The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (2024)

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Learn how to make a simple homemade sourdough bread recipe in your very own kitchen. This is a homestead-version of sourdough bread, which is a non-fussy technique that will not require complicated measurements or instructions. This recipe is perfect for people (like me) who like a simple, hearty loaf that doesn’t require tons of effort and time.

The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (1)

Sourdough bread feels like the ultimate in homestead baking.

But it gave me FITS for years… In fact, there was a time when I just quit trying because I was so frustrated with my flat loaves, dry loaves, hard loaves, and the list goes on…. (And if you know me at all, it takes a LOT to make me quit…)

Then one day? It just clicked. Hallelujah.

However, just because homemade sourdough bread has a learning curve doesn’t mean you have to make as many mistakes as I did– and by the time you finish reading this post, you’ll be able to finally do this sourdough thing with confidence!

The One Thing I Don’t Like About my Cookbook

I’m 99.9% happy with the Prairie Homestead Cookbook that published last year (and I’d better be… considering how many edits it underwent!). That being said, there is ONE thing that I really wish I could change in my cookbook.

I wish I had included this simple beginner sourdough bread recipe in it.

And I know you do too, judging by alllll the emails I’ve received. 😉

But we’re doing the next best thing– you’re getting it today instead. (And if you have my Heritage Cooking Crash Course, it will likely look familiar, as it’s the same recipe that is included in there.)

Watch Me Make This Simple Sourdough Bread

In case you’re a visual learner like I am, here is the entire step-by-step process caught on video.

(Keep scrolling for the printable recipe version. —>)

What Makes Sourdough Different than Regular Bread?

There are many things that set sourdough bread apart from traditional yeast breads (by the way, here’s my super easy versatile yeast bread dough recipe). First off, sourdough bread dough is much wetter and stickier.Wetter is better.

You also don’t really knead sourdough– instead you’ll bring it together with a spoon until it’s mostly combined and then ignore it.

However, the biggest thing that sets sourdough apart from traditional breads is that sourdough doesn’t need yeast. Instead, you generate your OWN wild yeast, aka a sourdough starter with flour and water. This starter is a fermented food that can be used to make tasty sourdough bread, sourdough cinnamon rolls, sourdough brownies, and more. (And contrary to popular belief, sourdough doesn’t have to be extremely sour tasting– you can absolutely adjust the tang in your DIY loaves.)

The Key to Success: The Starter

Before you can successfully make sourdough bread, you will need an active and healthy sourdough starter. (You can learn how to make a sourdough starter in this post through a printable recipe or a video)

Here is how I define an active/healthy sourdough starter:

  • It should double in size within 4-6 hours of each feeding
  • It should be full of bubbles and “grow” up the sides of your jar
  • If you place a teaspoon of the starter in a cup of cool water, it should float on top of the water

Keep in mind: It takes about two weeks for a sourdough starter to be mature enough to leaven (rise) a loaf of bread. But the wait is worth it– promise.

The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (2)

Sourdough Bread: The Equipment

You do NOT need a bakery full of fancy equipment to make sourdough bread, however, there are a few tools that will make the process easier:

A large bowl.You need a large bowl for the dough. Since it rises overnight (and has the potentially to rise considerably depending on how active your starter is), you’ll want to use a bowl that’s tall enough to avoid overflowing and the subsequent mess. I LOVE this handcrafted stoneware mixing bowl for mixing up bread dough.

Dough scraper.This is a super handy little tool that can help you get scrape the dough out of the original large bowl without deflating it and ruining those precious air bubbles in the dough. If you don’t want to get a dough scraper, you can use a stiff spatula instead.

Bench Knife. While you don’tneeda bench knife for making sourdough, it makes the process easier, especially for higher-hydration doughs. Plus this one is handcrafted and makes you feel like a sourdough rockstar.

Proofing basket.A proofing basket helps support the shape of the sourdough loaf during the final rise before baking. This awesome bread bakery set includes both a dough scraper and a proofing basket. If you don’t want to get proofing baskets, simply line a 9-inch bowl or colander with a tea towel that you’ve generously dusted with flour. That’ll work in a pinch.

A Dutch oven.In my opinion, a dutch oven is an important kitchen tool for any home. I also think that a Dutch oven does the very best job of baking sourdough loaves and producing and mimics the environment of a brick oven by steaming the dough as it bakes. This helps your homemade sourdough bread end up with a crusty outside and a soft center.

If you really don’t want to use a Dutch oven for this recipe, you can bake your loaf on a cookie sheet or baking stone instead. However, the crust of your finished sourdough will be different.

Go here for the full list of tools I recommend for sourdough bread baking.

The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (3)

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The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe

The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (4)

This is a homestead-version of sourdough bread, which is a non-fussy technique that will not require complicated measurements or instructions. This recipe is perfect for people (like me) who like a simple, hearty loaf that doesn’t require tons of effort and time.

