Sourdough Bread Made Easy
Cheers to baking up the happiest home! Whether you'd call yourself a baker or not, my hope is that this step by step sourdough guide will help you fill your home with the magic of fresh baked bread of all shapes and sizes. There is a deep joy in calling your people together with the sweet smells of home.
No sourdough experience is required, the recipes and video tutorials walk you through each step of the feeding, mixing, proofing and baking process.
Here’s what we included in this ECookBook!
How to care for your sourdough starter
How to make sourdough pizza
My Sourdough Schedule for a Busy Week
Our Everyday Dough Recipe
Step by Step Shaping
- oval rustic loaf
- baguette
- sandwich loaf
Rye Sourdough Loaf
Pizza Dough
Focaccia
Hamburger Buns
Cinnamon Rolls
Sourdough Discard Recipes
Dinner Rolls
Pancakes
Scones
Snickerdoodles
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Plus this ECookBook comes with links to Video Baking Tutorials with Kelly to cheer you on as you mix, proof, shape and bake
Be sure to double check your email address at checkout!!
Once you complete your purchase, the ECookBook will be automatically sent to your Inbox as a download. The video tutorial links are in the ECookBook.
Sourdough does NOT need to rule your schedule or take over your counter! I fell in love with sourdough when I realized I could keep our starter in the fridge and only mess with it one day a week in order to have fresh bread and pizza for the next 10 days. I’m sharing lots about this on instagram @kellywelk with a full playlist of tutorial videos on our YouTube Channel. Come join me in the kitchen. I’m going to show you how to take care of sourdough starter, how to mix your bread dough and lastly how to use the dough straight out of the fridge. Below is my Forget about it Sourdough schedule …. it’s a love story really, here’s how I fell in love with sourdough.
Before we dive in, let’s make sure you have some of the essential sourdough tools.
🌸 I put everything we consider ‘essential’ in this Baking Tools list on Amazon - most of the elements you can get by without, EXCEPT the scale.
You will definitely need a digital food scale that shows you weight in grams. We love ours because it’s battery operated and rechargeable. It lives in the cupboard and about once every three months I plug it in to recharge it. The Danish dough whisk is nice for mixing and the banneton baskets make it easier to shape. BUT you can get by without those until you’re certain you want to dive in head first to your sourdough adventure.
Whether we are filling our table for a Freedom Dinner, Cooking Class, Family Dinner or Friday Night Pizza with friends, sourdough bread and baking fills a special spot on the table. We’re here to help you find joy in baking too. It’s about so much more than messes and even fresh bread, it’s about memories made together. And that is the sweet ingredient we’re all hoping for.
Sourdough Starter:
Let’s ditch the mystery and confusion around Sourdough Starter!
Click here for the Video Class on this - I’ll explain all the ins and outs of how we take care of our sourdough starter. Here are the highlights:
Our Sourdough Starter and any extra discard from when we feed our starter lives in our fridge FULL-TIME!
When I’m ready to bake something, I take out only the amount I need. I add this portion to a clean jar and feed it. The rest of the starter goes right back into the fridge.
The Sourdough Starter in the fridge does not get fed. Since it’s in a cold environment it goes dormant and requires no everyday feedings!
It’s normal for the Sourdough Starter in the fridge to develop a layer of liquid on the top. This is good! It’s a sign that your starter is alive and it’s just resting.
The liquid on the top is called Hooch. Don’t pour it off! Just mix it back into your sourdough starter when you’re about to feed and proceed.
Feeding Your Sourdough Starter:
Click here for the Video Class on how to feed your starter. We only do this step when we have time to make dough! My schedule is:
Sunday Evening while we’re cleaning up dinner - Feed Sourdough Starter.
On weeks that I know I’ll have time to bake bread and make pizza I feed 2 separate jars. I take 50 grams of starter for each jar out of the cold sourdough starter from my fridge jar.
Add these ratios to each jar : 50 grams starter, 200 grams room temp water, 200 grams all purpose unbleached flour. Set your lid on loosely and let these jars rest in a warm spot over night.
Monday Morning: make 2 batches of dough - we have a few recipes you can use your fed starter in below!
1 batch of Pizza Dough: Click here for the Video Class on how to make the dough!
1 batch of Bread Dough - Click here for the Video Class on how to make the dough!
Any leftover starter from my jars goes back into the fridge sourdough jar.
Or! I use this extra starter to make a batch of Sourdough Discard Molasses Krinkle Cookies
Once the dough is made, it goes into the fridge until we’re ready to bake!
How To Bake a Loaf of Bread Cold
from your Fridge!
Sourdough Bread Recipe for 4 loaves:
this requires a BIG bowl
600 grams Starter
1800 grams All Purpose Flour
1200 grams room temperature water
44 grams salt
Mix the starter, water and flour together. Sprinkle the salt over the top and let it rest for 30 minutes. Then do your first stretch and fold to incorporate the salt.
Set your timer for 30 minutes and repeat the stretch and fold 3 more times.
After the final stretch and fold transfer the dough into its own 4 quart storage container and put it in your fridge.
This dough lives in your fridge and needs nothing from you. It will happily rise and be ready to be baked any day you want to pull it out!
Once the dough is made and resting in the fridge you’ll be ready to bake a loaf of bread, rolls or focaccia bread any day of the week! Shaping a loaf of bread for sure takes the longest amount of resting/rising time. So if I’m pressed for time I make pans of focaccia, top them with fresh zested garlic, coarse salt and olive oil and everyone gobbles them up.
Here’s the cool thing, the dough is very versatile. Play with it! Have fun, make little rolls or long french style loaves. It’s fun to try different shaping techniques when all you have to do is pull dough out of the fridge, shape and bake!
We’re here to help make your sourdough baking fun, leave a comment below or on any of the video classes. Your questions help us create even more video classes!
Here's to making memories around your table! If you're loving cooking and filling your table OR if you love this recipe, be sure to check out our cookbooks, Dinner Changes Everything and Red Tin Treats ECookBook. It is amazing what happens when you turn your kitchen into a delicious tool to gather your people.
🌿 New to baking or sourdough? Check out our YouTube and our Getting Started with Sourdough Playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfPIhWGHaEXFm0Cq85LyppQWEfJr0o3_p
🌸 Our Sourdough & Kitchen Baking Essentials list on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4ly1ijI
Our backyard table…
Did you know that when you watch our videos you help fight human trafficking! It's true, years ago we decided to use our everyday life as a way to fight against slavery and trafficking. Since then we started hosting the Freedom Dinners and when our business started, we knew we wanted it to give back too. We donate 10% of all of our profits to AtlasFree to fight for those that cannot stand up for themselves.
