Here are instructions on how to make fail-safe sourdough bread. This will make about a 900g standard loaf

Equipment

  • An electronic scale
  • Mixing bowl
  • A hand-pump pressure sprayer for creating a spray of water
  • Baking steel or flat baking tray or dutch oven

Environment

  • A kitchen with a temperature of around 23C-27C. The fermentation process is very dependent on ambient temperature, the higher the temperature the faster the fermentation process meaning your dough will rise in a shorter time.
  • The process is time-sensitive. Some steps require that you act immediately, and any delay may affect the quality of the final product.

Ingredients

Some ingredients are marked optional. These instructions make a bread that’s 70% hydration.

  • 300g luke-warm water (might need to add 30g later)
  • 30g olive oil (OPTIONAL)
  • 400g flour (at least 10% protein content)
  • 100g unsifted wholewheat brown flour (OPTIONAL but if you don’t use the brown flour 500g flour in total)
  • 10g salt
  • 100g starter (1:1, meaning a starter of 1:1 water to flour)
  • ~8g baker’s malt (OPTIONAL)

Method

  • Add the tepid water to a mixing bowl.
  • Add the starter, then stir thoroughly dissolving as much starter as you can.
  • Mix in the flour and malt.
  • Mix well using a spoon, the let the a gloopy mess REST for at least 20 minutes. This process is called autolyse. Notice how the dough sticks to the side of the bowl and the dough is not smooth and shiny.
  • Now add the salt and oil. If you add these ingredients before the initial autolysis it just slows it down (apparently).
  • When you knead the dough now you’ll notice it’s smoother and shinier than before. At this point the dough that used to the stick to the side of the bowl will now stick onto the dough, kind of cleaning the bowl as you knead inside the bowl.
  • You can use the slap and fold technique to knead the dough but it’s not really necessary. All you need to ensure is that the dough is consistently mixed. Basically you are ‘feeding’ the yeasts and bacteria fresh food and developing the gluten networks in the dough. Do your kneading for 3(?) minutes then let the dough rest for 10 minutes. The resting step is IMPORTANT. Do this about as many times as you have time for. I knead for 5 minutes, then let is rest for 30 minutes. I do 3 cycles of this (if I have time). If you have a dough machine note that it is possible to overknead the dough due to kinetic energy being converted to heat, accellerating the fermentation process. I use a spoon to simulate a dough machine as I don’t like dirtying my hands.
  • Once you are satisfied that the dough is smooth and shiny and elastic enough (do the window-pane text described below) let it ferment for as long as it takes nearly double in size. This could take anywhere from 3 to 6 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen. The bowl should be covered with a moist cloth. The temperature of your kitchen should be about 25C or the process will just take longer.
  • Note that if you add more flour or water for whatever reason, LET THE DOUGH REST after you do it.
  • Once the dough has ‘doubled in size’, take it out of the mixing bowl and ‘shape’ it. You can look up videos on how this is done but basically you’re going to choose between boule and a batard shape. The videos will also have ideas on what kind of container to transfer the dough to (if you want to be fancy you can use a proofing basket/banneton but any container will work)
  • Let the dough proof for at least 6 hours in the fridge, the longer (up to 36 hours) the more sour the bread will be. The sourness is actually a byproduct of the ‘good bacteria’ as it consumes the gluten structures (do it long enough and your sourdough bread might be gluten-free but more like a chiabata). But at 6 hours the bread will taste just as awesome.
  • Some videos will talk about the poke-test, some will recommend using a thermometer and so on to tell if the dough has been proofed sufficiently but I think in your first few loaves don’t even worry about this. The dough should just have an almost puffy feel to it, just remember it needs to be popped out of the container and still ‘scored’.

