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Hello Sourdough lovers!

This site is dedicated to baking with wild yeast only. You’ll find advice, recipes and a vast array of information to help you with your sourdough baking. 

This is also the support site for our Sourdough Facebook community, with over 120,000 members, some newbies and also experienced bakers providing support and inspiration and everything in between. Please feel free to join us there.

If you found us through Facebook, then welcome to your support site, we hope you find this a good additional resource! 

Sourdough - Traditional bread making

If you are just starting your sourdough journey, be prepared – you’re in for a whole load of challenges, frustration, lessons in patience, and frequent bewilderment, but it will all be worth it, as you will soon be rewarded with bread and other baked goods which taste delicious, but are also much healthier.

Breadmaking with wild yeast has been a part of daily life across the globe for millennia – you’ll discover there are many ways to produce a sourdough loaf … in the end, everyone finds their own preferred way.

Although processes vary, achieving a tasty, attractive loaf is based on combining three simple ingredients, flour, water, and salt with a little know-how, and patience.  How you choose to combine these elements is what creates variety, and a range of flavors and textures.

We’ll walk you through the basic process, along with some alternatives, in a clear and easy-to-follow way; once you understand the basics you can adapt and experiment to find what works best for you. Before you begin though, you will need a Sourdough Starter.

Stick with us and you’ll be baking healthier, tasty, and beautiful bread in no time!

More advanced sourdough bakers, you can view or add recipes.

Get Answers

Ever wondered why sourdough is often preferable to commercial yeasted bread, and what the health benefits are? 

Get the answer to this and many other popular questions.. 

FAQs

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Troubleshoot your issues.

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Contribute

This site is a work in progress, we will be editing, collating and correcting as necessary. 

You can make it even better by contributing articles, recipes, and images to the gallery to help others, your contributions will be credited to you. 

A Quick Overview of the Sourdough Process

It’s important to understand that there are many methods to baking sourdough sucessfully. 

We have chosen three popular methods, but everyone finds their own way and their own preferences for what and how they bake. Once you understand the process and learn to adapt timings and ingredients to your personal circumstances and lifestyle, you’ll soon be munching away on your own tasty loaf. You can click on any of the stages in the processes to see more details.

Autolyse Method

Autolyse Method

Flour and water are combined and left for at least 45mins (the autolyse) to rest and amalgamate before the salt and starter are added to the dough, and the process continues.  Whole wheat flours benefit greatly from this as the bran has time to soften and there is less chance of it tearing the gluten strands later in the process.

STEP 1 - Make Your Starter
STEP 2 - Autolyse
STEP 3 - Stretch and Folds
STEP 4 - Bulk Ferment
STEP 5 - Pre-Shaping
STEP 6 - Final Shaping
STEP 7 - Final Prove
STEP 8 - Slashing and Scoring
STEP 9 - Baking!

The Starter

The first and most important stage of the whole process. The Starter is the raising agent that is used to make the bread rise instead of commercial yeast.  If you haven’t got one, click here for instructions on how to make your Starter.

Autolyse

Autolyse is a simple process of mixing the water with the flour and leaving it to rest for a period of time before adding the other ingredients. During Autolysis the dough becomes well-hydrated and pliable and is easier to work. Dough can be left to autolyse from 10 minutes to 5 hours or more.

Stretch & Folds

A simple, quite relaxing  technique for strengthening and aligning gluten strands in the dough without traditional kneading. This creates vital strength and elasticity which help with ‘oven spring‘ (a baker’s term for the rise during baking).

This is the stage where the Starter and Salt are incorporated into the dough.

Bulk Ferment

The bulk fermentation, or first prove, for any dough is a crucial step in the bread baking process. It is called bulk fermentation because you are letting the dough—the entire batch—ferment as one mass, before dividing or shaping it into loaves.

Pre-Shape and Bench Rest

Pre-shaping helps to encourage the dough into what will become its final shape eg. a boule, batard, or baguette. The resting time between the pre-shaping and final shaping helps to relax the dough making final shaping easier.

Shaping for the Final Prove

The final shape is done once the dough has rested on the bench/counter. Creating some outer tension on the dough is vital to help with a good rise (aka oven spring) during baking and helpsthe dough to retain it’s shape when baked. 

Final Prove

The dough needs to prove for a second time. This can be done in a banneton or any bowl lined with a well-floured cloth. The final prove can be done at room temperature until the dough has almost doubled in size, or this process can be slowed down by placing it in the fridge overnight. 

