Simple Sourdough Bread For Beginner’s
This simple sourdough bread recipe is basic, reliable, and pairs perfectly with anything you like, or simply a generous amount of butter. Using a blend of white and whole wheat flour, it’s completely versatile, and consistent. Get this one down and the world is your oyster.
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Simple sourdough bread is a must-learn. Bread is one of the most versatile foods in the pantry and to make your own sourdough is a game-changer. This is a basic loaf, no fluff, no special ingredients, just flour, water, salt, warmth, and time.
While this is the method I use to make bread for my business, it’s a great place to start to get a decent loaf as a beginner. Once you understand the process, you can explore more techniques to achieve your perfect loaf.
Why You’ll Love This Simple Sourdough Bread
Bronwyn’s Sourdough Notes
This is your loaf! I’m here to share my tips, experience, and what’s worked for me — but sourdough is wonderfully flexible. Whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out, feel free to experiment and make this recipe your own. There are a bajillion ways to make a great loaf of sourdough, and my goal is simply to help you find the methods and rhythms that suit you best.
Water: If you can drink it, you can bake with it. I’ve used city, tap, well, and filtered water — all with great results. Don’t overthink it.
Salt: Use whatever fine salt you have. Unrefined salts like Himalayan or Redmond Real Salt support fermentation beautifully, but table salt works fine too. Don’t let people tell you your salt isn’t good enough.
Sourdough Starter: Start bread with an active, bubbly starter for best results. Learn more about your starter here.
Temperature: Dough rises best around 23–26°C (73–79°F) dough temperature.
Colder = Slower fermentation (6-12 hours)
Warmer = Faster fermentation (3-6 hours)
Adjust with warm or cool water depending on the season.
Flour: I always do a blend of standard all-purpose flour and freshly-milled whole grain flour as my whole wheat flour. Use whatever flour works for you.
Hydration: In summer, I use cooler water and slightly less. In winter, warmer water and a touch more can help balance fermentation speed.
Autolyse: This step involves holding back salt and sourdough starter at the mixing stage. I prefer a simpler variation called fermentolyse — I mix in the starter right away but hold back the salt for 30–60 minutes. This short rest gives the dough time to hydrate and relax, especially important when using whole grain flour, which takes longer to absorb moisture.
Sourdough Starter
If you’re here, I’m assuming you have a sourdough starter and generally know how to use it. It is beyond the scope of this post to teach you how to create and maintain a sourdough starter.
If you haven’t made one already, read my post on how to make a sourdough starter from scratch.
Once you have an established sourdough starter and you know how to identify when it’s active or needs a fresh feeding, you’re pretty much good to go. It doesn’t matter much whether its thin, batter-like, or stiff, a healthy starter will make healthy bread.
If you have a sourdough starter but are having trouble understanding it, learn more with the ultimate guide to understanding your sourdough starter.
Freshly Milled Flour
The whole wheat flour in all of my baking recipes is made with freshly milled whole wheat flour. While store-bought whole wheat works just fine in terms of texture and flavour, the nutritional value of freshly milled flour is far superior — it’s full of the natural oils, vitamins, and minerals that are lost once flour sits on a shelf.
If you live in the city, you might be able to find fresh-milled flour at local bakeries or specialty grocery stores.
If you’re in the country or have access to whole grains, consider milling your own. You can start small with what you already have — a powerful coffee grinder or blender can get you going. A great next step is a KitchenAid grain mill attachment, perfect for small batches.
If you fall in love with fresh milling (like I did), investing in a Harvest NutriMill is absolutely worth it. I use mine almost daily — it’s both beautiful and practical.
When you’re ready to invest, get your Harvest NutriMill using this link and use my code BRONSBREAD20 at checkout for $20 off your order!
Ingredients
- White flour: Just simple all-purpose is what I use.
- Whole wheat flour: I like a blend of freshly milled grains but whole wheat from the store is fine too.
- Water: Good ol’ drinking water.
- Active Sourdough starter: Essential for a fluffy loaf. If you don’t know when your sourdough starter is active, learn more here.
- Salt: The best quality salt you have because sourdough bread deserves the best.
Materials
- Medium-Sized Mixing Bowl: A heavy set ceramic mixing bowl would work best.
- Bowl Cover: Anything that covers and seals the bowl and covers your loaf for final proofing. I use these reusable elastic bowl covers.
- Dough Whisk (optional): It is cleaner to get things started with a dough whisk but it’s definitely not necessary. I like using a wooden spoon or my hands.
- Plastic Bench Scraper: I find this tool very handy for cleaning and scraping the dough out of the bowl. It can also be used for dividing dough and pre-shaping.
- Metal Bench Scraper: I use this tool for dividing dough, pre-shaping, and cleaning the table. Not essential though, as the plastic bench scraper can serve similar purposes, but I like using both.
