Beginner’s guide to No-fail Sourdough in 3 easy steps

Are you keen to bake fresh sourdough bread but don’t know where to begin?

Or, like me, have you tried but given up… maybe more than once? (You can read all about my journey here!)

This blog post doesn’t have a sourdough bread recipe – you can find loads of detailed guides like this to use.

But I do think it’s possible to make no-fail sourdough with these 3 easy steps!

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 hand. 

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. 

Here’s the good news: you don’t even have to ask for an active starter! The natural wild yeast in sourdough discard is enough if you commit to regular feedings and pop it in a warm place. 

The delicious tangy flavor of sourdough grows with a strong, bubbly starter, so make sure you take time to watch and understand your starter before you make your first loaf of sourdough bread.

Stealing a starter is the best way to go! You’ll save a tonne of time by skipping the weeks of uncertain observation while you wait for your own starter to strengthen. 

You’ll also glean their hints and the best tips for how to work with their unique wild yeasts. Those snippets of conversation and advice will only add to your knowledge base and give you a great foundation. 

So don’t be afraid to start with someone else’s starter! It really is a shortcut to easy sourdough bread. 

2. Use a tried and true recipe and practice

You know that friend who gave you the starter? If you like their homemade sourdough bread, make sure you ask them to 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 golden brown loaves. 

My basic recipe has served me brilliantly. (PS You’ll soon be able to 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. It works with a cold proof or a long ferment too. 

Just last week I forgot to stretch and fold after the first hour but the next day the bread was still delicious and devoured by the end of the morning. 

So, adopt a solid recipe, knuckle down and make that recipe work for you. 

With sourdough bread baking, you really will get the best results if you practice. This will inevitably involve some failures, but getting your head around bulk fermentation, surface tension, and your timeframe will get you much closer to your perfect loaf. 

This brings me to tip number three. 

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. 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, and the fermentation process, not to mention the dreaded cooling time required. The first time you bake your own sourdough I can guarantee you’ll find it almost impossible to wait until your bread has cooled before slicing! 

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. 

Who has time for that?!

All this shifted when I embraced a regular rhythm of baking most days. I feed my sourdough 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. 

Some final thoughts

Sourdough starter often gets a bad rap for being overly needy (pardon the pun) and a bit precious. 

In truth, I think it is pretty resilient and forgiving. 

My starter can definitely sulk if it’s left on the bench without a fresh feeding, but it will still make the dough rise! I just can’t expect a perfect loaf if I haven’t bothered to use an active, bubbly starter.

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. 

One little tip: if you’re brand new it may be helpful to use an instant-read thermometer to check the internal temperature of your loaf. It’s an easy way to monitor when your bread is ready to come out of the oven.

If your family is sensitive to gluten, sourdough is a wonderful way to minimise phytic acid. I love a long ferment of 1-2 days in the fridge before baking. It has been a gamechanger in ensuring none of our tummies react badly and it means I can plan a day or so ahead more 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!

I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comment section below!