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There’s nothing more exciting to a baker than pulling a homemade loaf of sourdough from your own oven. This is my everyday sourdough recipe, yielding a golden, blistered crust, a medium open crumb, and that delicious, naturally tangy sourdough flavor. Below is my guide on making bakery worthy sourdough loaves at home.

Sourdough loaf cut in half and stacked on a wood cutting board.

Sourdough Terms
Key Ingredients & Test Notes
Stand Mixer or Mixing by Hand
Basic Equipment for Sourdough Bread
Next Level Sourdough Equipment
Baker’s Percentage and Hydration
Sample Schedule for Sourdough Bread
Temperature and Rise For Bulk Fermentation
How to Make Sourdough Bread
Jenn’s Sourdough Bread Tips
How to Store Homemade Sourdough Bread
Everyday Sourdough Bread Recipe

I’ve combined the country loaf recipe from Tartine Bread with techniques I learned in French baking school to create what has become my ideal loaf. After testing a lot of different flours, including French flours, I found that my favorite flavor and chewy crust comes from a combination of 00 flour and whole wheat flour.

I make my sourdough starter with a combination of all-purpose flour and rye flour, which I use to create a separate levain on baking day. The addition of whole grains gives the bread a deeper, more complex flavor. Plus a little extra kick when it comes to rise and structure.

Sourdough Terms

Sourdough Starter (also known as Levain): A living culture of wild yeast and beneficial bacteria made by fermenting flour with water. Once established and healthy, your starter can be used to make a levain for baking bread.
Levain: A portion of active sourdough starter mixed with fresh flour and water. Levain is left to ferment until active and bubbly, around 2 hrs. I make a small, separate levain specifically for baking day rather than using my entire starter.
Bassinage: Additional water added to the dough after the initial mix and rest. This technique allows you to develop the dough before incorporating more water, helping build strength while increasing hydration.
Coil Folds: A gentle folding technique used during bulk fermentation to strengthen the gluten network without aggressively handling or degassing the dough. The dough is gently lifted from the center and folded underneath itself.
Fermentolyse: Mixing the flour, water, and levain together first, resting the dough, then adding the salt. This rest gives the flour time to fully hydrate and development gluten before the salt is incorporated.
Bulk Fermentation: The first stage of fermentation, beginning when the levain is mixed into the dough and continuing until the dough is ready to be divided and shaped. During this time, the dough develops flavor, strength, and volume from carbon dioxide gas bubbles.
Bench Rest: The short resting period after the dough has been divided and pre-shaped, before the final shaping. This allows the gluten to relax, making the dough easier to shape without tearing.

Note: If you’re just starting our sourdough journey and haven’t made a starter yet, learn how to make a sourdough starter from scratch. You can also purchase them ready to go or ask a bread baking friend for some.

Key Ingredients & Test Notes

Levain: Rather than adding my mature starter directly to the dough, I build a separate levain, a freshly fed culture made specifically for baking day. This French-style method gives me more control over the strength and timing of fermentation and acts as a fresh “power feed” for the dough.
- My sourdough starter and levain are both made with a mixture of bread flour, rye flour, and water. The rye gives a little extra kick start to the fermentation.
  - Test Note: If your sourdough starter is ripe and ready to go, you can definitely use it instead of making a separate levain.
00 Flour or Bread Flour: I like my sourdough with a chewy crust and a sturdy crumb that holds up well for sandwiches. For this load I’m use 00 flour with 13% protein. Using a strong bread flour may result in a need for additional water up to fully hydrate (20-50 grams.
- Test Note: My favorite flours to use are Caputo 00 Flour or King Arthur Bread Flour.
Whole Wheat Flour: A touch of whole wheat flour adds a little nuttiness to really enhances the overall flavor of the bread.
- Test Note: Use a quality organic wheat flour for the best flavor. In France, I use T150 biologique flour that is an equal equivalent to US whole wheat flour.
Water: I adjust the temperature of my mixing water based on the room temperature and the temperature of my flour. The French master bakers I learned from in France taught me to use this approach, known as the base temperature method.
- Test Note: I use cooler water in a warm kitchen and warmer water in a cool one, aiming to keep my dough temperature at 76–78°F.
Salt: Besides seasoning the bread, salt regulates fermentation, and strengthens the gluten network, helping the dough develop structure and hold its shape.
- Test Note: I use fine sea salt, which dissolves easily into the dough and distributes evenly throughout the loaf.

