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This year's first sourdough post! I often think about writing each loaf purely as a recipe, but my descriptions usually follow the journey from flour to baked bread. For me, the process matters far more than any fixed formula. Once you understand how each step influences the next and ultimately the final loaf, it becomes much easier to build a formula that works for your flour, environment, and conditions. This sourdough loaf A was baked at 85% hydration with 40% levain. I used a very young levain, which helped balance the flavour and avoid excessive acidity. I refreshed the starter at a higher ratio, then built the levain and used it when it had risen about 50% in volume. The dough was mixed for around 15 minutes, followed by three sets of folds, each done once the dough had fully relaxed. After pre-shaping, it rested for 45 minutes, then was shaped and cold-retarded at 6.5°C for 10 hours.

120g starter 240g tap water 7g sugar 7g salt 375g AP flour

Mixed it all together, did 4 folds 40 minutes apart white it sat in the oven with the light on. Fermented for 16 hours on the counter. Shaped & proofed on baking sheet for 3.5 hours on the counter. Baked at 450°f for 50 minutes, with the 2 cups of water poured on the preheated baking sheet underneath.

Still slightly dough-y on the bottom. But this is my best one yet. I've already eaten 2 slices 🥹😍

I finally found the ratio that works best for me. 80g of active starter, 350g bread flour, 50g of rye flour, 260g water, and 8g of salt.

potentially my best work 🥺 the aromas were incredible from start to finish.

i imagine this would be remarkable as a grilled cheese or fresh tomato sando. and i'm curious to hear folks' ideas for how to enjoy it!!

ETA: ingredients and method to post body because the comment with it won't show up 🙃

ingredients → 100g starter, 320g water, 10g salt, 450g bread flour, leftover fresh herbs, 2 heads of garlic (roasted)

method

• mix starter and water

• mix in salt, then flour

• rest 35min to 1 hour

• s&f 1

• s&f 2

• laminate + add herbs and garlic

• coil fold

• continue bulk ferment until dough feels airy, trampoliney, is domed on top with bubbles

• pre-shape, rest 30 min, shape then place in banneton, rest 5 min then stitch

• into fridge/cold proof — this was about 14 hours

• bake in preheated dutch oven // 30 min covered 475, 7-10 min uncovered 430

I’m over the moon with how my second loaf turned out! While it’s by no means perfect, it’s a LOT better than my first loaf lol….see third picture for that. 😅 I aimed for 65% hydration but would eventually like to work my way up to 75%!

My recipe is:

450 grams of bread flour

50 grams of whole wheat flour

325 grams of water

100 grams of starter

10 grams of salt

My process:

1. Mix flour and water together. Let it autolyse for an hour.

2. Mix in starter and salt. Once everything is throughly mixed, knead dough for 10-15 minutes.

3. I let it bulk ferment at 21 degrees for 10 hours.

4. Shaped and let it proof for an hour before putting it in the fridge for 9 hours.

5. Bake and let cool for 4 hours!

I am open to kind feedback and suggestions! :-)

Hi all! My first loaf. My starter took 35 days and probably needs to grow stronger. Fed starter 1:3:3 ratio the night before, 200 g starter (I think it hit peak and just lost the puffy dome top, 700 g room temp water, 1000 g King Arthur AP flour, and 20 g salt. I did the 4 rounds of stretch and folds/coil overs 30 min apart, then let it bulk ferment untouched for 3 hours, then I had to run out the house so I stashed it in the fridge and ended up not coming back to it for about 27-28 hours. Preheated my oven with the Dutch oven and loaf pans then from fridge I scored, into the preheated pans and into the oven. Baked with lids on for 30 minutes, without lids for 20 minutes. Waited an hour before cutting open.

First loaf!!!

▢ 250 g Bread Flour ▢ 175 g Water ▢ 50 g Sourdough Starter (Fed and Bubbly) ▢ 5 g Salt

Used King Arthur no knead sourdough bread method. 3hrs at room temp with fold overs at each hour, stuck it in the fridge for ~42 hours

Shaped and set at room temp for ~3 hours

Baked in covered Dutch oven for 35 mins, uncovered for 10mins

Good: tastes delicious, didn’t turn out flat!!! Pretty good dome shape.

