Recipe
Simple Sourdough Bread
One loaf, four ingredients, and a rhythm that fits around school pickup and bedtime.
Why I love this one
Sourdough taught me patience in a season when I had very little of it. You cannot rush the rise, and there is something steadying about a recipe that asks you to wait, come back, and wait again.
This is the loaf I make on Saturdays. I mix the dough while the kids eat breakfast, fold it a few times between laundry loads, and bake it before dinner. It costs pennies, it fills the house with the best smell there is, and my kids have never once left a slice behind.
Simple Sourdough Bread — Recipe Card
Prep 30 minutes active · Cook 45 minutes · Total About 24 hours, mostly hands-off · Serves 1 loaf (about 12 slices)
Ingredients
- 100 g active, bubbly sourdough starter (about 1/2 cup, fed 4–6 hours earlier)
- 375 g warm water (about 1 1/2 cups, 85°F)
- 500 g bread flour (about 4 cups, spooned and leveled)
- 10 g fine sea salt (about 2 teaspoons)
- Rice flour or extra bread flour, for dusting the banneton
Instructions
- 1.Mix: In a large bowl, stir the starter into the warm water until it looks cloudy. Add the flour and salt and mix with your hands until no dry flour remains. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover and rest 1 hour.
- 2.Stretch and fold: Wet one hand, grab the edge of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the center. Turn the bowl a quarter and repeat 3 more times. Cover. Repeat this set every 30–45 minutes for the next 2–3 hours, 4 sets total.
- 3.Bulk rise: Cover and leave at room temperature (68–72°F) for 4–6 hours, until the dough has risen roughly 50 percent, feels airy, and shows bubbles on the surface.
- 4.Shape: Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Fold the edges into the middle, flip it seam-side down, and drag it toward you a few times to build tension into a tight round.
- 5.Cold proof: Place the dough seam-side up in a well-floured banneton or a bowl lined with a floured towel. Cover and refrigerate 12–18 hours overnight.
- 6.Preheat: Put a Dutch oven with its lid on into a cold oven and heat to 500°F for 45 minutes.
- 7.Score: Turn the cold dough out onto parchment, seam-side down. Slash the top 1/2 inch deep with a sharp blade or razor at a shallow angle.
- 8.Bake covered: Lower the parchment and dough into the hot Dutch oven, cover, reduce the oven to 450°F, and bake 25 minutes.
- 9.Bake uncovered: Remove the lid and bake 18–22 minutes more, until the crust is deep golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
- 10.Cool: Move the loaf to a wire rack and let it cool at least 1 hour before slicing. Cutting early makes the crumb gummy — this is the hardest step in the whole recipe.
Kitchen notes
- No banneton? A mixing bowl lined with a flour-rubbed tea towel works exactly as well.
- Cold kitchen in winter: let the bulk rise go 7–8 hours, or set the bowl in the oven with only the light on.
- Store cut-side down on a board for 2 days, or slice and freeze in a bag for up to 3 months.