Easy Homemade Sourdough
An easy homemade sourdough recipe for fluffy sourdough loaf full of characteristic tangy sourdough flavour.
Servings: 10 slices
Calories:
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Alter quantities (metric only) 10 slices
Here's what you'll need...
- 2 x 2lb loaf tins preferably with fitted bread sling - but not obligatory
- Stand mixer with dough hook fitted or you can mix by hand using a wooden spoon or a Danish dough whisk
- Clingfilm (plastic wrap) or clear plastic shower caps are a great alternative
- Banneton however you can just use one of the loaf tins but flour it well first
- Bread lame or a sharp knife
Ingredients you'll need...
Starter - feeding
- 100 g Starter (½ Cup)
- 100 g Plain (all-purpose) flour (13 tablespoons)
- 100 ml Luke warm pre-boiled water at about 35℃
Sourdough
- 100 g Active sourdough starter at peak or 110 grams if not at peak (½ cup)
- 420 g Extra strong bread flour protein content 13-14% (3⅓ Cups)
- 80 g Strong white bread flour or you can use another 80 grams of the extra strong bread flour (⅔ Cup)
- 370 ml Luke warm pre-boiled water at about 35℃
- 10 g Fine salt
- Oil for greasing olive, vegetable or sunflower oil are all fine
Here's what we do...
Starter - feeding
- Take your starter from the fridge and discard all except 100 grams of it.
- Add your flour plus your luke warm pre-boiled water and mix together thoroughly. You will then have about 300 grams of starter.
- Loosely cover and leave at room temperature to rise by about two thirds. Mine takes about 3 hours and my kitchen is around 23℃.
- Once your starter has increased by about two thirds it should be ready. A useful test can be to take about half a teaspoon from the top and pop it into a glass of cold water. If it floats then the starter is active and ready to use.
Sourdough
- Take your stand mixer bowl and add 100 grams of your active starter to it.
- Tip in your flours and then your pre-boiled lukewarm water.
- Set your mixer onto the lowest setting and allow it to mix the dough for 5 minutes without stopping.
- Scrape the dough off the dough hook (it will be very sticky), cover the bowl with cling film (or a new clear shower cap works very well ) and set aside at room temperature for 45 minutes.
- Remove the covering and tip in your salt.
- Wet your hands and then scoop your fingers under one quarter of the dough. Gently pull the dough up vertically and then fold it back onto the dough in the centre. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat another 3 times, i.e. until you are back to the start.
- Repeat the above step again so that you have done 8 stretch and folds in total. This process helps build the gluten and thus strength in the dough. You can do coil folds if you prefer, lifting the dough up by the middle and placing it back down so that either end sits under the middle and again turning the bowl a quarter turn and repeating, until you have done 8.
- Cover the bowl again with clingfilm/clear shower cap and set aside for another 30 minutes.
- Repeat again with just 4 stretch and folds or coil folds this time. Cover again and leave for 30 minutes.
- Repeat the step above twice more every 30 minutes. By which times you should have done 4 lots of stretch and folds every 30 minutes in total.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and then lightly oil it.
- Return the dough to the bowl, cover again with cling film/show cap if using and set aside to bulk ferment.
- Use this calculator to work out your bulk fermentation times.My kitchen is about 22℃, and I find the bulk fermentation takes about 5 hours. Generally, when ready, the dough will have pretty much doubled in size, have a bit of a shiny, slightly domed top, and a few bubbles may be poking through at the edges. You should be able to pull a segment up, and it will stretch into a thin sheath without breaking. This is known as the windowpane effect.
- Lightly flour your work surface and tip your dough out onto it.
- Gently stretch the dough into a rectangle shape of about 10 x 12 inches in dimensions.
- Fold one of the long sides over into the middle and then do the same with the other side so that you have 3 layers on top of each other.
- Starting with the short side nearest to you, roll the dough up fairly tightly. Pinch the ends together.
- Flour your banneton and then place the dough into it with the seam side facing up.
- Cover with clingfilm/shower cap again and place in the fridge (fridge needs to be at about 5 degrees) and leave for 24-48 hours. This cold proof is what gives the dough it's typical sourdough flavour.
- Pre-heat your oven to 250℃/230℃ fan/480℉/Gas mark 9.
- Once the oven has heated up take your dough from the fridge and sprinkle over some flour. Place your bread sling over the top and flip the dough onto it.
- Take a bread lame or a very sharp knife and cut a line about 1 cm deep from one end of the dough to the other along with long side. You can make further cuts in pattern over the top if you choose to.
- Spray the dough with water (this creates those characteristic sourdough blisters on the dough as it bakes).
- Lift the dough using the bread slings and place it in the loaf tin and then place the other loaf tin on top.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Reduce the temperature to 220℃/200℃ fab/390℉/Gas mark 7 (I usually leave the oven door open a little to bring the temperature down quickly) and remove the loaf tin covering the bread.
- Bake for a further 15 minutes until browned all over and the internal temperature of the bread is between 205-210℃.
- Remove the bread from the tin and allow to fully cool before cutting it (the dough will continue to steam inside hence it is important not to cut it too soon).
Supporting Notes
There are lots of hints and tips in my main sourdough blog post to help you create a perfect sourdough loaf - too many to add to this recipe.
If you are an inexperienced sourdough baker I do highly recommend you read the post first, to help you on your way.