The Best Sourdough Bread

This is The Best Sourdough Bread. From its soft, airy texture and crispy, golden crust to its delicious, authentic and genuine sour flavor. This bread will have you addicted from the very first bite.

If you follow me on social media you’ve heard me say that it took me two years to finally make a successful sourdough loaf. Over and over again I was left discouraged with another solid brick of what was supposed to be bread. But after many painful failures and promising myself to never give up, I finally made a successful loaf!

Honestly, as embarrassing as that sounds, I am thankful for the three million trial loafs it took me to get it right. Maybe a slight exaggeration 😉 but it was the trial and error that helped get me here. And I want to encourage you not to give up either, to use your failed attempts as learning experiences.

Once I learned the importance of precision measurements and figured out the proper timing between feeding, folding and fermenting, my sourdough world was opened wide. This recipe is actually similar to my very first successful loaf and as I also learned about hydration, I was able to tweak this recipe to perfection. I’m excited to finally share this delicious loaf with you!

I will say, this recipe is a bit different than my Simple Artisan Sourdough Bread and my Simple No Knead Sourdough Bread. I shared my simpler recipes first so that those who were new to sourdough could get their feet wet. But now that you have mastered those it is time to try another method.

Don’t have a Sourdough Starter yet?

Before we get started you will need a sourdough starter. If you do not have one yet, here is a Day by Day Guide to help you make your own Sourdough Starter. If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of sourdough, check out my “Why Sourdough?“

How is this Sourdough Bread Different than my other recipes?

This sourdough bread has one extra step. Instead of using straight sourdough starter to make your bread dough, you will use your starter to make something called a levain first. Think of levain as conventional yeast. It’s what will make your bread rise.

Here is the crazy part. You only use 25 grams of your sourdough starter to bake the entire loaf of bread. That’s because you add more flour and water to that 25 grams and another 8-12 hour ferment to create the levain.

In a sense, you are creating a stronger starter that you will bake your bread with. Something magical happens with the levain as the extra fermenting takes the sourdough flavor to the next level.

Don’t be intimidated by levain. If you’ve already mastered my other two sourdough loaves, you will master this one no problem.

The only difference is another 8-12 hours added to the bread making process. Which really isn’t a challenge once you master your time schedule. I share mine below.

UPDATE:

If you maintain a small sourdough starter and want to skip the levain all together, go for it! It’s been a few years since I have posted this recipe and I no longer make the levain portion of this recipe because I maintain a small amount of starter which is active enough, equalling the levain portion of this recipe.

Tools to help get started:

• Kitchen Scale
• Large Glass Bowl
• Towel for covering dough in bowl
• Medium bowl or Banneton Baskets to proof
• Parchment paper
• Household razor blade, Bread Lame or sharp knife to score bread before baking
• Dutch oven to bake your bread in

Time Schedule to make The Best Sourdough Bread

• 8:00-10:00pm~ Within these two hours the night before I want to bake my bread, I make the levain. I mix my starter, flour and water together in a bowl. Cover and rest on counter.
• 6:00-8:00am~ The next morning between these hours I start making my bread. By hand I mix my levain, flour and water into a large glass bowl. Cover and rest for one hour. *I recommend setting a timer to alert you.
• 9:00am~ Pinch in salt. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
• 9:30am~ First stretch and fold: Take your hand and reach under the side of the dough. Gently pull dough upwards and fold over itself. Turn the bowl 1/4 turn and stretch the dough again and fold. Repeat 2 more folds for a total of 4 stretch and folds. Cover and rest dough for 30 minutes.
• 10:00am~ Second stretch and fold. Cover and rest dough for 30 minutes.
• 10:30am~ Third stretch and fold. Cover and rest dough for 30 minutes.
• 11:00am~ Fourth stretch and fold. Cover and rest dough in bowl for 3-4 hours.
• 3:00pm~ Remove dough from bowl and shape into a ball. It’s okay to deflate your dough, it will puff again during its proof. Place on counter seam side down. Gently pull dough towards you on the counter to pinch the seam underneath and create surface tension on the top. Turn and repeat until your ball is tight and round. A tight ball will rise better. Place dough into a flour lined banneton or towel lined large bowl coated well with flour or well greased sandwich loaf pan to proof. Proof for 2-3 hours. *If using banneton or large bowl place dough in seam side UP. If using sandwich loaf pan place dough seam side DOWN.
• 6:00pm~ Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Score the top of your loaf with sharp knife, household razor or Bread Lame. You can cook your bread right in your loaf pan. If using a banneton, turn dough over onto parchment paper and bake on paper in dutch oven. Bake in Cast Iron Dutch Oven for 40 minutes.
• OR you can slow ferment your bread in the fridge for 12-48 hours. This allows for more fermentation and gives more flexibility in timing the baking of your bread.

Don’t own a Cast Iron Dutch Oven to bake in? That’s ok!

If you do not own a dutch oven, you can preheat your oven for 30 minutes with a cookie sheet on the bottom rack. When you add your dough wrapped in parchment paper to the upper rack, pour two cups of water into your cookie sheet. Quickly close the door to capture the steam in the oven. This will help your dough rise and give it the crunchy outer layer we all love.

Try This!

To keep my Sourdough Bread moist and soft much longer (if it even lasts that long) I add 1 Tablespoon Avocado Oil and 1 Tablespoon Raw Honey to the water and starter mixture at the beginning of the bread making process.

This addition keeps my bread nice and soft and prevents it from becoming a little dry as it sits on the counter for a few days. Give this a try and let me know how you like these simple additions.

Struggling to make Sourdough rise in the winter?

Try this Seedling Heat Mat. It’s a 20×10 mat that lays flat on your counter. It plugs into the wall and gives off a very small amount of heat (like really small).

Simply place your dough on this mat to help your dough rise during the cool winter months.

I get asked often how to rise dough in a cold house during the winter. My suggestions are to place your dough in the oven with the light on, or slightly warm your oven a few seconds and then place dough into a warm oven, or add dough on top of your refrigerator where it’s warm OR this using this Seedling Heat Mat. I have had great success with it, and would recommend it to anyone to use when the house gets cold.

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Let’s make The Best Sourdough Bread!

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Kitchen Scale

Sandwich Loaf Pan

Large Glass Bowl

Banneton Baskets

Bread Lame

Dutch oven

Seedling Heat Mat (to rest dough on in winter)