Learning how to make artisan sourdough bread at home is a skill you’ll greatly appreciate!
Back when I first started my sourdough journey, one of the first things I baked was a loaf of artisan bread. I found a good recipe and followed it as closely as I could with the equipment I already had. Crossing my fingers, I slid the loaf into my oven. To my surprise and joy, when I pulled it back out, I saw a beautiful loaf!
And even more important than looks was the flavor: it was incredible! My previous experience with sourdough had mouth-puckering sourness. None of that here: my loaf had a great depth of flavor, but other than that it was hard to distinguish the sourness!
Encouraged by my first successful bake, I continued to experiment and perfect the method. Along the way I learned a few tips and tricks for making great artisan sourdough bread at home. For example: a cold, long rise is best. I can’t control the thermostat in my house, so it’s impossible to bake bread in a consistent environment. But letting the dough bulk rise in the refrigerator is a great way to create that environment! Plus the long ferment allows for incredible flavor development.
If you make any of the sourdough recipes on my blog, I beg you: MAKE THIS ONE! It truly is something special. Eating a slice of freshly baked sourdough bread slathered in butter is an experience that all food lovers should have at least once in their life. Yes, you can purchase some really good store-bought sourdough these days. But unless you’re lucky enough to live close to a traditional bakery, it won’t be as fresh as homemade!
You can find my recipe, tips, and tutorial for How to Make Artisan Sourdough Bread at Home over on The Pioneer Woman’s blog HERE.
If you have any questions or need to troubleshoot, I’d love to help! Just leave me a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer.
xoxo
Erica
More Sourdough Recipes:
- How to Make a Sourdough Starter From Scratch
- Sourdough Pie Crust
- Sourdough Dutch Baby/German Pancake
- Overnight Sourdough Waffles
Do I need to use parchment paper when baking sourdough bread loaf? I could not buy it in my small town store.
It’s not an absolute necessity, but it’s very handy. For the method I use for this artisan sourdough bread, I like to preheat my Dutch oven in a very hot oven before baking the bread. You *could* try to transfer the dough directly to the hot pan instead of putting in on parchment paper first, but you would need to reach your hands into a scorching hot Dutch oven to score the bread, and the dough might not land in Dutch oven properly.
I would recommend instead baking the bread using the pizza stone/heavy cookie sheet method. Preheat your stone/sheet in the oven for about half an hour. Put a metal rimmed pan on the bottom rack of the oven. Put a kettle of water on to boil. Generously dust a wooden cutting board or pizza peel with cornmeal. Turn the dough out of the bowl/banneton onto the cornmeal. Score as desired. Carefully and gently transfer the dough from the peel onto the stone/sheet in the oven. You may need to use a spatula to encourage the dough to slide off. Pour the hot water into the metal rimmed pan and quickly shut the oven door. Bake as directed in the recipe. I have not personally tried this method!
You can also get parchment paper online. I highly recommend it – it makes baking sourdough bread so much easier!
Hello! I found your recipe a few weeks ago & have made several loaves of artisan sourdough bread. My family & I LOVE them! For those prior loaves I had been using a starter that was kept at room temperature. I decided to refrigerate my starter a couple days ago & would like to start another sponge for another batch of loaves. What is your recommended procedure for making a sponge when you have a cold starter? TIA
Hey, Sarah! Honestly, I just pull it out of the fridge, feed it, and let it ferment at room temperature for about 8-10 hours or until it doubles and passes the float test. I was a little more precise with each step when I started out with sourdough, but once I got the hang of it, I started to bend the rules a little more. đ
Do you put both pieces of dough in one Dutch oven?
Hey Lori,
No, you cook one piece in the Dutch oven, then the second one once the first has cooked. Hope that helps!
I have a couple questions regarding the sourdough starter.
1- At what point do you stop discarding and only feed it?
2- When you have the amount of starter you want to keep on hand permanently, can you just pour in an equal weight of water and flour, regardless of your starter size? Letâs say the flour and water weight are more than the starter weight, or less than the starter weight – can you just feed it a misc. weight just to feed it, or do you need to be exact?
Thank you so very much!
