15 Beginner Tips for Sourdough Bread Bakers

Lately, I’ve had a lot of people asking why I bake sourdough bread from scratch and why I do it so often. That question is hard for me to answer, but I know I have to. I don’t know why, but I just have to. And it is clearly more than a hobby.

Perhaps Mike Greenfield, came closest giving my feelings life when he wrote:

“Personally, I think baking sourdough bread from scratch is the most rewarding thing you can do in the kitchen. There’s really nothing better.”

Mike Greenfield, of ProHomeCooks and Sourdough U

There is no question for me that baking sourdough can be rewarding. But for many people we have coached, there has been trouble somewhere in their baking processes.

Taking Martha’s beginners course certainly helps most bakers who are starting out bake a successful loaf. It certainly worked for me (see my first loaf at Seven Steps to Great Sourdough Bread). And even though I have made many dozens of loaves since then, every once in a while one does not turn out the way I would like it to be.

For that reason, I went looking for troubleshooting tips for making sourdough bread and came across Greenfield’s Pro Home Cooks YouTube Channel, where he cataloged fifteen bread-making mistakes.

Listed below are his 15 common mistakes and his suggested solutions for each problem:

1- Use Healthy/Active Starter

Greenfield says that “the first tip for making great sourdough bread at home, and probably the most underrated thing to the entire process, is having a really healthy active sourdough starter.” The starter, which is made by adding equal weights of water and flour with old dough or starter, creates a culture of LAB (lactic acid bacteria) and wild yeast. Together these produce carbon dioxide (CO2) gas bubbles that get trapped in the gluten of the bread, making it rise. You want your starter when it’s at peak activation before each use.

To know when you are at that point here are a few things to look for:

• A start needs to be frothy, filled with bubbles.
• It should be able to pass the floating test.
• Most often it will be doubled volume but could expand to quadrupled in size.
• It also has a really nice tangy smell.

Without these conditions, you will not get great results.

2- Don’t Forget to Autolyse 

Autolyse is a resting period (45 min) between the initial mixing of wet ingredients and flour but before the addition of the salt. This step is skipped by many bakers. It is just working the water and flour together until it is fully wet. then letting it rest for half an hour to forty-five minutes.  Remember you are not kneading it, but just bringing the flour and water together until they are completely mixed. As long as the flour and the water are incorporated, you’re good to go.

The autolyse phase helps make for a better rise. It helps to develop more complex flavors in the finished loaf and crucial is for the initial development of a gluten network for the dough. When you add water to flour, both of wheat’s native proteins, glutenin and gliadin begin to bond together to form gluten. The elastic strands of the gluten protein chains form a microscopic network that traps CO2 and stretches out the strands making the dough expand and gives bread its rise.

3– Use Baker’s Percentages

Greenfield says, “Baker’s percentages are great because you can easily calculate the hydration level of your dough. And also it’s easy to expand your recipe and make multiple loaves.”  That’s why bakers use these percentages; it makes it especially easy to expand any recipe. He listed an example for a loaf with 1000 grams of flour and 800 grams of water (80% hydration), which he says easy to calculate.

“If you want 75% hydration, 750 grams of flour. And then the other two ingredients are just your starter, and that’s 150 grams of starter, which is 15% we’re still going off the flour, and then 2% salt would be 20 grams of salt.”

It easy to calculate and manipulate any recipe, but first, you need a good kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients.

4– Lowering the Hydration Level

Hydration is the percentage of water in the flour. Sourdough needs very high hydration, usually 80%.  That makes the dough very sticky and many bakers make the mistake of more adding flour to help handle the dough.

The lower the hydration, the less airy the final bake will be. However, while you are learning you can go a bit lower, say around 70–75% hydration level, which makes the wet dough easier to handle.

5– When to Use the Starter

Many bakers combine the perfect 3 ingredients (flour, water, and salt) together at first, that is what I usually do. However, Greenfield says that allowing for the autolyse phase first, and holding off on the salt and the active start, will give you better results.

