The Simple Sourdough Loaf

Making Bread the Simple Way

I started baking sourdough with this simple recipe. It is the simple sourdough loaf! It does not require any fancy equipment or ingredients and will get bread on your table, tonight or tomorrow! It’s so simple, my kids can do it! This is a picture of two loaves my 11 year old made.

One of the biggest challenges for sourdough beginners is understanding so many steps, methods and terms all at once! The only reason I switched my current recipe to grams is to accommodate baking in bulk for my cottage bakery that supplies our farm stand.

Ingredients

All you will need for the simple sourdough loaf is, flour, salt and water! Unbleached flour is best and you’ll find sea salt and filtered water will give you the best results. If you don’t have those specifics, you can just work with what you have!

Equipment Needed

The things about making bread simply is that you can in fact, keep it simple! You just need a

• bowl
• measuring cups and spoons
• towel
• dutch oven or pot with a lid

No need for a mixer or a fancy basket or wise. You most likely have everything you need in your kitchen right now to make nourishing, delicious bread!

Mixing the Simple Sourdough Loaf Dough

Assuming you have been gifted or you purchased a sourdough starter thats already ready to go you will simply make sure you have at least a cup of active sourdough starter. Be sure to feed your starter after adding some to your dough with equal amounts flour and water.

(If you need to learn how to make your own sourdough starter simply add a 1/4 cup flour and 1.4 cup water to a jar. Remove 80% the next day and add the same amount of flour and water for about a week until it doubles in size!)

To get started, simply add all of these ingredients to a bowl and mix with your hands until all incorporated. It will be very sticky and shaggy. The great thing about making bread is that this is all it takes: When flour, salt and water mix…. it makes bread!

The Mix and Dump Method

You could dump this mixture into a bread loaf pan and let it sit on your counter over night and bake it in the morning at 350 for one hour and have incredibly delicious homemade bread for breakfast! In fact, we did this just this morning! You can see my kids devoured it before it cooled bc it lost its shape when they sliced it.

Artisan Loaf Method

If you would like to make artisan sourdough with this simple recipe you would perform a few sets of “stretch and folds” every 30 minutes for two hours. Be sure to let your dough rest for 30 min or so before starting. Stretch and fold simply means you will lift up one side of the dough, stretch it over to the the opposite side and place it on top of itself. Work your way around the bowl to stretch each 4 sides of the dough. Let rest for 3o min and do this 3 more times over the next couple hours. (see “note” below if this stressed you out!)

Purpose of Stretch and Folds

The purpose of stretch and folds is to give the dough strength. As you stretch the dough the gluten is building its “muscles”. The stronger the glutens muscles get, the softer, taller and fluffier the crumb (aka inside of the bread) will be. Stretching and folding also gives you those beautiful air bubbles that sourdough bread is known for.

NOTE: This is NOT mandatory. I repeat: This is not mandatory! You will still get delicious bread even if you forget a stretch and fold every 30 min. Sometimes I forget and only do one stretch and fold. Sometimes I wait hours in between them! At the end of the day, as long has we have yummy bread, it doesn’t matter. Flour, salt and water will make bread. Make bread from a place of rest and don’t stress the details.

Bulk Ferment

You’re doing amazing! The next step is bulk fermentation. Sourdough bread is made by using wild yeast from the air! This makes the gas that will make your bread rise! When you make sourdough you put a little bit of the yeast from the starter in the dough and you have to wait for that little bit to leaven the whole loaf – to bulk ferment.

The more sourdough starter you use the faster the dough will ferment and be ready to bake. This recipe calls for a cup of starter, which is a lot but this is why it’s the perfect beginner original homestead sourdough loaf recipe. The only other thing to know about this is that TEMPERATURE affects the rise of your dough. So if you have a food thermometer this will be very helpful, if not, just pay attention to the temp of your kitchen. Your dough will work to match the temperature of the room it’s in.

Things to know about Temperature:

The warmer your kitchen the faster the dough will ferment and be ready to bake. The cooler the room the longer it will take. A good rule of thumb for winter is to keep your dough in a draft free oven with the light on. This should keep it around 70 degrees.

The Original Homestead Sourdough loaf will take about 4-6 hours to ferment if the temperature is at 70 degrees. Remember it will take longer if it’s cooler (probably 8-10 hrs if it’s 68 degrees and probably around 1-2 hours if it’s 80 degrees_) and shorter if it’s warmer. You will know the dough is finished “bulk fermenting” when its risen, isn’t sticky to the touch and feels fluffy. Looks like this…

Pre-shaping the dough

Once your dough has finished bulk fermenting, simply plop the dough onto the counter and shape it into a ball by cupping the dough at the bottom, twisting it to the left and upward then pulling the dough toward you. This motion is simply tucking the dough into bed…. like you would with sheets tucking in your kids to bed. As you do this the top of the dough will become tight.

Cold Proof

Onto the next step, cold proofing! Place your dough ball upside down in an oiled bowl to keep its shape. Making sure the tight part of your dough ball is downward in the bow. Wrap the bowl/dough in a plastic grocery bag and tie shut and place in your fridge for 8 – 48 hours. This is flexible as I often will make dough and leave it in my fridge for 5 days before baking. Ive seen where people make 7 loaves of dough and bake one loaf a day!

Bake day!

Now that your dough has been cold proofed you can score it and bake it! Scoring means you cut the dough with a sharp knife or razor to control where the bread breaks open. This is what gives bread that pretty wheat stalk or expansion curl.

When you’re ready, pre-heat your dutch oven or pot with a lid inside the oven at 450 for at least 45 minutes. This is a fully proofed loaf ready to be baked!

Steps to Bake the Simple Sourdough Loaf

• cut out a square of parchment paper to fit your dough
• remove your dough from the fridge
• hold the parchment paper on top of the basket or bowl and roll the dough onto your hands holding the parchment and place on the counter.
• with a sharp knife or razor, cut the design you prefer into your dough. A simple line will do or an x.
• living from the parchment paper, place your dough (and parchment) into your dutch oven.
• place the lid back on
• close oven door and bake for 20 minutes with the lid on and 30-40 min with the lid off.

Note: baking in a dutch oven or a pot with a lid will give your dough the proper steam it needs to open up and give you that artisan crusty bread.

Let cool for at least an hour

If you can stand it, let your loaf cool for at least an hour before slicing into it. This will help you have actual slices of bread. Of course if you dont care about slices, feel free to just devour! To find my tips on how to slice sourdough here.

You did it! You made the original homestead sourdough loaf! The more you do it the easier it will become. Reach out to me anytime with questions and I would love to help you!