Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners

It’s easier than you think to make this easy sourdough bread recipe for beginners! It’s long-fermented, crispy crust on the outside, soft & chewy inside, and oh so good!

Basic Sourdough Bread Recipe Ingredients

This recipe is inspired by my friend Lisa @ Farmhouse On Boone, and is super simple to make!

Only four simple ingredients work together like magic and transform into the most beautiful, light, and fluffy artisan sourdough bread! Its crunchy crust and chewy insides impress the toughest critics, and satisfy the soul!

• 2 cups 50% hydration sourdough starter This takes the place of commercial yeast in common bread.
• 3 cups sifted of all-purpose flour (Ido not use bread flour)
• 1+1/4 cup warm water (cold water will make dough take longer to rise.)
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

How To Make Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe

In a large mixing bowl (not metal) add 2 cups of 50% hydration active sourdough starter.

(For active sourdough starter, feed it and keep it out of the fridge for at least 4 hours, or overnight.)

Add 3 cups of sifted flour.

(Sift or fluff your flour before measuring so it isn’t too compact in the measuring cup.)

Add 1 cup of warm water

Add 1.5 teaspoons salt. (I use the Hymalian Pink Salt, use your favorite!)

Use a large spoon to mix the ingredients together. It will be wet, biscuit-like dough.

Stretch & Fold Sourdough Bread Method

Cover with a clean damp kitchen towel, and let the dough rest in a warm place for 2 hours. (Or in a warm oven for about 1 hour)

First time stretch and fold: Uncover the dough, with wet hands pick up one side of the dough and fold it in half, over on top of the other side of the dough. Repeat 4 times by stretching and folding over all four sides of the dough. (The dough does not stick to wet hands as badly as dry hands.)

Cover with a clean towel (or plastic wrap), and let the dough rise till doubled again.

Second time stretch & fold: Uncover the dough, wet your hands, then pick up one side of the dough and fold it in half, over on top of the other side of the dough. Repeat 4 times by stretching and folding over all four sides of the dough. The dough is becoming more bread-like now!

Cover with a clean towel, and let rise till doubled again.

Next step, is the 3rd stretch and fold: Uncover the dough, wet your hands, then pick up one side of the dough and fold it in half, over on top of the other side of the dough. Repeat 4 times by stretching and folding over all four sides of the dough. The dough is even more bread-like now!

Cover with a clean towel, and let rise till doubled again.

4th stretch and fold: Uncover the dough, wet your hands, then pick up one side of the dough and fold it in half, over on top of the other side of the dough. Repeat 4 times by stretching and folding over all four sides of the dough. The dough is even more bread-like now!

Shape your dough into a round loaf.

Dust a towel, or proofing basket, generously with flour and put it into a large round bowl to rise one last time.

Turn bread dough out onto a lightly floured work surface,

Final Shape- Shape dough into a round loaf by pushing it back and forth to build surface tension on your loaf.

Using a bench scraper, Place the dough ball into the floured towel in the large bowl, or into a floured banneton basket.

Dust the top of dough ball generously with flour.

Cover with a towel by folding over the ends (or use another clean towel.)

Place the bowl into the refrigerator to chill and rise overnight, as bulk fermentation and final rise. (Now you can rest and pick up where you left of the next day!)

Day 2 – Baking Sourdough Bread

The next morning, when you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. and place your dutch oven into the oven to preheat too.

Cut a 2-foot section of parchment and place it on your counter.

Gently dump your chilled bread dough ball onto a large piece of parchment paper.

Lightly dust the top with flour, and spread it evenly over top with your hand, being careful not to push the dough down.

Using a very sharp knife or razor blade, score a design into the top of your dough.

Score the top of the dough with your razor blade. Make your own design or use mine. This gives the loaf a constructive place to rise without bursting open during the baking process.

Remove your hot dutch oven from your preheated hot oven.

Lift your dough loaf into the dutch oven by the ends of the parchment paper. (It’s ok for parchment paper to hang over the sides of the dutch oven, it won’t burn.)

Place the lid on your dutch oven.

