Sourdough Bread: Easy Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Sourdough Bread: Easy Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

I am a high school chemistry teacher who loves to experiment with everything, especially in the kitchen! For more than 10 years I have been experimenting with bread recipes using every imaginable method. Over that time, I've baked thousands of loaves (and made hundreds of mistakes) to get to this step-by-step process than I believe anyone can follow to bake world-class sourdough bread.

Don’t let these instructions scare you! Believe me, the work is worth it! Once you follow this plan a few times, you will be a pro and you will be making the best bread you’ve ever had! 

Supplies to be a Sourdough Master

If you don’t have something listed below and don’t want to buy it, just improvise! Find something that will work and go for it! I put links and info to help you see what supplies I use but you don’t have to use the supplies shown. One of the main reasons people never bake bread is because they think they need expensive equipment - you don't! Just get creative and use what you can find in your kitchen and start baking!

• Mason Jars (or anything that you can store starter in. I like Pint Wide Mouth Jars )

• Dutch Oven (I recommend using an enamel 5 quart dutch oven)

• Flour (I like Wheat Montana Flour [found at many retailers] but any high protein flour works - Wheat Montana, King Arthur Flour)

• Sea Salt (any type will work, just make sure it is non-iodized salt)

• Bowl or Tub for Mixing (My favorite at best price at Sam's Club or Amazon but you can use any bowl you have)

• Bowl for forming the loaf (I use a 9 inch banneton like this but any bowl that fits the loaf will work)

• Parchment Paper (any parchment paper will work)

• Knife or Razor to Score the Dough (there are several options, but a sharp knife or razor works fine)

• *Kitchen Scale that measures grams (My kitchen scale) or measuring cups and spoons. This is my most used piece of equipment when baking sourdough. If you don't have one yet, save up and get one as soon as you are able.

• *Thermometer (not mandatory but I find it very useful) (My thermometer)

• *Danish Dough Whisk (Tool for mixing. You can use a spoon or your hands instead)

• *1 Gallon Ziploc Bags for storing fresh or frozen bread

*Not necessary but nice to have if you end up making a lot of bread

The Starter

What is the Starter: 

Most bread recipes call for yeast to be purchased and added when making dough. Yeast is a microscopic fungus that eats the compounds in flour and breaks them down into other compounds, this is called fermentation. These compounds give bread its flavor, smell, and airy holes.

Sourdough does not use purchased yeast - rather the yeast is kept alive in a container that bakers call a starter - because it is used to 'start' the dough fermentation process.

You can get starter from a friend, you can make it on your own, or you can purchase it. Then, it is customary to name it. Mine starter's name is "Frank the Tank" because it was born in San Fransisco sometime in the 1960's.

Note: I actually keep two jars of starter (each 150 grams) in case something happens to Frank. I call this other jar of starter “Justin” (as in “Just'in Case”). You can make a second jar by following the feeding instructions below.

How to take care of your starter:

Keep it in the jar with the lid on inside your refrigerator. It will survive in the fridge for up to a month without feeding it but it is happiest if you feed it every week or two. You don’t have to bake bread with it every time you feed it. In fact, I will sometimes go a month without baking bread, but I always feed Frank and Justin every week or so.

Feeding the starter

Your starter is alive. You have to feed it, and love it, and care for it or it will die.

Do this every week (or every other week): 

1. Stir the starter in the jar to mix any liquid that may have separated

2. Measure 50 g (1/4 cup) of starter into another jar

3. Add 50 g (2 1/3 Tablespoons) of 100 degF water (luke-warm water works if no thermometer)

4. Mix together

5. Add 50 g (1/3 cup) of flour

6. Mix together

7. Let it sit open on the counter for 8(ish) hours with a towel over the top. It will ‘grow’!

8. After 8ish hours, screw on the lid and put it in the refrigerator until the next baking session or feeding time.

Note: Any leftover starter (called “Discard”) can be thrown away or shared with a friend so they can start baking bread. Or you can make Sourdough Saltines (google it) or Sourdough Pancakes (google it) and more, from the discard.

How to Bake the Bread

Day by Day

This is just an example for a baking regiment - you can do it any way you’d like but this will help you get started.

The instructions below are for 1 loaf but I bake 3 loaves at a time because it doesn’t take much longer to bake 3. I eat one right away because I can’t help myself and I freeze the other two in ziploc bags and they thaw and taste almost as good as fresh! 

Day 1: Morning - Waking up the Starter

1. Measure 50 grams (1/4 cup) of starter into two different jars. One jar will become your new starter for the fridge, the other will become your loaf of bread.

