making sourdough – The simplest way to make sourdough

Pizza dough..

This recipe utilises my master recipe as a base, and the dough is made with Cotswold Flour pizza flour, link below. This flour has been created specifically for making pizza bases (but is also great for making sourdough loaves too as I can fully attest) and is made with strong white bread flour plus a flour conditioner, vitamin C powder (aka ascorbic acid), which helps to produce not only a great structure in the dough but mostly to give us a wonderfully relaxed and easy to stretch dough which is ideal for making pizzas.

If you don’t have access to this flour, try using straight strong bread flour, all purpose flour or type 00, the same guidelines will apply, all you may need to do is tweak the amount of water but I’d still suggest using my quantities as your starting point. Or you could try adding a tablespoon of lemon juice to your mix or some vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) to see how it changes the feel and behaviour of the dough.

What you need to know about my pizza dough recipe…

Water: I have got 2 versions of the same recipe, the only difference being how much water is used in the mix. I never talk about hydration percentages as I find it redundant information, I’m only using them here as an example to explain what I’m sharing. For information only and to compare, my standard master recipe is 70% hydration; all that means is that as a standard, the water content (350g) is 70% of the flour content (500g).

The first version of the recipe therefore uses what equates to 60% hydration and the second version equates to 65%. The one with less water is a perfect starting point for your pizza making as it produces dough that is easy to work with and not too soft and scary. This version is also ideal if you are doing the first mixes in an electric mixer.

If you feel comfortable with that level of water then try to slightly higher one and see how it feels.

Both options produce perfectly light and airy pizza crusts and tasty bases.

Starter: I have used less starter than usual in these recipes as it is summer at the moment, and summer is often a pizza making time. Feel free to increase it to my standard 50g if you feel it’s needed taking into account all of the information about making sourdough and how it is affected by the weather and heat.

Yield: as there are 3 of us in my family, these recipes produce 3 balls of dough, and each ball is perfect for a 12” pizza base.

You can easily scale this up or down based on your requirement.

Flour: As mentioned above, click HERE for the pizza flour I have used in these recipes.

Timing: these doughs REALLY benefit from a long rest in the fridge, 2-3 days works well, I’ve even left them for 5 days before using the dough balls and they’ve been fine. This can really help with planning ahead.

Equipment: a covered pan like the one I use is perfect for proving the dough balls in the fridge, if you can I highly recommend getting one or some, plus these will work well for making focaccia and other things. Mine is a ‘Nordic Ware Naturals Baker’s Quarter Sheet with Lid, Aluminium Baking Tray’.

You can find the ones I use here in the US. Or here in the UK.

Also needed:

Mixing bowl

Digital scales

Bowl scraper

Shower cap

Version one (60%):

20g starter

270g water

450g pizza flour (see intro)

Salt to taste

Version two (65%):

20g starter

290g water

450g pizza flour (see intro)

Salt to taste

Fine semolina flour or rice flour

Method

Step 1: late afternoon/early evening, roughly mix together all the ingredients in your mixing bowl, cover with your shower cap and leave the bowl on the counter.

Step 2: after 2 hours, perform one set of pulls and folds on the dough, lifting and pulling the dough up and over and across the bowl, repeatedly, all the way round and round the bowl, until it becomes smooth. The dough will be stretchy. Cover the bowl again and leave it on the counter.

Step 3: After 1 hour, perform two more sets of pulls and folds, each time the dough should come into an easy bouncy smooth ball. Each time it comes into a ball, cover the bowl again and leave it on the counter. These actions do not need to be a set time apart.

For more details about how I make my dough and what this recipe is based on, visit my full master recipe: https://foodbodsourdough.com/the-process/

Step 4: Leave to prove overnight/until doubled in size.

Step 5: Split the dough equally into 3 pieces. Sprinkle semolina or rice flour in your pan/tub and over the counter. Shape the dough pieces into tight balls, place them smooth side up in your prepared pan, cover it, and place it into the fridge. It will prove again and the dough will develop into the beautiful orbs of dough you can see in my photos.

