This easy sourdough bread recipe is perfect for beginners, crispy crust, soft chewy crumb, and that classic tangy flavour. Made with just flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter, this step-by-step method helps you bake bakery-quality sourdough at home, even if you’re just starting out. No fancy equipment needed, just patience, time, and a love for good bread.

Easy Homemade Sourdough Bread Recipe (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners)
Easy Homemade Sourdough Bread Recipe (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners)
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Category
Baking
Cuisine
Australian
Author:
Ashley’s Place
Servings
6
Prep Time
24 hours
Cook Time
25 minutes
*Updated process and recipe, we have been on a Sourdough Journey lately making our Starter from scratch you can check out the full instructions on how to make your own homemade sourdough starter here. We don't need any fancy equipment and we don't need a Dutch Oven for this recipe but you can use it if you like
Ingredients
-
500g of High Protein Flour *see note 1
-
100g of Starter *see note 2
-
325g Water
-
10g Salt *see note 3
Directions
To start this process you need to feed your starter to make sure it is active and at the right point to use. Now this depends on the temperature of where you are and if it has been in the fridge. I fed mine the night before just before going to bed and when I got up in the morning it was ready to use *see note 2
Once your starter is ready to use, add your starter and 315g water into a bowl and mix well. Then add your flour and mix that all together until your flour is all combined. It will be more of a shaggy looking dough. Cover the bowl in a damp towel or cover and leave that for about 30 Minutes this is called (autolyse)
Add your remaining 10g of water with 10g of salt and then add into your dough mixture. Once it is added push down with your fingers to mix in the water and salt and mix around until your salt and water is combined. You don’t need to knead this just mix it around
Now we leave it again for about 30 minutes and then do your stretch and folds every 30 minutes for about 2-3 hours. Make sure you cover it after ever stretch and fold so it doesn’t dry out.
To do the stretch and folds, simply lift one side up in the air and push lightly into the center of the dough, turn your dough and do the next one, you do 4 folds and repeat this 2 x 4 folds, so 8 folds in total. Flip that over so the seem is on the bottom and leave again. Do this every 30 minutes or so, you don’t need to time the 30 minutes I just roughly do it every 30 mins
Once it has been about 2-3 hours and you have done your stretch and folds you want to leave it alone covered in the bowl for about 3-4 hours. If you are in colder temps like we currently are in Australia in winter this may take up to 6-8 hours mine actually has been taking closer to 8-9 hours as the temps here have been cold. It will depend on the dough and your temperature in the house. You want it to to be puffier, slightly domed and a bit jiggly. You may notice bubbles on top and it starts to slightly pull away from the sides. If you don’t leave it for long enough to proof it can be doughy even when fully cooked.
Once it has risen take it out of your bowl onto the bench. We want to do this stretch and fold again about 8 times again and then we want to start shaping it into a ball. Either by pulling the folds together into the middle and joining them or rolling your dough around on the bench to create a lovely ball shape and leave on the bench for about 30 minutes in this shape covered with a tea towel (I use the towel from my bowl)
Re-shape one more time for the final shape (this shape will depend on what shape you are baking) but whatever shape you do, you want to really make this a tight ball and make sure the underneath where it all meets the seam is pressed together. We want it to be a tight ball so that it stays in that shape in the oven when we bake it.
Place it either in your bread basket covered with flour or place into a bowl with a tea towel dusted in lots of flour as you don’t want the dough to stick to either one. Pop covered into your fridge overnight. Make sure the basket or bowel is completely covered we don’t want it to dry out on top
About 1 hr before you are ready to bake pre-heat your oven to 240°C or with your pizza stone or if using a tray probably only 30 mins as a Pizza stone takes time to fully heat through if using a Dutch oven do the same putting it in for 1 hour prior to really heat up (just make sure your Dutch oven can handle the higher heat). And at about 20-30 minutes before add a empty shallow tray for your water to go in on the bottom of the oven if you are using your tray or pizza stone you can skip this step if using a Dutch oven.
