For Beginner-Step By Step Instruction to Your Very First Sourdough (mixer version)

Follow this easy direction and make your first sourdough bread today

Making sourdough bread is not as difficult as you would think. Proudly speaking, it is part of my life now. Once you make your very first sourdough bread, you will be surprised how simple the process is and the hands-on time is honestly short.

However, it does take patience to grow your own starter before making bread. An active and healthy starter is the key to good sourdough bread. Alternatively, get some starters from your friends if they make sourdough at home. Buying dried sourdough start online is another option. It ensures the starter is active and working. Feed it following the instructions on the package and it is ready to go. If you are not sure how to make your own sourdough starter, check For Beginners – How to cultivate your own sourdough starter for more detailed instructions.

Now, you have your starter ready. Let’s get to the process.

What recipe should I use?

Try my ultimate basic sourdough recipe. With 70% hydration, it is easy to mix the dough either with a machine or by hand. And 30% starter accelerates the whole process and shortens the bulk fermentation. Generally, I use 20-30% starter in different seasons. Use less starter in warmer times and more starter in colder seasons.

Can I make sourdough bread without a mixer?

You surely can! The only difference will be at the folding stage and less mixing along the process. Dough mixed by hand has less strength (weaker gluten network). To enhance the structure of the dough, more folds are needed. For the hand-mixed dough, I adopt a mix of 2-4 sets of stretch and folds (S&F) (15-minute intervals) and 2-4 sets of coil folds (30-minute intervals) during bulk fermentation. As for the machine-mixed dough, 3-4 coil folds should be sufficient. To understand more about all types of folds, go to another way to build your dough’s strength.

Step 1. Feed starter

An active and healthy starter is the key to decent sourdough bread. Make sure you use the starter at its peak. I discussed how to take advantage of the starter ratio here to fit sourdough-making into your life.

Feed on the same day: feed with 1 : 1 : 1 ratio (= Starter : flour : water)

Feed on the day before (before you go to bed and plan to make bread in the next morning): feed between 1 : 3 : 3 to 1 : 5 : 5 ratio

Mix your starter with flour and water, using a chopstick or a mini spatula. Make sure no dry flour is in the mix.

• tip: always feed a bit more so you have extra for backup.
• For example, if the recipe calls for 150g starter. I’ll feed my starter to 170g. (30g starter + 70g flour + 70g water) The remaining 20g can be fed again and left in the fridge as my new starter mother (the one that you keep and feed before making bread)

Step 2. Autolyse for 30 minutes (optional)

In short, autolyse is a process where flour and water are mixed together to form a dough and the dough is left aside for some time for the enzyme and bacteria to work their magic. During autolyse, gluten starts to form and reduces overall mixing time. Read more about autolyse in what is aytolyse? How does it boost my dough?

Mix flour and most of the water from the recipe together until a dough is formed. I usually save a bit of water (20-25ml) for later when adding starter and salt for better distribution.

• tip 1: perform autolyse after you feed the starter or when the starter is halfway to its peak. So the autolyse is done when the starter is ready to use
• tip 2: you can mix the dough either by hand or use a stand mixer. If mixing by hand, a plastic scraper is your best friend. If using a stand mixer, use a paddle attachment for autolyse.

How autolyse affects the dough:

Step 3. Add starter

After autolyse, the dough should be more smooth and stretchy. Add the starter and a bit of remaining water to the dough and continue mixing until the gluten network shows. An indicator of the gluten starting to form is the dough doesn’t stick to the mixing bowl anymore while mixing.

Checking gluten formation by observing the dough:

Windowpane test:

If not using autolyse, mix the starter with flour and water as follow:

Step 4. Add salt

Salt interferes with gluten formation. More specifically, it tightens the gluten bonding causing slower gluten development and longer mixing time. That means, by adding the salt at the beginning, it takes longer time to develop gluten. However, if salt is added after a certain degree of gluten develops, it helps tighten the dough

After the gluten network develops, add salt and the remaining water. Water assists in distributing the salt. Continue mixing the dough until the salt is absorbed. Perform another windowpane test.

Windowpane test after adding salt:

Step 5. Add inclusion (optional)

Add any inclusions at this stage. Either add add-ins to the dough and continue mixing in a mixer for a few minutes or apply lamination.

Step 6. Bulk fermentation + folding

Bulk ferment, also known as first rise or primary fermentation, is the first proofing stage after mixing. During bulk ferment, bakers usually apply several sets of folds to help build up the dough’s structure. Learn more at when does bulk fermentation complete?

Transfer the dough into a square and transparent container for easy observation. Record the total weight for later during the dividing stage. Depending on the flour type and dough hydration, different numbers of folding are required. Ideally, perform 3 to 4 sets of coil fold at the first 1.5 hours once mixing is done.

If the dough is mixed by machine, I would perform 3-4 coil folds during bulk fermentation with 30-45 minutes intervals.

• tip 1: the number of folds and how long between each set of folds depends on your dough. Higher hydration dough needs more sets of folds and shorter intervals while lower hydration dough requires less folding and longer intervals.
• tip 2: I record some videos demonstrating different kinds of fold here.

