Our household loves bread. This everyday sourdough recipe is what I make two to three times a week for deliciously bubbly, moist, chewy loaves of bread. Without fail, my kids gather around the oven as I pull the bread out and set it on a wire cooling rack. They beg me (Jemma in particular) to take a photo of it because they think it is “sooooo beautiful!” I can’t tell you how many poorly-lit photos of loaves of bread I have on my phone, but it stands as evidence that this is a recipe worth getting excited about!
Using super basic ingredients (whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, water, and starter), this recipe yields enough for two loaf-pan size loaves, or one large dutch-oven baked loaf. It utilizes a stretch-and-fold method rather than kneading, so the mess stays more contained and you don’t need any kind of special equipment. While the sour tang will get stronger with a longer ferment, I typically don’t do any rising in the fridge because I don’t have enough refrigerator space available on a regular basis. As a result, I never use (because I don’t have one) a banneton/proofing basket. So you only need your counter top, a mixing bowl, and 2 loaf pans OR a dutch oven to rise and bake the loaves in.
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How to Use this Everyday Sourdough Recipe:
First, of course, this recipe makes delicious bread! It does almost everything sourdough bread-related for us right now: made into bread, it’s delicious just sliced and buttered. The bread also works great for sandwiches and toast. We serve it up with vegetable-rich soups a lot (such as my creamy, spicy vegetable lentil soup or my chunky pumpkin sausage soup) to make a complete winter dinner. If it makes it to a few days old, I usually make a fresh loaf and use the remainder of the older loaf in an eggy breakfast casserole, such as this delicious French Toast Breakfast Casserole which is a current favorite of ours.
However, this everyday sourdough recipe also works great for focaccia bread. I use it for my herb and garlic focaccia and my cinnamon brown sugar focaccia.
As fair warning, the results of making this recipe is that your whole house will smell like an artisan bakery, and you’ll be waiting with rising anticipation for the bread to cool so you can cut into it and slather it with butter! Since smells are some of the best memory-forming and memory recall pathways for our brains, my personal goal is that every time my kids smell fresh bread when they are grown up, they will remember our home, their mama, and all the bread we consumed around our table as a family. And yes, I am in fact trying to brainwash my kids a tiny bit into categorizing homemade sourdough as the most worthy-of-consumption bread!
What’s the Process for Making This Bread:
Since this recipe is authentic sourdough (no commercial yeast used), it does take time. But I promise two things: A) it’s not as complicated as it looks in the directions, and B) it is well worth the time!
But first, you’ll need an active, established sourdough starter. If you don’t have one, ask around. Someone you know probably has one. Or you could ask at a bakery that sells sourdough bread if they’d be willing to share a bit of starter with you. If not, you’ll need to make your own starter, which is a process that typically takes a few weeks. So try to source a starter!
The basic process goes like this:
Phase 1: Mixing the dough and activating the gluten: 3 hours and 15 minutes
Remove sourdough starter from the fridge, stir in 1 Tablespoon of whole wheat flour to the sourdough starter and let it sit while you’re getting the rest of the recipe going. Mix the flour and water in a large mixing bowl (my mixing bowl holds about 5 Liters of water, which is about 21 cups), cover, and let it sit for 30 minutes. Add in the appropriate amount of starter and salt, incorporate into the dough thoroughly, cover, and let it sit 30 minutes.
Before you put your flours away but after you’ve taken the starter out for this batch of dough, add a 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour and about that much water to your starter jar, mix it into the starter, and return the starter to the fridge. After the 30 minutes of rest for the dough, complete a stretch and fold, cover, and let it sit for another 30 minutes. Repeat once. Repeat again. Then complete a stretch and fold, cover, and let it sit for 15 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold and 15 minute rest. And repeat one last time.
There is a total of 6 stretch and folds, with 30 minute breaks between the first three, and 15 minute breaks between the last three.