Remember the sourdough starter needs to be at its peak activation (see number 1 above). Greenfield says that it should have “a really nice tangy smell …depending on if you like that sourness, the smell should be a bit tangy at this point.”

The dome in the starter jar should be slightly rounded and you can test the dough by floating it in water. When it floats it is ready.

Pour ¾ cup (150 grams) of starter over the autolysed dough. Then sprinkle a rounded tablespoon (20 grams) of salt over the dough. With wet hands fold it all in until well incorporated.

Greenfield warns, “It’s not going to be smooth at all because we have all that salt and different textures between the started and the dough. But don’t worry, as that sits and as you work on the dough, it’s going to completely change.”

6–Never Knead Your Sourdough; Just Stretch-and-Fold

With the starter mixed in and fermentation underway, it is time to develop the gluten structure some more. This is done with a stretch-and-fold every 30 minutes.

To stretch-and-fold, wet hands, then slide one under and down the side of the bowl. Pull the dough up and then fold it up and on itself, rotate the bowl, and repeat this four times.

Then repeat this process every 30 minutes until it has been completed four times. During these two hours, the dough texture will completely change, making it more smooth and elastic. 

7-When To Finish Working the Dough

At this point, the dough will have completely changed. Greenfield describes it this way:

“It’s smooth, it’s supple, it’s starting to pull away from the sides a little bit and you can see the rounded edge on the side of your dough. That’s a good sign that the structure is beginning to form. Whereas beforehand the dough would have just sunk completely into the sides and made a flat surface.”

After the  fourth stretch-and-fold, cover the bowl with a damp towel for moving onto the bulk rise

8-Let the Dough Proof On Your Schedule

Sometimes referred to as the bulk ferment, this is a longer period of time (4–6 hours) and takes place at room temperature. Maurizio Leo, at King Arthur Flour, says,

“Finding the exact point when to end bulk fermentation takes practice. With time, you’ll learn to read the signs of sufficient fermentation: dough strength, elasticity, smoothness, volume gain, and bubbly appearance.

“At the end of bulk fermentation, I look for a dough that’s risen significantly and is much smoother than when bulk started. If you tug on the dough a little with a wet hand, you’ll feel resistance and elasticity.

“Additionally, look for liveliness. Gently shake the bowl and it’ll jiggle, letting you know there’s plenty of aeration in the dough. These are all great signs that the dough has fermented sufficiently and is strong enough to be divided.”

If you started too late in the day, and don’t have time to let it rise before going to bed, then do it around your own schedule. Just put it in the fridge and let it ferment there overnight, which I often do since I like to sleep more than bake into the night. This, by the way, slows down the fermentation process and helps develop a more tangy flavor in the bread.

9-Ratio Of Dry To Sticky

Once the dough has fermented and you see some bubbles on the surface, there should have been a bit of volume gain. This means it is time to shape the loaf.

As you begin to handle the dough it might seem a bit sticky, but keep the flour dusting to a bare minimum.

A lightly dusted surface and a bench scraper will be helpful, but the dough may still stick to your hands. If it does try flouring your hands, or better yet oil them or dip them in water.

For the rough shaping, divide the dough in two. Stretch it out on your work surface.

Roll up each loaf, then let the dough bench rest for 30 more minutes with a damp towel before the final shaping on a light dusting of flour.

Because this dough is very wet, if you don’t flour these things, the dough might stick to the sides. If that happens it could tear and deflate the dough. 

10– Generously Flour Your Bannetons

If using bread banneton proofing baskets remember to generously flour them. Otherwise, place a tea towel in a bowl and flour it heavily as shown in these pictures from Patrick Ryan’s Sourdough Bread Masterclass (begin watching at 9:50).

Sticking certainly leaves the bread looking messy and as Greenfield points out, “when you’ve gone through the whole process, you’re ready to bake and your dough sticks to the proofing basket, not fun.”