Step 6: to then use the dough, my pizza advisor, Scott’s (see below) best advice, and what I’ve been doing as a result, is to take the covered pan holding the balls of proved dough from the fridge a few hours before needing to use them, this helps the dough to relax which makes them easier to stretch and handle.

To use: shape your base, top with your favourite toppings and cook/bake it as you always do.

Or for lots of tips and to see and hear more about this, watch our new podcast episode with Scott and see him give me a lesson in shaping pizza bases – and in that episode I am using sourdough pizza doughs made exactly as above so you’ll be able to see it in action. Have your dough made and ready!

Listen:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-foodbod-pod/id1670904926?i=1000665566081

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1a7lsV2w51qYRq8zSw5ucx?si=IK29cjJ0T8a5wu1CjRSuVA

Or search for the Foodbod Pod on all podcast platforms.

Watch:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/xWwv1-6IK0o?si=40MUvD_Gx26Lk7YJ

Me with my first ever Ooni cooked sourdough pizza –
all coming up on the next episode!

The tips and guidance I share the most…

These are some reminders and tips from the conversations I’ve had, and things I’ve been asked recently, but these are also the things I am asked about the most often, they are all things I’ve said many times before, but they may be a useful reminder for you, or they may be new to you if you’re new to me ☺️

🌟 These tips are all based on using my standard master recipe and are based on my own practices and methods.

In your dough:

🌟 if it’s hot where you are, or in your kitchen, use less starter in your dough to prevent over proving
🌟 if it’s humid where you are, or in your kitchen, use less water in your dough to prevent it from being bubbly and sticky and impossible to handle and shape
🌟 if it’s hot AND humid use less starter AND less water
🌟 in all 3 of the above, nothing else in the recipe needs to change only those aspects

🌟 if your water is soft, use 25g less water in the recipe
🌟 if your water is hard, nothing needs to change
🌟 if you’re using organic or supermarket bread flour use 25g less water to prevent soft unmanageable dough

🌟🌟 the loaf in this photo above was made with 10g of starter
🌟🌟 less starter does NOT equate to less flavour or texture (as this photo shows), less starter always mean MORE flavour as the dough works harder which creates more flavour
🌟🌟 more starter does NOT mean more flavour, all it means is more risk of over proving at any time of the year

In your starter:

🌟 if it’s hot where you are, or in your kitchen, don’t leave your starter on the counter for too long, watch it carefully and once it’s started to grow and is responding put it into the fridge, it will keep growing just more slowly
🌟 if it’s hot where you are, or in your kitchen, use less water in your starter than flour to prevent it from becoming thin in the heat, as above
🌟 if it’s humid where you are, or in your kitchen, using less water in your starter if it’s getting too thin from the added moisture in the air
🌟 don’t be afraid to give your starter what it needs, ratios are not necessary, equal weights are not necessary if your starter needs different input
🌟 thick is always better than thin in a starter, a thin starter won’t rise and won’t lift your dough
🌟 if you’re making a new starter these things also apply, learn to watch your starter and see what it needs

I hope these help!

For more tips and help read more of the posts here on my website.

These are also some of the posts I send people the most often to assist their sourdough making:

Why does dough spread https://foodbodsourdough.com/why-does-my-dough-spread/

Gummy loaves https://foodbodsourdough.com/gummy-loaves/

It’s about the dough not the lame https://foodbodsourdough.com/its-often-about-the-dough-not-the-lame/

How long: https://foodbodsourdough.com/how-long/

Don’t blame starter: https://foodbodsourdough.com/dont-blame-your-starter/

How to make a starter: https://foodbodsourdough.com/how-to-make-a-starter/

My master recipe: https://foodbodsourdough.com/the-process/

Hot temps: https://foodbodsourdough.com/making-sourdough-in-hot-temperatures/

Heat and humidity: https://foodbodsourdough.com/making-sourdough-in-hot-and-humid-environments/

FAQ: https://foodbodsourdough.com/faq/

The new season of my podcast starts HERE and we’re talking SOURDOUGH!

I am very excited to announce the new season of my podcast, The Foodbod Pod, and this year we’re packing in LOTS of sourdough chat. Recipes, answers, hints, tips, we’ve got them all. Listen from the links below to hear what we’ll be bringing you – and my latest bigs news 🤩

Listen here and enjoy!