Start to boil your water & Once the stone is hot carefully take out of the oven and flip your bread onto the tray/stone. I place the stone on top of my bowl and flip it out so its easier and keeps it’s shape. But please be careful the stone is super hot. You want the seam side down and the smooth side facing up, with a sharp knife score the top of the bread in a line or add a design if you like, I like to do both so that I make sure it has a good slice in it, you want to go about 1cm deep for this as it helps the bread rise evenly in the oven. Again be careful of the stone or tray etc
Place your stone/tray with bread in the oven and add some boiling water to the empty tray on the bottom shelf of your oven to create a steam inside, this is so the crust forms but the inside cooks* See note 5
Bake away for a good 20-25mins and then turn the temp down to 210°C and cover in foil if the outside is browning quickly and remove the water tray in the bottom we only need this the first half of the cooking. We want to bake it at the higher temp to help it rise and crust the outside but then we want to lower it and cover the top so that it cooks through and the bottom is cooked well too. You want to bake this for another 25-35 mins until it is baked through and the base is golden as well
Your cooking time will depend on the shape size etc of your loaf, but it should be lovely and golden brown if the base is still blonde then keep baking. Leave to cool completely before slicing as things keep cooking as they rest just like in baking so you need to leave this for quite a few hours as it can be doughy if not cool.
Shorten version of instructions:
Feed your starter and leave to rise
Mix 310g water and starter together, add flour and mix together. Leave for 30 mins covered, the add rest of the water and salt and mix together. Leave for 30 minutes again covered then do stretch and folds for 2-3 hours every 30 minutes. Then Leave for 4-8 hours untouched to rise and dome.
Turn onto your bench, fold and stretch your dough 8 times at least and shape into a ball. Leave covered with a tea towel on the bench for 30 mins, re-shape for the final shape into a tight ball or the log depending on what you are making and add to flour covered basket or bowl
Pop into the fridge overnight covered
Pre-heat your oven to 240°C with pizza stone for 1 hours and add shallow tray to the oven 30 mins in. Boil your water
Flip your dough onto your pizza stone or tray seam side down, slice a 1cm cut into the dough and add 2cm or so of boiled water into the shallow tray (place this on the bottom of oven) and bake for 20-25 mins then turn oven down to 210°C to bake covered in foil for another 25-50 mins until golden and baked through
Leave to cool before slicing
Recipe Note
FAQ's & Notes:
- Using a strong protein flour or bread flour is best for making bread, but if you really can't find any or don't have it you can use plain or all purpose flour but it may change the consistency. A higher protein works well as it strengthens the gluten in the bread making for a better sourdough. Don't use a "soft 00 flour" it may say bread on the package but its not the best for this.
- We made our own starter from scratch and you can find the full instructions here you want to make sure it is at it's peak when you use it so once you feed it let it double in size. I fed mine the night before and left it overnight to rise when I got up about 5:30 it was ready to use. It isn't very hot here though as we are in Autumn right now. If it is quite warm where you are you can simply feed it and wait about 3-4 hours until it is risen, you could do this first thing in the morning. If you have your starter in the fridge get it out the night before and feed it so it is ready the next day to use
- 10g of salt is about 1.5 tsp of salt, you want to add a good amount of salt as it helps bring out the flavours, some recipes use 10g other use a higher amount. but 10g seems good
- We add boiling to the bottom of the oven so that it creates steam in the oven. This is so the outside gets a lovely crust but the inside still cooks, without steam it can create a crust too fast and not cook the inside of your bread or crack and bulge out.
- Once you get the hang of making this you will realise it is actually much easier than it seems and while it may take time it is worth it, really the hardest part is the waiting for your dough to rise.
- It is a good idea to think about timings before you start your sourdough bread, if you started this process at 8pm you might be up pretty late waiting for the first proof (rise) to happen. I like to do it in the morning so I have plenty of time
Additional Note:
- If you are using a Pizza Stone this takes time to heat up fully so it needs a good 1 hour to really heat through.
- We do the method called Autolyse because this allows the flour to fully hydrate before adding the salt. Some people do this by mixing the water and flour and adding starter and salt later but others do it this way by just adding the salt 2nd. But I also find it a bit easier to add the salt with a bit of water to dissolve rather than just adding in the salt.
If you need any help at all please send me a message I am always happy to help with any questions and if you have any issues with your bread please reach out I really am happy to chat and sometimes it is something simple we can fix