Phase 2: First extended rise: 8 hours to 18 hours, depending on season and kitchen temperature
After the 6 stretch and folds, let the dough rest all day or overnight until it has doubled or more and large bubbles have started to form (1/2 inch or more in diameter). During the summer, this takes 8-12 hours. During the winter, this takes anywhere from 12-18 hours. It all depends on the temperature of your kitchen.
Phase 3: Shaping the dough and the second (shorter) rise: 90 minutes to 4 hours
The dough will be very loose and jiggly after it’s long rise. Prepare two loaf pans by greasing them or lining them with baking paper. Alternatively, prepare a large dutch oven.
Turn the dough out onto a flour surface and shape the dough (more specific directions below). Place the dough into the dish it will be baked in and allow it to rise. Once it has doubled or more, it is ready to bake.
Phase 4: Baking and cooling the dough: 35 minutes to 65 minutes + cooling time
Preheat the oven to 400 F convection/fan forced (200 C). If baking the bread in two loaf pans, bake it for about 35 minutes. If baking in a dutch oven, keep covered and bake it for about 65 minutes. Remove from the baking dish immediately and place on a wire rack to cool completely before trying to slice it.
Notes to address FAQ about making this Everyday Sourdough Recipe:
How does the timing work out?
I suggest you start the bread early evening the day before you want to bake it. Below is how I go about the process the vast majority of the time (and yes, my husband, Gabe, does know how to stretch and fold the dough, so whichever one of us is in the kitchen does the stretch and folds):
5:00pm – I like to start my dough when I’m pulling everything out to make dinner, with plans to bake the bread the next day. So, about 5pm, when I’m grabbing produce out of the fridge for dinner, I’ll pull out my sourdough starter and put it on the counter and add a Tablespoon of whole wheat flour. At this point, I’ll also mix my flour and water in a large mixing bowl to let the flour absorb the water thoroughly.
5:30pm – Usually just before we sit down for dinner (about 30 minutes later), I add in the starter and the salt. Then we eat dinner as a family and I try to remember to set a 30 minute timer.
6:00pm – Just as we’re finishing dinner, it’s time for the first stretch and fold.
6:30pm – Just as we’re finishing dishes, it’s time for the second stretch and fold.
7:00pm – Just as we’re finishing the house clean up/getting kids’ teeth brushed, it’s time for the third stretch and fold.
7:15pm – Just before prayers with the kids and the bedtime story, it’s time for the fourth stretch and fold.
7:30pm – Just after prayers, when it’s time for lights out with the kids, it’s time for the fifth stretch and fold. A good time to start the kettle for a cup of evening tea.
7:45pm – While brewing the tea, its time for the sixth and final stretch and fold.
Uh-oh, I forgot a stretch and fold… What do I do?
IF we happen to forget to set the timer or things are a bit crazy and the timer gets turned off and we forgot to do a stretch and fold for awhile (ah-hem… not that that happens ALL THE TIME!), I just pick up the stretch and folds when I remember. I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten a stretch and fold once or twice, and/or done some extra stretch and folds. So be it. Honestly, sourdough should be a forgiving form of baking because it’s thousands of years old. Particular things don’t last that long, right? So don’t stress too much. The main idea is you want to regularly stretch and fold the dough over a few hours of time to get the gluten good and activated so the bread will have shape when it is baked.
Above Photo: The flour and water just after mixing it up, before adding the starter and completing the stretch and folds.
Below Photo: The dough after it has done it’s long, overnight rise.
Above Photo: The dough, after being shaped, placed inside the dutch oven to rise. Note that it fills the dutch oven about 1/3 full.
Below Photo: The dough, after it has done its second rise when it is ready to be baked. Note that it fills the dutch oven about 2/3 full.
How will I know the dough has risen enough?
Check out the photos above that show the difference between the dough when it is first mixed up and when it has risen after the long first rise, as well as when it is placed in the dutch oven for it’s second rise, and after it has completed the second rise. As I mentioned above, my mixing bowl holds about 21 cups. Since the flour and water when it is first combined makes about 6 cups, and the dough rises almost to the top of the bowl, I would estimate it triples in size. I’d aim for somewhere between double and triple in size. That will mean there is still enough natural sugars left in the dough for the yeast to do its magic on the second rise. Again, it needs to approximately double in size on the second rise.
