Making Sourdough Bread: 5 Simple Steps

After a few years of religiously buying sourdough bread from farm stores, markets and bakeries, I finally decided to try make my own at home.

This recipe may not be the most traditional one, yet: it works! And not only it works but it’s SIMPLE!

Here is how it works:

1. prepare a sourdough starter by mixing equal amount of water and flour daily for a week or two until the mixture reaches fermentation. grows and makes bubbles. if a friend of yours has a starter, you can skip this step by asking them a piece of theirs to build from. or when yours is ready, you can share it around too! to keep your starter alive you will need to feed it, by continuing to add equal amount of flour and water at least once a week. you can put it in the fridge if you want to feed it less.

2. before you make the bread, activate your starter 4 to 12 hours beforehand by feeding it 100gr flour and 100gr water.

3. mix 200gr of starter with 600gr of flour (I use half whole wheat, half white flour) and 300gr of lukewarm water. if you want to add nuts, seeds or dried fruits, you can do so at this point as well. knead the bread well and let it sit for 1 hour in a bowl with a damp towel over it.

4. add 100gr of lukewarm water and 10gr of salt and knead. the texture can feel really sticky and goopy at this point, it is normal. let it sit for 5-12 hours. you can leave it overnight and bake in the morning for example.

5. preheat the oven at 250 degrees Celsius. then pour the bread in a floured dutch oven, add some flour on top of the bread and use a knife to cut to create score lines. bake for 30 minutes at 250 degrees and remove the lid of the dutch oven, cook for another 15 minutes at 220 degrees.

You can then wait a little for it to cool down or cut a piece while it’s still warm. The crust out of the oven is super crunchy and delicious!