Overhead of three baked sourdough loaves on a linen covered table.

Stand Mixer or Mixing by Hand

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, or because I learned to make bread alongside French bakers who all use mixers, but I prefer mixing my dough with a stand mixer. I find it creates a stronger dough with better gluten development from the start. This makes shaping much easier and results in a more uniform final loaf.

Stand Mixer: The biggest thing to watch when using a stand mixer is speed. Keep it low to avoid overheating the dough. Adding cool water and checking the dough temperature with a thermometer, is my way to keep it below 84°F (29°C). I use my KitchenAid stand mixer on speed 2 with the dough hook for the initial mix and again after adding the salt and reserved water. To finish building the dough, I perform gentle coil folds by hand.

Mixing By Hand: You can absolutely make excellent bread by hand. It just takes a little more elbow grease and time to develop the gluten. If you prefer mixing by hand, stick with it. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to making bread.

Basic Equipment for Sourdough Bread

Stand Mixer: While you can absolutely make sourdough by hand, I was taught by French bakery chefs to use a stand mixer to develop a strong gluten network from the start. It also makes the process much easier on your hands and wrists.
Large Bowl or Plastic Bread Tub: Use a container thats about double the size of the dough for performing coil folds and resting.
Bannetons: The little nesting baskets that hold shaped loaves for their final long cold fermentation in the fridge.
Plastic Cover: I really love using plastic shower caps with elastic bands that easily fill around my bowl. But you can also use large plastic bags that will fit over your mixing bowl and bannetons.
Bread Lame: It doesn’t really matter if you use a long or short handled lame, just make sure you have a sharp blade for scoring your dough.
Dutch Oven: I love baking bread at home and it’s so easy using a dutch oven. The covered pot traps the moisture released from the dough, creating a steamy environment similar to a professional steam oven. Steam is what helps the bread rise and develop a beautifully crisp, shiny crust.
Silicone Bread Sling: While you can definitely use parchment paper, I really like the ease of transferring my dough with a bread sling.
- I just flip my cold dough from the banneton directly onto the silicone mat and use the long sides to lower it safely into the hot dutch oven.
- The thickness of the silicone also transfers heat more slowly to the bottom of the bread, preventing a burnt under crust.

Next Level Sourdough Equipment

You can absolutely make sourdough at room temperature without any special equipment. But if you bake often or want more control over fermentation, these two pieces of equipment can be game changers. Totally optional of course!

Sourdough Home: This is where I keep my sourdough starter. It creates a temperature-controlled environment with a small fan, so I can keep my starter warm for daily feedings or cold when I’m not baking or traveling. It also means my starter doesn’t take up space in the refrigerator and I can keep it at a consistent temperature.
Proofing Box: A foldable, temperature-controlled box that sits on the counter and can be tucked away when you’re not using it. I use it for my levain and dough, which makes it much easier to control fermentation. Whether my kitchen is too warm or too cold, I can set the temperature I want and more easily track how it affects my dough.

Baked loaf of sourdough bread on a linen napkin on a cutting board.

Baker’s Percentage and Hydration

Baker’s percentage is a simple way to compare every ingredient in a bread recipe to the total amount of flour. The flour is always 100%.

This recipe is a 75% hydration sourdough, with 20% levain, and 2% salt.

00 flour: 900g
Whole wheat flour: 90g
Rye Flour: 10g
Total flour: 1,000g = 100%
Water: 750g
Levain: 200 g
Salt: 20g

750g water ÷ 1,000g flour × 100 = 75% hydration

Hydration affects how the dough feels and how the finished bread looks. I prefer a medium-open crumb: enough airiness to make a beautiful loaf, but with plenty of surface area for spreading butter or jam.