With more sets of folds you have performed, you can feel the dough is stronger and less extensible. The dough can hold its shape better.

After 3-4 sets of fold, leave the dough aside and let the wild yeast do its work. I would wait until the dough has doubled (or almost) the volume and then I can move ahead to diving and pre-shaping.

Step 7. Diving (optional) and pre-shaping

After the dough has doubled its size, it is ready to be divided and pre-shape. Based on the size of your proofing baskets, you might need to divide the dough into two, three or even more. Pre-shape is the stage where you shape your dough into a ball or a log so it has better structure and also better rise.

• tip: when dividing the dough on the bench, dust your workbench with flour so the dough won’t stick to the bench. Alternative, use oil spray to prevent sticking.
• tip 2: a metal scraper helps create tension between the bench and the dough

Pre-shaping: the focus for doing pre-shaping is to restructure the gluten strands. Flip the dough with the smooth side facing down and then fold the dough from the four corners and flip over so the smooth side facing up. Then using the side of your hand to hold the dough, rolling the dough on the bench by creating tension between the dough and the bench, further tightening the bottom of the dough.

• tip: the quantity of flour on the bench determines the tension. Too much flour, you wouldn’t be able to tighten the dough; too little flour, the dough would stick to the bench. Same as using oil/ spray.

Step 8. Final shaping

Final shaping is a critical part as the dough will go through a long period of final proofing until baking. A good final shape also helps with the oven spring during baking. The point of final shaping is to create a tight outer surface.

After pre-shaping, I relax the dough on the bench for about 30 minutes. If performing the second shaping straight away, the dough is more likely to shrink back and you won’t get a nice shaped dough.

• tip: I dusk some polenta flour/semolina into the proofing basket not only to prevent sticking but also to get some texture on the final baked goods. You can use normal flour or rice flour for dusting.

Step 9. Proofing

For the sourdough to be sour, time is of the essence. Most of the sourdough undergoes a long cold final proofing. It can be from 8 hours to up to 72 hours (or longer but not recommended). Personally, I cold-proof my dough between 10-18 hours. The longer the proofing is, the sourer it will be. But the longer the proofing is, the less oven spring it would have.

After final- shaping, I cover the dough and leave it in the fridge overnight or until I have time to bake it. Some people cover their bread with a plastic bag or plastic shower cap. For me, I like to dry the bottom dough a bit so the dough won’t continue proofing like crazy in the fridge.

After 16 hours cold-proof:

Step 10. Pre-heating the oven

Pre-heating the oven is essential. Without pre-heating the oven (and the Dutch oven/ baking steel), it would take longer time to bake the bread and when the middle of the dough is finally cooked, the surface is already dry out, leading to an overly thick crust.

When pre-heating the oven, pre-heat the Dutch oven (closed baking) or baking steel and a deep tray (open bake) at the same time at max setting. Those baking tools absorb the heat and because of their thickness, they can withhold the heat for a longer time, resulting in better heat contribution and hence better oven spring.

45 minutes to 1 hour pre-heating is highly recommended. Thicker baking steel may take longer.

Step 11. Scoring

Scoring is when you slash the dough so when the dough is baking in the oven, the steam (water in the dough evaporates) can escape from the slash and hence the dough would have a beautiful “belly”, “ear” and “lashes”.

Scoring is fun when you create different patterns. The most common ones are the wheat as shown in the video below.

Step 12. baking

There are two ways of baking sourdough: open bake and closed bake. Depending on the bakeware you have, both method delivers a good amount of steam during baking. Read more about what tools to use at how to create steam and what bakeware to use?

Closed baked:

250 degrees, 20 minutes, with steam (lid) +

230 degrees, 20-23 degrees, without stream (lid)

Once the dough is scored, transfer it into a Dutch oven, and chuck 2 ice cubes at the side in the Dutch oven too. It gives extra steam.

open baked:

250 degrees, 20 minutes, with steam +

230 degrees, 20-23 degrees, without stream (open oven door and turn the bread if necessary)

If using open bake, boil some water and after transferring the dough onto baking steel, quickly and carefully pour boiling water onto the deep tray (pre-heated) at the bottom of the oven.

Step 13. Cooling

Cooling is part of the bread production. After the bread is baked and out of the oven, the main goal is to decrease the center temperature as fast as possible to prevent soggy and stale. More importantly, cooling helps the starch in the dough complete gelatinization and the water in the dough can hence be distributed evenly throughout the bread. If you try to slice the bread that is just out of the oven, it is very likely that you won’t get a clean cut. Instead, you would get a gummy slice and that is starch not being cooled down yet.

Based on the size of the bread, the cooling period can vary. For my usual sourdough (550-700g), I leave the bread on a cooling rack once out of the oven for at least 1 hour.

At the end

I am so proud of you for completing the whole process and I know it contains loads of information. Please don’t feel overwhelmed. I wish to provide as many details as possible so you will be confident by following each step. And I truly hope that you will start making sourdough and fall in love with it.