  • Author: Jill Winger
  • Yield: 1 loaf of bread 1x

Ingredients

  • ½ cup active sourdough starter (learn how to make sourdough starter)
  • 1 ¼ cup lukewarm water
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt (I use Redmond Salt*)

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the starter and water.
  2. Stir in the flour, and then add the salt.
  3. Use a fork to mix everything together until it becomes stiff– then switch to your hands to bring the dough together in a rough ball (Remember: don’t overmix! This is supposed to be a no-knead-style wet dough.)
  4. Keep the rough dough in the bowl, cover it, and let sit for 30 minutes.
  5. After this resting time is complete, stretch and fold the dough a few times to form it into a ball.(See the video for a walk-through on how to do this.)
  6. Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and let it rise in a warm place overnight or until doubled in size (or about 8 hours). I like to make the dough before bed and leave it in my turned-off oven (I leave the oven light on) to rise overnight.
  7. The next morning (or after 8 hours), turn the dough out on your counter. Fold it over a couple of times to tighten it into a ball, then let sit for 15 minutes.
  8. After this resting period is complete, gently shape the dough into a ball once more place into a well-floured proofing basket or a bowl lined with a well-floured dish towel. Remember: don’t add too much flour and do not knead the dough!
  9. Cover and rise for 2-3 hours, or until doubled.
  10. Preheat the oven to 450°F.
  11. Sprinkle a thin layer of cornmeal in the bottom of a Dutch oven (optional, but this helps the bottom not to scorch).
  12. Tip the loaf out of the proofing basket onto a sheet of parchment. Lower the parchment into the Dutch oven.
  13. Place the lid on the pot and bake for 20 minutes.
  14. Remove the lid and bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until the loaf is deeply browned and crispy on top. (For a less crusty finish, bake for the entire time with the lid on.)
  15. Move to a cooling rack and allow the loaf to cool completely before slicing it.

Notes

*If you want to try out my favorite salt, for a limited time use my code HOMESTEAD to receive 15% off your entire order!

Sourdough Bread: Your Questions Answered

I get plenty of questions about making homemade sourdough bread, so I’ve put together the most common sourdough questions and my answers. Feel free to ask me more questions in the comments section below!

What kind of flour can I use for my sourdough bread?

You can make sourdough bread with many different types of flour, however, if you’re brand new to sourdough, I recommend using all-purpose flour. It far less finicky to use than Einkorn or whole wheat, and it will rise more consistently for your first attempts. You can venture into the fancier flours once you get the hang of a simple loaf.

If and when you want to go more fancy, you’ll want to use hard white wheat berries if you’re grinding your own flour with a mill like mine. Check out this post to learn all about grinding your own flour.

How can I better handle my super sticky dough?

If you’re struggling with your dough sticking to everything, try dipping your hands in a bowl of cool water before you work it. It’s tempting to keep adding more flour to the dough, but fight the urge. A wetter, stickier dough, while more difficult to handle, produces less dry or crumbly loaves.

However, I’ve been receiving comments and messages saying that their dough is turning out just too sticky to even handle, in which case you may need to add more flour to your dough.

How can I make my sourdough loaves MORE sour?

I get it, I love the tangy taste of a super sour sourdough. There are a few ways to get a more sour sourdough loaf:

  1. When you feed your sourdough starter, use a higher ratio of flour to water.
  2. Use whole-grain flours to feed your starter, since the sour-producing bacterias seems to love them.
  3. If your sourdough starter produces a brown liquid layer (aka the hooch) on the top, mix it back into the starter instead of pouring it off.
  4. Use cool water and allow your dough to rise in a cooler location. This will extend the souring/rise time and produce a more sour loaf.

Do I REALLY have to cool the bread before eating it?

I know, I know. It’s cruel, isn’t it?

Even though your kitchen now smells divine, try to resist cutting into your new homemade sourdough bread until it completely cools to room temperature.

The reason your bread must cool completely is because it is still baking and developing the texture as it cools. This is when the crumb is setting. If you cut open your bread when it is still hot, you will squish it and the crumb will be crushed, not to mention it’ll dry out faster in storage.

How can I store my homemade sourdough bread?

This homestead sourdough loaf is best eaten within 48 hours (which is NOT a problem for my ravenous kids). I store it at room temperature in a basic Ziploc bag, but you can get special bread bags or bread boxes, too. I love these vintage bread boxes, and this one’s pretty cool because it has a cutting board on top! You can also store your bread in a beeswax bread wrap.

If you don’t think you can eat the sourdough loaf within 48 hours, you can freeze the leftovers. Simply wrap it in plastic wrap and it will keep in the freezer for up to 2 months.

Why didn’t my sourdough bread rise?

Don’t worry– it happens to the best of us. When sourdough bread dough doesn’t rise, it’s usually because the starter you used wasn’t active enough. To remedy this problem, make sure you’re using recently fed, active starter with lots of bubbles. Also, next time try using warm (not hot) water when you mix up the dough and rising it in a warmer location. If your bread doesn’t rise properly, you can always use the loaf to make breadcrumbs.

Why did my loaf spread out?

Doughs that contain a lot of moisture tend to spread more than dryer doughs, so that could be the culprit. You also might try a few more rounds of stretching and folding next time to help develop the tension in the dough a bit more.

