Sourdough Bread: Starter, Recipe, & Rhythm
Sourdough Bread: The Starter
There’s something deeply comforting about pulling a warm, crusty loaf of sourdough from your oven—knowing it came from just four humble ingredients, a little patience, and a whole lot of love. My sourdough journey began with growing my own starter from scratch, watching it bubble to life on my kitchen counter like a science experiment meets slow magic.
If that sounds intimidating—don’t worry! You can absolutely create your own starter, or you can take a shortcut and ask a friend to share a bit of theirs. Either way, once you begin, you’ll find that sourdough becomes more than just bread… it becomes a rhythm, a joy, and maybe even a bit of a love story.
My own sourdough starter journey began during a season when we were forced to slow down and we learned to love and savor the simple things—March of 2020. I named her Lottie, and she’s been faithfully bubbling away ever since. It’s hard to believe she’s now five years old!
Lottie has made her way into the kitchens of my daughter-in-love, my son, and several dear friends. Sharing her has been one of my favorite parts of this journey. And if you’re wondering how to get started with your own, don’t worry—it’s not hard, just a bit of a time investment at the beginning.
Growing your own starter is a simple process that just takes flour, water, and a little patience. There are plenty of guides online to walk you through the 7–14 day process, or you can even order a freeze-dried starter on Etsy for a small price and skip the wait. Either way, the journey is worth it!
Keeping The Starter Alive
Once you’ve got your starter going, the key is keeping it alive and happy! If you bake often, you’ll want to feed it daily. But if you’re more of a weekend baker, you can store it in the fridge and give it a good feeding once a week—or even every couple of weeks.
Truthfully, I’ve gone as long as a month without feeding mine, and with a little TLC (and a couple of feedings), it bounced right back to life.
The Rhythm of Preparing the Starter
The secret to sourdough success? Finding your rhythm. And let me tell you—this was the biggest learning curve for me. But once I settled into a simple routine, everything changed. I’ve learned that if something feels too complicated, I probably won’t stick with it—and maybe you can relate.
Establishing that rhythm might just be the most important (and the most challenging) part of your sourdough journey. But here’s the good news: if I can figure it out, you can too!
The Day Before Bake Day: Wake Up Your Starter
Start your bread-making process the morning before baking by taking your starter out of the fridge and giving it a good feeding.
What does that mean? Simply transfer 2 heaping tablespoons of your starter into a clean jar (always use a clean jar!). Then add ½ cup of bread flour (I like King Arthur, but any flour will do) and ½ cup of lukewarm tap water. Stir it well.
Cover the jar loosely with a cloth napkin or dishtowel and let it sit at room temperature for 6–8 hours. Your starter should rise and almost double in size.
If it’s nice and bubbly by late afternoon or early evening (around 5 or 6 PM), just pop a lid on the jar and place it back in the fridge for the night. It’ll be ready for you in the morning!
Bake Day Morning: Time to Get Things Going
First thing in the morning, take your starter out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for about an hour. You’ll often see it begin to rise again—that’s a great sign! At this point, your leaven is active and ready to use.
However, if your starter didn’t double in size after yesterday’s feeding, don’t worry. Just give it another feeding before you go to bed and let it rise overnight. By the time you wake up, it should be bubbly and ready for action.
It might sound a bit complicated at first, but once you start practicing, the rhythm will begin to make sense. You’ll get to know your starter—how it behaves, how long it takes to activate, and when it’s at its peak.
And one quick tip: If your starter has been hanging out in the fridge a little too long without a feeding, it might need some extra love. A couple of good feedings, spaced out by 6–12 hours, will usually bring it back to life.
Sourdough Bread-The Recipe
Kim’s Sourdough Bread Recipe (This recipe includes an overnight cool proof and has become my favorite way of making sourdough) It is a slightly different rhythm than the method below. Both work well, however, if you want fresh sourdough in the morning then the overnight cool proof method is great!
The Recipe
Ingredients:
3/4 cup sourdough starter
1 1/4 cups filtered water
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
3 Tbsp honey
3-3 1/2 cups bread flour (I use King Arthur bread flour)
Add the first four ingredients to the bowl, and then add 2 cups of flour. Blend with a dough hook (either with a mixer or by hand). Once mixed, let this stand for 20 minutes.
Dough Hook Link. (This is for those of you without a mixer. I have a Kitchen Aid and it comes with a dough hook attachment.
This is where the process of autolyzing comes in. After you gently mix the ingredients, let the dough rest for 20 minutes. This allows the flour to fully hydrate before moving on to the next step.