Slashing and Scoring​

Slashing is generally done just before putting the bread in the oven.  Slashes are slightly deeper cuts intentionally creates weak spots on the surface of the loaf giving the bread a controlled place to expand and preventing the loaf from bursting out at weak spots which may have been created shaping. Scoring patterns into the surface also works to help with controlled expansion, as well as creating very beautiful designs on the final bake. 

Time to bake

Hot oven or cold.. well the jury is out!  Some people prefer baking straight into a hot oven, others prefer putting the loaves into a cold oven, and some use a Dutch oven.  Only experience will tell you what works for you and your particular circumstances.
All-In Method

All-In Method

This is by far the quickest and easiest method, however you won’t get the benefits of the Autolyse or Tartine Methods and will probably lose some flavour. In one bowl whisk the starter into the water, in another bowl weigh out flour/s and salt, mix well, combine the wet and dry ingredient into one bowl, leave for 45 mins and continue with stretch and folds.

STEP 1 - Make Your Starter
STEP 2 - Combine All Ingredients
STEP 3 - Stretch and Folds
STEP 4 - Bulk Ferment
STEP 5 - Pre-Shaping
STEP 6 - Final Shaping
STEP 7 - Final Prove
STEP 9 - Slashing and Scoring
STEP 9 - Baking!

The Starter

The first and most important stage of the whole process. The Starter is the raising agent that is used to make the bread rise instead of commercial yeast.  If you haven’t got one, click here for instructions on how to make your Starter.

Combine All Ingredients

This is by far the quickest and easiest method. In one bowl whisk the starter into the water, in another bowl weigh out flour/s and salt, mix well, combine the wet and dry ingredient into one bowl, leave for 45 mins and continue with stretch and folds.

Stretch & Folds

A simple, quite relaxing  technique for strengthening and aligning gluten strands in the dough without traditional kneading. This creates vital strength and elasticity which help with ‘oven spring‘ (a baker’s term for the rise during baking).

This is the stage where the Starter and Salt are incorporated into the dough.

Bulk Ferment

The bulk fermentation, or first prove, for any dough is a crucial step in the bread baking process. It is called bulk fermentation because you are letting the dough—the entire batch—ferment as one mass, before dividing or shaping it into loaves.

Pre-Shape and Bench Rest

Pre-shaping helps to encourage the dough into what will become its final shape eg. a boule, batard, or baguette. The resting time between the pre-shaping and final shaping helps to relax the dough making final shaping easier.

Shaping for the Final Prove

The final shape is done once the dough has rested on the bench/counter. Creating some outer tension on the dough is vital to help with a good rise (aka oven spring) during baking and helpsthe dough to retain it’s shape when baked. 

Final Prove

The dough needs to prove for a second time. This can be done in a banneton or any bowl lined with a well-floured cloth. The final prove can be done at room temperature until the dough has almost doubled in size, or this process can be slowed down by placing it in the fridge overnight. 

Slashing and Scoring​

Slashing is generally done just before putting the bread in the oven.  Slashes are slightly deeper cuts intentionally creates weak spots on the surface of the loaf giving the bread a controlled place to expand and preventing the loaf from bursting out at weak spots which may have been created shaping. Scoring patterns into the surface also works to help with controlled expansion, as well as creating very beautiful designs on the final bake. 

Time to bake

Hot oven or cold.. well the jury is out!  Some people prefer baking straight into a hot oven, others prefer putting the loaves into a cold oven, and some use a Dutch oven.  Only experience will tell you what works for you and your particular circumstances.
STEP 1 - Make Your Starter
STEP 2 - All Ingredients In
STEP 3 - Stretch and Folds
STEP 4 - Bulk Ferment
STEP 5 - Pre-shaping
STEP 6 - Final Shaping
STEP 7 - Final Prove
STEP 9 - Slashing and Scoring
STEP 9 - Baking!

The Starter

The first and most important stage of the whole process. The Starter is the raising agent that is used to make the bread rise instead of commercial yeast. A strong starter is vital to successful sourdough baking. Click to get started on making and maintaining your own Sourdough starter. Once this is made you will never have to repeat this step.

Combine All Ingredients

This is by far the quickest and easiest method. In one bowl whisk the starter into the water, in another bowl weigh out flour/s and salt, mix well, combine the wet and dry ingredient into one bowl, leave for 45 mins and continue with stretch and folds.

