How to make sourdough

Learn how to make sourdough at home with our easy step-by-step recipe by Lottie Covell. It’ll take you through making your own starter and pre-ferment before using them to bake a loaf of white sourdough bread – with lots of tips and tricks along the way.

“It was only once I’d baked my first loaf that I fully appreciated the magic of sourdough,” says Lottie. “There’s a sense of satisfaction that comes from turning a few simple ingredients into a beautifully risen hunk of rustic moreishness, and once you’ve cracked it you can bake great loaves as often as you want to.”

“The knack for baking sourdough develops over time – and I should add a warning here that the process is seriously addictive! To get myself up to speed, I went to a masterclass run by baking expert Emmanuel Hadjiandreou, where I learned so much in just a few hours. Although the recipe looks complicated,
I promise you it’s easy once you’ve developed a feel for the process and for the dough.”

• How do you make sourdough? Sourdough is usually made of three components: the starter, the pre-ferment and the making of the bread itself. Our sourdough recipe is made with a two-stage process using a pre-ferment and will take 2 days. If you’re making a starter from scratch too, you’ll need to allow an extra 8 days before you start baking, but once your starter looks lively and strong (bubbling steadily) you’re good to go.
• What’s a pre-ferment? The sourdough recipe in this guide uses a pre-ferment (also called sponge, poolish or biga). The idea is that you mix a little yeast, either commercial or in this case from your starter, with a little flour and water and allow it to develop and grow before using it in your bread dough. Using a pre-ferment gives the natural yeasts a bit of a boost, and also improves the flavour of the loaf.