Can I make gluten-free sourdough bread?

You can, however, it’s not a skill that is in my wheelhouse. I would recommend checking out this recipe from King Arthur flour.

The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (5)

Other From-Scratch Recipes & Info You’ll Love

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  • How to Make Biscuits From-Scratch
  • The Simplest Homemade Pasta
  • How to Make Butter
  • Homemade Peanut Butter Pie Recipe
  • The Tools I Recommend for Sourdough Breadmaking
The Best Beginner Sourdough Bread Recipe • The Prairie Homestead (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to a good sourdough starter? ›

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

What flour is best for beginner sourdough? ›

Due to its wide availability and affordability, all-purpose flour is often my top recommendation for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter. In fact, I've been feeding my own sourdough starter Central Milling's all-purpose flour for the past 4 years.

What is the secret to sourdough bread? ›

The secret to sourdough is simple: water. The more water you add to your dough will affect how open the crumb (bigger holes and softer texture) will be once it's baked.

How did pioneers make sourdough? ›

Sourdough bread was made with a natural starter, or culture, that was fermented by wild yeast and bacteria . The fermentation process gave sourdough bread its characteristic sour flavor, chewy texture, and good keeping properties.

Why is sourdough starter so difficult? ›

Essentially making a sourdough starter is not an overly difficult process, but it does require a commitment of time and patience, as well as some dedicated equipment. Sometimes there are factors which mean making sourdough starter could be difficult. Perhaps you're working long hours or go out of town regularly.

Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it? ›

It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

Is distilled water good for sourdough? ›

Distilled water might seem like a good option, but it's actually not great for your little yeasty friends. They need some minerals and stuff that are usually filtered out in the distillation process. So go for filtered or bottled water instead, and your starter will be living its best life in no time.

Should you use unbleached flour for sourdough starter? ›

What Flour Should I Be Feeding My Sourdough Starter With? You can feed your sourdough starter with any flour you like, as long as it provides the starches the wild yeast in your sourdough starter need to convert to Co2 to rise your dough. The flour you choose should always be unbleached flour.

How often do you feed sourdough starter? ›

Leaving it out on the counter, it will need to be fed equal parts water and flour every 12-24 hours. Warmer homes or frequent baking will require more frequent feeding (around every 12 hours), while colder homes every 24 hours. Storing your sourdough starter in the fridge will require feeding around once a week.

Why do you put vinegar in sourdough bread? ›

In fact the acidity is a dough conditioner that softens the texture of whole grains and makes the bread more pliable. Hack: apple cider vinegar. I often add about a tablespoon of ACV to bread as a dough conditioner. This doesn't affect the flavor much if at all.

Why add honey to sourdough bread recipe? ›

Honey: Honey adds a sweetness to this dough and helps balance any sour flavor that comes through from the fermentation process. If you are looking for whole wheat bread without the honey, try this recipe. Salt: Salt enhances the flavor and helps tempers the fermentation.

What makes sourdough taste better? ›

The key taste compounds include salt, which is directly added to the dough, as well as acetic and lactic acid, produced during fermentation. After these experiments, they applied a technique called “unified flavor quantitation,” which was previously developed by Hofmann's team, to the sourdough bread.

What is the oldest known sourdough starter? ›

Blackley's sourdough starter, created from 4,500 year-old yeast, is considered the oldest sourdough starter, per Oldest. Other starters like the Saint Honoratus Wheat also are quite old. A bakery called Chrissi's Farmhouse Bakery uses it and said, “This noble starter dates back 900 years.

What makes a sourdough starter work? ›

Sourdough starters begin working when you mix liquid and flour. Mixing liquid into flour activates the friendly bacteria and wild yeast living in both your flour and your surrounding environment. Once activated, these microorganisms produce carbon dioxide bubbles, which make your bread rise.

How was sourdough bread made in the old days? ›

It is understood that the Egyptian people inadvertently left out some bread dough which led to wild yeast drifting into the mix causing it to rise. They quickly realized that this method of baking created an extra ingredient which, in turn, produced a bread that had a lighter texture and, arguably, better taste.

What makes a sourdough starter more sour? ›

The longer you go in between feedings, the more acetic acid your starter will develop. This acid creates a more sour flavor.

What does baking soda do to sourdough starter? ›

because it reacts with the acid from the sourdough starter to create carbon dioxide gas, which provides leavening. You don't want to add baking soda to the starter you are maintaining, because baking soda will raise the pH. The yeast will not grow unless the pH is around 3.5.

How to make 100% sourdough starter? ›

A 100% hydration sourdough starter is a culture which is kept and fed with water and flour at equal weights. Like for instance 5 oz water to 5 oz flour. A 166% hydration starter is fed with equal volume of flour and water, which most typically is one cup of water (8.3 oz) and one cup of flour (5 oz).

Does sourdough starter get better with age? ›

While the age of your starter won't make your bread any better — turns out, only good sourdough practices can do that — it's a link in the long legacy of sourdough, one of the oldest forms of baking that exists. Whether your starter is a week or a decade old, you can become part of that lineage as well.

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