Easy Sourdough & Maintaining Your Starter

When feeding your starter, you will need:
  • Starter
  • Water
  • Flour (bread or all purpose)
  • Kitchen scale or measuring cups *Note: I highly recommend a kitchen scale, as it makes measuring much easier and more accurate.

Directions:
  1. If you plan to make bread around once a week, keep your starter in the fridge. If you are making bread every couple days, you can leave it on the counter, but will need to continue feeding your starter. 
  2. Remove from refrigerator 2 hours before feeding.
  3. To feed, pour 110g of starter (around ½ cup)  into a large mason jar. Add 110g flour (around 1 cup) of choice and 110g of warm water (around ½ cup). Discard remaining starter or use in a discard recipe.
  4. Stir to combine, cover jar with plastic wrap and place on the counter.
  5. Once the starter has doubled in size and is bubbly, it is ready to cook with (Use a rubber band or hair tie to mark on the jar. See picture).

Easy Overnight Rest Sourdough:
Serves: 1 loaf

Ingredients:
  • 4 ½ cups flour (bread or all-purpose) OR 540g
  • 1 ½ tsp salt OR 9g
  • ~½ cup fed starter OR 110g
  • 1 ½ cups water, room temperature OR 360g

Directions:
  1. Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk together to combine. Add starter and water, stirring to combine with a spatula. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. If the dough is too dry and all of the flour is not yet incorporated after mixing, add a tsp of water at a time to reach desired consistency. 
  2. Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 12 hours at room temp (Ex. Make dough at 8pm and rest overnight until 8am). Dough should be doubled in size, jiggly and bubbly under the surface.
  3. When dough is ready, preheat your oven to 450 F and place the Dutch oven in as well to warm for at least 30 minutes.
  4. While the oven is warming, place a large piece of parchment paper on your counter. Coat with nonstick spray and sprinkle flour over the surface. 
  5. Use a spatula, or wet your fingers with water and gently pull the dough out of the bowl and dump it onto the prepared parchment paper. The dough will be sticky, so wetting your spatula or hands will help in the transfer. 
  6. Once on the prepared parchment paper, stretch and fold the dough into a ball. Flip dough over, so the seam is facing down.  Note: To do the stretch and fold method, you will pull one side up and fold it into the center. Continue to do this on each side until you have a nice, round loaf. If you need to see how this is done for technique, check out videos online. 
  7. Once you have a round loaf, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 30 more minutes while the oven is heating. 
  8. After 30 minutes, dust flour on top of dough and use a sharp knife or bread lame to score the top at least ½ inch deep. Pick up parchment paper with dough on it and place the entire thing in the preheated Dutch oven. BE VERY CAREFUL, because the Dutch oven will be extremely hot. Place the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes to brown the crust. Remove the pan from the oven, allow the bread to cool completely in the pan or on a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy!