Making the Sourdough Bread

Making good bread is an art that you will master by experiment, trial, and error.  To start out, you'll want to use recipes and follow the guidelines of proven breads.  But the sooner you learn the feel and look of a good bread, the better.

There are plenty of great recipes for sourdough bread.  You can add all kinds of things to the dough before baking, to make just about any kind of bread you might imagine.  Below is the most basic method for a sourdough loaf.  I don't add oil or butter or shortening to my basic bread.  I do sometimes use milk instead of water when making the dough.

A Basic Sourdough Bread

NOTICE: This is not so much a recipe as a method.  I use measurements only as a guide, when I make bread.  To make a sourdough bread, you will need to mix enough starter and flour together to make a good ball of dough. 

Your looking for a good consistency.  The dough should be moist and sticky enough that you need to flour your hands in order to work with it.  It should barely hold its shape as a ball when you shape it.

For a couple of small loaves of bread, you will want a total of about five cups of dough.  Depending on the humidity of your region, you will probably want to mix

About 1 cup of water (or milk)

3 to 4 cups of flour

Add enough starter to make the dough workable

You may find it convenient to place your flour in a pile in a bowl or on a clean table and pour your starter into it, working the two together to form a nice ball of dough.  I always start out in a bowl, stirring with a spoon. 

After mixing, place the dough in a lightly greased bowl – large enough to hold twice the size of the ball you've made.  Cover the surface of the dough with wax paper, plastic wrap or a slightly damp towel.  Allow the bread dough to double in size. 

Delaying the Rise

If I don't plan to bake until the next day, I'll sometime place the dough at this stage in the refrigerator overnight.  Temperature is everything.  If you place it in the fridge, you'll need to allow it hours to warm up again before it'll even start to rise.  If the room is cool enough, you can allow the dough to sit on the counter for a day, or even over night.  When I keep the dough in the refrigerator, I take it out the next day and allow it to sit just about all day, while I go and do other things.

The Normal Method

If you're ready to bake bread right away, then it's good at the mixing stage to already have the oven preheating to about 400-450° F.  You'll want the kitchen area to be warm, about 75-80° — but don't place the container with the dough directly on the stove where it might get too hot on bottom.  Too much direct heat (say, anything above 100 degrees) will kill the yeast that makes the bread rise.

Prepare your baking pan(s).  If you're using bread pans, double check to make sure they're clean, then lightly grease them with shortening or spray them with Pam or another cooking spray.  You don't want a lot of heavy grease, but you want all the inside covered.  If you're going to bake on a flat sheet or on a stone, then you can sprinkle the surface with corn meal to keep the bread from sticking.

When the dough has doubled in size, take it from the bowl and kneed it well but briefly.  You're basically pushing the air back out of the dough and limbering things up for the final rise.  I do the kneeding on a well-floured surface, taking care to keep my hands floured, as well.  If the dough is a little too wet, you'll mix some of the excess flour into it while kneeding, but watch that you don't mix in too much and make it too dry and hard. 

Shape the bread into an oblong (for bread pans), and place it in two bread pans (or onto a baking sheet or baking stone).  Cover it again and allow it to rise.   Again, there should be plenty of room for the dough to at least double in size.  When it has reached the proper size, place it into a hot oven (between 400° and 450°) to bake for about 20 to 30 minutes. 

Make sure both the top and bottom is brown and that the loaf gives off a hollow sound when you thump the bottom.  Set on cooling racks or prop it so that bottom is able to cool without sweating.  Allow the bread to cool for two hours before cutting.  This last is important, since the bread isn't really "made" or finished until it cools inside.  Cut the bread with a good bread knife and enjoy with butter, jam or your favorite spread.

©2006 Jim Sutton