Lower hydration: Stiffer, easier to handle dough with a tighter crumb
Higher hydration: Softer, more delicate dough with larger open crumb holes
75% hydration: A nice middle ground, soft enough for a light crumb, but not so open that your butter and jam fall through the holes!

Tip: Weigh your ingredients with a digital scale! Measuring in cups does not account for ingredient density. Not properly weighing can lead to using too much or too little of an ingredient for a dough that’s dry, dense, or overly sticky.

Sample Schedule for Sourdough Bread

Homemade sourdough takes time and attention, but most of the work is hands off. The times below are flexible, depending on when you mix your dough and plab to bake.

This schedule is a timeline example and not meant to be followed exactly. Your dough schedule may be different as it depends on the temperature of your dough/starter, the activity of your starter, and the temp of your environment. I keep my dough at a temperature of 78-82ºF (25-28ºF). If your dough is colder fermentation can take much longer. Contrastly if your dough is warmer it will ferment faster.

Day 1	Make Dough
8:00 AM – 12:00 PM	Mix Levain (or feed your starter): Mix together ripe sourdough starter, water and flour to make levain. Let rest at 78-82ºF (25-28ºC) doubled in size and bubbly about 3-4 hours.
12:00 PM	Mix together levain, water, and flours. Fermentolyse by resting for 30 min. Bulk fermentation has now begun!
12:30 PM	Mix in reserve bassonage water and salt. Rest 30 min.
1:00 PM	Perform 1st set of coil folds, then rest
1:30 PM	2nd set of stretch and folds, then rest
2:00 PM	3rd set of stretch and folds, then rest
2:30 PM	4th set of stretch and folds if dough feels , then rest
2:30 – 5:30 PM	Rest dough for remainder of bulk fermentation (this could take longer if dough is colder up to several hrs.)
5:30 PM	Divide dough into two halves, pre-shape and rest on the counter uncovered.
6:00 PM	Final shaping, place loaves in banneton, refrigerate for 12-48 hrs

Day 2	Bake
10:00 AM	Preheat oven with the dutch oven inside
11:00 AM	Bake loaves
12:00 PM	Let loaves cool for at least 1hr before slicing.

Temperature and Rise For Bulk Fermentation

After your final coil fold, let the dough continue to rest for the remainder of bulk fermentation. The temperature of your dough can help you know when it’s ready. I don’t always wait for the dough to double in size. Instead, I check its temperature, watch how much it has risen, and look for signs that it’s ready to shape.

The warmer the dough, the faster it ferments, so it needs less rise. Cooler dough ferments more slowly, so it needs more time and a greater rise

For example, if you mix your dough at 8am and it stays around 75°F (24°C) throughout bulk fermentation, it may be ready to divide and shape after about 5–7 hours, once it has risen about 50%.

Use these as general guidelines, not strict rules. Your starter, flour, and kitchen temperature can all affect fermentation time. Summer baking usually goes faster than winter baking, unless you use a temperature controlled environment.

80°F (27°C): 30% rise (about 3.5 to 5.5 hours)
75°F (24°C): 50% rise (about 5 to 7 hours)
70°F (21°C): 75% rise (about 8 to 12 hours)
65°F (18°C): 100% rise (about 12 to 16 hours)

How to Make Sourdough Bread

Straight on view of sourdough starter in a clear mason jar.

Feed your sourdough starter or build a fresh levain (min-starter). Let rise until doubled and slightly domed.

overhead of sourdough starter in a mixing bowl with a dough whisk.

Measure out the ripe levain and place it in the bowl of stand mixer. Or a large bowl if mixing by hand.

Overhead of sourdough starter and water mixed in a bowl.

Pour water #1 into the bowl with the levain and mix together using a dough whisk.

Overhead of bread dough in a mixing bowl with a bowl scraper.

Add the flours and mix on low speed with dough hook for about 2 minutes until the dough comes together. Or by hand to form a thick shaggy dough. Rest for 40 minutes.

Mix in the salt and water #2 (bassinage) while slowly mixing on low speed. Or mix in by hand by grabbing and squeezing the dough to work in the water and salt. It will be tacky and strong. Rest for 30 minutes.