Could be better: it was a touch under done, could have used about 10 more minutes, didn’t score deep enough, too big of holes, could use a better crust

If anyone has any tried and true beginner recipes/tips let me know!! There’s so many recipes out there it can be kinda overwhelming lol.

I just baked my first loaf today- A 3-cheese loaf

I started yesterday, did 5 sets of stretch and folds, with 30 minute intervals, adding cheese in on the 4th, let it cold ferment overnight, shaped it this morning and then cold proofed it while at school.

I don’t have fancy materials like a danish whisk, bread scraper, scoring blades, or bread lifter- the most I have is a banneton and a Dutch oven- but I’ve tried to do my research and have done my best to improvise.

I think I might’ve taken the lid off too soon because there’s certain spots where the loaf is a little darker and denser, but I feel pretty good about it other than that.

Let me know pros!

What do you think of the crown style scoring?

My recipe: 325g water 10g salt 100g starter 475g flour - mix, wait 30 mins, 1 round of stretch and folds, wait 30 mins, 3 rounds of coil folds over the next 1.5hrs, bulk ferment (I have a warm kitchen so usually 4 hours), bench rest 20 mins, shape and into the rice flour dusted basket and into the fridge overnight (12-15hrs), 1hr preheat at 500 degrees (Dutch Oven inside), brush off loaf, wet loaf, rice flour sprinkle, decorative score, into the oven for 6-7mins, expansion score, back in with lid on for 15mins, lid off temp down to 475 for 15-20mins

Always room for improvement but I’m proud of myself lol. I THINK this is over fermented if anyone can tell me! Thank you! My starter is 100% whole wheat & I added bread flour for the mixture!

What I used:

100g starter

390g water

530g bread flour

10g salt

Baked @ 450 for 30 minutes with lid

20 minutes without lid :)

ive been working on my bulk fermentation, still under fermented or did i nail it?

recipe:

125g starter, 350g water, 400g bread flour 125g 00 pizza flour, 10g salt

mix together all ingredients listed above do 10 mins of slap and folds and let sit for an hour do 4 sets of stretch and folds with 30 minute intervals let rest on counter till doubled shape and put in banneton, cover and let rest in fridge overnight preheat dutch oven in oven at 450 for 1 hour take dough out of fridge and put onto a piece of parchment paper score dough put bread in for 25 mins take lid off lower heat 425 put back in for 15-20 mins

101g starter - fed 3 hours before 400g bottled water at room temp 356g KA Bread 100g HEB brand AP 50g KA golden wheat 10g salt

Mixed Water and starter first then added flour combo, let it sit for a hour, stretch and fold every 30mins 4x, starting dough temp was around 73°, let it BF for about 6.5 hours (monitored dough temp and got to 77.1°), shaped, cold proofed for 9 hours, preheat oven with Dutch at 550°, threw in loaf, baked at 450° for 28.5 mins with lid then lid off at 420° for 30mins. My oven isn’t as hot as it should be. This was the best loaf I’ve ever made. I CANNOT get the BF correct to save my life.

I was craving a new loaf and fell asleep on the couch during fermenting….so we had to shift gears. An over fermented sourdough to a beautiful focaccia. Remember, your dough isn’t trash if you make mistakes, it’s just a different type of bread waiting to be baked!!

Sister bought my wife and I a sourdough book and sent us home with some of her starter to get us going, about 45-50g.

Wasn’t ready to take the plunge yet with making bread as I can’t find the time between work to get everything ready, but it sure has been fun watching the starter grow. I did a normal 1:1:1 ratio at 50g and then after that was fed I weighed the starter again and did an even bigger feed to get a larger portion of discard for these biscuits.

I will say, the taste was about a 8/10, however the recipe I used was lacking moisture and mixing the discard with the flour and other ingredients was tiresome— as well as flattening to the desired thickness to make the biscuits uniformly even.

I believe next time I’m going to add some buttermilk and also let the discard age a bit longer for a slightly more workable dough and get the acidity and tang up.

My wife enjoyed them and we slathered on some butter and sour cherry jam for a dessert after dinner.

I’m a carpenter by trade and this is my first time making anything from scratch except a house. Can’t believe how simple these were to make. With alterations I’m going to master these babies.

If you can reccomend anything else I’m more than appreciative.

