Sourdough Bread

Today I’m sharing my sourdough bread making journey. It was a bumpy one!

I’ve made various breads throughout the years – some recipes required yeast and some didn’t. For the most part though, most of those bread recipes turned out pretty well. I didn’t make any sourdough bread during the pandemic sourdough craze. I was really late to the game and decided to try making sourdough bread in the spring.

Sourdough starter

First I tried making my own starter a few times. I found instructions online and followed them to the letter – more than once – but I was never successful. Unfortunately I just wasn’t able to get it to ferment. I had bubbles starting once, but the next day they had disappeared. It wasn’t until I tried using dehydrated sourdough starters that I had success. You can buy dehydrated starters online. Everywhere from Amazon to Etsy has them. I’ve used starters from both Jennos Homestead Shop and Oat and Daisy. They both worked great and were able to get me started making sourdough bread. If you’re new to sourdough bread I would recommend getting a starter – either a fresh one from a friend or a dehydrated one that you’ve bought. It makes the process so much easier and less frustrating!

Leaving a jar of sourdough starter on the counter means that you need to add “food” aka flour and water to the starter every 24 to 48 hours. I like to use equal parts of starter, flour, and water. If I start with 20 gr of starter, then I’ll add 20 gr of flour and 20 gr of water. It’s really important to use weight and not volume when feeding your sourdough starter. Volume can be unreliable, so it’s definitely worth it to use a digital scale when measuring ingredients. I use this digital kitchen scale (affiliate link). I’ve had it for years now and it’s stood up to everything I’ve thrown at it, from spills to accidentally dropping it once. I highly recommend it.

I won’t get into the science of feeding sourdough starters, but if you’re looking for more details, The Clever Carrot blog has a great post about it.

Sourdough bread dough

The first loaf of sourdough bread that I tried to make was a massive failure. It didn’t rise at all. Instead it was more like a dough brick – hard on the outside and undercooked on the inside. Did I mention how dense it was? Definitely not what I was going for.

For my second attempt I decided to try making a sandwich loaf. I used a recipe from The Clever Carrot and followed it down to the very last detail. I’m so glad I did because I finally had success! I ended up with a golden brown light loaf that smelled amazing and was perfect to cut into slices for sandwiches. The recipe was really easy to follow. It requires starting the dough the night before and letting it rise overnight. It might be a bit more work than making it all in one day, but it’s so worth the extra effort.

Sourdough discard

Every time you feed your starter you’ll end up with discard. This is the starter that you don’t use that is thrown away. If you don’t want to just through it out, there are tons of recipes for using the discard. There’s everything from pizza dough to waffles to scones to pancakes. There’s so many different ways to use it if you feel bad about throwing it out. If you want to share your starter with a friend, give them the discard.

Is sourdough bread worth it?

In short: yes! Even though I struggled in the beginning with making a starter and finding a good sourdough bread recipe, I’m so glad that I stuck with it. I’ve made dozens and dozens of loaves. I’ve been able to keep the starters alive for months and months. While it does take some extra effort to bake sourdough, in my mind it’s well worth it. Sourdough tastes and smells amazing, and makes the whole kitchen smell good when it’s baking in the oven.

Essential equipment

• Loaf pan – I love these for making sandwich bread.
• KitchenAid mixer – For someone who’d rather skip the kneading by hand process, using the dough hook on this mixer is a lifesaver!
• Glass measuring cups – These are what I store my starters in. Every time I feed my starters I transfer it to a new, clean measuring cup. It makes it super easy to measure all the ingredients on my digital scale.
• Wire cooling rack – The best (and quickest) way to cool your loaf once it comes out of the oven.
• Digital kitchen scale

Sourdough recipes

If you’re looking for more ways to use your sourdough starter beyond a classic loaf, I’ve shared a few of my favorite recipes on the blog. These easy sourdough bagels are soft, chewy, and perfect for breakfast or lunch sandwiches—they’re surprisingly simple to make at home. I’ve also put together a recipe for sourdough focaccia that’s light, fluffy, and topped with olive oil and herbs. Both are great ways to get creative with your sourdough starter and enjoy homemade baked goods fresh from your own kitchen.

Have you made sourdough bread before? How did it turn out?

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my blog – I appreciate it!