Stretch & Folds

A simple technique for strengthening and aligning gluten strands in the dough without traditional kneading. This creates vital strength and elasticity which help with ‘oven spring’ (a baker’s term for the rise during baking).

This is the stage where the starter and salt are incorporated into the dough.

Bulk Ferment

The bulk fermentation, or first proof, for any dough is a crucial step in the bread baking process. It is called bulk fermentation because you are letting the dough—the entire batch—ferment as one mass, before dividing or shaping it into loaves.

Pre Shape and Bench Rest

Pre-shaping helps to encourage the dough into what will be its final shape eg. boule, batard, or baguette. The resting time between the pre-shaping and final shaping helps to relax the dough making final shaping easier.

Shaping for the Final Prove

The final shape is done once the dough has rested. Creating some outer tension on the dough is vital to help with a good rise in the oven and helping the dough to retain it’s shape when baked. 

Final Prove

The dough needs to prove for a second time. This can be done in a banneton or any bowl lined with a well-floured cloth. The final prove can be done at room temperature until the dough has almost doubled in size, or this process can be slowed down by placing it in the fridge overnight. 

Slashing and Scoring​

Slashing is generally done just before putting the bread in the oven.  Slashes are slightly deeper cuts intentionally creates weak spots on the surface of the loaf giving the bread a controlled place to expand and preventing the loaf from bursting out at weak spots which may have been created shaping. Scoring patterns into the surface also works to help with controlled expansion, as well as creating very beautiful designs on the final bake. 

Time to bake

Hot oven or cold.. well the jury is out!  Some people prefer baking straight into a hot oven, others prefer putting the loaves into a cold oven, and some use a Dutch oven.  Only experience will tell you works for you and your particular circumstances.
Tartine Method

Tartine Method

This is a popular method, based on the popular SanFrancisco sourdough method, it creates a delicious, crusty, chewy centered bread with complex flavors. Basically a strong leaven is created and then added to the flour and water and left for up to an hour.  The salt is added later in the process

STEP 1 - Make Your Starter
STEP 2 - Create a Leaven
STEP 3 - Build Your Dough
STEP 4 - Add Salt
STEP 5 - Stretch and Folds
STEP 6 - Bulk Ferment
STEP 7 - Pre-Shaping
STEP 8 - Final Shaping
STEP 9 - Final Prove
STEP 10 - Slashing and Scoring
STEP 11 - Baking!

The Starter

The first and most important stage of the whole process. The Starter is the raising agent that is used to make the bread rise instead of commercial yeast.  If you haven’t got one, click here for instructions on how to make your Starter.

Create a Leaven

Using your starter, create a strong leaven hours ahead of baking. Your recipe will usually specify what proportions of the recipe are needed to build the leaven.

Build Your Dough

Combine your flour, water, and leaven ready for the dough resting stage.

Add Salt

The salt is added after the dough has had a chance to rest, this gives the leaven time to really start working on the dough ahead of the salt being added.

Stretch & Folds

A simple, quite relaxing  technique for strengthening and aligning gluten strands in the dough without traditional kneading. This creates vital strength and elasticity which help with ‘oven spring‘ (a baker’s term for the rise during baking).

This is the stage where the Starter and Salt are incorporated into the dough.

Bulk Ferment

The bulk fermentation, or first prove, for any dough is a crucial step in the bread baking process. It is called bulk fermentation because you are letting the dough—the entire batch—ferment as one mass, before dividing or shaping it into loaves.

Pre-Shape and Bench Rest

Pre-shaping helps to encourage the dough into what will become its final shape eg. a boule, batard, or baguette. The resting time between the pre-shaping and final shaping helps to relax the dough making final shaping easier.

Shaping for the Final Prove

The final shape is done once the dough has rested on the bench/counter. Creating some outer tension on the dough is vital to help with a good rise (aka oven spring) during baking and helpsthe dough to retain it’s shape when baked. 

Final Prove

The dough needs to prove for a second time. This can be done in a banneton or any bowl lined with a well-floured cloth. The final prove can be done at room temperature until the dough has almost doubled in size, or this process can be slowed down by placing it in the fridge overnight. 

Slashing and Scoring​

Slashing is generally done just before putting the bread in the oven.  Slashes are slightly deeper cuts intentionally creates weak spots on the surface of the loaf giving the bread a controlled place to expand and preventing the loaf from bursting out at weak spots which may have been created shaping. Scoring patterns into the surface also works to help with controlled expansion, as well as creating very beautiful designs on the final bake. 