Do I have to use 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 all purpose flour?
No, you can totally try whatever you want! I have made sourdough with exclusively whole wheat, although not with this high of an hydration loaf. But I’ve found it is most consistent if I also add some gluten flour. Since my normal grocery store doesn’t carry gluten flour and I don’t like to go out of my way, I’ve started doing the 50/50 ratio of flour. It seems to work well, and I like that I’m getting half whole wheat flour into my family’s diet.
Do I have to use whole wheat flour for my starter?
Nope! Again, you can do whatever you want. I only ever put whole wheat flour into my sourdough starter, but my mom uses whatever kind of flour she has on hand. I’ve just had good luck with the whole wheat starter, and I have been doing it that way for years. I like my bread to be more on the whole wheat side of things than the white side of things. So I just stick with whole wheat.
I keep the starter in the fridge the vast majority of the time. I only pull it out when I’m thinking about making the dough. It usually has a little bit of hooch on top of the starter when I pull it out of the fridge. I just stir that in. I add a Tablespoon of whole wheat flour right at the beginning of the process. This flour hangs out in the starter and starts to feed the yeast before I take starter out to add to the dough because that works for me. Some people feed their starter a few hours before hand, you can totally do that. This is just what works for me.
The dough seems really jiggly and soft after its first rise, is it supposed to be that way?
Yes. I love a higher hydration recipe because the loaf produced tends to be more artisan. And the higher amount of hydration means the bread doesn’t go dry 24 hours after baking it. So that’s how we do it. That does make it harder to shape the dough into anything fancy – braiding it, even scoring it beautifully might be challenging. I’m not worried about that. I just want a simple, everyday sourdough recipe to feed my family delicious bread. But feel free to look around at other recipes if you’re more into the artistic side of things.
Incidentally, for recipes that need to be formed more, such as my super delicious Sourdough Cinnamon Swirl Bread or for making sourdough cinnamon rolls, I use a different ratio of flour and water, and the loaf isn’t as high of hydration.
How do I shape the dough when it is so loose?
To shape the dough, after it has done its long first rise, carefully dump it (scraping the sides of the mixing bowl with wet hands) onto a floured surface. See below:
Grab an edge of the dough and fold it to where the edge is in the center of the dough. Work your way around the dough like it’s the face of a clock, folding inward about 6-8 times. Once you’ve worked your way around the clock face once, do it again a second time, continuing to gently pull the dough in toward the middle. Dust the dough with flour as needed. See below:
If you are making the dough into two loaf pans: separate the dough into two equal parts at this stage. Then lift each half of the dough in turn and, folding the dough under to make the top smooth, form into a roughly rectangular log shape, about the length of the loaf pans. Gently set the dough log into a loaf pan, and repeat with the other half of the dough.
If you are making the dough into one loaf to be baked in a dutch oven: lift the dough into your hands, turn it over so the smooth side is on top and the gathered side is on the bottom. Fold the dough under while gently stretching the top of the dough. Continue to work your way around the dough, shaping it into a ball with a taunt, smooth upper surface. Gently place the shaped dough into the dutch oven.
Let Me Know How It Goes!
If you try making this everyday sourdough bread recipe, drop me a comment and let me know how it goes! If I can make the instructions clearer in some way, I’d love to do so. I believe sourdough bread is possible for EVERYONE, and I love to empower people to tackle making their own bread!
