Sourdough Advice for Beginners

I started my sourdough journey almost a year ago when a good friend mailed me some of her dehydrated starter. It took hours of research and lots of back and forth with my patient friend, but I eventually managed to bake my first sourdough bread. There have been many more bakes, some more successful than others, and I’m still learning and growing as a baker. Now that the entire world has been on lockdown or partial lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, many more people are thinking of or have taken up sourdough baking. I’m not an expert but I’ve thought of the same questions and have the same concerns that I’ve been seeing online. Here are some tips that may help you along the way.

Things you need:

1. Bread flour, all purpose (or plain) flour, rice flour (to help dough not stick when cold fermenting) are the basic flours you will need. When you feel more confident, you can add whole wheat, spelt, and rye to your pantry.
2. Small glass jars to house your sourdough starter. I reuse jam or pickle jars.
3. A small rubber spatula for mixing the starter and scraping down the sides of the jar.
4. A large mixing bowl, preferably glass or translucent Tupperware so you can see the sides of the dough when you are bulk fermenting. Bonus if there are measurements on the bowl to note the growth of your dough.
5. A kitchen scale for accuracy.
6. Bench scrapers, a flexible one and a stainless steel one.
7. Banneton baskets are not necessary but it’s nice to have. In its place, you can line a large bowl with a kitchen towel to place your dough in for cold fermentation.
8. A lame or a really sharp knife to score your dough.
9. Parchment paper that can withstand high oven temperatures.
10. A Dutch oven, Lodge is affordable and durable.
11. Good workspace for shaping dough or a large chopping board.
12. A cooling rack.
13. A good bread knife.
14. Thick oven gloves. The Dutch oven will get incredibly hot!

Starter Matters

It’s much easier to rehydrate an established dried starter or just get some mature starter from a friend. To prevent waste, it’s best to keep a small amount of your starter (like at 20g) and feed it the same amount of flour and water. You can keep it in the fridge and feed it once a week, and then separate out some in another jar on the counter to “wake it up” for baking. You will need to discard some of your starter before feeling it the same amount of flour and water, but don’t throw it away! Discard can be used to make pancakes, cakes, baguettes, pizza and lots of other delicious baked goods. There are plenty of good recipes online and I especially love the King Arthur pizza recipe.  

Climate Matters

If you’re following a recipe and the dough doesn’t behaves exactly the same way it’s described in the recipe, it may be because of the temperature and humidity of where you live. I find that most sourdough experts live in temperate countries and their instructions to leave the dough overnight on the counter or add warm water to flour seems to work when it’s in a much colder environment. If you live in a hot and humid country, these are tips that helped me and I hope it will help you too. In addition, many of you are starting to bake sourdough in the upcoming summer months so this will apply to you too.

Recipes normally require warm water to work into the dough. I use filtered cold water from the fridge and it works well. Some people use room temperature water and that’s fine too.  If you use warm water, your dough’s temperature might get way too high and it’ll affect your starter.

Look for a recipe with a lower hydration or reduce 10% of water from the recipe. This not only helps beginners manage the dough, but will also help the dough be less “sweaty” when the weather is hot.

Adjust your bulk fermentation time. Some recipes call for 6 to 8 hours of bulk fermentation because their kitchens are cold. When the weather is hot, it will take half the time to ferment. Watch for the feel and look of your dough instead of following the recipe exactly. If your dough has risen 20% and looks lighter and fluffier in the bowl, do a windowpane test by gently stretching a section of the dough. If it manages not to break and you can see through it, the dough is ready to be shaped. It might take you several tries to get the timing right, and it doesn’t hurt to keep a notebook detailing the temperature and humidity of the day you’re preparing the dough, and how long it took the dough to be ready.

Timing Matters

Decide on the day you want to bake your bread and work backwards to start preparing your starter and dough. If you refrigerate your starter, it may take several days of feeding it every 12 hours to get it ready. Only use it when it has doubled, and is very bubbly and alive. It will take a full day for you to work on your dough and then refrigerate it overnight to bake it in the morning.

Shaping Matters

It’s really not easy to shape a sourdough because it tends to be wet and sticky. Professional chefs on Youtube make it look so easy but don’t beat yourself up if it’s taking you a while to get it. An equal mix of rice and all-purpose (plain) flours helps the dough not stick to your hands and dough scraper. It also helps to work fast using a bench scraper and with light fingers. Bake with Jack and other sourdough tutorials will teach you how to shape your dough into a nice tight ball. If you have trouble folding your dough together like in the videos, don’t worry, that technique takes a while to master especially with a wet sticky dough. You can still form your dough into a ball by using the bench scraper to move the dough from the bottom and slide it around the counter until a tight ball forms. Do that for your first few bakes until you feel more comfortable with the folding technique. Add the rice flour mix to your kitchen towel-lined bowl or banneton basket and flip your dough over seam-side up to cold ferment in the fridge overnight. You may also want to start with a lower hydration recipe until you get more comfortable with handling the dough, then you can view videos on how to fold and shape your dough. Once you’ve figured out the folding technique, your bread will have a much bigger oven spring.

Most Importantly

Don’t compare your bread with other people’s much more advanced loaves! I’m also guilty of this and have to remind myself that every loaf is different because of the types of flour used, climate where they live in, and the experience of the baker. I haven’t baked the perfect loaf and have still so much more to learn, but I am proud of every loaf that comes out of my oven, even the wonky ones!