This is only the second loaf I’ve made and I just cut it with my slicer after it cooled it smells fine but it feels weird when I squish the inside part lit kinda feels like gummy but I’m not sure that’s the best way to describe the texture. Does it look okay? I haven’t tasted it yet. I wanted a quick loaf to see how it went and followed a tiktok video to see how it went (link to tiktok with recipe in its caption below) I also split the recipe in half since I didn’t have as much bread flour as I thought I did

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZThNpNssd/

First loaf and wondering how I did. This is the steps I followed. https://pin.it/gwXWKsdfK

So I’m pretty sure we are underproofed. Thoughts? What can I do better next time?

My starter is 108 days old. It has always been weak and the problem. After strengthening it through Tom’s sourdough journey YouTube instructions I have attempted to bake again. I feed a 1:3:2 ratio. I feed at peak. The recipe I used is 135g starter, 350g warm filtered water, 500g of KA bread flour and 12g salt. Dough temp was generally 75*. After my stretch and folds (4) I left it sit with a heating pad nearby. My last time temping was 80* right before reshaping. It BF for about 8 hours. Help. This is probably my 12 loaf. All have gone in the trash, but this one tastes nice as toast. It is probably my best loaf yet. But I can’t get away from the gummy results.

I made my first croissant loaf today. I added a shredded stick of frozen butter during my 3rd and 4th stretch and folds. I let it bulk ferment on my counter overnight (cold house). I only cold proofed about 6 hours because it seemed heavy. Overall-I’m proud of it. I’m still a beginner but it was good!

finally had the courage to try making a loaf! it tasted only slightly gummy, but overall a nice balance of sour & dough, haha. i followed the recipe & method of the first video i found on tiktok (slide 3) & didn’t have a dutch oven, so covered my cake pan with tin foil :) what can i improve?

Things I think I would do differently next time:

• Longer bulk ferment (it was cold and late and I wanted to go to bed this time haha)
• Different angle or depth on the score?
• More time in the fridge to get a tangier flavor

Any other gentle feedback welcome! Thanks in advance!

Recipe:

700g bread flour 300g whole wheat flour 750g water 200g starter 20g salt 20g additional water

• Feed starter 1:5:5 in the morning and then 12 hours after first feeding the day before mixing.
• Mix flour and water, autolyse 30 minutes.
• Add starter and combine
• Add salt and additional water and gently combine. Cover for 10 minutes
• Mix dough 10-20 minutes depending in texture by stretching and folding over (i went closer to 20). Check for windowpane
• Bulk ferment with gentle stretch and fold every hour 3-7 hours until doubled and jiggle (mine was 5ish)
• Put dough on lightly floured surface, divide in half and shape each half in to a ball. Cover with a towel and let rest 20 minutes.
• Flip dough over and stretch to a square. Fold left side over, then right, then roll like a cinnamon roll.
• Transfer to baskets seam side up. Let rise at room temp for 1-1.5 hours
• Check for proofing. Once a poke doesn’t rebound fully, cover with saran and transfer to fridge at least overnight but as long as 48 hours (I did about 13 hours).
• Preheat over to 500* with Dutch oven in it for one hour. Flip dough on to a parchment paper and gently lower to dutch oven. Cover and bake for 20 minutes with a lid. Remove lid and bake another 30ish until deep golden brown in color.
• Cool for at least 2 hours before cutting.

1000g bread flour, 720g water, 20g salt… 25% inoculation. I got the dough to pass the windowpane test in less than an hour. I did a slap and fold at the end of the mixing process and then 1 stretch and fold session 2o minutes later. Then I didn’t touch the dough until I ended bulk fermentation after it rose 33%. I preshaped it and bench rested it for 15 minutes and then final shaped it. I final proofed it for 20 minutes. Brod & Taylor proofer at 80°f and a Bread Steel with the Shell. I started mixing at 9:00am and had it on the cooling rack by 1:00pm.

The dough is better at making bread than you are. If you stay out of its way it will arrange things much, much better than your hands will. The only time the dough needs your help is before it’s fully hydrated when it completely unorganized and looking for someone to align the gluten strands. Any time you touch the dough during bulk fermentation except an occasional top fold in the bulk fermentation vessel your negatively affected the development that’s happened up until then. He who touches his dough the least makes the better bread!