Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe For Beginners

This easy sourdough bread recipe is perfect for beginner bakers!  

Sourdough bread baking can be intimidating, I know!  For a long time, I was so nervous about baking bread that I just used my discard for yummy recipes like cookies and pancakes.

I wanted to learn how to bake a sourdough bread loaf, but the process seemed complicated and overwhelming.

And since I understand how nerve-wracking sourdough bread baking can be, I wanted to bring you the easiest recipe possible. After a lot of trial and error, I developed this simple recipe that is perfect for beginners.

The result is a deliciously soft, chewy loaf with incredible flavor that is SIMPLE to make. Once you get the hang of baking sourdough bread from scratch, you’ll never return to store-bought bread! 

Give yourself the chance to get the hang of it by making this recipe for a few weeks.  Practice truly does make perfect! 

Let’s jump in!

Sourdough Bread Baking Schedule

One of the most complex parts of baking sourdough bread is timing.  When you start, it can be challenging to know when to feed your starter and at what point to mix your dough.

Here is the schedule I follow for this recipe:

9 am:  Get the sourdough starter from the fridge and set it on the counter to warm to room temperature.  If your starter lives on your counter, you can skip this step!

10:30 am: Feed sourdough starter.  I feed mine with equal water and bread flour, usually 100 grams.  (In the summertime, I feed my starter around 1 pm).

7:00 pm: Mix flour and filtered water by stirring with a fork. Then add the bread flour and mix until the ingredients are blended. Cover, then let the dough rest for one hour.

8:00 pm: Stretch and fold the dough. Complete three series of stretching and folding the dough, about 20 minutes apart.  Exact timing is not crucial, but I try to hit about 20 minutes before each set.

9:30 pm: Leave the dough on the counter overnight to bulk rise.  This process takes between 8 and 10 hours.  In the summertime when temperature are warm the rise time is faster.

8:00 am:  Perform one last set of stretching and folding on the dough, then place it in the fridge for one hour. 

9:00 am: Remove bread from the fridge, score the top of the dough, and bake for fifty-five minutes.

You’ll find that precise times do not matter as you practice this recipe.  Do your best to hit accurate times, but remember that sourdough bread baking is a forgiving and flexible process. 

What Is Active Starter?

You will need an active sourdough starter for this bread recipe.  An active starter will be full of bubbles and about doubled in size from when fed.

A starter will peak at different times in different seasons. The warmer your kitchen the more quickly your starter will become active.

Feed with equal portions of flour and water to create an active starter.  An unfed starter will have very few bubbles and look flat. 

Ingredients

This recipe is so simple and features just a few ingredients. Use the highest quality you can for the best results!

• Active, bubbly starter
• Bread Flour- My favorite brand is King Arthur
• Salt – I am currently using Redmond’s sea salt
• Filtered Water- I try to use chemical-free Water when baking with sourdough, as some chemicals found in tap water can inhibit the rise of the dough.

Supplies

To keep this recipe easy, I use one big bowl for mixing and proofing my dough and a large Dutch Oven for baking. If you do not have a Dutch oven, you can use any baking vessel that is tolerant of high heat.

Kitchen Scale: If you have a kitchen scale handy, measure your flour, water, and starter using grams. If not, follow the standard measurements listed below.

Bread lame: You will need a sharp razor to score the dough, you can use a lame or a simple razor. Make sure it is very sharp.

You will also need a large bowl, spatula, and oven mitts.

Step by Step Instructions

Here are step-by-step instructions for baking this easy sourdough loaf:

Feed Your Starter

Feed your sourdough starter with enough flour to have at least 60 grams of active starter to use when making your dough. 

Wait for your starter to become active before creating your dough, between 5-8 hours after feeding it. The starter will become active more quickly when temps are warmer in summer.

Mix Together Ingredients

Use a scale to weigh the water and sourdough starter, then mix with a fork until dissolved. 

Next, weigh and add the flour and salt to the wet ingredients.  Combine the ingredients with either a spatula or hands that have been moistened with cold water.  (Rinsing your hands with cool water will prevent the bread dough from sticking to your fingers!).

I prefer to use a spatula to blend the ingredients initially, then roll the dough into a rough ball with wet hands. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel or saran wrap and wait one hour. 

This time of rest is referred to as the autolyse, and it allows the flour to fully hydrate. This process helps to develop the gluten in the flour.

Stretch + Folds Every 30 Minutes

After an hour is up, perform the first set of stretches and folds on your dough.  To do this, pull a portion of the dough (I usually pull about a quarter at a time), stretch it up, and fold it over the dough. 

Work around the dough one to two times, then cover the dough with a damp tea towel and wait twenty to thirty minutes.

Perform two more sets of stretching and folding the dough over the next hour. Space out each set 20-30 minutes apart, covering the dough when it rests. 

The shaggy lump will transform into a smooth and elastic ball of bread dough as you work it.  Do not overwork the dough by performing additional stretches and folds per set.  (One to two sets of stretches and folds are good!). As enjoyable as the process is, overworking the dough can result in a flat loaf. 

The dough will be slightly sticky and elastic:

Overnight Proof

After your final set of stretches and folds, cover the dough with a tea towel or Saran wrap and leave it on the counter to rest for 8-10 hours or until it has almost doubled in size.  

Morning Stretch + Fold

Once the bread has doubled in size, you can do your last set of stretch and folds.  Use this time to shape the bread loaf, tucking the dough around the edges and forming a ball.

Set the dough on a piece of parchment paper and place back in your bowl, then cover with Saran wrap.  Place in the fridge for at least one hour and up to 12 hours. 

(If you are not ready to bake the bread right away, simply leave it in the fridge until ready to bake!).

Score The Dough

Scoring the dough allows seam to escape from your bread in a designated spot. While the bread bakes, steam is created inside, causing the loaf to break open as it heats up.  The score will direct that steam to escape through the designated cuts you added.

Scoring can be done in multiple ways, from very simple slashes to beautifully artistic patterns. 

For the beginner bread baker, the easiest options are a cross shaped score or scoring one side of the bread with a long diagonal line which can create an “ear”.  

Don’t worry too much about scoring perfection for now.  There are loads of beautiful bread photos online featuring artistic scores, but the scoring will NOT affect the flavor of your sourdough bread.  Just do your best and have fun with it!

To score this loaf of bread I sprinkled flour over the dough, then used a very sharp razor or lame to create the design.

Bake The Bread

You do not need to preheat the oven for this recipe.  Place your sourdough bread with parchment paper into a Dutch oven and set it in the cold oven. Turn on the stove to 450 degrees and bake for fifty to fifty-five minutes.

You also can just leave the lid on the bread during the entire recipe, no need to take it off mid-way through.

Tip: oven temperatures vary- your bread may need slightly more or less time to bake.

Remove Bread + Cool

Using oven mitts, remove your bread from the Dutch oven and set on the counter. Don’t slice into it immediately- give it at least one hour to rest.

If you slice into it immediately, the bread will be gummy inside. The flavor is still great though… I speak from experience! 😉