How to Make Sourdough Bread from Scratch (Your First Loaf, Start to Finish)
To make sourdough bread from scratch, you need just four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and a live sourdough starter. Then about five days of patience before your first real bake. The process sounds intimidating, but it breaks down into simple, manageable steps. Build a starter, mix your dough, let time do the heavy lifting, shape it, and bake it in a hot Dutch oven until the crust crackles. That's the whole thing.
First, Build Your Sourdough Starter
Your starter is a small jar of wild yeast that you grow yourself. It takes about five days and only needs flour and water.
Day 1: Mix 50g of whole wheat flour with 50g of lukewarm water in a clean jar. Stir well, cover loosely with a cloth or lid set on top (not sealed), and leave it at room temperature.
Days 2 through 5: Each day, discard all but 50g of the mixture, then feed it with 50g of all-purpose flour and 50g of water. By day three you should start seeing bubbles. By day five it should be doubling in size within four to eight hours of feeding and smelling pleasantly tangy, a little like yogurt or beer.
That bubbly, active starter is what makes sourdough rise. No commercial yeast needed.
The Ingredients for One Loaf
Once your starter is active, gather these for the bread itself:
450g bread flour (plus extra for shaping) 325g lukewarm water 90g active sourdough starter (fed four to six hours before mixing) 9g fine sea salt
A kitchen scale matters here. Baking by weight is more accurate than cups and makes a real difference in the final crumb.
Mix the Dough and Let It Rest
Combine the flour and water in a large bowl and mix until no dry flour remains. This is called the autolyse. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 30 to 45 minutes. That rest gives the gluten a head start before you add anything else.
After the rest, add the starter and salt. Dimple them into the dough and squeeze and fold everything together with your hand until it feels cohesive. It will be sticky. That's normal.
Bulk Fermentation: The Long, Slow Rise
Cover the bowl and leave the dough at room temperature (ideally around 75°F) for four to five hours. During the first two hours, do stretch and folds every 30 minutes to build strength in the dough.
To stretch and fold: wet your hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up as far as it will go without tearing, and fold it over the center. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and repeat four times. That's one set. Do four sets total, then leave the dough alone for the rest of the bulk fermentation.
Bulk fermentation is done when the dough has grown 50 to 75 percent in size, feels airy and jiggly, and has a slightly domed top with bubbles on the surface.
Shape the Dough
Turn the dough out onto an unfloured surface. Using a bench scraper or your hands, gently fold the edges toward the center to create surface tension, then flip it over so the seam side is down. Use the scraper to drag the dough toward you in small circles, tightening the skin. Let it rest uncovered for 20 minutes.
After the bench rest, flip the dough, fold the sides in like an envelope, then roll it toward you into a tight ball. Place it seam-side up into a well-floured banneton (proofing basket) or a bowl lined with a floured kitchen towel.
Cold Proof Overnight
Cover the shaped dough with a plastic bag or damp towel and refrigerate it for 8 to 16 hours. This cold proof slows fermentation way down, develops deeper flavor, and makes the dough easier to score and bake. You can bake it the next morning whenever you're ready.
Bake in a Dutch Oven
Place your Dutch oven (with the lid on) in the oven and preheat to 500°F for at least 45 minutes. You want that pot searingly hot.
When ready to bake, take the dough straight from the fridge. Cut a piece of parchment paper, flip the dough out onto it seam-side down, and score the top with a sharp knife or bread lame at a 30 to 45 degree angle. One long slash works fine for a beginner loaf.
Carefully lower the dough and parchment into the hot Dutch oven, put the lid on, and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the lid, drop the temperature to 450°F, and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is deep golden brown.
Let the loaf cool on a wire rack for at least one hour before cutting. The inside is still finishing as it cools, and cutting too early gives you a gummy crumb.
A Few Things That Trip Up First-Time Bakers
If your bread doesn't rise much, the starter probably wasn't active enough. Feed it and wait for it to peak (fully doubled, domed top) before using it next time.
If the crust is pale, bake it longer with the lid off. Sourdough can take more color than you think.
If the crumb is dense, bulk fermentation likely needed more time. A warmer kitchen speeds things up, a cooler one slows them down.
The first loaf is rarely perfect. The second one always surprises you.
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Frequently Asked Questions
From building a starter to pulling your first loaf from the oven, plan on about six days total. The starter takes five days to develop, and the bread itself takes roughly 24 hours from mixing to baking, most of which is hands-off fermentation time.
A Dutch oven gives the best results because the trapped steam creates that signature crackling crust, but you can improvise. Bake the loaf on a preheated baking stone or heavy sheet pan and place a shallow pan of boiling water on the rack below to create steam for the first 20 minutes.
Bread flour works best because its higher protein content builds stronger gluten, giving you a better rise and chewier crumb. All-purpose flour works too and produces a slightly softer loaf. Whole wheat flour adds flavor but makes denser bread, so start by using it just for your starter and stick to bread flour for the loaf itself.
Your starter is ready when it reliably doubles in size within four to eight hours of being fed, smells tangy and slightly yeasty (not like nail polish remover), and passes the float test: drop a small spoonful into a glass of water and if it floats, it has enough gas to leaven your bread.
