holding sourdough bread

Today I will be taking you through the process of making my go-to loaf of sourdough bread. Though the process is long, it’s totally worth it if you like soft tasty bread with a crunchy crust!

Ingredients

the ingredients for this sourdough recipe

Sourdough starter — 100 grams

Water — 240 grams

Salt — 10 grams

Honey — 30 grams

Flour — 400 grams

OPTIONAL — add any seeds/dried fruits you would like.

Note: If you wish to add dried fruits to your bread, you may need to use more water because the dried fruits will rehydrate and use the water required for the bread to rise.

Mixing the ingredients

This is the process I go through when I mix all the ingredients together.

I mix the starter, water, salt, and honey together before adding the flour and seeds because I want the starter to be evenly spread through the dough. This will help ensure an even rise in the dough. Once all the ingredients are mixed together and the dough is shaggy, let it sit for 15 minutes. Then stretch and fold the bread every hour for 2 more hours — three folds in total.

Folding the bread

When you fold the bread, make sure you are folding it on the same side and folding it toward the center of the bread. If you’re unsure, the video to the right is a good demonstration.

Letting it rise

Before the bread is ready to go into the oven it needs to rise. I usually leave my bread to rise overnight in a metal bowl with a damp cloth over top of it to stop it from drying out. It only needs about 3 hours to rise, so you do not have to leave it overnight, this is just a part of my process.

Before the bread goes in the oven

Dutch oven without a lid in the oven

Before the bread goes in the oven, you need to preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, put a Dutch oven in to heat up, and put a glass dish with water to keep moisture in the air. This helps form a nice crisp crust without burning it.

sourdough before going into the oven

Score the bread before putting it in the Dutch oven, and in the oven itself. This will also help it as it rises.

Baking

There are two phases to baking this bread.

dutch oven in the oven

In the first phase, the loaf is in the dutch oven with the lid on it baking at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes

Loaf of sourdough entering the second phase

In the second phase, the lid comes off the Dutch oven and the temperature is lowered to 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes.

There you have it!

The finished loaf of sourdough

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Up until now, this is my favourite loaf of sourdough to make, but I have a few new recipes I’m excited to try in the weeks to come!!!