Friends often ask me for my sourdough recipe, so I wanted to share it with you. My family gobbles up this bread everytime I make it, which is about once per week. It may take you some time to get the hang of it, but its worth it! This is…
The Best Sourdough Recipe
Special equipment needed? Kitchen scale.
Cool equipment: banneton bread baskets, but you can also use a mixing bowl.
Ingredients
- Sourdough starter (you can make one or get one from a neighbor).50g water
- 50g all purpose flour485g bread flour
- 150g all purpose flour
- 75g whole wheat flour
- 40g rye flour
- 525g water
- 15g salt
Note: If you don’t have the fancy flours, you can use all purpose. It will come out just fine.
Evening on Day 1: Feed the starter.
Take out your sourdough starter from the fridge. Scoop out about half and discard it. Then add to it:
- 50g water
- 50g all purpose flour.
- Let this mixture sit out overnight, or about 8 hours. It should have small bubbles in the morning.
Morning on Day 2: Mix the dough.
In a clean, large mixing bowl, add:
- 485g bread flour
- 150g all purpose flour
- 75g whole wheat flour
- 40g rye flour
- 525g water
Mix well with a firm spatula or with your fingers. Let the mixture sit for 20 minutes.
Then, add:
- 15g salt
(If you are going to add anything fancy like a handful of olives and chopped rosemary, this is the time to do it).
Then, stretch and fold your dough.
Wet your hand with water. Slide it against the bowl, under the dough. Pull at one end of the dough and fold it over. Turn the bowl ¼ turn. Repeat the “stretch and fold” step 3-4 more times. This builds strength in the dough.
Now set your time for 45 minutes. For the next 3-4 hours, you will stretch and fold your dough every 30-45 minutes. On colder days, let the dough sit longer.
Meanwhile, flour a banneton bread basket. Sprinkle with flour.
Is the dough ready?
Push your finger into the dough. If it bounces back, let it sit a while longer (45 min – 90 min or so). If the impression of your finger stays in the dough ball, then move on to the next step.
Shape dough into a round, tight ball — without ripping it. You can create this shape by stretching and folding it on to itself. This creates surface tension, which helps give the bread a nice round shape (instead of a flat shape). Once you have a taut surface, gently drop it into your floured banneton bread basket (or a medium mixing bowl lined with a clean dish towel), seam-side UP. Cover with plastic wrap or towel. Put it in the fridge until the next morning OR let it rise for another 3-4 hours.
Now, get ready to bake. Place a deep baking tray with 4 cups of water in the bottom of your oven. Add enough water so the whole bottom of the baking tray is covered.
Morning on Day 3: Bake.
Heat your oven to 500 degrees. This may take 30 minutes.
- Sprinkle flour on a large baking pan.
- Turn your bread upside down on to the floured baking tray.
- Cut slits to let the steam escape (I like to do an X shape).
- Bake bread for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 450 degrees.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes more. Remove bread from oven (careful not to burn yourself with the steam).
The bread should be ready. Let it cool for about 2 hours, or as long as you can wait.
Enjoy! Let me know how it turns out.
