No fail Sourdough in 3 easy steps

Homemade sourdough loaf with a love heart scored on top

Are you keen to start your sourdough journey but don’t know where to begin?

Like me, have you tried but failed… maybe more than once? You can read all about my journey here.

Well, get ready to hear my 3 easy steps for no fail sourdough success!

1. Steal a starter

This is one time when stealing truly is encouraged. Know a friend who bakes like a pro? Just ask them for a ziplock bag or a jam jar of their magical brew. All the sourdough bakers I know would jump at the chance to share their secrets and give you a head start. It brings me so much joy to know that another mama wants to learn this age-old skill that will feed their family with wholesome, fresh delights.

So don’t be afraid to start with someone else’s starter! It’s the best of both worlds: you’ll get a dough that is sure to succeed and you’ll save a tonne of time by skipping the weeks of uncertain observation while you wait for your own starter to strengthen. Better yet, you’ll also glean their hints and tips for how to work with their unique mixture and those snippets of conversation and advice will only add to your knowledge base and give you a great foundation.

2. Use a tried and true recipe and practice

You know that friend who gave you the starter? If you like their bread, make sure they pass on their recipe. That way half the hard work has already been done. You won’t need to scour the internet for Google’s top recommendations or get lost down rabbit holes of fancy scoring techniques. That can all come later. Remember, you need to build your own actual skills, not just fantasise about other people’s gorgeous loaves.

My basic recipe has served me brilliantly. (PS You can grab my basics of sourdough just by sending your name and email my way.) It produces great results and is flexible to adapt to rolls as well for a bit of variety. It’s easy to remember and is exceptionally forgiving. Just yesterday I forgot to stretch and fold after the first hour and today’s bread was still delicious and devoured by the end of the morning. Now is not the time to be proud or independent! Adopt a solid recipe, knuckle down and make that recipe work for you. Practice really does increase your chances of making perfect.

This brings me to tip number three.

Two loaves of baked sourdough on a cooling rack next to a hob

3. Find a baking rhythm that works for you

You know who is going to be making all this fabulous sourdough bread? YOU! There’s no use fluffing about with a complex recipe or a baking timeline that is confusing or too detailed to understand, let alone stick to!

When I understood the principles of sourdough baking it was as if the veil had finally been lifted and I could see sourdough for what I had hoped it could be. A simple, straight forward and cheap way to provide endless variations of baked treats and staples. For years I had struggled to know when to start mixing my dough to allow time for autolyse, stretches and or folds, a bulk ferment and overnight fermenting, not to mention the dreaded cooling time required. I would stare at the clock, trying to work backwards from when I wanted to actually eat the bread, to work out my sourdough plan.

All this shifted when I embraced a regular rhythm of baking most days. I feed my starter straight after using it and allow it to sit until I am ready to bake again. If I skip a day or so, I just pour the discard into a box and store that in the fridge to add to pancakes, cookies, cakes and slices. Discard also makes the BEST crackers for cheese.

Sourdough loaf and sourdough rolls on a cooling rack

Some final thoughts

I also discovered that sourdough gets a bad rap for being overly needy (pardon the pun) and a bit precious. In truth, it is resilient and very forgiving. My starter can definitely sulk if it’s left on the shelf without a fresh feeding, but gone are the days of trying to catch the perfect height in my jar to bake when the starter is at its most active. Now, as long as it’s been fed recently, I bake with it anyway and the results have never disappointed.

No more stress. No more clock watching. No more panic if I miss a window of stretching or folding. I do have one more secret though… I love a long ferment of 1-2 days in the fridge before baking. It has been a gamechanger in ensuring none of our gluten-sensitive tummies react badly and it means I can plan a day or so ahead easily.

So there you have it. Steal a starter, stick with a recipe that you know works and find your own baking rhythm.

Are you ready to give it a go? You could be a couple of weeks away from your very first bakery-worthy loaf!

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