Pre-Baking

  • Some people recommend a baking steel and even though I switch between a baking steel and an unpturned flat baking tray, a steel doesn’t add that much value to the process. It merely increases your chances of obtaining good ‘oven spring’.
  • Place your tray in your oven, then turn it to max ensuring the steel/tray gets super hot. Wait until the pilot light of your oven switches off.
  • As the dough might still be cold from the fridge proofing it is easier to score, a trick would be to place the (sealed) proofed dough into your freezer and let it cool down a lot more as cold firm dough is easier to score. But be careful about leaving pockets of air in the container as this might cause parts of the dough to unevenly dry out.
  • Now flip the dough onto a baking sheet lightly covered with (preferably)rice flour. The baking should be on some type cutting board so that later it can slid off onto the baking tray. If you were paying attention to the shaping videos you’ll know the term flip is used here.
  • Score as required. I use a razor blade edged at 45-degrees to the surface of the dough, cutting along a top edge in a swift deep motion about half-an-inch deep. There are a lot of videos on how this is done. You might want to use your hand to give the dough some ‘stretch’ while you cut. The purpose of the score is to give the bread a controlled tearing as it rapidly expands in the oven. If you don’t make your cuts deep enough, or the oven is too dry then the bread might ‘burst’ at the bottom or along any edge the steam will escape through.

Baking

  • Now place/shuffle the dough onto the hot tray in the oven.
  • If you have a turbo-fan place the edge with the main cut to face the turbo fan.
  • Use your power sprayer to spray a wall of the oven so that it creates a steam cloud.
  • Then shut the oven door.
  • Turn down the temperature to 210C.
  • Wait 5 minutes, then repeat creating the steam cloud. ONLY SPRAY ONE WALL OF THE OVEN. Not the oven lights and definitely not the bread itself.
  • Now wait 35 minutes. Do not open the oven door.
  • Basically you want those tiny air pockets created during the proofing phase to steam up until the bread is hard enough to support the weight of itself. If the bread prematurely cools down the pocket risks collapse.
  • You’ll know the bread is ready when you see brown, gold and yellow colour on the bread.
  • If you want you can turn the bread at around the 20 minutes-remaining mark (if you are not using a turbo fan)

Post-baking

  • After taking the bread out of the oven, let it cool for at least twenty minutes. This is so that it can de-steam, DO NOT CUT the bread or keep it upside down during this time.
  • IF you tap the underside of the bread it should sound kind of hollow.
  • Once cooled, cut and enjoy.

Common problems

No rise (oven spring) / poor crumb formation

  • Could be caused by too cold an oven or upturned tray. Make sure the oven is at max temperature when you put the bread in. The tray should have reached max oven temp at this point, when you spray the oven the temperature will drop immediately. You basically want the bread to start steaming (expanding the little bubbles caused by the yeast digesting the gluten) creating expanding air pockets and maintaining them. If the initial temperature drops too low, and these air pockets collapse.. well, the bread won’t rise. Starter not active enough.

Crust too hard

  • Add more oil.
  • Not enough steam.

Ear did not form

  • The purpose of the ear is to give the bread a seam to expand into as it rises. It’s a controlled break. If you don’t give it this controlled break the bread will burst at a point you might not want it (like at the base). You want the bread to stretch along this cut, and to provide that elasticity you need to make sure the dough is still moist (by creating the steam environment).
  • The scoring wasn’t deep enough.

Slightly bitter or no taste

  • Could be not enough salt
  • Or too much malt. Malt should be added at 1% of flour weight.

Bread is too chewy, raw spots

  • Keep the temperature consistent for the entire 35 minutes of baking post initial 5 minutes.

Definitions

baker’s math

The above recipe can be reduced to a series of ratios against the flour, then you can double the flour or decrease any ingredient per this ratio. So for example if a recipe calls for 500g flour and it’s a 75% hydration bread then it’s about 375g of water. All measurements will be in grammes.

luke-warm

Water that is about as warm as you’d use to mix formula for a baby’s bottle. Definitely not ice-cold water or something you’d make tea with.

window-pane test

A common test to see if gluten networks in the dough have formed sufficiently to effect a strong rise. Take a flab of dough and try to spread it between two fingers. If it spreads, and forms a thin window pane then the dough is elastic enough to pass the test.

Here’s a video

Additional information

The best source of additional information I found is fellow developer, breadcode’s free e-book available at https://www.the-sourdough-framework.com/

Expect failure expect failure the first few times you try.