2. Add 50 grams (2 1/3 Tablespoons) of 100 degree F water to each jar.

3. Mix the contents of the jars

4. Add 50 grams (1/3 cup) of flour to each jar.

5. Mix.

6. Leave on the counter with a towel over the top for 8ish hours. It will double in size. 

Day 1: Evening - Making the Dough

1. Put a lid on one jar and put it in the fridge - this is your starter for the next time you bake.

2. Add 100 grams (1/2 cup) of starter from the jar you did not put in the fridge, into a large bowl.

3. Add 375 grams ( 1 1/2 cup) of 60ish degree F water into the large bowl (I actually use water from the fridge water dispenser because it is about 55-60 degF. Or, you can use room temp water if no thermometer)

4. Mix together

5. Add 10 grams (1 3/4 teaspoons) of salt

6. Mix together

7. Add 500 grams (4 cups) of flour to the large bowl.

8. Mix together (I mix with my dough with a danish dough whisk but you can use your hands or a spoon. It is very sticky!)

9. Let rest on the counter with a towel (or elastic food cover or plastic wrap) over the top of the bowl for 30 minutes.

10. Stretch and fold the dough

    1. Get your hand wet and pull one edge of the dough up until it stretches, then fold it over the rest of the dough. Do this 10 times to stretch the dough in all directions.

11. Let the dough rest in the bowl, covered with a towel (or elastic food cover or plastic wrap), for 30 minutes and stretch again. I do this 4 times over the course of 2 hours to help build long chains of gluten. If you are unable to do this - it is ok but try to do it at least a few times.

12. Bulk Fermentation: Leave it in the bowl on the counter with elastic food cover or plastic wrap covering the top until it has increased in volume by 50%. The amount of time it takes is dependent on the temperature of the dough, the temperature of the room, and the liveliness of the dough. This step really determines how much your dough will rise. If you want a tall, airy loaf, this is the step you need to experiment with. I leave mine on the counter overnight which works well with the cooler water temperature we used when we first mixed the dough because the cold water slows fermentation. (If you really want to dive in, check out The Ultimate Guide to Bulk Fermentation)

Day 2: Morning - Proofing the Dough

1. Make a nonstick bowl (or banneton) by placing a towel in the bowl and dusting it with flour

   • Pro Tip: I use a hair net instead of a towel and it requires NO flour and the dough will not stick! I wash and reuse them over and over. Feel free to sprinkle a little flour on the hair net if you want a darkener crust on your loaf. Or, if there is no hair net, you can use a towel like the rest of the world.

2. Scrape the dough onto a flour dusted cutting board or table top. Pull the edges of the dough apart and fold them over the top. It will be sticky so dust with flour to keep it from sticking to the counter. Do this around each side until you have formed a ball of dough.

3. Set the rolled ball of dough into the bowl (or banneton) with the towel and flour.

4. Place the bowl (with dough) in a plastic bag (I use a grocery bag) in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours to ‘proof’. (I usually let it proof for 24ish hours).

Day 3: Baking Day

1. Place the empty dutch oven and lid on the middle rack of the oven and set it to 550 degF (or the hottest temperature the oven will go).

2. Let it pre-heat for 30ish minutes

3. Remove dough from the fridge and cut a piece of parchment paper just big enough to fit across the top of your dough ball. Set the parchment across the dough. It will stick to it.

4. When hot, remove the dutch oven from your oven (Careful, it is blazing hot!) and remove the lid.

5. Flip your dough over so that it comes out of the bowl and sets on the parchment paper. Carefully set the dough into the dutch oven, parchment paper side down.

6. Score the top of dough with a knife or razor blade.

   1. To score mine, I cut a 1/2 inch-ish deep cut making an X. Or with one big cut  like the shape of a smiley face (without the eyes). This allows the loaf to rise without cracking too much.

7. Put the lid on the dutch oven and place it back into the oven. 

8. Change the temperature to 450 degF and set a timer for 30 minutes.

9. When the timer goes off, leave the dutch oven inside your oven but remove the lid from the dutch oven. Change the temperature to 400 degF and set a timer for 15 minutes.

10. When the timer goes off, remove the dutch oven and remove the beautiful sourdough loaf. Discard the parchment paper and set the loaf on a cooling rack for at least 1 hour. Avoid cutting right away as it will steam off all the moisture you are trying to save in the loaf. I try to wait several hours (but, let’s be honest, sometimes I dive right in and cut it up, slather it with butter and eat it hot!)

11. Eat, share with friends, enjoy!

• The loaf of bread can be kept in a gallon ziploc on the counter for several days. But the sooner you eat it, the better it tastes.

• The bread freezes well in a ziploc bag. Just let it thaw in the sealed bag on the counter for 4 or more hours before you cut into it. 

That’s it!

Now, alter and change this recipe in your own way to make it better. 

And, don’t forget to share your starter (whatever name you’ve given it by now) with friends and teach them to bake for themselves!

Keep on Learnin'!

Craig