Everyday Simple Sourdough
This sourdough recipe is a higher hydration recipe, creating nice bubbles, a chewy crust, and enough moisture inside the loaf that it is still delicious a day or two after baking. Made with 1/2 whole wheat flour, it is filling while also being delicious. It's a great recipe for sourdough beginners as there is no special equipment required. Rather than extensive kneading, it uses a stretch and fold process, and the rise happens in the mixing bowl and in the baking pan itself, so no need for a banneton/proofing basket.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (324 g) all purpose flour
- 2 cups (319 g) whole wheat flour
- 2 cups (488 g) water
- 1/2 cup (140 g) active sourdough starter
- 1 Tbsp (18 g) salt
Instructions
- NOTE: the instructions look long because there are many steps, but the steps are rquite easy to execute and several of them are repetitions of a single process. Don't be intimidated by the length of instructions!
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together with a wooden spoon the all purpose flour, the whole wheat flour, and the water. Mix until it comes together as a dough.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the flour and water sit for 30 minutes. (rest #1)
- Add the salt and the starter to the dough, mixing/kneading it together with your hands until the starter and salt are fully incorporated into the dough.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 30 minutes. (rest #2)
- Wet your hands with water so the dough doesn't stick to them and complete 4-6 stretch and folds of the dough, stretching the dough from each angle of the bowl.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 30 minutes. (rest #3)
- Complete a 2nd round of stretching and folding.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 30 minutes (rest #4)
- Complete a 3rd round of stretching and folding.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 30 minutes. (rest #5)
- Complete a 4th round of stretching and folding.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 15 minutes. (rest #6)
- Complete a 5th round of stretching and folding
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 15 minutes. (rest #7)
- Complete the 6th and final round of stretching and folding.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let the dough sit for 12-18 hours or until it has at least doubled in size and bubbles are forming on the top of the dough that are 1/2+ inches in diameter.
- Grease two bread loaf pans, or line two bread loaf pans with baking paper. (Alternatively, if you have a large dutch oven and want to make just a single large loaf, grease or line your dutch oven at this time)
- Sprinkle an area of the countertop with flour and turn out the dough onto the floured surface, gently scraping the dough from the inside of the bowl with your fingers (wet them if needed to keep the dough from sticking to your hands).
- Once the dough is in a puddle on the countertop, fold in the edges toward the middle. Do this 6-8 times, working your way around the entire parameter of the dough, and then continue folding the edges in around the entire parameter of the dough a second time. The dough will be slightly easier to handle and pick up at this point.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts (if you are making just one loaf in a dutch oven, skip this step as well as step 21-23)
- Sprinkling a bit more flour on the counter top, lay one section of the dough onto the flour, and continue folding the edges in toward the middle as you shape it into a roughly log shape to fit inside one of your loaf pans. Place the first section of dough into one of the loaf pans.
- With the second section of dough, repeat the process of shaping the dough into a roughly log shape, and place it into the second prepared loaf pan.
- Using two large zip bags or plastic shopping bags, gently place each loaf pan inside a plastic bag, blow enough air into the bag to make it puff up and give room inside for the dough to rise, and then secure the bag tightly with the zip or with a chip clip.
- (Skip this step if using two loaf pans) If using a single dutch over, continue to fold the outside edges of the dough in to the center until the dough is easy to handle, then pick it up and turn it over, and fold the outside edges under the loaf until the top surface of the dough is tight and stretched. Place gently inside the dutch over with the smooth side up. Cover with the lid.
- Allow the dough to rise until doubled - either on the counter for 2+ hours (depending on the temperature of your kitchen), or in the fridge for the day or overnight.
- Once the dough has risen until doubled and looking loaf-like, preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C) or 440 F convection (220 C convection). If you used the fridge to slowly raise the dough, pull the dough out as you begin to preheat the oven.
- Remove the loaf pans from the plastic and bake uncovered for 35 minutes. If using a dutch oven, place the dutch oven into the preheated oven with the lid on, and bake for 65 minutes covered.
- The bread will be golden and sound slightly hollow when knocked if it is finished. Remove from the oven and remove from the pans immediately, letting cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
Notes
Note 1: Rise times will vary depending on how active your sourdough starter is and how warm or cool your kitchen is. During the summer, my bread process takes about 14 hours with no fridge time. During the winter, it takes closer to 30 hours. Check the pictures for what to look for so you know when your dough has risen enough.
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