If you do not care for the excess flour just brush it off after baking. Personally, I like how the flour brings out cut-in designs on the finished loaf (see next step).

11– There Is No Perfect Way To Shape Your Dough

After the dough has rested, you may need to tension it more with several more jelly rolls until it balls up. This is the method that I learned at Abigails Oven, but as Greenfield explains, “I’ve seen so many different styles of shaping your dough, but you’re really trying to just accomplish a few key things.”

Both he and Patrick Ryan flatten the dough a little. Then they take the two closest corners and folding them over making them stick together.  Again he explains:

“Now once it’s folded together, you’re going to start folding it in on itself and really you’re trying to build some surface tension here by folding the dough in on itself, but you don’t want to deflate the dough at this point. You’ve worked so hard to build all of that nice air in your dough and just keep doing that and make sure you fold in the seams and let that sit on your board for just a few seconds.”

For the final shaping Emilee Raffa, in Artisan Sourdough Made Simple,  explains, “With floured hands, gently cup the dough and pull it toward you in a circular motion to tighten its shape. Using a bench scraper, place the dough into the bowl, seam side up.” If this is still confusing watch Patrick Ryan’s Sourdough Bread Masterclass (begin watching at 10:50).

12– The No-Fail Poke Test

Allow the dough to rise 30-45 minutes more in the proofing baskets. The dough is ready to bake when you “poke it” and it springs back just a bit; there may also be a slight dent left after the poke. But if you poke it and it springs right back to the surface with no dent, it needs more proofing. Or if when you’ve poked it and it makes a large dent that does not recover, it is probably over-proofed.

To transfer the dough out of the proofing basket, cut a piece of parchment paper to fit your dutch-oven or another baking vessel (combo cooker, stoneware pot, casserole, etc). At Abigail’s Oven, we exclusively use 10-inch cast-iron dutch ovens with tight-fitting lids

Next place the parchment over the dough supporting the bread as you flip it over. Dust the rounded surface with flour and spread the flour gently with your hands. 

Using a lame, razor blade, or very sharp knife score the top of the loaf. Greenfield says, “There are so many different techniques out there and you really just got to get in there and try. You can find a million techniques on Instagram or Pinterest.” But slashing bread is for more than beauty, it helps make the oven spring more uniform and prevents cracking or bulging. 

After the bread has been scored, use the parchment to lift the dough into your preheated Dutch oven. 

13– Baking Trays Prevent Burnt Bottoms

I bake my bread at 465°F (240°C) for 25 minutes uncovered with a boiling water bath below my baking pot, but Greenfield suggests an even hotter oven (500–550° F (260–285°C) for 20 minutes in a covered Dutch-oven, but uncovering for the final 10 minutes and lowering the heat to 450°F (230°C).

These methods produce the steam needed for crusty bread. However for the higher heat method, to prevent the bottom crust from burning, place the Dutch oven on a heavy-duty cookie sheet for the last 10 minutes. This final return to the oven caramelizes the crust giving it a darker brown crust.

14– Curing the Bread In the Hot Oven

Most people take their bread out of the oven when the timer goes off, but you can develop a lot of flavors and a better crust if you leave it to cool in the hot oven. Turn off the heat and crack the oven door, letting the bread cure 20 or more minutes as the oven cools.

15– It Is Okay If You Fail Miserably

Failing is part of learning how to make sourdough. If you look back over the variables listed above, it would be a wonder if now and again baking bread at home doesn’t work out. In the last two years, I have made a few hundred loaves; I have not been proud of them all, but I am learning. 

There are variables in dealing with natural fermentation, humidity and weather affect hydration, flours can change the result, your home oven may not be hot enough or too hot. As you play around with each of these factors, sourdough will move from science to an art form, I promise. And soon you will be making artisan sourdough bread at home too.

You can watch Mike Greenfield’s “15 Mistakes Most Beginner Sourdough Bakers Make” here and be sure to download his four free Sourdough Bread Baking Guides designed for busy lifestyles, I did.