Welcome friends,
I have tried so many sourdough recipes over the years and I failed repeatedly, but like a true sourdough beginner, I kept trying. I have made this recipe so easy that you will never have to use another recipe again.
Questions about sourdough starter?
Check my post about all things sourdough starter here.
What is the big deal about sourdough bread?
Sourdough bread is easily digestible due to the fermentation process. If you are new to the sourdough world or healthy living world, fermented foods are super healthy for our guts. Sourdough specifically, is easier for our bodies to digest, has less gluten, and is more nutritious. AND IT IS DELICIOUS!
What if my starter has pink liquid in it?
THROW IT AWAY! The pink liquid is a bacteria called Serratia Marcescens that is harmful to us, throw it away and start again!
Why do we need to stretch and fold sourdough?
It helps to build the gluten in the bread which makes it easier for us to digest. It also increases elasticity in the dough. Stretch and fold is literally stretching the dough really far and folding it over on itself.
Do you need to score sourdough bread?
If you dont want it to look crazy, yes. You score(slice) the bread where you want it to create a certain design, but the actual reason is to let the gases escape from the bread as it bakes. The pretty scoring designs are fun and you can find all sorts of them on pinterest and youtube.
Has sourdough bread always been around or is it a new thing?
Random fact of the day… lol
“Until the time of the development of commercial yeasts, all leavened bread was made using naturally occurring yeasts – i.e. all bread was sourdough, with it’s slower raise. …one of the reasons given for the importance of unleavened bread in the Jewish faith is that at the time of the exodus from Egypt, there wasn’t time to let the dough rise overnight.” https://www.sourdough.co.uk/the-history-of-sourdough-bread/
Is it really needed to let sourdough bread rise so many times and for so long?
Short answer, yes. Longer answer, sourdough relies on naturally occuring yeast and naturally occuring bacteria (the good kind) compared to instant yeast you can buy commercially. So in all good things natural and homesteading, it takes a while and it’s work!
Why are there holes in sourdough bread?
Remember when I said that scoring the bread is necessary because of the gasses being released? Well those same gases are escaping and thus creating the holes in the bread. It is good if there are random holes through out the bread, it is also a good sign that the gluten was well developed! Below is one I made that had pretty holes in it.
Here is the inside of one I made recently. Sometimes my holes are bigger, sometimes smaller depends on how well I stretched and folded and how long I let proof.
Onto the recipe…
How to make sourdough bread for beginners - easy recipe
This is the easiest sourdough recipe on the internet and it turns out beautiful everytime!
Ingredients
- Sourdough starter that is fed and alive (a quart of a mason jar)
- 4 cups of water
- 2 tablespoons of salt
- 9 cups of flour
Instructions
- In a really big bowl dump the fed starter from the mason jar into the big bowl. (DO NOT SCRAPE THE JAR)
- Go ahead and put 3/4 cup of water into jar, put a lid on it and shake, then add 1 cup of flour to the jar and cover as normal (THIS IS HOW YOUR STARTER WILL LAST YOU FOREVER)
- Add 4 cups of water to the really big bowl that has your starter you dumped in it.
- Stir
- Add 2 tablespoons of salt and stir
- Add 9 cups of flour and stir. You will have to use your hands and it will be sticky! This is what it should look like after mixed.
- Cover with a kitchen towel or tea towel like this for 30 minutes on counter. (there are tea towels for cheap at the dollar store)
- It will look like this when the 30 minutes is over.
When the 30 minutes is up, you will grab one side of the dough making sure to grab underneath and pull it up ~12 inches and fold it in on itself. THIS IS CALLED FOLD and STRETCH. You will then turn the bowl one-quarter and repeat pull up 12 inches and fold over on it self.
Repeat until you have done all 4 sides (think of it as a square) - Cover with tea towel and let sit for 90 minutes on counter.
- Time to stretch and fold again. (look back at number 8) When the 90 minutes is up, it will look like this:
- Cover with tea towel and let sit for 90 minutes again
- Pour dough on counter and cut in half. If you have a bench scraper, use that. If not, use a spatula or butter knife. You now have two dough balls.
- Working with one dough ball, stretch it on the counter to the size of a cookie sheet (16X22) with out it ripping. Or close to it.
- Fold the dough in half long ways. Then fold it on itself again long ways.
- You will take the end closest to you and you will start rolling it tightly on itself (rolling away from you) until you roll it up, then put one hand behind it and pull it to yourself. (This is building tension in the loaf, HELPS HOLD IT'S SHAPE)
- Dont let it come unrolled. Keep pushing it and pulling it back and forth around 6 times.
- Put it back in bowl and cover with hand towel and repeat with next dough ball.
- Cover both dough balls and let rest (sit on counter) for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, repeat step 13, but make smaller rectangles without ripping (slightly larger than a paper towel) It will be harder to make really big, you will be able to tell because you have built tension in the loaf.
- Repeat step 14 & 15
- Place your loaves in a banton basket if you have one. If not, two bigger bowls wil do just fine.
- Refrigerate for 90 minutes or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees
- Place dutch oven or cast iron in oven for 5 minutes to get it warm (If you dont have a dutch oven and want one, try aldi or click the link to purchase.
- Grab 1 loaf from the fridge and gently dump onto parchment paper. Score (slice) at least one ½ inch deep from top to bottom of loaf. Check youtube or pinterest for scoring tutorials.
- Pick up bread and parchment paper, put in dutch oven or cast iron and cover if you are using a dutch oven for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes cook with the lid off for 10 minutes. Everyone's oven temperature is different, so this is definitely the time frame to watch the bread so it doesn't burn.
- Once the top is golden brown, Take out and let rest for 15 minutes or longer before slicing.
- Repeat steps 24-28 for second loaf.
- I store mine in Ziploc bags, once cooled.
Notes
Tools:
Big bowl for mixing
Tea towel/kitchen towel
Dutch oven or cast iron skillet
Bench scraper or spatula or butter knife
Banton basket or 2 similar size bowls
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Thank you friend,
Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your time here, if this was helpful, please share, like or comment!
Want to buy sourdough starter from me, visit my shop at http://sugarcreekfarmco.com
If there is any way I can pray for you, please email me at ministryofthehomemaker@gmail.com
Tiffany
[…] I will walk you step by step on how to make sourdough bread with your sourdough starter in my post How to make sourdough bread. This post will focus on the basics of sourdough […]