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Sourdough essentials · Beginner

Your first beautiful loaf

Mix, ferment, shape and bake one naturally leavened loaf—and understand what the dough is telling you.

Lesson 1 of 4

Meet your dough

Great bread starts with observation. Flour, water, salt and a ripe culture do the work; your job is to create the right conditions.

Ingredients for this learning path

  • 500 g bread flour
  • 350 g water, plus up to 10 g if needed
  • 50 g ripe stiff starter (50% hydration)
  • 10 g fine salt

Equipment

  • Digital scale
  • Mixing bowl and cover
  • Straight-sided container
  • Bowl scraper
  • Lined bowl or banneton
  • Oven-safe covered bread pot

The lesson

  1. Weigh all ingredients. This formula uses 50 g of 50%-hydration stiff starter: approximately 33 g flour and 17 g water. Total dough hydration is about 69%. A liquid starter is not a gram-for-gram replacement.
  2. Mix flour and 340 g water until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 30–45 minutes. Hold back the remaining 10 g water for mixing in the salt.
  3. Tear in the ripe starter, add salt and reserved water, then pinch and fold until evenly incorporated. Cover. Start recording bulk fermentation time when starter is added.

The baker’s note

Start with the lower water amount. Add the optional 10 g only if the flour readily absorbs it.

Practice

Write down room temperature, dough temperature and the time you added starter.

Technique lessons may require a separate complete formula. Read the full path before mixing.

LESSON 1 OF 4 · 8 min read

Meet your dough

Great bread starts with observation. Flour, water, salt and a ripe culture do the work; your job is to create the right conditions.

Go to guided practice & lesson check

Let’s work through it

  1. Weigh all ingredients. This formula uses 50 g of 50%-hydration stiff starter: approximately 33 g flour and 17 g water. Total dough hydration is about 69%. A liquid starter is not a gram-for-gram replacement.
  2. Mix flour and 340 g water until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 30–45 minutes. Hold back the remaining 10 g water for mixing in the salt.
  3. Tear in the ripe starter, add salt and reserved water, then pinch and fold until evenly incorporated. Cover. Start recording bulk fermentation time when starter is added.

LEARN IT. TRY IT. MAKE IT YOURS.

Your practice bench

Read the whole lesson first, then work at your own pace. Check a step when you’ve practiced or reviewed it.

0 of 3 steps

STEP 1 OF 3

Weigh all ingredients. This formula uses 50 g of 50%-hydration stiff starter: approximately 33 g flour and 17 g water. Total dough hydration is about 69%. A liquid starter is not a gram-for-gram replacement.

MAKE THE BAKER’S CALL

When does bulk fermentation begin in this formula?

TAKE IT TO YOUR OWN KITCHEN

Your next small experiment

Write down room temperature, dough temperature and the time you added starter.

Record what happened in my journal
How do you feel about this skill?

Practice works here. Sign in to save it between visits. Answers are for practice, not a graded certification.

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Make it part of your practice

Write down room temperature, dough temperature and the time you added starter.

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Next lesson

YOUR BAKING JOURNAL

Remember what the dough taught you.

Record your temperatures, timing, observations and one thing to try next.

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