How To Make Homemade Sourdough Bread
The Best Recipe!!!
Making homemade sourdough bread has really become the thing to do in 2023-2024….and I love it!!! Talk about a fun and healthy trend! You may have landed on this blog because you feel like you are missing out or because you have tried a slice of it’s heavenly sourdoughy goodness, either way you have come to the right place!
I started making sourdough bread at the end of 2023. My best friend and I wanted to try it and with my busy schedule she beat me to it. You have to understand my friend, she is the smartest person I know. She was VERY thourough with her research on how to make the best sourdough loaf. She joined every forum, read every review, tried some recipes and then landed on seriously THE PERFECT RECIPE!
She found an old Amish sourdough starter, got that baby going, taught me how to make homemade sourdough bread and the rest is history! We know own a sourdough business together and sell our sourdough loaves at our local market. And to our surprise, the feedback has been incredible! Everyone has told us we make the best bread they have every eaten and we sell out every week!
Now I am here to tell you how you can do the exact same thing and bake literally THE BEST sourdough bread out there. I am so excited to share this with you!!!
So What Is Sourdough Bread?
Sourdough bread is naturally leavened bread, meaning that you do not add commercial yeast to the bread for it to rise. It is made from the fermentation of dough using wild lactobacilliaceae and yeast the is naturally occurring in the environment around you.
So to sum that up in easy to understand terms, sourdough bread is made from water and flour and fermented. It takes wild yeast and bacteria from the air and the fermentation process gives it its sour taste. The wild yeast creates gas that gets trapped in the dough and causes the dough to rise.
Are There Health Benefits In Eating Sourdough Bread?
YES!!! This is my favorite part! Here are a few of the health benefits you get when adding sourdough bread to your diet:
-IT IS GOOD FOR YOUR GUT!
The main health benefit that drives people to trying sourdough bread is the gut health benefits. Because you go through the fermentation process to make sourdough bread, this bread is high in prebiotics and probiotics.
Also because of the way sourdough is fermented, the gluten in the bread breaks own and is more easily digestible than most breads. This makes it a great bread choice for people who have a lot of bloat of stomach discomfort after ingesting breads.
-IT IS AN EXCELLENT SOURCE OF ANTIOXIDANTS, VITAMINS, AND MINERALS
Sourdough bread is a good source of fiber, potassium, phosphorus, and sodium which all aid in our day to day healthy diets, and especially help our heart health.
The lactic acid in the bread creates a great source of antioxidants. These antioxidants can help you body fight Alzhiemers, cancers, heart disease, along with many more diseases.
-IT CAN HELP LOWER BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS
Again the fermentation process in making this bread is an amazing thing! Because of the fermentation and lactic acid, the molecules in the bread change in structure and help your absorb it slower, lowering the glycemic index.
When people struggle with high blood sugar levels they will try to avoid bread as a whole as it spike their insulin levels; sourdough bread does not create the same kind of spike in insulin as another type of bread would.
So now that you know what sourdough bread is and it’s health benefits live up to the hype…LET’S MAKE SOME HOMEADE SOURDOUGH BREAD!!!!!!
The first thing you are going to need is a sourdough starter.
A sourdough starter is just a mixture of water and flour that has undergone a fermentation process. To be able to make homemade sourdough bread you will continue to “feed” your starter water and flour every day with a 1:1:1 ratio. This means if you have 100g of starter you will mix the 100g of starter with 100g of water and then 100g of flour.
You can learn how to make a starter from scratch from home, or my recommendation is to get sourdough starter from someone you know or buy a dehydrated sourdough starter and rehydrate it. The reason I say this is you will be able to start baking quicker and you do not have to worry about going through the entire process of making a starter just for it to flop. I think trying to find a starter that has been tried and true for many years is the key to a successful bread. In history many people would pass down there sourdough starter for generations to make sure that their family was supplied with good bread.
After you have your starter you only need a few more items. I have created links to Amazon on these items for you incase you want to use the same products I do!
You will need:
-Glass Mixing Bowls or Ceramic Mixing Bowls
-A Sourdough Bread Kit Containing Shaping Baskets, Scraper, Scorer, And Bread Whisk
-Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats For Sourdough (I love these!)
***Suggestion*** A Bread Box To Store Your Bread
Ok Now That You Have The Items You Need Let’s BAKE!!
The first thing you are going to do is set your weight scale to GRAMS and place a medium sized mixing bowl on your scale. Make sure your bowl is glass or ceramic as sourdough will eat away at steel.
Next measure out 150g of sourdough starter
Then mix 350g of water into your 150g of starter. Use your dough whisk and mix until all the starter is dissolved into the water and it makes little bubbles in the water
After your water and starter are thoroughly mixed, add 500g of bread flour. I recommend using King Arthur Bread Flour because bakers all over have said that their bread is much more successful when using King Arthur. Mix the flour in until you get a sticky dough texture with no clumps of flour in it
Now set your dough aside and cover your bowl with a tea towel. Let the dough rest for 1 hour.