Use hot pads or towels to put the hot dutch oven back into the preheated oven at 400 degrees.

Bake covered for 25 minutes.

Then, Remove the dutch oven lid.

Bake for 25 more minutes! Your loaf should be nice and golden brown on top by now!

Remove and place on a safe surface. (I like to use a cutting board or my stove top.)

Place your sourdough bread on a cooling rack and cool completely to see all the beautiful air holes! If you cut into your loaf of bread right away the bread will be too soft to hold its form with all the beautiful air holes. It will taste amazing but doesn’t look quite as wonderful. Enjoy!

Sourdough Starter

Homemade sourdough starter is a natural yeast, made from collecting wild yeasts from grains and in the air, that collect and grow in a mixture of flour and water. These wild yeasts make the dough rise as they ferment it! You can learn to make your own active sourdough starter from scratch here! The active starter is nice and bubbly, and that’s the way you want it for use in this recipe.

Sourdough Bread Recipe Card

You May Also Enjoy These Homemade Sourdough Bread Recipes

• How to make a sourdough starter from scratch. Learn to make your own sourdough starter!
• Sourdough Bread for Beginners…A basic sourdough bread recipe for simple no knead sourdough artisan bread.
• Sourdough cheddar biscuits. – Quick recipe for a last-minute side dish that everyone loves!
• Sourdough Pumpkin Bread – Perfectly spiced pumpkin bread with all the benefits of sourdough. A great snack or breakfast!
• Sourdough Pancakes – Super fast and easy breakfast that kids will LOVE!
• Sourdough English Muffins – Super simple English muffin recipe for egg sandwiches for toast!
• Sourdough Streusel Pumpkin Coffeecake – A treat for your morning!
• My favorite sourdough carrot cake… A moist rich carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I love making this for Easter!

Basic Sourdough Bread-Making Tools

These tools make making sourdough bread easier and can help it to turn out fluffier and prettier. But you can most definitely make sourdough bread without some of them! Here are the tools I use:

• Large Mixing Bowl or Stand mixer with a dough hook.
• A Bench Scraper – to keep sticky dough off the counter and in your loaf.
• Dutch Oven – For best results use a dutch oven with a lid. (Dutch ovens with lids hold in moisture while cooking bread causing the bread to rise more, or spring, better than cooking on a baking sheet or pan.)
• Parchment Paper – This is a luxury, not a necessity but I really love using it!
• Proofing Basket or Banneton – These baskets give your loaf those pretty circle designs around the loaf as it shapes into the basket over night.
• Tea Towel to Cover the rising dough with.
• A Wooden Spoon
• You can use a stand mixer with a dough hook, but I just use my hands for this.
• Razor or very sharp thin knife for scoring.
• Many sourdough bread recipes require you to use a kitchen scale, I do not ever use one, and it turns out great every time.

Variations

You can make several variations of this sourdough recipe with different kinds of flour like whole wheat flour, all-purpose Einkorn flour, spelt flour, rice flour in combination with gluten-free flours, organic flour, and other kinds of whole grain flour.

Adjust the amount of flour that you use if changing from all-purpose, especially if you are using fresh ground grains.

You can also add 1/2 cup of cocoa to your dough before mixing for a chocolate sourdough loaf.

This sourdough bread can also be cooked a regular bread pan for sandwich bread.

DOUGH TEMPERATURE

The speed at which sourdough dough rises depends on its temperature or the temperature of your kitchen for rising. For best results your sourdough ferments between the temperatures of 80–90°F (27–32°C). That temperature is optimal for the home bakers sourdough to rise. However, you can also get a faster rise with warmer temperatures, and of course, a slower rise in the fridge overnight with cooler temps.

My pilot light keeps my oven at 93 degrees all the time. At 93 degrees F, I can rise my sourdough dough in 1.5 hours to double. Then I stretch and fold, cover, and repeat the process 4 times before doing the final shape and refrigerating overnight.

RISING TIME – ROOM TEMPERATURE

The room temperature of your kitchen, or your rising space, makes all the difference in how long it takes to proof sourdough bread dough! In a cold kitchen (or rising spot) your dough will take all day to proof. I let my dough rise in a warm oven.