Or on Apple, Podbean, Spotify, Amazon, Google and other platforms.

Brought you in partnership with Matthews Cotswold Flour and Shanas Sourdough.

For everything you need to make fabulous sourdough: we’ve got you covered!

A plea to stop over heating starters…

This is a copy of a post I added to my Facebook page that I am copying here because I want it logged on my website too…

This autumn and into winter, I have seen a real trend for overheating starters, and consequently many poor starters are over fermenting, and getting thin and hungry as a result from being too warm for too long.

The fact is: A thin starter is a weak starter and will not lift a dough. And by putting starters in so much warmth for so long that’s what will happen.

So please pass this onto anyone you think it might help:

First and fore mostly, please tell anyone that you see doing do so, to stop putting their starters in warm places, places like ovens with pilot lights on/the top of the fridge/the airing cupboard/near the stove/by your Aga/or by wood burners, for hours on end, and days and nights at a time. It’s much too warm for much too long. The starter will ferment like mad and get thin and weak as a result.

I understand that people worry when it gets cold, but I’ve just made 14 brand new starters in my kitchen over the last week, including the one above, and they all just sat on my kitchen counter, at whatever the temperatures happened to be, which happened to be between 13C – 19C that week, and did their thing very happily. I didn’t put them anywhere special, or anywhere warm, just on my kitchen counter.

The fact is: They really do not need to be coddled so much.

A little bit of warmth is fine, but mostly your kitchen counter, or some part of your kitchen, is ideal. You don’t need special gadgets or anything else just your kitchen counter.

I understand that people worry about starters, especially new ones, but they really are far more resilient than people think, just give them a chance to do their thing…yes, some need tweaks along the way, but they don’t need to be cooked.

These are the facts:

If your starter is growing quickly, getting almost frothy, it’s too warm.
If it’s got a layer of dark liquid on the top, it’s too warm.
If it’s got a flat surface with teeny tiny bubbles it’s become thin from being too warm.
If it smells very strongly of acetone, or just very strongly at all, it’s too warm.

These scenarios can all be fixed by feeding your starter less water than flour, making it nice and thick again, then continuing on with the process, on the counter.

Follow the process, follow my tips, and it will be fab!

HOW TO MAKE A STARTER

How to make a sourdough starter, the full step by step video…

You can now watch the full steps of how to make a sourdough starter on my YouTube channel, everything you need to know all in one place!

Find it HERE

Happy making!

Some top tips for your dough making..

Give your dough the time it needs to fully prove.

Watch your dough and not the clock, this is key to ensuring the dough proves as it needs to.

Do not leave dough on the oven overnight with the light on, it?s too warm for too long and it will over prove.

Give your dough time to double overnight; depending on the temperature overnight this may take shorter or longer than my usual times stated in my master recipe.

But if your dough does over prove, use it to make fabulous focaccia or flatbreads. NEVER EVER throw dough away, always use it.

If you dough spreads when you turn it out in the pan, but bakes up to a lovely loaf, don?t worry about the spreading, enjoy your loaf.

If your dough does not look like mine but bakes to a fabulous loaf, that is perfect, it does not matter what the dough looks like if the loaf is everything you hoped for.

Sourdough is a wonderfully slow process, let it happen and enjoy it, it will be worth it.

If you do not have a banneton, line a same sized bowl with a clean tea towel and sprinkle it with rice flour.

If you do not have rice flour, grind some uncooked rice, it is the same thing.

You can use any covered oven proof pan just make sure it is big enough.

You do not need to preheat your oven, or your pan.

Always my biggest and most important tip: If it tastes good IT IS GOOD!

Do not focus on looks and holes and scoring, they do not make it taste any better, plus sourdough is not defined by having ears, or being big round loaves, or full of holes. Sourdough is bread that has been made with a sourdough starter, that is it.

Enjoy what you are creating, do not spoil it by being pulled into the beauty contest.

But, if your loaves are not as you hoped, there?s always ALWAYS a particular reason and an easy tweak.

