25mins with the ‘lid’ on and then 25mins with the lid off. Came out with a very very dark crust. Do you think I should reduce temperature slightly or reduce baking time for slighly lighter crust?
Also, I have had slight problems with my dough sticking to the pyrex at the base. Was wondering whether to try a little oil or maybe parchment paper.
Any thoughts?
Try to limit the time with the lid on, to say, 20 or 15 minutes and see what that does 🙂
Use parchment paper or sprinkle the bottom liberally with rice flour before turning out of the banneton to score
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This is a great recipe! Thanks for being so thorough. 1 Question: I started my autolyse kind of late and my levain has started to fall. Is it better to let the autolyse get a full hour, or to short the autolyse and add the levain when it’s still expanding?
Thank you
Honestly, either is fine. Your starter will be fine if it’s fed in the last 12 hours 🙂
I’ve really enjoyed your YouTube videos and baked my first loaves today following this recipe (but with all purpose and rye flours). They turned out great. Still lots of room for improvement but that is part of the fun. I really appreciate your experiments as they give me confidence in adjusting my ingredients, timing and techniques to suit my taste. Thank you 🙂
That’s great to hear 😀
Happy baking 🙂
Hi Sune,
I’m accustomed to taking the final temp of bread I’m baking, but found no reference in your materials. Your Sourdough for Beginners provided excellent instructions that I followed and I watched the videos. The bread I just made (wish I could send a photo) was 209F, even though I usually pull bread at 190F. It is dense and chewy and seems a little underdone. (I followed your timings.) Do you have a final bread temperature recommendation?
Margo
I usually aim for 99C/210F, but honestly it’s been a long time since I tested.
I sounds like the dough might have been a bit over proofed. Was it hard to shape it?
Hi Sune,
Thank you for the detailed instructions on sourdough making. Wondering if I can leave the dough in the fridge for 2 days if I would like to bake one first and the other one the day after?
As long as your fridge is colder than 4C/39F 🙂
Hi Sune, I’ve been baking successful sourdough breads using your recipes for the past couple of weeks, so thanks for that!
I was wondering if I could leave the bulk fermented dough as it is and shape withought dividing it in two? And to bake one big bread instead of two smaller ones? I have a larger banneton lying around, so I would like to know what your opinion about that is?
Hi again, Sune. The “reply” button doesn’t seem to work (it just returns me to the same post). So, in answer to your question about the dough being hard to work, not really. Although it didn’t stretch as far as yours do, t seemed fine given your excellent demonstrations! However, I retarded after the first stretch and fold (because I ran out of time that evening). I allowed it to rest outside the fridge for about an hour to let it warm a little before I continued the last two stretch and folds. Maybe that extra hour caused over-proofing. I did not try to “poke” test, but I agree it could have been over-proofed. I’ll consider that next time. Thanks!
Hi Sune, I have been baking sourdough for about 2 years and fine you calculator amazing. However, I cannot work out how to down load it. Tried your recipe today for the first time and it came out great, but have also been following BakewithJack (Kack Sturgess in the UK on YouTube following a course I went on with him, but now I want to play more so can you send me the link as all I get is a spooling symbol.
Thanks for great series.
Peter
Fantastic bread recipe!! Instructions are top notch. My bread came out absolutely amazing. Boule #1 and #2 were baked about 12 hours apart. In the final cook for #1, went 25 minutes. Wifey said she likes a little softer crust, so I shortened the time by 5 minutes on #2 and the color shows a little lighter but still has good crisp and looks fine. We have to finishing eating #1 before enjoying #2. It remains uncut for now. That shouldn’t take long.
I did 4 streach and folds in bulk just because I was having fun feeling that lovely dough. I got the nice window in the third time. I noticed my finished crumb results in #1 had some areas that were a little less open (more smaller holes than larger). That’s ok with me better to keep the jelly from falling through the holes. So my question is, should a person be expecting an even distribution of big and small holes? Other than the things I brought up, I followed the recipe exactly. I was thinking my streach and folds technique needs a tweak. I did watch, I believe most of your videos.
Thanks for all your work on this recipe.
Thank you <3
I am happy your bread turned out that great 😀
Hi again!
I love this recipe and have had great success with it. I am keen to keep experimenting and was wondering if you could suggest where I should go from here?
