My Sourdough Method

I had a sourdough starter in 2024 and made it pretty regularly for a year and a half. I had okay luck for not knowing what I was doing. Then I stopped and started up again this past fall with a new starter. It immediately got moldy, which seemed kind of crazy because that's never happened to me before. I began again in November 2025 with a new starter I made myself and I've had luck so far! I actually use a mash-up of a couple of different recipes so I'm going to type out what I DO. I legitimately feel, 2 years in, that it's about what works for you and you have to be willing to experiment a little. It's more about feeling and how basic science works, not so much following an exact series of steps in a recipe or having the right equipment. I used to get really hung up on the equipment aspect. I'm linking the products I used but none are very expensive. The most "expensive" part of sourdough making is the time you invest. 

The only special equipment you need is a food scale and a way to warm your sourdough starter. 

I do prefer to bake in a regular loaf pan, and you probably already have one! I did buy the fancy Dutch oven to start two years ago but realized I preferred a loaf method better. 

1. Pull your starter out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature for about 12 hours. I'll pull it out first thing in the morning or before bed. 

2. Discard half your starter --I keep a jar of discard in the fridge, or you can just throw it out. You can make just about anything with sourdough discard. Google it. 

3. Add 3 tablespoons of flour and 1 tablespoon of water. Stir really well and place on a sourdough warmer. This is CRITICAL. You must keep it warm. I am lazy and also a little cheap so I made my own warmer. I'm not telling you to do this but it works amazingly well. 

I also never understand how people are putting open jars or jars without a lid or jars with a lid or whatever as a way to let their starter rise. Every website talks about ventilation and air but also covered but also loosely covered. It's all very contradictory. 

I use press-and-seal with a rubber band around it. The first person to give me a starter two years ago handed me a mason jar with press-and-seal on it so that's my method now. I do the same for my discard jar in the fridge because I lost the lids to my mason jars I bought specifically for this purpose. 

Just fed and starting to warm

...and a few hours later:

4. You want the starter to get bubbly and double in size. This can take 4 hours, it can take 10 hours. I used to think it was a hard and fast 12 hours from feeding the starter to mixing the dough, because that's what the tutorials give for their time ranges. It's not. It just depends on what the starter is doing. This key is: Has it doubled in size? Is it bubbly?

5. Then you're ready to make dough. 

After I measure out the starter, I also feed the starter again and put it back on the warmer. This is why it doesn't get moldy; as long as it is being fed or refrigerated between feedings, starters last forever. I try to discard and feed twice a day if I'm actively making a few loaves of bread a week. 

You will need a scale. There's no way around it. I've been using it for a couple of years. 

Put a big bowl on the scale and then "tare" it so it goes to 0 grams (you are measuring in grams).

Add 100 grams of your starter. 

Add 360 grams of room temp/slightly warm water. I usually take a big mug of water and microwave it for 20 seconds. Comes out to about 80 degrees. A thermometer is great for checking this--I also use a thermometer to check how warm my starter is when it's in the jar. 

Stir.

Add 500 grams of all-purpose flour. 

I used to use separate bowls but I realized I was just aiming for 960 grams on the scale when I was done and it saves some time and dishes. 

Stir into a dough.

6. Cover and let sit in a warm spot (I just put it on top of the stove but sometimes I check the air temp there with my thermometer) for about 30 minutes. This is a very important step because it lets the flour absorb the water. 

Add 10 grams of sea salt. I used Redmond's, and can only find it on Amazon. Do not use table salt. It's a different consistency for the measurement and your bread will be too salty.

Either mix in the salt with your hand or a wooden spoon. Form the dough into a loose ball but keep it in the bowl.

7. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Put some flour on a cutting board and scrape the dough onto the board. Do some stretch and folds, just for about 15 seconds, maybe 4 or 5 of them. Don't over-handle the dough.

There are a ton of quick tutorials out there on how to stretch and fold. It's not complicated at all but just watching someone explain how to do it is helpful. It's not a long task or process. 

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold again.

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold again.

Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and fold again.

Four times is usually the magic number for stretching and folding. You can do more but you don't want to over-handle the dough. 

8. Then you have the bulk rise. If you make up your dough in the morning, it's going to rise all day. If you make up your dough at night, it will rise overnight. Again, I used to think that it needed to rise for like 12 hours. It doesn't. The key is to just let it double in size, just like with the starter after you feed it. I used to get over-fermented dough because I let it go too long. For me, I normally mix up the dough around 8-10pm and then will bake it around 9am (because I'm lazy and get up late...you can do it earlier). Or I'll mix it up in the morning and bake it late afternoon or evening. Again, just let it double in size. 

9. Flour a cutting board, scrape out the dough, shape it into a loose rectangle and gently fold it up into a loaf shape. I tri-fold it and then tuck in the ends. 

10. Put it into a loaf pan. I use a regular metal one. Cover with press-and-seal and place in that warm spot again for about 30 minutes. Then I preheat the oven for the next 15 minutes or so. In all, it sits in the pan for about 45 minutes. 

11. I bake at 392 degrees F. The very first recipe I used gave that as the time so that's what I stuck with and it works. I've seen loaf pan recipes say to bake at 375 degrees or 400 degrees. I'm sure the difference between 392 and 400 is negligible at best, but I like what I like. 

Score the top. Nothing fancy here and I just use a paring knife. You just need a place for steam to escape. 

I usually bake for 40 minutes. I set the timer and check on it at that point. I do usually put a knife into the center but if the outside is golden brown and it's puffed-up, it's done. 

That's it. No fancy equipment. Just a few links to products I already use. No videos. No ads that slow your scrolling. This is my tried and true method. 

Let me know if you try it and I'd love for you to share your own recipe for sourdough!