After 20 minutes, add the remaining 1 to 1 1/2 cups of flour. Add slowly, and when the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball, that is enough flour. Once the ball is formed, place it on the counter and knead for 5 minutes.
I use a little flour on my hands to keep from sticking. You may need to add tiny bits of flour as you go to make the dough workable. This will help it to form better and not stick to your hands.
The Stretch & Fold Phase
Put the dough in a lightly floured bowl, and loosely cover it with a dish towel. For the first hour, stretch and fold every 15 minutes. Don’t forget to check out my post Sourdough Bread Terminology, if some of these verbage on this post are foreign to you.
After that first hour, for the next 4-6 hours, stretch and fold once every hour. I am very loose with this time frame, depending on what my day entails.
When I am home for the day, I will set an alarm and do it every hour. If I have to run out or have an appointment, there have been times I have walked away from my dough for 2-3 hours and have then returned to continue the stretch and fold process.
If it gets too late in the day and I am too tired to bake, I will cover it with Saran Wrap and pop it in the fridge overnight, and start the stretching and folding again in the morning, a few more times, and then bake.
Once your dough seems light and airy (Depending on the weather and time of year, it may take the full six-eight hours until it’s light and airy enough to bake), do the final stretch and put it on the counter with the folded side face down, and cover it with a tea towel for 10 minutes.
The Boule
Turn on the oven to 450 degrees and place the Dutch Oven with the lid in the oven while the oven heats up.
After the dough rests for 10 minutes on the counter; then it is time to shape the boule. This is the process of pulling and tucking your dough to make a taught surface. There are many YouTube videos on this to help you! Be careful not to pull too tight because you don’t want to squeeze out all the airy bubbles, but you need to form a nice taught boule.
At this point, turn the bread upside down into a floured bowl and let it rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour. You can also purchase a proofing bowl or Banneton on Amazon. Proofing Bowl Set with Lame and Scraper.
The Scoring
After 45 minutes to an hour, it’s time to flip the boule onto a piece of parchment paper. Take a razor blade or lame and score the bread. This allows the bread to have space to expand. Make sure your cut is deep enough to give plenty of room for expansion.
Check out YouTube or Google for design ideas. I keep it simple and use a pretty consistent design, but you can be creative and artistic and have fun with this!
The Bake
Lift the parchment paper with the boule and place it into the Dutch oven, and cover. Reduce heat to 430 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes covered.
Uncover and bake for 15 minutes more. Your sourdough will have a nice medium-brown crust on top. The bottom will be very dark brown and have a hollow sound when tapped.
The crust will seem hard when it first comes out of the oven, but don’t panic. As it cools, it will soften to that lovely crust that has a harder shell but softer inside.
Slice & Store
When baking is complete, place your loaf on a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing, as sourdough is still cooking while it cools. Although if I’m being completely honest, I will often cut a slice, load it with butter, and eat it fresh out of the oven.
How to slice your sourdough bread? Sourdough bread is sometimes hard to slice. Hubby saw my frustration with cutting and came home with a Cutco knife from Costco to alleviate that frustration.
Some people cut theirs in half and then turn it facedown and slice it that way. You can try that as well. I slice all of my loaves and then place them in a ziplock bag if we aren’t going to eat it all within the first few days.
When I bake multiple loaves at once, I will slice them all and freeze one. It is just as good when you pull it out of the freezer, especially if toasting it.
The Joy Of Sourdough Bread
That is what you need to help you with the starter, recipe, and rhythm. Baking sourdough bread has brought me and others so much joy.
I am fascinated with the way baking sourdough bread makes me feel inside. I feel fulfilled, and honestly, I’m not even sure why, but it is a deep feeling.
By feeding my family fresh, homemade bread I know I am giving them something that is better for them, and I am following centuries of tradition when baking sourdough bread. See the origin of sourdough in my post For The Love Of Sourdough Bread.
Below you will find several ways we use our sourdough bread. It truly does make life better!
I hope this post has given you the confidence and clarity to step into your sourdough journey with joy—not perfection, just progress. Remember, learning something new takes time, and that’s part of the beauty of it.
Sourdough has a way of slowing us down, inviting us into rhythm, and bringing warmth to our homes in the most delicious way.
Whether your first loaf turns out picture-perfect or a little “rustic,” don’t give up—each bake is a step forward. And trust me, the smell of fresh bread from your own oven is always worth it.
If you try this and find success (or even if you just have a good laugh over your first attempt!), I’d absolutely love to hear from you. Send me a message on Instagram or shoot me an email—I’d be so encouraged to hear your story.
Here’s to warm loaves, learning curves, and lots of butter. 🥖💛
Kim 👩🍳
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