How To Make Sourdough Bread (Beginner Friendly)

February 12, 2021 /

All you need is flour, water, salt, and time. This bread recipe is dedicated to those who want to bake a loaf of simple and tasty sourdough at home. It doesn’t have to be complicated.

How Do I Achieve An Open Crumb With A Low Hydration Dough?

A common misconception people often have is that you need to add a lot of water to your bread dough if you want an open and airy crumb. While high-hydration bread has a different look, taste, and texture to them, it’s not a necessity to achieve an open crumb. Proper fermentation is.

This bread is a low-hydration loaf at 72% water. Not only that, but we’re barely even handling it. Lowering the hydration is one of the best ways to learn and understand the process of bread making. You’ll end up with a dough that you can actually handle. Another important factor is the sourdough starter.

What Is An Active Sourdough Starter?

An active sourdough starter is a starter that has been regularly fed (preferably every 12 hours) over the course of multiple days. It’s totally fine to store your starter in the fridge. However, you do want to make sure to take it out of the fridge 2-3 days before you plan to bake with it. Keep it at room temperature for 2-3 days, and feed it with equal parts flour (I like to use a mixture of rye flour and white flour) and water every 12 hours.

“Want to learn more about how I take care of my sourdough starter on an everyday basis? Check out the highlight called “Starter care” over at my Instagram @breadbyelise.“Want to learn more about how I take care of my sourdough starter on an everyday basis? Check out the highlight called “Starter care” over at my Instagram @breadbyelise.

What Is The Difference Between Sourdough Starter And Levain?

Levain is what we call the portion of sourdough starter that’s actually being used to leaven our bread. The portion that we store (either in the fridge or at room temperature) and keep feeding is what we call a sourdough starter.

My Levain Didn’t Double In Size In 5 Hours

Everyone’s sourdough starter is different! Give your levain more time if it’s not ready within 5 hours. The most important part is that the levain has doubled, or preferably tripled in size before you mix it in with the autolysed dough.

The float test: To double-check that the levain is ready to use, simply drop a teaspoon of levain into a glass of water. If it floats, it’s ready.

What Is Autolyse?

Autolyse is a process that starts as soon as you mix flour and water. The flour absorbs the water, and enzymes begin to break down the starches and protein. Usually, an autolyse lasts from 30 minutes – 2 hours or more. During this period, the dough will transform from shaggy and sticky into a smoother, more extensible dough that requires less kneading.

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Here are some tools I recommend you have on hand to make sourdough bread at home:

Digital Scale is essential to ensure exact measurements.

Stand Mixer fitted with a dough hook to easily knead your bread dough. You can also mix/knead by hand, but for a low-hydration bread like this one, you might find it easier to use a mixer.

Brød & Taylor Folding Proofer & Slow Cooker is one of my favorite kitchen appliances. I proof all of my dough in it all year round.

Bench Knife to assist you when shaping.

Banneton to rest the dough in overnight.

Challenger Bread Pan. I’ve been using the challenger bread pan for all my sourdough loaves ever since I got it for my birthday last year (it was all I wanted!). And I couldn’t be happier with it. One of the first things I noticed was its tight seal and how it perfectly trapped steam, resulting in taller loaves and a crust that couldn’t even compare to any of my previous bakes. It’s so worth it if you’d like to bake bakery-style bread at home.

Lame or Razor Blade to score the bread before baking (to control the direction the bread expands).