While my area has been in quarantine mode, I have sought to learn as many new things about the history of food and different cooking techniques that I can. Something that has always fascinated me is fermentation. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on the history of the process, but I love the results.

I started playing with fermentation about ten years ago when I started brewing beer with my dad. Coming to understand how yeast and fermentation works in relation to alcohol production laid the groundwork for my interest today.

To learn about the magic of making sourdough bread, I looked to Patrick Ryan, owner of Firehouse Bakery, and his videos posted through I Love Cooking Ireland. This recipe comes courtesy of him and has consistently turned out great for me!

A Few Notes

If you are not interested in creating and maintaining a sourdough starter (yeast culture used in sourdough), I highly recommend you reach out to your local bakeries. Many are willing to offer a small portion of their culture for free or minimal charge. Full disclosure, that is how I started with mine! I do plan to make my own culture and will share the steps later in this post, but there is nothing wrong with using an existing culture from a bakery. Truth be told, this will help your early sourdough loaves to have more flavor as the fermented yeast culture will be more mature.

You will notice in my pictures that I used a basket to proof my loaves. While I, true to myself, went all out and got the special baskets, they really are not necessary. If you watch the video in the link above, you will see that you can just as easily use a glass dutch oven.

A final thought…this whole process will feel intimidating the first time you try, but I promise you it is worth the time necessary to learn and it will get much easier over time. Before you know it, you will be kneading dough like a pro and munching on incredibly tasty bread that you made!

Creating a Sourdough Culture/Starter

If you are opting to create your own sourdough starter you need 3 things: Flour of your choice, water, and a container. If you start the process of making your starter 7 days before you plan to bake your first loaf, you will be golden.

To make your starter follow the below schedule. Each day you will need to mix together flour, water, and any existing culture from the day before. You will also notice that there is a certain amount dumped each day. Being 100% honest, I am not sure why this is done and the baking community seems split on whether you need to do it or not. Being that this is how I learned, I will continue to do so.

Feeding Schedule:

Day 1: 50 grams of strong flour (high gluten bread flour) and 50 grams of tepid water.

Day 2: Existing culture, 50 grams of strong flour, and 50 grams of tepid water.

Day 3: Discard 100 grams of culture. Combine remaining culture, 100 grams of strong flour, and 100 grams of tepid water.

Day 4: Discard 150 grams of culture. Combine remaining culture, 100 grams of strong flour, and 100 grams of tepid water.

Day 5: Discard 200 grams of culture. Combine remaining culture, 150 grams of strong flour, and 150 grams of tepid water.

Day 6: Discard 250 grams of culture. Combine remaining culture, 200 grams of strong flour, and 200 grams of tepid water.

Being that I am not baking bread every day, I have found that taking Patrick Ryan’s suggestion of having enough starter for 200g left over at the end of my baking day. I then store it in the refrigerator until the day before I plan to bake. I pull it out that morning, let it warm up to room temp all day, feed it to rest overnight, and then I am ready to go in the morning!

Making Sourdough Bread

The first thing I will point out is that this entire recipe will be using weight measurements rather than volume measurements. Cooking in this fashion is much more precise and will help you to have consistent end results every time. Do yourself a huge favor and get a scale that works with multiple units!

This recipe will make 2 loaves of bread. As with any recipe, if you don’t want to make that much at once, simply split each measurement into the desired servings (i.e. One loaf) and go from there. In this case, just cut everything in half!

Before you get your hands messy, if you are not feeling like kneading your sourdough by hand, you can knead using a dough hook and a stand mixer.

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In the bowl of your stand mixer bowl, add 800 grams of strong flour (high gluten bread flour), 460 grams of room temperature water, 10 grams of sea salt, and 320 grams of sourdough starter. Using the dough hook, begin mixing the ingredients on the lowest setting. Once everything has been brought together and is roughly incorporated, increase the speed to 2 or 3 and knead your dough for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn the dough out onto a floured work space and knead by hand until a smooth ball forms. There is no hard and fast rule on how long to knead, this will be trial by error but your goal is to be able to take a piece of your dough and stretch it without it tearing.

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Once you are done kneading, transfer the smooth ball of dough to a lightly greased mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and start the proving timer. Be sure to use a neutral tasting oil! You are going to want to proof your dough for 3 hours.

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After three hours, turn your dough out onto the counter and work it back into a ball shape. This will knock all of the air out of the dough and it will be roughly the size your started with. Split your dough into two equal sized portions. Shape each portion into a ball. A trick I learned from Patrick Ryan is to gently drag the dough backwards across the work surface a few times, turning 90 degrees before each pull. This adds surface tension to the top of your dough.

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I am going to assume that not everyone is going to go out and buy a special proving basket, so these directions are for using a pyrex dutch oven with lid. In the dutch oven place a clean kitchen towel. Generously dust the towel with flour. Place your shaped dough upside down in the dish. Dust the top with flour and cover with the edges of the kitchen towel. Now begin your second proving time and let the dough rest for three and a half hours.

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At the end of the second proving time, your dough should have a little bit of bounce to it at a gentle touch. A sign that you have over proofed your dough is if you feel like it will cave in at the slightest touch. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit. Lightly flour the top of the dough, place the lid over the pyrex dish, and flip it. At this point, you can remove the towel and your dough should be resting in the lid of your pyrex dish. Score the top of your dough in the pattern of your choice (I typically do a simple X). Take the base of your pyrex dish (the dutch oven portion) and place it upside down over your dough and the lid. This will enclose the bread allowing it to steam while baking. Place your dish in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, remove the upside down base (top in this case) and bake for an additional 25 minutes.

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That’s it! Now you have delicious sourdough bread to enjoy in the comfort of your home. Sourdough is a game changer. It can even be a smart option health wise. If you are someone who has to monitor your blood sugar, sourdough is a bread that does not use any added sugars. Additionally, if you use a whole wheat bread flour, you can support healthy fiber in your diet when you choose to still consume bread.

While the process is long, it is absolutely worth it. Give yourself a day to just cook and you won’t regret it.

Enjoy!