Coil Folds 1: Perform the first set of coil folds. Lightly wet your hands, then gently lift the dough from the center and fold it back onto itself. The dough will stick to the bowl some and feel stretchy at first.

Two hands performing a coil fold on sourdough bread dough.

Wet your hands for each fold. Rotate the bowl and repeat until the dough feels stronger, holds its shape, and has some tension.

Sourdough dough shaped into a ball inside a bowl.

It will become smoother with each fold. I usually only do one from each side. Cover and let rest 30 min. Repeat two more times, resting between each set for a total of 3 coils folds.

Two hands performing a windowpane test on sourdough bread dough.

After the third coil fold, check the temperature of the dough to gauge how long it may still need to rest. Pull up a corner for a window-pane-test to check gluten formation. If the dough easily tears do one more round of coil folds, but if its strong cover and rest.

Continue to bulk ferment until ready to shape. Keep an eye on your dough, checking often as the clock isn’t the best indicator. The dough characteristics will let you know when its ready.

When is bulk fermentation complete and dough ready shape?

Risen about 40% at 78-80ºF (if your temperature is cooler you want the dough to rise more)
Doming toward the middle and pulling away from the edges of the bowl
Puffed up, jiggly in the center, and a few scattered bubbles on the surface

Two round balls of sourdough bread dough on wood counter top.

Divide the dough into two halves and gently shape into rounds using your hands or a bench scraper. Cupping the dough and moving away and back towards yourself in a circular motion. I like to spray my hands lightly with water instead of using flour. The work surface should be plain or very lightly dusted with flour to be able to grip the dough without drying it out.

Start shaping by flipping the pre-shaped dough upside down on the work surface. Wet your palms lightly with water and grab a piece of dough at the “shoulders” and fold them inwards to towards the middle.

Repeat in the middle “knees” and the lower corners “toes”.

Hands shaping a load of sourdough bread.

Grab the dough gently at the top and lightly stretch upward and then roll the dough inwards onto itself to create a log.

Hands pinching a boule shaped loaf od sourdough.

Gently pinch and tuck the ends together.

Unbaked sourdough loaf in a banneton next to a lame.

Using a bench scraper, carefully flip the dough seem side up and set in into the banneton. Pinch the seem together, cover and refigerate for 12-16hrs.

Oval sourdough loaf on a silicone bread sling.

Flip the cold overnight proofed dough onto a silicone dough sling or parchment paper. Lightly spritz with water and score one long cut, slightly off center at a 45 degree angle.

Scored unbaked loaf of sourdough inside a dutch oven.

Lower the dough into the pre-heated hot dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Partially baked loaf of sourdough in dutch oven.

Remove the lid and lower the temp. Continuing baking another 15 minutes until dark golden.

Jenn’s Sourdough Bread Tips

Use a Kitchen Scale: Bread making requires exact measurements of flour and water to track hydration.
Use a Strong Starter: Successful sourdough bread begins with having a strong sourdough starter.
- A well-maintained sourdough starter that is fed either daily or twice daily before baking is ideal.
- By using the levain method of creating a mini-starter the morning you make the fough gives a sluggish or from-the-fridge-starter a good jumpstart.
Use Active Levain: Levain or starter that has doubled in size and peaked (domed), will have the most amount of active yeast and least amount of acidity.
Temperature Matters: The temperature of your dough (and starter) will affect how quickly your dough will rise. I use a thermometer to check my dough’s temp to estimate how long bulk fermentation will last. Again, things move faster with warmer dough.
Wait Before You Slice: Cutting into a hot loaf of bread will release all the trapped steam inside, resulting in a gummy sticky crumb. Try to be patient and let it cool for 1-2 hrs before slicing.

Sliced sourdough halves stacked on top of eachother on a cutting board.

How to Store Homemade Sourdough Bread

Room Temp: Store leftover sourdough bread in an airtight container or bread bag at room temperature for a day or two.

Freezer: Cut the bread into slices and put a piece of parchment in between each slice. Wrap in freezer safe film and freeze for up to three months.