Check out all of the info throughout my site about flour, weather, scoring, storing, the FAQs, baking times takes, there is lots of free info here for you.

These are just some of the tips I share regularly, but are hopefully useful. Happy baking!

Making my master recipe in a mixer..

This loaf was made using my master recipe with the first mixes done in my KitchenAid mixer. The details below explain how I made it for anyone that would like to, or needs to, use a mixer when making my recipes.

Sourdough can be made in many ways, I love to make mine by hand, but sometimes using a mixer is useful when I have lots of doughs to make, or I want to give my arms a break; as always, there is no mess, no faff, no unnecessary steps with my process. Just simple straightforward steps.

You can use any size of KitchenAid mixer, I used my tilt head one to make this loaf, using the dough hook and the stainless steel mixing bowl that comes with the mixer, and baking in my usual enamel roaster.

PLEASE NOTE: if you are in the UK the amazing people KitchenAid UK have given me a discount code ELAINE15 to share with my bakers.

This code provides a 15% discount across the site and is valid to 31st December 2023 (perfect for Christmas shopping!). Please note that there are a few products excluded from this offer.

This is what I do:

*I use my standard master recipe: 50g starter, 350g water, 500g flour, salt
*I mix the ingredients in the standard stainless steel bowl with the dough hook on setting 1 for 4-5 mins.
*I take the dough hook out and place it in a covered bowl in between uses so that the dough does not dry on it.
*I then cover the bowl and let it sit on the counter for 1.5-2 hours, I then mix it again using the same dough hook on setting 1 for 3-4 mins. I cover the bowl again and let it sit.
*After an hour I perform a set of pulls and folds on the dough with the dough still in the mixer bowl. I cover the bowl again and let it sit.
*Before going to bed I do another set of pulls and folds then cover the bowl again and leave it to prove overnight.
*In the morning, with the dough still in the mixer bowl, I pull the dough into a tight ball and place it into my usual banneton. Covered it and put it into the fridge.
*After a few hours, I turn the dough out into my usual enamel roaster pan, scored, put the lid on and bake at 220C/450F fan/convection for 55 mins from a cold start, with the lid on the whole time.
*And the lovely loaf above and below is the outcome.

I made this loaf using my KA with the standard size 4.3l bowl. I also have a larger sized machine with a 4.8l bowl which is perfect for making 2 doughs at once and still all staying in the bowl the whole time, the double batch fits in it perfectly for mixing and proving. Or you can use whatever mixer you have.

TOP TIP: soak your mixer bowl and dough hook in cold water to soak off any dough, not hot water, it will cook the dough onto the bowl.

I also tested using the KitchenAid Bread Bowl with my master recipe and it works well!

The ceramic finish is lovely, the dough does not stick at all, there are lines etched on the inside that are a very useful guide, AND once the dough has been proved in the banneton and in the fridge for a while, you turn the bowl over and bake in it. It works PERFECTLY from a cold start, and the size encourages a beautiful round loaf.

AND I used my brand new Foodbod Sourdough lame to score it.

Don’t blame your lame..

A question that I am often asked is: where can I get a better lame, mine does not seem to work that well?

And as much as I have a very beautiful new branded lame I might very happily wish to sell you, usually the issue is not actually the lame, it is the dough.

If you are having issues scoring your dough, it truly is unlikely to be an issue with the lame. Instead my questions to you would be:

Was your dough soft and sticky after the overnight proof?

When you turned your dough out from the banneton did it spread?

When you tried to score your dough did the lame just drag through it?

Did the dough collapse and not hold any shape?

But first and foremost, I would ask, how did your loaf bake?

The answer to all of the questions that I get posed about dough and loaves, is always, how did the loaf bake; because if your dough bakes to a wonderful loaf that you thoroughly enjoyed, then it does not matter how the scoring went, or how your dough behaved.

However, if you feel you would like your loaf to be somewhat enhanced or different, then read on..

If you have a nice sharp lame, or a thin sharp blade that you use, and still it drags through your dough, your dough needs some input. If your dough is soft and sticky it either needs less water from the start, or it over proved, or just needs to be pulled tighter for the banneton.

And in which case, this post will help you.