Regards,
Steven
Tried this bread recipe for the first time this weekend, and the bread came out amazing! My favorite sourdough bread recipe so far (:
That’s wonderful to hear 🙂
Hi Sune, thanks so much for your videos and web page – they have been incredibly helpful. I have a question about pre-shaping. I am finding that sometimes when I pre-shape my bread, it holds its shape and does not relax. This results in me not being able to repeat the shaping process, as you describe. Is this normal or does it indicate that perhaps the bread needs to proof for longer? Thanks! Hugh.
It sounds like you are using a very thirsty flour and that you may want to increase the hydration a bit 🙂
You can use my Bread Calculator for that. Try in a 5% increments 🙂
Hello Sune,
Thanks so much for all the great stuff. I have learned a lot about my baking so far, from you and your recipes and experiments.
I tried this recipe, as I am trying to find my “go-to” sourdough recipe. I have an active starter (fed twice over two days, and more than doubled) that I have used to make many great loaves. However, when I attempt to make the levain from this recipe, it only rose about 10%. It has been cool in my house, but I left it overnight, and still, only about 10% rise. It doesn’t specify in your recipe how long you expect it to take, but this seems extreme… Should I let it go? Or should I just use it and bake away?
Thanks again!
Josh
I don’t give a time, because that’s misleading for people. If the levain doesn’t at least double, you won’t be able to make a successful bread with it.
If your starter rises enough, use that instead of the levain, but I would recommend that you find a warm spot for your starter and dough 🙂
In virus lockdown, a lot of friends and family have been following this great recipe, but finding that they can’t get it to work like Sune. You start before breakfast, wait all day and still your dough doesn’t rise enough. Bedtime has come, so you shape it and put it in the fridge regardless. What comes out of the oven the next day is rather dense and chewy. It might have some pretty large bubbles, a brilliant ear, and even a great taste. But it fails to delight.
The people suffering this have all just made their own new starter from scratch, their new pet. New made starter usually doesn’t have the lifting power to make Sune’s recipe work well. New starters usually need to go through lots of generations, when eventually, we hope, Darwinism will operate to give us an active starter. It can take quite a long time. Sune says you need to get your starter to double. But if it doubles in 6 hours (in a warm place), that isn’t active enough. It should be doubling (in a warm place) in about 2 hours, and could even triple if you left it a bit longer.
Here are three hacks to get a sufficiently active starter so that this recipe will make great bread for you. First, find a friend who has a long-established really active starter and get some from them. They can dry some (Sune has instructions in his starter maintenance video) and put it in an envelope in the post. My nephew (who will be going to college to learn bakery) tried this. A couple of days ago he sent me a picture of two identically-made loaves, one with his own new starter, the other with friend’s starter, and it was brick vs bread.
The second hack is to put just a quarter of a teaspoon of dry packet yeast (1g) in your levain build, as well as your own starter. A lot of really great bakers do this, so let’s not be too purist about it – it works. When I finally got some yeast from the shop, I tried it, and the difference was amazing. My levain took 90 mins instead of 6 hours to double. My bulk ferment doubled in 3 hours, instead of rising 30% in 8 hours. The bread no longer had a good ear, and the crumb wasn’t exactly Poilane. But it was great bread, with a real sourdough character, and my wife complained she’d get fat if I carried on making it like that. Just remember you can’t keep this yeast-augmented starter for next time, you have to feed your continuing starter separately.
And finally, if you can’t even get packet yeast, you can straightforwardly make a good substitute from wild fruit yeasts in just 4 days. All you need is a bit of sugar and an apple, or a few raisins, or something like that. Google “yeast water” and you’ll find a number of people offering to teach you this surprising but straightforward technique. You may have to do your levain build overnight, as the wild fruit yeasts are slower to get going than packet yeast. But once they are going, they will really lift your bread when you do the bulk ferment. A friend who had been labouring away with her own new starter tried this. Immediately she got great bread, again with a real sourdough character. Her 79% hydration version is amazing.
One last lockdown hack – if you haven’t got a dough-scraper, a plastic dust-pan is a great substitute. Just wash it well.
Question
When you autolyse do you put the dough in the proofer
Nope, just on the counter if less than 5 hours, in the fridge if longer.