Time to bake

Hot oven or cold.. well the jury is out!  Some people prefer baking straight into a hot oven, others prefer putting the loaves into a cold oven, and some use a Dutch oven.  Only experience will tell you what works for you and your particular circumstances.

Bakers' Articles

Here are some very useful articles on topics we find often come up in the sourdough community. View all articles.

This ancient loaf of bread was baked on the morning of the 24th August, 79 CE. The loaf survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and was “carbonised” by pyroclastic flow (lava). It was found in the Ancient Roman town of Herculaneum in 1930.

Pompeii Bread

In modern times, it continues to be popular among bakers and eaters alike for its unique flavour and texture profile. The traditional recipe for Pompeii

Read More »

Sourdough Shop

We have a range of items which are useful for sourdough baking and also links to informative books and other useful stuff.

Scoring Tools
Scoring Tools
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Dutch Ovens
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Bannetons
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Recipes

Visit our recipe section for  sourdough leavened breads, flat breads, and what to do with that extra starter, aka ‘discard’. You can also submit and share your favorite recipes. 

Gallery

A gallery of triumphs and disasters. See what other’s have achieved. Your prefect may be someone else’s disaster – it all depends on what you want to achieve.

FAQs

Find answers to the most asked questions we see on the Facebook group. Let us know if you have any others we could add.

Troubleshooting

Finding it difficult to get going with your Starter, or can’t get that elusive ‘ear’? Check out the common problems people have and how to fix them.

Already Addicted to Sourdough Baking?
Check out our recipe section

Artos Bread

Artos Bread

April 27, 2023 No Comments

Artos bread has a long history in Greece and has been baked since ancient times. The word “artos” comes from the ancient Greek word “arto”,

Sourdough Hot cross buns

Sourdough Hot Cross Buns

April 3, 2023 No Comments

These popular buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, but are now a favorite throughout the year.

Pompeii Bread

Pompeii Bread

March 29, 2023 No Comments

Pompeii Bread is a traditional Italian sourdough bread that has been enjoyed for centuries. It is known for its distinctive shape and flavour, as well

See All Recipes

Disclaimer: Whilst we hope the information provided is helpful and informative, we cannot guarantee that all details will be 100% accurate.  There are many schools of thought and conflicting ideas on many of the sourdough processes and methods.  This site is simply meant as a broad guide to baking sourdough, and is not a scientific reference.

Also, please forgive the mixed US and UK spellings throughout. We have a team from various countries working on this site.This site may contain affiliate links. 

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Lame

noun

A special sharp knife, or tool which holds a razor blade, in a curved or straight manner. You use it to score the dough before baking.

Dutch Oven

A Dutch Oven is generally understood to be a covered earthenware or cast-iron container for cooking casseroles. They are ideal for bread as they can accommodate bread dough and be covered to help generate the steamy environment requiredto encourage the dough to rise. Enamel roasters with a lid, covered pyrex dishes, or even a flat tray with a bowl over the top of the dough, are equally effective.

Bakers’ Percentages

Sometimes called baker’s math, this is a method to express the different ingredients as a percentage of the total amount of flour. It makes scaling a recipe or building a recipe very easy once you know the total weight of the flour, and also allows you to know the ‘hydration’ of your dough.

Example: If you build your dough with 1000 gram flour, 670-grams water, 20-gram salt, and 8-gram yeast. According to bakers percentages, that will be 100% flour (the amount of flour is always 100%), 67% water, 2% salt, and 0.8% yeast.
You divide the amount of the different ingredients with the amount of flour.

Banneton / Brotform / Proofing Basket

A type of basket or container used to provide structure for shaped loaves of bread during proofing. Banneton baskets are also known as ‘Brotform’ or ‘proofing baskets’. It is normally used for doughs that are too soft or wet to maintain their shape while rising. They come in a range of sizes and shapes. Look for ones that fit the size of loaves you want to bake.

They are often made of natural rattan, or wood fiber. You can also use any container lined with a well-floured tea towel.

Oven Spring

The final burst of expansion of dough upon being introduced to a hot oven and where the yeast activity is increased during the first few minutes. At approximately 60C/140ºF degrees the yeast is killed off, but up until that point, dough can expand in the oven in the first phase of baking if it’s not over-fermented and still has dough strength. Many factors can impact oven spring including the length of fermentation, gluten development, and the hydration of the dough.

