Sourdough Bread Calculator

Calculate

1. Hydration is percentage of dry flour, so 100% is equal weight flour and water.
2. Percentage of total flour.
3. Don't forget the salt, I'm sure you will.

Starter

• Several 300ml (½ pint) glasses
• Filter the water: chorine will kill the yeast, lead will kill your brain
• Chopsticks or a long spoon
• Kitchen paper or plastic to cover

Start by making a slurry with 50g of organic whole wheat flour and 50g of water. The less refined the flour, the better—you want all the yeast and bacteria from the grain.

The next day, grab a new container and add 50g of yesterday’s starter to 50g of water and 50g of flour. You can mark the level with a whiteboard marker to keep track of how it’s growing.

Keep feeding it like this every day for a few days to a week until the starter is bubbling.

You can store the discards in the fridge to kickstart a new starter later. Keep your main starter in the fridge until you’re ready to bake bread, and try to feed it once a week.

Bread

• Kitchen machine
• Shot glass
• Vinyl gloves
• Large putty knife
• Proofing baskets
• Scalpel or old-fashioned razor blade
• Dutch oven
• Oven that can reach 250°C
• High-temperature BBQ gloves

Start by mixing the main water portion with the starter in a bowl. Stir until the starter dissolves, then gradually add the flour mixture. Mix until there are no dry spots. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes — this is called autolyse.

Add the salt to the dough after the autolyse. Mix for about two minutes to fully incorporate the salt. Give it another quick mix if needed to make sure everything is well combined. You didn’t forget the salt, did you?

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it starts to come loose from the bowl. Use a medium to high setting if you’re using a kitchen machine. There’s no such thing as overkneading. The dough will start acting like a non-Newtonian fluid, so be careful. It might crawl up the spatula into the machine. The dough should reach good elasticity.

Take a shot glass and add a spoonful of dough. Mark the level with a whiteboard marker. You can leave the rest of the dough in the bowl for bulk fermentation. After the dough has risen about half (50%) in volume, transfer it to a work surface and divide it into portions, about 750g for standard loaves. Pre-shape the dough into rounds or rectangles, depending on the shape you want, and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Look up videos on how to shape bread with a dough scraper or putty knife. It takes practice, but the better you get, the prettier your bread will look.

For the final shaping, create surface tension by stretching or folding the dough. Place the shaped dough into proofing baskets or bannetons, making sure the seams are sealed to keep the structure during proofing. Cover and let the dough proof briefly at room temperature, then move it to the fridge for a cold fermentation for 24 hours.

Preheat your oven to the highest temperature, like 250°C. Let the Dutch oven heat up for about 30 minutes. When you’re ready to bake, score the dough to allow for controlled expansion and place it in the Dutch oven. Bake for 15 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake for another 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown and crisp. If you’re baking multiple loaves, keep the lid in the oven while it’s not in use to stay hot.

Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool on a rack for a few hours. Once it’s fully cooled, package the loaves in suitable bags, label them if you want, and store or share them. Enjoy your delicious, homemade sourdough bread!

• Use vinyl gloves if you don't want to make your hands dirty. The dough sticks less to the gloves than to skin.
• As a cheaper alternative to expensive proofing baskets, you can use 500ml bagasse bowls typically used for take-away. The organic material absorbs the water from the dough.
• And don’t forget the salt!