If you are happy with your dough but would like an cleaner surface to score, or more time to score pretty patterns, before baking, place your banneton full of dough into the freezer for 30 minutes, then turn it out, score and bake.

If you would like to purchase one of my lames, of course you would be more than welcome and you can find them here. But to get the best out of using them, or whatever you have got, work on firming up your dough first. Then score slowly, be decisive, and score deeper than you probably think you need to. If I can help, get in touch.

Happy scoring!

Gummy loaves

What makes a gummy loaf? I get asked this a lot so I thought I’d share some answers and possibilities here, there can be a few reasons:

Slicing into a loaf before it’s cooled enough will give you a lovely warm slice of fresh bread, but it won’t be at its best, it will end up gummy from the steam; I leave my loaves for hours and hours before slicing into them. That way they’re light and dry and the texture I want them to be. If you can’t wait, go for it, but just do keep this in mind.

Over proving can produce a moist crumb, if your loaf is wide and flat and pale on the outside with small holes and a slightly damp interior, it may well be over.

Under baking can produce a gummy interior. Try baking for longer.

Is your pan big enough for your loaf? If the pan is too small and your loaf doesn’t have the space it needs to grow as it bakes it will hinder the bake and prevent it from being fully baked inside.

Too much water can also produce a damp loaf. Try less water with your flour.

Uneven heat in your oven can be the culprit – if you loaf is nicely golden on the outside but gummy or moist in the inside, it’s baking too quickly on the outside. Trying reducing the temperature you’re baking at and bake for a bit longer. Experiment until you find the sweet spot, and take notes along the way.

Consider if you’ve added any inclusions? Have they added liquid to the dough you didn’t account for?

If you live somewhere humid and you’ve baked your lovely loaf and left it out for several hours to cool, the humidity can soften the crust and damped the loaf, try to catch it whilst it’s still crisp on the outside and store it in something that will repel moisture.

A gummy loaf could be as a result of one, or more, of these. As always, the best way to find your solution is to go through an elimination process and change one thing at a time and make notes, always make notes.

If all else fails, make toast. Dry your slices of bread out in the toaster and enjoy!

I hope this helps!

For more tips and help check out my FAQ page and my Tips Index.

Chocolate and chilli loaf..

Let me tell you the story of this huge and beautiful loaf…

For this dough I used my ‘same day’ process as I planned to make and bake the dough within the same day. That meant I used 100g starter instead of my usual 50g, (see ingredients details below) and I mixed the dough up mid morning. I left it in my kitchen to do it’s thing, when really I should have put it in a warm space as per my same day process in my books, but I didn’t, I left it on the counter.

As it was cold, as the day went on the dough didn’t really do much, so I took a risk and left it out all night in addition to the time it had on the counter all day. It was so cold I decided it was worth a go…and luckily, it worked! This is what I woke up to…

A HUGE beautiful dough! And a beautifully structured dough too.

Due to the cold weather this dough had proved for around 18 hours in total and remained perfectly intact and ready to bake into a great loaf. The chilli give it a nice hit of heat and the chocolate adds a richness and brings out the chilli flavour nicely.

NOTE: Below are the ingredients I used, the mixture of the sugars in the chocolate and the oat milk, the added starter and the chilli all added to produce this beautiful dough which baked into such a big loaf it hit the top of my pan, as you can see by the slight dip in the top of the loaf in the first photo.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend using this much starter typically unless you can watch the dough or manage the time and temperature. If I make this again I will use my usual 50g starter and my usual timings.

Ingredients

100g starter/50g starter

350g oat milk/400g oat milk (or milk of your choice)

500g strong white bread flour

50g grated/flakes 80% dark chocolate (use your own choice of chocolate)

30g pul biber/Aleppo chilli flakes (these are quite mild, and gives the loaf a nice heat, if you want more of a kick, use a stronger ground chilli powder/chilli flakes)

Salt to taste

Method

Follow my master recipe or use the same day process in either of my books.

Enjoy!

To answer the questions that came up when I shared this dough: this dough is not over proved. If it was over it would have collapsed and been bubbly and hard to handle; this was a perfectly proved well structured dough.