Bake for another 30 minutes. Your bread will become nice and golden brown and crunchy, like this! You’ll probably hear some popping noises from the crust.
Nutrition Journalism & Content Strategy

# How to Make Sourdough Bread (One Loaf Recipe)

This update has been a long time coming. Over the past two years, I’ve been perfecting my sourdough bread recipe, and I finally feel like I’ve got it. And OMG, is it a lot easier than the last recipe I shared. Like…so much easier. If you find yourself with some sourdough (or are toying with the idea of growing your own starte r), then you are going to want to keep this single loaf sourdough bread recipe in your back pocket. It makes one perfect sourdough loaf, and it’s my go-to recipe for sourdough bread every single week. No joke.

sourdough bread single loaf recipe

At this point, I can’t really imagine my life without sourdough. I loved the challenge of growing it in early 2020 (pre-pandemic people, call me a trendsetter)—even if the months it took to mature my starter were absolutely excruciating…with so many failed loafs of sourdough along the way.

Now, my baby June (the name I gave my stater, it’s a sourdough thing), has given birth to many sourdough babies that are all around the country. Friends and family collected a little extra sourdough and now have their own starters at home. Some right here in Brooklyn, one in Missouri, one in Florida, one in Connecticut, one in Virginia. It’s fun to spread the sourdough love.

But the real winner, my friends, is this beautiful loaf of bread.

## Ingredients for one sourdough bread loaf

Just four ingredients—easy peasy.

- 500 grams of bread flour
- 330 grams of lukewarm water
- 50 grams of active starter (fed)
- 9 grams of salt

sourdough bread ingredients first mixed in a bowl

First, whisk together the water and starter. Once whisked, add in the flour and salt. Mix together with a spatula until just combined, making a shaggy dough like how it’s pictured above. Hot tip—do this an hour before you go to bed the night before baking. Trust me.

sourdough bread dough resting with plastic wrap over bowl

Cover up your sourdough with plastic wrap and let it sit for 45 minutes. This is a little tip I learned from a friend—it prevents the top of the dough from developing a small crust during the rise.

stretching the sourdough bread dough from one cornerfolding sourdough bread dough on top

Next is the stretch and fold technique. As pictured above, you are going to grab a corner of the dough and fold it over on the top. Do this with all four “corners” of the dough (aka only do this four times at different parts of the dough), and it will form into a little ball as such:

sourdough bread ingredients after stretch and fold technique ready to rest overnight

Cover up the sourdough with plastic wrap again and let it rise overnight. This process should take 8 to 10 hours—just enough time for you to get in a good night of sleep.

sourdough bread dough after rising overnight for 8 to 10 hours

Your dough should look like this! Bubbles on top and fluffy. Remove the plastic wrap and grab yourself a bench scraper.

transferring sourdough bread dough to a floured surface to rest for 5 minutes

Remove the dough with the bench scraper or rubber spatula to a cutting board that you pre-floured. Let it rest for five minutes.

sourdough loaf shaped in bread banneton for second rise

Shape the loaf! It was kind of hard for me to picture how I shape it, so here’s a video tutorial I love to follow that will make it easy for you. Cover it again with that plastic wrap and let it sit for 45 minutes. At this point, you’ll also want to preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

scoring sourdough bread dough on parchment paper

After that small second rise, flip the loaf over onto a piece of parchment paper. Using a bread scorer (like this one) draw a little design! This will create those breaking points when the bread rises in the oven. The design you see above is pretty much my go-to right now. It always comes out so beautifully.

placing sourdough bread dough in a dutch oven for baking

Place the parchment paper with the loaf into a dutch oven. Another thing I learned? You don’t have to preheat your dutch oven! Unlike my previous tutorial where I told you to do so, I found out that you don’t actually have to do that in order to create a successful sourdough loaf. Yay for not having to burn your arms placing the bread in!

how the sourdough bread looks halfway through baking when you take the dutch oven lid off

Cover the dutch oven with the lid and bake for 20 minutes. After, remove the lid and it should look like the above image.

fully baked sourdough bread loaf in a dutch oven

Bake for another 30 minutes. Your bread will become nice and golden brown and crunchy, like this! You’ll probably hear some popping noises from the crust.

single sourdough loaf on a marble counterslicing up sourdough loaf

Let the bread sit for 1 hour before slicing. I know, I know! Patience, grasshopper. It will be easier to slice if you wait. But I won’t judge if you slice off a small part of the end and eat it with butter and jam right away.

sourdough loaf sliced up with a bread saw on a cutting board

While I do love to enjoy fresh slices of bread, I’ll be honest with you—I don’t finish a whole loaf in just a few days time! Instead, I freeze slices and pop them in the toaster when I want them. So after the bread sits, I slice it all up using my bread saw for perfect-shaped slices, lay them out on a sheet pan, and freeze. Once frozen, I put the slices in a Ziploc bag for storing in the freezer.

And there we have it, my sourdough friends. I hope you like this single sourdough loaf recipe better. I know I do!

fully baked sourdough bread loaf in a dutch oven

5 from 1 vote

## One Single Sourdough Loaf

Make the perfect single sourdough loaf with minimal effort—and a long rise overnight while you sleep!