Hi Danielle,
1) You can stop throwing out your starter once it doesn’t smell funky anymore. You can save any amount that you need to “discard” in a jar in the fridge, and use it for pancakes, Dutch babies, or any other recipe that uses sourdough discard. That way it won’t go to waste!
2) You need to feed a sourdough starter AT LEAST the same weight of flour and water as sourdough starter. So if you have 50 grams of sourdough starter, you need to feed it at least 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water. You can “overfeed” your starter. So you could feed 50 grams of starter 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour. But you don’t water to “underfeed” it.
What I like to do is only feed my starter a little bit more than what I’ll need in a recipe. So if a recipe calls for 240 grams of sourdough starter, I’ll make sure to feed it in a way that makes about 260 grams of starter. So if I start with 60 grams of starter, I’ll feed it 100 grams each of flour and water for a total weight of 260 grams of starter. Then I’ll use 240 grams in my recipe, and feed the remaining 20 grams of starter with about 20 grams each of flour and water. Then I’ll only have 60 grams of starter in the fridge and I haven’t had to discard any.
When I first started using sourdough, I was having to dump a lot of starter. But then I learned how to feed it just the amount I needed for a recipe, and I no longer have to discard!
Hope that helps!
Hi Erica, you mention mature starter. Can you explain how this works. Show long do you leave it between feedings and if you are ready to bake do you still feed and do float test first? Or do you go straight to making the dough?
Hi Brenda,
A mature starter can mean a couple of things. Some people use it to mean a starter that has existed for at least 2 weeks. So not one that you made from scratch yesterday. It has had time to gain strength and find a balance between yeast and bacteria.
It can also mean that it has been fed 8-12 hours previously and has doubled in bulk, is bubbly, and passes the float test. You would use the starter at this point without feeding it, but leave a little extra in the jar to feed for next time. Does that make sense?
How do I store my bread once it’s baked?
I recommend either storing it at room temperature in a plastic zippered bag or wrapped in beeswax wrap, or freeze it.
Hi Erica,
I am about halfway through the artisanal sourdough bread recipe, and would like to ask a question. The recipe calls for 1 lb. flour, and your step-by-step phots and written instructions on Pioneer Womanâs website say to add 700 grams of flour. I initially stirred in the 1 lb. of flour to the starter/water mixture and what resulted was way too runny. I went back and looked at the recipe and then did a Google conversion of â700 grams of flour equals how many pounds?â. 700 grams of flour is more like 1 1/2 lbs. of flour, so I just added the additional 1/2 lb. of flour in and the dough looks like it does in your photos. I am at the âstretch and foldâ stage now, and things are going along fine. Iâll let you know how this first attempt turns out, and if you have time please let me know about the 1 lb. of flour vs. 1 1/2 lbs. of flour. I know others have made this recipe by reading the comments. Thanks so much Erica!
Hey Judy,
I wrote the recipe using grams, and I think someone else converted it to pounds to better fit the recipe format. Using a quick Google converter, it looks like 700 grams is a little over 1 1/2 pounds!
Thank you Erica.
I just took my loaves from the oven. I wish there was a way I could send you a photo of them. They turned out great!
Awesome! You could email the photos to me: ericaleaphotos@gmail.com
Or you could DM me on Instagram (@butteredsideupblog) or post them on my Facebook page (facebook.com/butteredsideupblog).
Think the measures were switched. I also started with 20 oz. water to 16 oz flour and ended up with a salty, runny mess. Then read up that the proportions of water and starter should be 80% and 20% respectively of the flour weight. (20oz of flour would require 16 oz of water at 80%) and had to add the additional flour as I folded. We’ll see tomorrow if it works
I should have followed your step by step đ
Ah, maybe they got mixed up! Hopefully it worked out for you!
I added the additional flour after the 3rd fold (imagine folding pancake batter). It was denser but tasted great! Definitely a learning experience.
I tried again the next day (using a small batch pineapple juice starter) and gave the pre-folded dough to a friend along with the step-by-step instructions… It went over so well that her father-in-law and 2 other guests asked that I teach them!
That’s awesome, Barbara! Yes, sourdough is definitely a learning experience, but so very rewarding.
Done!