Easy Homemade Sourdough Bread

Welcome to the world of easy homemade sourdough bread! If traditional sourdough recipes make your head spin with strict rules, timings, and confusing terminology, this post is for you. I know how overwhelming it can feel when you begin your sourdough journey.

This simple, no-nonsense sourdough recipe is not only delicious but shows you that anyone can bake amazing sourdough, even if you forget some of the stretch and folds or can’t remember exact timings. By the end, you’ll feel confident making bread that’s crusty, chewy, and delicious , all without stress or confusion.

My experience is proof of this. When I first tried making sourdough, the hydration rules, stretch-and-fold timings, autolyse, and bulk fermentation all felt overwhelming. The recipes I found didn’t make sense, and almost gave up entirely!

The Learning Curve:

When I first began, my sourdough starter didn’t work well. There weren’t lots of bubbles and activity (to be fair, it was winter so the temperature in my kitchen was definitely on the cold side!), my bread was okay and tasted like sourdough, but didn’t look like the Pinterest pins I saw.

Then one day, I read an article about how resilient a sourdough starter is and how the strictness isn’t really necessary, that intuition was how to perfect sourdough. It wasn’t a recipe as such, more of a rhythm, a way of life if you will.

Honestly, I was skeptical but decided to give it one more go.

Easy Homemade Sourdough – Finding My Rhythm:

So, I threw out my old starter (quite a scary experience as it had sat there for close to 6 months!). I went to the supermarket, bought my flour (although this in itself was mind boggling as everyone has a different view about which flour to use for a starter – more about that later).

I started with a wholemeal spelt flour; although looking back, I should have simply started with white bread flour and what I recommend you start with. Now I use Doves Farm White Bread Flour to feed my starter and bake my bread and absolutely love it! I found wholemeal spelt flour made the discard recipes like pancakes and muffins taste too wholemeally, if you know what I mean, and wasn’t to my children’s taste. They ate them but they didn’t love them.

So, I made my starter. Here’s my recipe. Give it a go…honestly it actually works! Your starter is what makes the bread rise, it replaces the yeast you use in regular bread recipes. Basically, it’s the natural leavening that gives sourdough its rise and signature yummy sourdoughy flavour we all know and love! Read this for more info on how wild yeast and bacteria work their magic!

Making it a habit:

And to this day, I continue to make sourdough 2 to 3 times a week and it’s so simple. I need you to trust me on this. I’ll say it again…MAKING SOURDOUGH IS SO SIMPLE! YOU CAN DO THIS! YES, EVEN IF YOU’RE BUSY!

You just need to trust the process, and yourself to some extent too. I don’t follow strict timings or rules. Sometimes I forget to do the stretch and folds and realise 1-2 hours later, so I just do them then, and you know what? I still get good results; my final bake is still a beautiful sourdough boule.

So today, I’m excited to share with you the secrets to making easy homemade sourdough that I’ve learned on my own journey. I want to give you the confidence to begin your own easy sourdough journey right in your own kitchen. Before you can bake sourdough bread, remember, you’ll need to create a sourdough starter – the natural leavening that gives sourdough its rise and signature flavour.

Let’s do this! By the end I promise you, you’ll be producing sourdough that you’re proud of!

Remember your bread doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be yours!

Easy Homemade Sourdough: At a Glance

Ingredients:

Ingredient	Amount
Active, fed sourdough starter	100g
Water	325g
Bread flour	500g
Salt	10g

Steps:

1. Mix: Combine bubbly, active starter and the water (use filtered). Whisk together.
2. Add Flour & Salt: Add in flour & salt – mix with your hand until incorporated. Then cover with a tea towel.
3. Bulk Fermentation: Let dough sit on the side for about 6 hours at room temp. Stretch & fold occasionally (aim 3 times). Do first stretch 30 mins in, 2nd stretch 30 mins later and 3rd stretch another 30 mins after that (these are rough times and it’s ok if you don’t stick exactly to the 30 min interval-it will still work!). Then let sit for the remainder of the time. When your dough has risen, the dough gently presses in and bounces back when touched, or if dough is starting to come away from the sides….then it has had enough time.
4. Develop Skin: Shape into a rough ball and leave on side for around 15-30 mins (helps develop skin so it doesn’t stick)
5. Shape: Shape dough into a boule or loaf and put in banneton or bowl lined with a floured tea towel. I do this by folding the sides into the centre then rolling into a loaf shape before using the counter to pull the dough towards you to ‘tighten’ the dough and help shape. Once in the banneton, cover with cling film and put in fridge.
6. Proof: Let it sit in fridge overnight or for around 12 -14 hours.
7. Bake: Preheat oven to 230°C with dutch oven inside so it’s hot when you use it. Bake in a covered Dutch oven for 20 min, then turn down to 200°C and bake uncovered or another 25 min.
8. Cool & Enjoy: Let bread cool at least 1 hour before slicing.

