A beginner's guide for easy Homemade Sourdough Loaf. Sourdough is bread making through developing natural yeast at home, this yeast is commonly known as sourdough starter. The starter takes nearly 10-14 days to be ready to use for bread making, once ready it can later be stored and maintained forever (the oldest existing is 122 years old), to have an unlimited supply of starter for bread making anytime you like. Read in depth guide for developing a sourdough starter at home below in notes. There are many other recipes that you can make with the starter discard, I shared the ones I made on the same page. The basic one and most popular is sourdough bread loaf, which gets a perfect golden crust upon baking. You can either use traditional dutch oven, any other loaf pans or just on top of a parchment paper. You only need to cover it the first 20 minutes to accumulate heat so it cooks well inside, use a Many bakers proof the dough second time in a bread proofing basket covered with flour dusted cloth, I however have a shortcut for this, I second proof directly in the loaf pan so I don't have to transfer it again. It also saves a lot of dusted flour to go waste.
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- loaf pan or dutch oven
- baking tray
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 1/3 cup lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cups bread flour unbleached
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Olive oil for greasing
Instructions
Mixing the dough:
- In a large mixing bowl, add sourdough starter and olive oil, whisk to combine.
- Mix salt and baking powder into dry flour then add it to your mixing bowl, give it a rough mix using a spatula, then slowly add little water at a time and bring the mixture together to form a soft dough.
- Bring up dough together to form a ball that cleans the bottom of the bowl. (If your dough is a little on the dry side add a tbsp of water). Use your hand so you can feel exactly how wet or dry your dough is.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and grease that bowl with a little olive oil. Place your dough back into the bowl and tightly cover with cling wrap and a dishtowel.
Bulk Fermentation:
- Set aside the dough to proof for about 12 hours, or until it doubles in size. I mix mine up the night before and let it rise overnight. (If you are unable to bake it after this time, refrigerate it for up to 3 days in an airtight container.)
Stretch & Fold
- Carefully remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface, I have done this on a nonstick parchment paper or foil to avoid sticking dough on the surface.
- Don’t deflate the dough or knock out the air completely but rather stretch it using hands and fold the dough over itself to strengthen it. Do the stretch and fold 5-8 times.
Shape and Proof:
- Once after stretch and fold, shape the dough into a long loaf or a ball by pushing the dough against your surface using your both palms, make it smooth.
- Dust your loaf pan/dutch oven with some flour and place dough inside. Keep the smooth side on top. This loaf pan/dutch oven will directly go inside the oven, no need to take the pain of transferring it further.
- Cover over with a cling wrap again so that none of the dough is exposed to the air, so it doesn’t form a skin from drying.
- Proof the dough for roughly 1-2 hours or until the bread has risen to almost double the size. Don't rush this step, if your bread is not ready then give it more time.
- Once the dough is well risen and feels almost lighter and not as dense then it’s time to finally bake it.
Baking the Sourdough:
- Preheat your oven to 225°C and place a tray filled with water on a lower shelf in the oven.
- Score the bread in the middle with a blade or knife.
- Turn down the oven to 200°C and place the loaf pan inside. Cover it with a large bowl to accumulate heat for 20 mins if you are not baking in a dutch oven. Then remove the bowl and let it bake open (without fan) for the remaining time.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a gorgeous golden brown crust.
- Once the heat is off, open the oven door and let the bread cool down slowly for next 20-30 mins before taking it out. Cut the bread once it has completely cooled down.
- Usually outer crust gets softer by next day. Store up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Notes
Read the full step by step and day by day guide for developing a sourdough starter at home below in notes. There are many other recipes that you can make with the starter discard, I shared the ones I made on the same page.