How to Bake Sourdough Bread from Scratch

It seems like it was the “millennial thing” to learn how to bake sourdough bread from scratch during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. While I never really got into it, I did at that time pull out my husband’s uncle’s bread machine and finally teach myself how to make bread (albeit machine-assisted).

It was surprisingly easy, but it left me unsatisfied. I wanted more control. I wanted the artistic flair that you see on social media posts (which I’m still working on), and more importantly… I wanted sourdough.

There’s a local chain of cafes here that offers a phenomenal breakfast sandwich, which I always order on sourdough bread. It’s tangy, it’s chewy, and it just complements the sandwich filling perfectly.

So once I learned the basics of machine-assisted bread, I decided it was time to take the plunge and learn how to bake sourdough bread from scratch.

Starting with a sourdough starter

The first step was creating a sourdough starter, which I detail in my post here.

Over the course of several days, you mix flour and water in a jar and let it sit. It eventually captures yeast from the air in your kitchen and that yeast thrives in the starter. Essentially, the starter becomes a living thing that requires regular feeding and maintenance.

I wasn’t having the greatest luck with creating a bubbly, active starter, but I at least had something. I later learned from a friend who used to work in a bakery that the local climate is not great for sourdough starters, and tweaking my starter to include some whole wheat flour might solve that problem. And it did!

I also learned that, as long as the starter is regularly fed and taken care of, it gets stronger over time. My starter is a few years old now and when I give it a good feeding, it easily doubles in size—whereas in the first year of its life, a good feeding would result in maybe a twenty percent increase in size.

Learning how to bake sourdough bread from scratch

Once you’ve got a good starter going, it’s pretty easy to make bread.

There’s definitely a lot of fear about whether or not things are going right, but I’ve learned if I just trust the process and follow the directions, things will turn out just fine.

I’ve outlined the steps to making sourdough bread from scratch below, and again in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

How to bake sourdough bread from scratch

The first thing to know about making sourdough bread is that it takes a long time. In addition to the weeks (minimum) of building up a healthy starter, the actual process of baking bread takes two days—or one day if you get up really and bake bread late at night.

Beyond time, there are really only two other things you need—a Dutch oven and a kitchen scale.

When I bought a Dutch oven a few years back, they were expensive. I got it on a massive sale and then had store points to get it even cheaper. But something must have happened, like there’s suddenly more supply than demand, because prices have fallen and they’re quite cheap now.

Here’s a decently priced Dutch oven on Amazon. It can seem like a steep investment for making bread, but I’ve found I use my Dutch oven quite often for things like soups, stews, pasta sauces, and canning recipes that require a large pot (such as when making salsa).

Step one: Making the dough

Mid-day to early evening of the day before you want your bread, you need to feed your starter. If you’re new to sourdough starters, you can find out how to make and feed one in this post. The goal is that once the starter gets really bubbly and active and rises from the feeding, we then scoop some of that out to make the sourdough.

We’ll start by putting 50g of bubbly, active starter in a large bowl, along with 330g of water. Mix this with a fork until it becomes incorporated.

Then add 9g of salt, 125g whole wheat flour, and 375g all-purpose flour. I use a mix of whole wheat and white flour because it works well for my local climate. You can certainly use only all-purpose flour. If you’re outside of Canada, you may want to use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. (In Canada, all-purpose flour is closer to bread flour in the US and other countries.)

Mix this all with your fork until it becomes a shaggy ball. You’ll likely need to then go in with your hands to incorporate it a little better and make a ball.

Place the ball back in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rest for at least half an hour.

Step two: Pinch and fold

After the resting time is over, take the ball of dough out of the bowl and “pinch and fold” the dough. Grab a hefty pinch from the side, stretch it out, and fold it into the top of the dough ball. Rotate the ball about 1/6 to 1/3 and do it again. Keep doing this until you’ve gone around and pinched and folded the entire thing. Be careful not to tear the dough—sometimes it’s more flexible than others, so work with the dough and its capabilities.

Put it back in the bowl—pinched side down—and cover it again. Let it rest overnight, or about 10-12 hours.

Step three (the next morning): Pinch and fold again

The next day, the dough should have roughly doubled in size. I find my dough rarely doubles, but it does increase in size, so don’t panic if yours doesn’t expand as much.

Remove the dough ball from the bowl and place it on a floured countertop pinched side up. Do another round of pinch and folds.

Flip it back over so the pinched side is down, and let it rest on the counter (or in the bowl again), covered with a towel, for 30 minutes.

Step four: Yes, pinch and fold one more time, plus start the oven

Flip the dough ball and pinch and fold. This time let it rest seam side up, preferably in a bowl, covered with a towel, for 30-60 minutes.

While the dough is resting, crank your oven up to 450 Fahrenheit.

Step five: Put it in the oven

Transfer the dough ball to a piece of parchment paper.

Make a few shallow cuts along the top of the dough. I typically do a north, east, south, west pattern, but sometimes do three parallel lines. Whatever you do is up to you.

Grip the edges of the parchment paper to move the dough—lift it and put it in the Dutch oven and place the lid on top.

Put the Dutch oven in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 425 Fahrenheit. Bake for 20 minutes, remove the lid, and bake for 40 more minutes. The loaf should have a nice brown crust, but if it doesn’t, bake a little longer until the colour is achieved, checking every five minutes.

Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and carefully gripping the edges of the parchment paper, remove the loaf from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Step six: Enjoy!

Allow the loaf to cool for at least an hour, but cooling to room temperature is even better. If you cut it too soon, some of the moisture could escape via steam and leave you with a drier, denser loaf.

Sourdough is best stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Storing it in the fridge and lead to some tough chewiness.

If it happens to be pumpkin season, pumpkin butter makes a great topping for your sourdough bread.

Branching out from basic sourdough bread

Once you’ve got the basic loaf nailed, the options are pretty limitless from there.

For example, I’ve done (and have posts) on these:

• Jalapeno Cheddar Sourdough Bread
• Sourdough Bagels (four flavours!)

In the next week or so, I’m hoping to try making some sourdough focaccia—I’m eyeing this recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen as a template—and hope to post about my success soon. I’ve also been interested in making pasta and I found a fairly simple recipe for sourdough spaetzle from Amy Bakes Bread that I’m going to try and tweak (and hopefully post about soon too).