Simple Tips:

Forgetting a stretch-and-fold or leaving longer intervals than 30 mins is fine. Your bread will still turn out great!

Exact timings aren’t critical; watch the dough, not the clock.

Stretch & Fold: Stretch one side up, fold to centre, rotate bowl 90 degrees, repeat 4 times. Rest 30 min. Repeat 3 sets.

Easy Homemade Sourdough Bread: More In-depth Process:

Mixing:

To start with, make sure you’re using an active starter. What this means is you’ve fed your starter and it’s at its peak – this is around 4-6 hours after feeding depending on room temperature.

Simply combine the starter and water in a large bowl. Then, mix until it’s all combined.

Adding Flour & Salt:

Then add the flour and salt. Use one hand (or a Danish whisk) to combine into a shaggy dough. Cover with tea towel.

Bult Fermentation:

This is where the dough develops its flavour and texture. Leave the dough in a warm spot to rest for about 5 to 6 hours. During this time, perform a set of stretch and folds every 30 or 45 minutes or when you think of it. Don’t worry about exact times; I don’t! Aim for 3 but don’t stress over it.

To do this, gently stretch one side of the dough upward and fold it over itself. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Continue until you’ve stretched and folded all four sides. Repeat this process for each set over the resting period to build strength in the dough.

See Note:

This is the area I found to be restrictive and overwhelming. Yes, you do have to do the stretch and folds, but no, you don’t have to follow these strict times either. While you don’t want your dough to over ferment (which would happen if you left your dough there all day), you can relax a bit here. You can leave the house and return to do the stretch and folds. I do this often; we’re all busy, right!? Your goal is to achieve a minimum of 3 stretch and folds over about 4-6 hours.

Over this time, your dough will go from a sticky, wet dough to a more bread like dough, the type you achieve when you make yeasted bread. But be warned, when you start this process, your dough will be wet, sticky and difficult to handle. I found I couldn’t shape my dough as it would ooze everywhere so I skipped that part and simply poured it into the banneton. This was due to my starter being immature; you will experience this. Don’t panic!! It is normal. Just go with it and bake the bread anyway. I assure you, as your starter matures over a few weeks, your dough will become easier to handle and behave in a way that’s easier to shape.

Resting:

After fermentation, gently shape the dough into a ball. Let it rest on the counter for about 30 minutes. This allows a slight skin to form on the surface, which helps prevent sticking when you transfer it to the proofing basket. (When you first start the process, you may need to skip this step for the first few times as your dough may ooze rather than sit in a neat ball.)

Shaping:

Now gently fold the dough in on itself and form a ball. This means bring the edges in and then roll the dough from top to bottom. Pull the ball towards you to create tension in the dough. Then, place it seam side up into a well floured banneton basket or a bowl lined with a floured tea towel. Cover with a wet tea towel or cling film and put in fridge to have its bulk ferment overnight. Leave for 12-14 hours.

Baking:

Preheat your oven with a Dutch oven inside to 450°F/230°C. Remove loaf from fridge and carefully turn over onto a large piece of parchment paper seam side down. Now carefully flour the surface of the bread and score the bread with desired pattern. You will need a proper blade for this. Do not use a knife!! It won’t work well and will deflate your bread somewhat.

Once dutch oven is heated (usually around 30 minutes), remove from oven, carefully remove the lid and gently lift the dough into the hot Dutch oven using the parchment paper to lower it in (keep dough on parchment paper for baking). Next, carefully put lid back on remembering it’ll be very hot and bake for 20 minutes at 230°C, then uncover and bake for another 25 minutes, reducing temperature to 200°C, until the bread is deeply browned.

Cooling:

Finally, let the bread sit for 30 minutes or so on a cooling rack. Ideally you want to let it cool down to avoid the dough going doughy. I know it’s hard (sometimes I only give it 20 minutes as it smells too tempting!) but try your best to let it cool.

The Reward: Crusty & Chewy Easy Homemade Sourdough Bread

After hours of patience, your bread is ready!! Well done! The crust should be golden and crispy, the inside soft and airy. There’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked sourdough wafting through your home. It makes me feel like a domestic goddess! (a haphazard one, but a goddess nonetheless). Hopefully you’ll feel the same. Enjoy your efforts and remember your bread will improve over time as your confidence develops.

Trust yourself! You’ve Got This!