Bake My First Sourdough Loaf of Bread
Baking your first sourdough loaf is a little like starting a new adventure. It takes more time and patience than yeasted bread, but the reward is a loaf with incredible flavour, texture and character that feels truly homemade. Once you have mastered a yeasted loaf, take a look at how you can expand into the world of sourdough!
At the heart of sourdough is your starter, a simple mix of flour and water that comes to life with natural wild yeast and bacteria. Learning how to care for it is part of the fun and it will be your companion in every sourdough bake. Take a look at our Starter Care Guide for more information.
This recipe keeps things simple: a classic sourdough loaf that will teach you the essentials. You’ll get to know your dough, learn how it feels as it changes through each stage and discover the rhythms of sourdough baking. By the end, you’ll have a crusty, tangy loaf to slice, butter and share, and the confidence to keep exploring.
Equipment:
To keep it simple, this is a suggested list of what will help you bake bread, without breaking the bank or filling your kitchen cupboards.
Dough Whisk - The best value for money tool for making bread! It is superior to a spoon; it mixes the ingredients very effectively without the clumps like you can get with a spoon.
A large bowl - Give yourself space, you don’t want flour flying out when mixing and its handy to have a bowl bigger than the dough capacity so you can leave it in the bowl to proof and double in size.
Dough scraper – A tool designed for moving your dough from bowl to worktop and back again with ease. Great for wiping around the bowl to incorporate all ingredients. Top tip, flour your scraper for a less sticky situation! These are also great for clearing up excess flour on your worktop instead of a wet cloth at the end of baking. We recommend a bean scraper for work in the bowl and a flat scraper for bench work.
Baking tray – You will need a flat large surface to bake your bread on. Either a tray, dutch oven or baking /pizza stone work well.
Scales – Bread baking is a bit of a science. Use digital scales to weigh your ingredients, especially the flour salt and water for consistency.
Lame - A great little tool to slash the dough just before it goes into the oven, this helps the loaf expand, letting out excess moisture and controlling the rise. The razor thin blade cuts smoothly rather than dragging the dough, unlike even your sharpest knife would. To start with we recommend a simple line across the top of the dough, cutting at a 45° angle to the dough. Once you have mastered this you can get creative with the patterns and give the loaf your own look.
Cane proofing banneton - This recipe makes around 1kg of dough. We suggest baking one large loaf in a 1kg oval cane banneton, or divide the dough into two and use two 500g oval cane bannetons.