Stretch-and-Folds

An alternative to traditional kneading used to develop gluten. The process is performed periodically in the bowl throughout the bulk fermentation. Take a side of the dough and gently stretch it up and over, to fold it upon itself, rotate the dough 90º, and repeat, then turn the bowl 45º and the same stretch and fold. Once all four corners of the dough have been stretched and folded, gluten development and a smooth, elastic dough are underway. Also, see ‘Folding’ and ‘Coil Folds’.

Bulk Ferment

Most loaves have two fermenting cycles. One before and one after the loaves are formed. Bulk fermentation is the first cycle, with a long fermentation period of the dough after the initial mixing of flour, water, starter, and salt and often comes during and after a period of kneading or ‘stretch and folds’.During this stage we are aiming to create dough strength, structure and flavor. The dough should feel alive, strong, airy, spongy and the surface shouldn’t feel sticky.

The bulk fermentation generally takes place at room temperature, unless otherwise noted in the recipe and is a longer period of time (4 -12 hours) than the final proofing period. This step may be referred to as the first prove or first rising. Acetic acid, an organic acid is produced by bacteria in the sourdough culture during the fermentation process. The presence of acetic acid helps to gives sourdough its characteristic acidic tang. The warmer the environment, the faster the development of the dough will be

Window Pane

The window pane test is one of the best ways to tell if you’ve sufficiently stretched and folded your bread dough. Pull a small piece of the dough and using both hands and your fingers stretch the dough very thin if it holds its shape without tearing the gluten is well-developed and your dough is ready to be pre-shaped, shaped and rest for it’s final prove.

Starter / Starter Culture / Sourdough Starter

A mixture of flour and water used to leaven bread that contains bacteria, yeast, and organic acids. Made either by inoculating with an established colony of bacteria or by capturing wild bacteria and yeasts over a longer period. Sometimes also called Leaven / Levain.

Autolyse

verb

Autolyse (pronounced auto-lees) is a process in which a portion of (or total) water and flour in a bread recipe are gently pre-blended and set to rest for a period of time.

This resting period gives the dough special processing characteristics and improves the overall quality of the baked goods.

During autolyse process, several events can occur in the pre-mixed water/flour mixture:

  1. Continued flour hydration. Water molecules work their way into damaged starch, intact starch granules and proteins.
  2. Protein bonds continue to develop as a consequence of adding water, creating more gluten strands without mechanical work. This leads to better gluten structure and gas retention.
  3. Flour enzymes (mainly proteases) acquire time to adapt and work on the gluten by breaking down protein bonds.Protease activity is higher at low pH (acidic conditions). This is why autolysed doughs that contain yeast or pre-ferments (e.g. poolish) often experience greater protease activity. Such doughs are more extensible, weaker, softer and show less resistance to deformation than autolyzed non-fermented doughs.2
  4. Finally, as a result, the dough feels less sticky and very smooth after the autolyse.

As a general rule, the longer the autolyse time:

  • The shorter the dough mixing time (less mechanical development of gluten-forming proteins in needed). This means less energy consumption during mixing.
  • The shorter the dough stability duration
  • The less tolerance to overmixing. Breakdown is more pronounced once peak (maximum strength) is attained.
  • The smaller the P value in the alveograph test
  • The more extensible and less elastic the dough becomes at the end of autolysis
  • The better the sheetability and machining of dough during lamination of croissants
  • The easier and faster the dough expands during oven spring (better volume)
  • The lower the need for dough conditioners
  • The better the flavor and aroma of the finished product
Leaven/Levain/Sourdough Starter
noun
  1. A substance, in this case a wild yeast starter, that is used in sourdough baking to make dough rise.
  2. Some methods of baking, such as ‘Tartine Method’ require a sourdough leavening agent be made from a sourdough ‘mother culture’ (aka your Starter). This technique is often employed to boost the yeast activity of the sourdough starter by feeding a small amount of starter a larger quantity of flour and water. For instance, if a recipe calls for 1 cup of sourdough starter, a leaven can be prepared 8-12 hours before the dough will be mixed by combining 1 Tablespoon of sourdough starter with ½ cup flour and a scant ½ cup of water. This leaven can then be used as the sourdough starter and will be quite active come baking time.
verb
  1. cause (dough or bread) to rise by adding leaven.