It is no wonder that baking sourdough bread can be overwhelming – search the internet and you will find hundreds of recipes that all have different instructions, many with scary hydration ratios and unfamiliar measurements and terms.
In my search to make the perfect loaf of sourdough bread (spoiler: still working on it), here are a few tips and tricks that I have discovered. Like with any new skill, the more you practice, the more you are bound to improve.
Does Hydration Really Matter? What is a Levain?
Sourdough can get very complicated. There is certainly a science behind it, and the more you know about it, the more you can alter the profile of your bread and impact the level of sourness, crust, etc. To make it even harder, different recipes call for different types of flour… and every sourdough “expert” has strong opinions on what is the best/only choice. My advice (not expert!) would be, don’t let the technical aspects of baking sourdough keep you from attempting to bake bread. You can bake a very successful loaf without worrying about baker’s percentages and hydration levels or using a levain. In fact, higher hydration bread can be more difficult to work with, so you might not want to start with 100% hydration at the risk of ending up with a wet, sloppy mess. My favorite recipe is 74% hydration, which makes it easy to handle but still delivers a light, delicious loaf. If you would like to understand more about these terms and what they mean, Matthew James Duffy has everything you could possibly want and more on his site.
Take Notes
Every time you bake elements change that can impact your bread – is your kitchen a different temperature? How long did your bread rise? Was your starter active, or had it already peaked?
I highly recommend taking notes each time you bake a new loaf of sourdough. Keep track of how long you let it rise, proof, and how it turned out. Take note of the air temperature because that will effect how long it takes for your bread to rise. Keep a notebook in the kitchen so you know where it is, and use it as a reference the next time you bake.
There are special notebooks you can buy like this one that allow you to go into great detail about your baking process. However, a plain spiral notebook will work just as well.
Try Different Recipes
There are a million recipes for baking sourdough bread. You can change almost any aspect of your bread making to have a different result. Different grains will yield different bread, and you can mix in just about anything to alter the flavor of your bread. There are also recipes to shorten the duration of the process so you can create a loaf, start to finish, in just one day. My recommendation is to try a recipe labeled “beginner” (like my favorite recipe or another great recipe).
Just Do It
There is no reason to not just give it a try. The worst thing that happens is that your bread doesn’t turn out great. Guess what – I’m sure Picasso wasn’t happy with all of his art either. The hardest part of trying something new is taking the first step, so just do it. If you aren’t happy with the results, well, tomorrow is a new day. During one of my first attempts I thought the bread was done rising, so I attempted to shape it and it just spread out on the counter in a wet, gloppy mess. That sadly ended up in the trash (although, now that I am more experienced, I do believe I could actually have salvaged the bread).
Once you start getting comfortable with the basics with baking sourdough, try experimenting! Different techniques and recipes will give you different results.
If you have made sourdough bread, what tips do you have to end up with a successful loaf? If you haven’t tried baking bread yet, what is holding you back?