Sune, your levain is 1:2:2. I’m assuming you use this ratio in order to have it ready to use by so many hours. The day before you plan to make the levain do you feed your starter with the same ratio? Should I feed it the night before at 1:3:3 or 1:4:4 so it will have plenty of food to make it through the long night hours? Is it ok to use fallen starter for a levain? Will stirring the fed starter reactive the gasses that had been produced before it fell?
Thank you so much
Water temperatures please!
I don’t measure them 🙂
Hi! I’ve used your recipe a lot and i really like it. I usually bake using a cast Iron pot with a lid, or a pizza stone with the pod on top as a lid. However, I’m getting a new oven with steamer function – how can I utilize this to make the best bread possible?
In my oven I use the steam without fan. I start steaming about 10 minutes, before adding the bread. Steaming for 20 minutes, then I vent the oven, turn down the temperature and bake until the bread is finished 🙂
Can we use only all purpose flour instead of all purpose and whole wheat flour mix?
Yes, but you way want to lower the hydration, because of less protein in the flour 🙂
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In the UK I have had great results with Shipton Mill white bread flour (12.6% protein) and stoneground wholemeal flour (14%). I’ve taken these up to about 80% hydration with no difficulties.
Thanks! It’s good for other people to know 🙂
Hello, If I don’t have whole wheat flour, can I use rye or spelt instead? If so, how do the measurements change?
Yes, basically any flour will do for the 20% part 🙂
Hi thanks for the recipe. Do you know how to figure out the carb count of the bread?
My son is diabetic thank you very much Colleen
The carb count is listed in the recipe for one bread.
Just weigh the bread before you cut it, and then you can weigh a slice and calculate the carb count this way:
W_carbs = (W_slice / W_bread) * 344
wow! This was super helpful…thank you!
You are welcome! 🙂
Hi Sune — I’ve really enjoyed your videos and found them very helpful! My question is…can I feed the starter in the morning and then, a few hours later when it’s peaked, take some of that starter to make my levain right away and then continue with the rest of the process? Or do I have to feed the starter the night before and then use it after it’s peaked and fallen overnight? Thanks!!
You can do it whenever you want. Feeding it in the morning is the same as making a levain. Nowadays I won’t bother with levains. I just feed my starter and bake when it’s at its peak 🙂
I can’t seem to reply to your comment on my question, so thank you for the answer regarding when it’s okay to use the starter for levain. Based upon your answer I just checked your updated/simpler sourdough bread recipe and see that you are indeed skipping the levain step. I’ll give that one a try soon 🙂 Thanks again!
Hi Sune,
I like the way you explain stuff. You helped me a lot. One thing still bothers me: how cold is your fridge?
I ruin all my doughs with overnight proofing at 7 degrees C.
Thanks. I have mine set really cold 2C/35F 🙂
I’ll add it to the recipe 🙂
Hi. I would like to know if i make one bigger bread it would be ok? Or better to make 2 ? Thanks
Absolutely, Just scale the bread up. You may want to bake a bit longer. I usually bake 25 minutes covered, 25 minutes uncovered these days anyway 🙂
I would appreciate it if you could give the time for your bulk fermentation at 30°C. I know it varies all over the possible range of values, but if you could give the time, it would give me something to compare my own results with. Might vary for different flours, starters, and all other factors. I have been watching on YouTube since before the pandemic and have learned a lot from you. I am in U.S., but use metric measures.
Thank you for watching and following 🙂
It usually takes me about 2½-3 hours after I put the dough in the proofer 🙂
Thanks for info.
Hi Sune,
I have been a fan of your videos since I started making bread in April of 2020. I fell for the sourdough craze hook, line, and sinker! I am in the process of remodeling my kitchen. It’s not done yet, but my in wall steam oven is in place. It’s nothing fancy like the professional type that actually injects steam, but I can fill the basin up with water before I preheat and it steams while it cooks. My previous oven was on the fritz for a long time, so I haven’t made any bread for a while. I wanted to get back into it using your beginner recipe. With my new oven, I assume that I should be able to bake without a Dutch oven. I was planning on trying to bake directly on a pizza stone that I preheat with the oven. Would you make any adjustments to the cooking time or anything else if this is the situation?
Thanks in advance for the advice, and thanks for all the awesome content!
Russell
There’s really no difference in timing. Bake for 20-30 minutes with steam, 20-30 minutes without, and you should be golden (brown) 😉