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–+ servings

Sourdough Bread Beginner Recipe

Homestead Lady
Use four simple ingredients to make this sourdough bread recipe for beginners. Using simple techniques, you can start your sourdough bread journey with this simple, no-fail load bread. Great for sandwiches, toast, and eating for dinner tonight!
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Fermenting Time 6 hours
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Servings 1 Loaf

Ingredients
  

  • 3 Cups White Flour Organic is preferred
  • 1 tsp. Sea Salt
  • 1 1/2 Cups Water
  • 1/2 Cup Active Starter

Instructions
 

  • Mix the 3 cups of flour and 1 tsp. of salt in a medium sized bowl.
  • Measure the 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of starter in a separate bowl and mix thoroughly.*
  • Add the water mixture to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly with your hands or a sturdy spoon. You may use a bread mixer, if you prefer. Mix until the dough clears the side of the bowl.
  • If you prefer to knead the dough, do so now for 8-10 minutes**. (I recommend you stretch and fold the dough for a quintessential sourdough look and texture.)
  • If you decide to stretch and fold the dough instead of knead, allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Perform your first stretch and fold. Allow the dough another 30-60 minutes, and perform your second stretch and fold. You may do one more stretch and fold, or simply cover the dough and follow the next steps. Instructions on stretching and folding the dough are below in the notes section, as well as in the body of the article.
  • Form the dough into a ball and place it back in the bowl. Cover the bowl and set it to ferment undisturbed for at least 6 hours.
  • Uncover the dough and remove it from the bowl with wet or oiled hands to prevent sticking.
  • Shape the dough in your hands or on a clean wet/oiled surface into a rectangle. Roll up the rectangle to loaf-shape - it looks a bit like a dough baby. Place your dough into an oiled or parchment-lined bread pan.
  • Invert an oiled bread pan over the top of your bread dough pan. Leave to rise until roughly doubled in size. This usually takes 1-2 hours, depending on the ambient temperature.
  • Remove the inverted pan and use a pair of scissors to cut 3-6 slashes in the top of your dough. Replace the inverted pan.
  • Place your bread with the inverted bread pan on top of it into a cold oven. Heat to 425°F/218°C and bake for 35 minutes.
  • Reduce heat to 400°F/204°C and bake for another 20-25 minutes. The bread should sound hollow when you tap on it. If you happen to have a thermometer, it should read between 205-210°F (96-99°C) when baked completely.
  • Remove the bread from the oven and turn it out onto a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool completely (12-24) hours before cutting into it, if you manage to restrain yourself.**
  • Keep in a covered container at room temperature for 7-10 days. If the container sweats, pop the lid and allow the loaf to dry a bit more. You may also freeze or refrigerate.

Notes

* You may place all the ingredients in the bowl and mix them altogether. Mixing the starter into the water first simply makes the mixture more even and is a bit easier to incorporate. 
**The recipe offers you the choice between kneading and simply performing a few stretches and folds of your dough. The truth is, you may also ignore your dough entirely after mixing it. This is called a no-knead dough. Your texture may not be as fine, but if you don't have time to mess with your dough then don't!
Be aware that all ovens are different and bake times may vary. Taking the internal temperature of the finished loaf is the best way to determine if it is completely baked.
If your house is warm, the dough will be done fermenting easily within 6 hours. If it's cold, it may take a little longer. Look for the dough to bulk in size, slowly but not fully return a gentle finger print, and to have small bubbles beginning to form on the skin of the dough.
If you oil the parchment paper you use to line your bread pan, it can easily be reused several times before you need to toss it into the compost pile (or garbage).
You can experiment with which bread pans produce the shape you like the most. Sourdough bread bakers sometimes prefer more narrow pans, like cast iron, to get a taller loaf for sandwiches.
Sourdough is a collection of living bacteria and yeasts and they are far more active when they're warm. If the temperature around your starter, fermenting dough, and/or rising dough is warm, the processes will move along more quickly.
If you want to slow those processes down, place your fermenting or formed dough into the fridge. For example, I will often ferment and shape dough at night and then place it in the fridge to bake up in the morning. Or even a day or so later!
By inverting another bread pan on top of your baking bread, you trap just the right amount of moisture in the baking area to produce a lovely sourdough crust - cracked, chewy, delicious!
If you don't have an extra bread pan, you can place one cup of water in a baking safe dish in the oven with your bread pan. Place it to the side and it will steam while your bread bakes.
Be sure to allow the container to come to temperature with the oven. Do NOT place a cold glass dish into a hot oven or it might break. Violently.
If your bread doesn't brown lightly on top with the pan inverted on top of it, remove it for the last 5-8 minutes of bake time.
**Allowing the bread to cool completely firms up the load and prevents it from turning gummy. If you want to eat it right away, give it at least 30 minutes to firm up. Cut it carefully or rip it into chunks to serve with hot soup.

Instructions for Stretch & Folds for Sourdough

  1. Don't over think this! That's the first instruction.
  2. After your dough has sat 30-60  minutes, remove the lid, and wet your hands to prevent sticking.
  3. Rest one hand on the bowl to keep it steady, and use your other hand to pull up on one side of the dough.
  4. Stretch the dough up a bit and fold it over itself. 
  5. Use your clean hand to rotate the bowl a bit and repeat the stretch and fold process. Pull up on one side of the dough, stretch it, and fold it over on itself.
  6. Rotate the bowl until you've stretched the dough 4-8 times on all sides.
  7. Recover the bowl and allow it to sit another 30-60 minutes.
  8. Stretch and fold the dough 1-2 more times, and then allow it to rest.
You'll notice that each time you stretch and fold the dough, it gets more resistant to your stretching. This means the gluten is forming strong strands that will give good structure to your loaf. This is a good thing!
With white flour, these gluten bonds form very easily. Which is why you can also simply leave this dough to ferment, form it into a loaf shape, and bake it up without kneading or stretching!
No-knead bread may not always be as tall as a manipulated dough but it's delicious and simple and can thrive on you ignoring it for the bulk of the process. 
Keyword non yeast bread, sourdough
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