Prep Time2hrs

Cook Time50mins

Rising Time10hrs

Total Time12hrs50mins

Keyword: sourdough, sourdough bread

Servings: 12slices

Calories: 158kcal

### Equipment

- Dutch oven

- Plastic wrap

### Ingredients

- 50gramssourdough starteractive, fed
- 330gramslukewarm water
- 500gramsbread flour
- 9gramssalt

### Instructions

- Whisk together the water and starter in a large bowl.

- Once whisked, add in the flour and salt. Mix together with a spatula until just combined, making a shaggy dough

- Cover up your bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 45 minutes.

- Grab a corner of the dough and stretch it up until it gives, then fold it over on the top . Do this with all four “corners” of the dough (aka only do this four times at different parts of the dough), and it will form into a little ball.

- Cover up with plastic wrap again and let it rest overnight for 8-10 hours

- The next morning, remove the dough with the bench scraper or rubber spatula to a cutting board that you pre-floured. Let it rest for five minutes.

- Shape the loaf! Here’s a video tutorial I love to follow that will make it easy for you. Place it in a bread banneton to rise a second time.

- Cover it againwith that plastic wrap andlet it sit for 45 minutes. At this point, you’ll also want to preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

- Flip the loaf over onto a piece of parchment paper. Using a bread scorer (or a sharp knife), score a design on top of your loaf.

- Move the sourdough loaf with the parchment paper into a dutch oven. Close the lid.

- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

- Remove the lid and bake for another 30 minutes.

- Carefully trasnfer the bread to a cutting board or cooling rack. Let it sit for 1 hour before slicing!

### Notes

You can pre-freeze slices to toast up later! Just slice and freezer on a sheet pan for a few hours, then store in a plastic Ziploc bag.

## Pin this for later!

single loaf sourdough bread recipe



### You’ll Also Love

### Comments

1. Annalizasays

Does it matter what stage your starter is in? Fed vs unfed, rising vs peak vs past peak? Does that make sense?

2. Susansays

I was hoping the google conversion chart of grams to cups was correct, so I jumped in! I used hungry starter and let it rise on the top of our propane refrigerator-it took 12 hours to rise, but was great. It’s not as sour as we like, but delicious and a great texture. Next time a well fed starter will be used. How does the bread texture change if kneaded?

- Kierstensays

  October 13, 2020 at 9:17 pm

  Hi Susan, great to hear! I actually haven’t tried it kneaded yet, this recipe has worked well for me so I didn’t want to play around with it too much. But if you end up giving it a try let me know how it turns out!

  Reply

3. Jasonsays

5 stars

THANKS! I dabble in the sourdough and lost track of my other goto recipes stumbled on this one and it worked flawlessly! loved the ingredient ratios also! or should I say especialy? anyhow, great recipe!

4. Garysays

Hi Kiersten. What size Dutch oven do you use?

5. Kierstensays

Hi there! Thank you for your insight. I’ve actually worked on a revised recipe for this that I plan on updating soon. This was originally working for me a while back, but I’ve found a much better system that works. Stay tuned!

- Raymond Blacketersays

  September 28, 2021 at 4:22 pm

  I came here after the same results… not rising enough, and also not sour. Also wanted just one loaf. But I see this comment and I wonder if your updated the recipe. I’m just starting out.

  Reply

  - Kierstensays

    October 7, 2021 at 3:58 pm

    Hey Raymond, forgive me this has been on my to do list! I promise to update it soon, I have a much better recipe.

    Reply

6. Rohinkumar Pandyasays

Can you please post the recipe for making a starter?

7. joanne seguinsays

hi Kiersten…

can it stay in a warm room for that 8 hour or is in to be refrigerated?

i’ve done several of these however, they never seem to work out so well

there’s always a little something

has it been updated…

i seem to not be able to get it to rise much

- Kierstensays

  February 21, 2022 at 12:10 pm

  Hi Joanne! I usually leave it out on the table for 8-10 hours. If the bread isn’t rising much it may still be too cool of a room. Placing it in a warm spot may help. I would also test your sourdough, sometimes if it’s still a little sleepy it may not make a good rise. You can test it by dropping a teaspoon of it in water and seeing if it will float.

  Reply

8. Jodysays

I have found that if you use 90% bread flour, and 10% wheat, the bread comes out much more airy. I also do 25min covered, and 25 uncovered. For the started I keep mine in the fridge, so I remove 25g in the morning, and feed it (this is a good time to feed your mother too). I leave it out until it looks ready to go (6-12 hrs, depending on the temperature in your home. If you keep it at 80 degrees you can accelerate it to be ready in about 6hrs.) By this time it’s around 8-9pm. Start your dough, do the 45 min rest, then fold, and voila! It’s perfectly ready to go in the morning! Love this recipe!

9. Linda Juddsays

Hi I was wondering if this recipe would work with einkorn flour?

Thanks

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I’m Kiersten, a nutrition journalist passionate about debunking diet culture myths and providing you with the tools you need to take back control of your health. Let's meet!

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