After your dough has rested 1 hour weigh out 10g of sea salt (I like Himalayan sea salt) and sprinkle it all over dough
Wet your fingers and dimple the salt down into the dough
Now perform 4 stretch and folds. To do this you are going to pull one side of the dough up (do not tear the dough do it slow and you do not have to stretch incredibly far, 6-12in) and then foul the dough over itself. Then turn the bowl and do it to each side of the dough. If you need to look up a video on YouTube of how to stretch and fold sourdough!
Then let your dough rest a half hour with tea towel covering the bowl. Repeat this 2 more times for a total of 4 stretch and folds.
After all 4 stretch and fold have been completed, cover your bow with your tea towel and let it sit to ferment for 3-4 hours.
When you start to notice little bubbles on the bottom of your dough and medium sized bubbles on the top of your bowl it is likely ready for shaping!!!
Now that the dough has sat and fermented you and going to remove the dough from the bowl and stretch it out into the shape of a rectangle.
Fold the dough in thirds, so take one side to the middle and then wrap the other side over it so that it makes a log.
Now fold and roll your dough log end over end to create a round sphere with your dough.
Next you will do micro stretches on your dough ball by placing your hands on either side of your dough and gently pushing the dough in a circular motion.
Repeat this shaping process in 30min
When the dough feels like it has formed a nice tight ball, place it in your shaping basket and place it in your fridge with a tea towel covering it over night (normally this is about 8 hours for me but you can go a little longer if you need to)
After the dough has fermented overnight in your fridge YOU ARE READY TO BAKE IT!
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and placec your Dutch oven in the oven, letting it get hot as the oven preheats
***I also suggest placing a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of your oven to make sure the bottom of your dough does not burn***
When the oven is done preheating, remove your dough from the fridge and place your dough on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Now score your dough so that the dough has room to expand as your bread bakes. To score your dough take your scoring blade and make a half inch deep cut all the way down the middle of your bread. You can find more scoring patterns and techniques on our Roots in Remedies Pinterest board for sourdough!
You are ready to place your dough into your Dutch oven and cover it with a lid and let it bake for 20min at 450 degrees
After the 20min are over uncover your Dutch oven and place back into the over at 400 degrees for 35min.
After the 30min are over pull out your Dutch oven and remove your bread..so exciting!!!!
Now let your bread rest on the counter for 3-4 hours so that the inside of the dough can finish baking
FINALLY YOU HAVE FINISHED AND YOU ARE READY TO SLICE INTO THAT BEAUTIFUL LOAF OF BREAD AND ENJOY IT!
Perfect Sourdough Loaf
Ingredients
- 150g Sourdough Starter
- 350g Water
- 500g Bread Flour (Preferably King Arthur Bread Flour)
- 10g Salt
Instructions
- Set your weight scale to GRAMS and place a medium sized mixing bowl on your scale. Make sure your bowl is glass or ceramic as sourdough will eat away at steel.
- Measure out 150g of sourdough starter
- Mix 350g of water into your 150g of starter. Use your dough whisk and mix until all the starter is dissolved into the water and it makes little bubbles in the water
- After your water and starter are thoroughly mixed, add 500g of bread flour.
- Set your dough aside and cover your bowl with a tea towel. Let the dough rest for 1 hour.
- After your dough has rested 1 hour weigh out 10g of sea salt (I like Himalayan sea salt) and sprinkle it all over dough
- Wet your fingers and dimple the salt down into the dough
- Perform 4 stretch and folds and let dough rest covered for 30min
- Repeat this process 3 more times every 30min
- Let dough rest covered for 3-4 hours until bubbles start appearing
- Shape your dough and set aside covered for 30min, then repeat shaping process
- Place in shaping basket and let bulk ferment in refrigerator overnight (8-10hrs)
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees and let Dutch oven heat in oven during preheat
- Score dough and place in Dutch oven
- Bake at 450 degrees for 20min with Dutch oven lid on
- Remove lid and bake at 400 degrees for 35min
- Remove from oven and place on cooking rack and let cool for 3-4hrs
- Slice and Enjoy!!!!
YOU DID IT! NOW YOU HAVE COMPLETED YOUR GOAL OF MAKING YOUR OWN HOMEMADE SOURDOUGH BREAD!!!
And yes I will warn you you will be addicted to this as soon as you bite into that delicious loaf that you are incredibly proud of =)
Make sure to keep an eye our for more delicious sourdough recipes as we post them on the sourdough recipe portion of our blog. You can create so many delicious things from the sourdough discard you create when you feed your sourdough starter. Some of my favorites include sourdough scones, cookies, muffins, crackers, tortillas, and pasta..and that is just to name a few!! So check in to find more of my delicious sourdough recipes in the upcoming weeks.
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR NEW FOUND LOVE FOR SOURDOUGH AND HAPPY BAKING!!!!