- Kitchen Scale: I prefer sharing most of my recipes in grams so there is less room for error as I’m not in the kitchen with you! Everyone scoops things differently.
- Banneton Basket: I like a 10″ basket for my artisan loaves.
- Razor Blade, Bread Lame or Sharp Knife: I haven’t found a bread lame I really like so I just use razor blades as is.
- Dutch Oven: For baking your artisan loaf. It is the best vessel for trapping steam and giving your dough a nice strong rise.
- Cooling Rack: For cooling down your loaf.
new ebook
getting started with sourdough
and the “why” behind each step
Whether you’ve never touched sourdough or you’re tired of every recipe being different and not knowing why – this guide will help clear things up.
Learn the basics, avoid common beginner mistakes, learn why you’re doing what you’re doing and finally bake an edible loaf!
Step-By-Step Instructions
Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour and whole wheat flour. Mix until no dry bits. Rest 30–60 min (autolyse).
Add Salt – Add salt with a splash of water, squeeze in until fully integrated and dissolved. Rest 30 minutes.
Strengthen – Perform a series of stretch and folds. Let rest for another 30 minutes.
Strengthen (pt.2) – Perform another series of stretch and folds.
Bulk Ferment – Let the dough rest until doubled in size, jiggles, and has a domed surface. (Warm 4–6 h; cool 8–12 h.)
Shape – Pre-shape into a ball and let it bench rest for 20–30 minutes. Final shape into an oval log shape. Flour your banneton basket and place your loaf in it, seam side up.
Proof Options
Same-day bake: cover and let rest on the counter at room temperature until risen and puffy (1-3 hours).
Next-day bake: cover and place in the fridge 8–24 hours for enhanced flavour, structure, fermentation & easy scoring.
Score & Bake
Dutch oven: Preheat your oven to 500°F with the Dutch Oven inside for 30-60 minutes. Gently remove your loaf from the banneton basket to a large piece of parchment paper by flipping it over so seam side is down. Once preheated, lightly flour the surface of your loaf, spread it around, and score. Remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven and then carefully place your loaf into the hot Dutch oven, cover, and return to the oven. Bake for 20–25 minutes covered and then 10-15 minutes uncovered, until dark golden crust is achieved.
Cool – 1 hour minimum before slicing to ensure the crumb has fully set and then enjoy with a generous amount of butter!
Notes
Keep an eye on your loaf while it’s baking with the lid off. Every oven is different and you may find it gets dark too quickly at 425F. Feel free to reduce the temperature and extend the time if you feel that gets a more even crust.
How to Store
Once it has cooled down completely: Store cut-side down on cutting board 1–2 days; then cloth or plastic bag 3–4 days. Freeze in plastic for longer storage, sliced or unsliced.
Recipe & Method
Simple Sourdough Bread
ingredients
- 250g All-purpose Flour
- 125g Whole-wheat Flour
- 250g Water
- 150g Active Starter
- 2 tsp Salt
instructions
- Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour and whole wheat flour. Mix until no dry bits. Rest 30–60 min (autolyse).
- Add Salt – Add salt with a splash of water, squeeze in until fully integrated and dissolved. Rest 30 minutes.
- Strengthen – Perform a series of stretch and folds. Let rest for another 30 minutes.
- Strengthen (pt.2) – Perform another series of stretch and folds.
- Bulk Ferment – Let the dough rest until doubled in size, jiggles, and has a domed surface. (Warm 4–6 h; cool 8–12 h.)
- Shape – Pre-shape into a ball and let it bench rest for 20–30 minutes. Final shape into an oval log shape. Grease and flour your loaf pan (or line with parchment paper) and place your loaf into it, seam side down./Flour your banneton basket and place your loaf in it, seam side up.
- Proof OptionsSame-day bake: cover and let rest on the counter at room temperature until risen and puffy (1-3 hours).Next-day bake: cover and place in the fridge 8–24 hours for enhanced flavour, structure, fermentation & easy scoring.
- Score & Bake: Preheat your oven to 500°F with the Dutch Oven inside for 30-60 minutes. Gently remove your loaf from the banneton basket to a large piece of parchment paper by flipping it over so seam side is down. Once preheated, lightly flour the surface of your loaf, spread it around, and score. Remove the hot Dutch oven from the oven and then carefully place your loaf into the hot Dutch oven, cover, and return to the oven. Bake for 20–25 minutes covered and then 10-15 minutes uncovered, until dark golden crust is achieved.
- Cool – 1 hour minimum before slicing to ensure the crumb has fully set and then enjoy with a generous amount of butter!
I am a beginner bread maker and have always been very unsuccessful at any of my past attempts until I used this method. I have made about 8 loaves over the past month and all were successful. This blog is easy to follow and because I’m a visual learner, the video made me feel like I could do it and I did.
Thanks Bronwyn
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