Make Your Own Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread is one of the oldest and most natural ways to make bread, using only flour, water, salt, and time.

Instead of commercial yeast, sourdough relies on a living starter made from wild yeast and bacteria, which gives the bread its unique flavor, chewy texture, and better digestibility.

Make your Sourdough Starter

To make a sourdough starter, begin by mixing equal parts flour and water (e.g. 50g of each) in a clean jar until you have a thick, smooth batter. Leave the mixture loosely covered at room temperature so natural yeast from the environment can begin to grow.

Each day, discard about half of the mixture and feed it again with fresh flour and water in equal parts, stirring well and returning it to rest.

After several days, the mixture will begin to bubble, rise, and develop a pleasantly sour smell. When the starter consistently doubles in size within a few hours of feeding, it is active and ready to use for baking.

Maintaining your Starter

If baking often, feed daily, keep at room temperature

if baking sometimes, feed once a week, keep in fridge,

(before baking take out of the fridge, feed once or twice until bubbly

Sourdough Preparation

Ingredients:

100g Sourdough Starter, 350g water, 500g Wheat Flour (or all Purpose Flour), 10g Salt

In a Large Bowl mix the Sourdough Starter with Water until cloudy. Add Flour & Salt. Mix until no dry flour remain. Cover and rest for 30mins.

Stretch and Fold the dough (to build strength), every 30mins pull one side of the dough up and fold over, turn bowl and repeat 4 times

Cover between each set.

Let the dough rest until it increases 50-75% in size (looks airy with bubbles). This takes around 3-5hrs depending on the temperature

Place your dough on a floured surface and shape into a loose round, rest uncovered for 20mins

Shape tightly into a round or oval, place seam-side up in a floured basket or towel lined bowl.

Cover and refrigerate overnight

Baking

Preheat your over to 240°C (465°F) for at least 30mins placing an empty metal tray on the bottom rack to help create steam.

Turn dough onto baking paper, mark the top with a sharp blade, place it onto a different pre-heated baking tray, in the oven

Carefully pour a cup of hot water into the empty tray at the bottom of the oven to create steam, then quickly close the oven door to trap the moisture.

After about 20minutes, remove the tray of water and continue baking until the loaf is deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Once baked, transfer the bread to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely before slicing.