Homemade Sourdough Bread Recipe
Fresh-baked bread at home doesn’t have to be hard.
It’s about forming new habits and routines, and about priorities. If you’re like us, always trying to find the balance between doing all the things, routines are a must if something like sourdough bread is going to come out of our kitchen with any sort of regularity.
Sourdough is a slow food. Meaning, it uses an ancient form of leavening that takes time, so while it doesn’t require you to actually spend much time in the kitchen, it does mean you have to plan ahead. The more you make it, the easier and simpler it will become. Like any good routine.
Two important notes, before we get to the recipe:
Sourdough bread requires, or course, sourdough starter, which you can acquire from a crunchy friend, purchase at a local health food store, or even order online. King Arthur Flour has an excellent one.
As with all my recipes, keep in mind that these are guidelines, not rules. Follow the guidelines as best you can, and don’t sweat it if you don’t execute a step perfectly. Throughout the recipe I’ll leave notes, because if you understand the why, the what makes more sense, and you’ll gain a better understanding of what steps you and cannot bend.
Sourdough Bread Recipe
Makes 2 loaves
The day before you want to intoxicate your house with the smell of fresh-baked bread, remove your sourdough starter from the fridge. This gives it a chance to slowly acclimate to room temperature and pick up some of the natural yeasts in your house. (Sometimes I skip this. Don’t skip it every time though if you want to maintain a happy, bubbly starter.)
1. Set up the sponge
Mix together:
1 ½ cups warm (not hot!) filtered water
1 cup sourdough starter
4 cups whole wheat flour
Cover the bowl with a cloth so it can breathe and let the sponge sit on the counter overnight* (or for 6-12 hours)
Replenish your starter with ½ to 1 cup each filtered water and flour (go for a pancake batter consistency). Cover with a cloth and let sit on the counter. When you go to make your bread, you can put the cap on and pop this back in the fridge until next time.
*Why overnight? This is what gives your bread it’s delicious sourdough flavor, as the starter works on the flour, breaking down hard-to-digest phytic acid and encouraging a proper enzyme balance. It’s also attracting the naturally-occurring yeast in the air, so the more frequently you bake in your kitchen, the more cooperative these yeasts and your sourdough will be with each other.
2. Stir into the sponge:
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup melted butter, coconut or olive oil
¼ cup honey
Add flour until the dough can be kneaded – approximately 3 ½-4 cups flour.
As the dough gets harder to stir, dump it out onto a clean, floured surface and knead for about 20 minutes. (Take off any rings for this if you don’t want to spend the next forever picking dough bits out of your jewelry!)
I promise this is the only time your bread will require your undivided attention, and it will thank you by giving you a lovely rise. Put on some music, listen to a podcast, chat with a friend, and relax into the rhythm of kneading. I love the way this step forces me to slow down.
How do you know when it’s done kneading?
Your dough should spring back when poked. It may still be a little sticky, and that’s fine – better a little sticky then too dry, especially if you’re using whole grain flour, which already tends to be more dry.
3. First rise:
Place dough in a lightly greased glass or ceramic bowl (metal does weird things to sourdough sometimes) and turn it to grease all sides of the dough. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise in a warm place away from drafts until double, approximately 3 hours. When it’s about doubled in size and springs back when you poke it, it’s ready for the next step.
4. Second rise:
Gently punch down the dough. Turn it over in the bowl, cover again, and let rise until double again, about 1 ½ hours. (If you’re really in a rush, you can skip the second rise, but your bread won’t be quite as light)
5. Prepare for baking:
Punch down dough, knead very briefly, then shape dough and place into greased baking pans. Let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes. This is especially important if you skipped the second rise, and will jumpstart it rising again.
6. Bake:
Bake at 350 F for 35-45 minutes. I start checking it at 30 minutes, but don’t open the oven toooo much or the escaping heat will start to mess with your bake. You’ll know the bread is done when it has a hollow sound when you knock on it.
Gently dump the bread out of the baking pans to cool on wire racks before cutting.
Enjoy!
Let me know if you tried this recipe in the comments below.