My oven has a pilot light which keeps it nice and warm, but not hot, at 93 degrees F. If you do not have a pilot light, preheat your oven to 180 degrees for about 5 minutes then turn it off. A great way to test the temperature of your oven is with an instant-read meat thermometer.

How to Store Leftovers

If you are lucky enough to have leftovers, place your homemade bread into an air-tight container or zip-lock bag, and store it on the counter for up to 4 days. If you store in the fridge the bread will get firmer, and not be as soft, but it softens up right away if you reheat it! (I think the best way to reheat sourdough bread is to pan-toast it with butter for breakfast!)

Lewftover sourdough bread is also great to make croutons, the best french toast, bread pudding, hot and cold and sandwiches of course!

Why Sourdough?

If you are here, you must already know how great sourdough bread is! But I love it for so many reasons including:

• It has a lower glycemic index! So it doesn’t spike your blood glucose levels like other kinds of bread.
• It’s more nutritious – Probiotic yeasts predigest the grains, making the nutrients in the dough more bioavailable, and easy for our bodies to absorb and use!
• It breaks down phytic acid which blocks nutrient absorption. (Phytic acid is an antinutrient.)
• There is a depth of flavor that sourdough lends to food that you just can’t get any other way…. It tastes so much better!
• Crusty on the outside, soft and chewy inside! There is not much that compares to biting into a fresh loaf of sourdough bread that’s nice and crust on the outside and soft and chewy with that sourdough texture that you can’t get any other way!
• A sense of accomplishment by making bread, and maintaining a sourdough starter, with your own two hands!
• Easier to digest! Fermenting flour breaks down the gluten making it easier to digest! Some people who are sensitive to gluten can eat sourdough bread without the bad side effects.
• You don’t need to rely on buying commercially produced dry yeast to make bread, so it makes you more self-sufficient! And it saves you the money you would of spend on yeast (which seems to be going up on a regular basis.)

My Sourdough Journey

I have been baking bread since I was a teenager. But I started my own sourdough starter for the first time about 3 years ago. I was surprised at how easy it was, and it only took bout a week to get a bubbly starter… Then we moved, and I threw it out thinking that I would just make another one. However, the next house we lived in was different and so was making sourdough starter in it! it took me a full month to get my second sourdough starter to become active and bubbly. That had to do with the sterile environment we were living in and the chlorine in the tap water. (Well water works much faster.)

It’s funny how my kids (especially teenage boys) feel loved when I make fresh sourdough bread! But they didn’t always feel that way… Sourdough bread is different than commercially made bread. It has a depth of flavor that you don’t get with store-bought bread. And it took my kids a few loaves to appreciate it! When I started making sourdough bread a few years ago, my loaves weren’t as fluffy and pretty because my sourdough starter was still developing. But that didn’t take long to change. By my third loaf, my sourdough bread was perfectly fluffy and the flavor was divine. Now, my kids LOVE all different kinds of sourdough breads and rolls!

My advice is to not give up…

I know that sounds cliche, but it’s true. Your sourdough starter and bread get better with time and use! The more you use your sourdough starter and feed it, the more active it becomes. And the better your loaves turn out… I promise they get better and better!

if you forget to feed a refrigerated sourdough starter for a couple of weeks… It’s OK! I have taken the sourdough starter that was left in the fridge for a month without feeding, the hooch on top (liquid on top) was actually black in color. I got a new jar out and added a cup of flour and a cup of water with 1 tablespoon of the starter in the bottom of that old jar, and gave it a good stir. You know what? It came right back up to a bubbly active sourdough starter by the next day! And it made wonderful sourdough bread!

Nowadays, I make sourdough bread about every two to three days. I use this recipe about once a week, and make soft sourdough rolls at least once a week for dinner! My family loves it and so do I! It also makes a welcomed gift for family, neighbors, and friends!

If you are interested in making your own homemade starter, I share with you how to do that here: sourdough starter from scratch!