I baked this bread 100% sourdough (no commercial yeast added). After the first fermentation, I shaped the bread, put it in a floured proofing basket, and let it rise overnight in the refrigerator. This is one of the best methods to get tastier bread and make it any time you want the next day. You can bake it right from the refrigerator (no need to warm it up before baking). If you do not have time to bake the bread the next day, you can postpone baking for up to 72 hours after making the dough.

This recipe – Basic Sourdough Bread – gives you 2 large loaves of bread or 3 smaller loaves. I usually divide the dough into two parts and bake one loaf of bread a day. There is nothing like fresh-baked bread with a crisp crust and chewy crumb! Plus, keeping just one loaf of bread at room temperature is much easier.

But first, you need to have a sourdough culture. You can either buy it online or grow your own from scratch with my step-by-step photo-guide. I started growing my third starter just for my readers.

There is a myriad of various sourdough starters in the world, and they are all unique. Your starter will differ from mine. The important thing is to grow a healthy culture with a pleasant aroma, capable of producing tasty bread.

So, if you are ready to embark on this amazing journey into the world of aromatic and beneficial bacteria, then study carefully my photo-guide and grow your own sourdough culture from scratch.

Day 1 —— The beginning of the quest

You will need all-purpose white flour, whole grain flour (rye or wheat), water (spring or filtered), a kitchen scale, and a glass jar.

Pour 50 grams of spring or filtered water into your glass jar. The water should be slightly warmer than room temperature.

Add 10 grams of whole grain flour and 40 grams of white flour. Now we have a mixture of 50 grams of water and 50 grams of flour in the jar.

Speeding up the fermentation process

To speed up the fermentation process, you may add some raisins or one fig berry (about 10 grams), as I did. I have a fig tree in a tub and since I use only natural fertilizer, my figs are safe for the new sourdough culture. Do not wash your berries for this process! You want to keep those friendly bacteria safe and introduce them to your flour and water mixture.

I did not close the jar tightly, but only covered it with a lid. The leaven must breathe.

Only 7 hours have passed since the beginning of my quest, and the leaven was already showing the first signs of life – bubbles on the surface.

It was time to check my starter at least twice a day – in the morning and the evening (approximately 12 hours apart). To boost my new starter,  I left the fig pieces in the jar overnight.

Day 2 —— Feeding my sourdough

The next morning, there were significantly more bubbles. My sourdough looked hungry. It was time to feed it. First, I removed my fig berry. It did its job.

The activity of the mixture grew rather quickly. 

I added 50 grams of lukewarm water to the culture and beat it vigorously with a spoon to aerate it. After that, I added 50 grams of flour (10 grams of rye and 40 grams of all-purpose flour) and mixed it again. Then, I let my sourdough ferment till the evening feeding.

In the evening, I repeated the morning feeding procedure. I did not take the picture, but the surface of the sourdough looked like in this photo.

Day 3 — A noticeable increase in the volume of the leaven

My sourdough not only bubbled but also grew in volume. The rubber band showed the volume of the leaven after the evening feeding.

This is what it looked like at 9 in the morning.

I fed it again with the same amount of flour and water. You can clearly see the bubbles on the surface immediately after the feeding.

I moved the rubber band to mark the new level of the sourdough and left it on the kitchen counter till the evening feeding.

At around 7:30 pm, my starter was very active and has grown well. It was starving, as you can see by the traces on the sides of the jar (the level dropped a bit). It meant that my culture had passed its peak of activity and it was necessary to feed it right away.

This is what a “hungry” young sourdough looked like in close-up.

From that point on, I started measuring my sourdough to determine the ratio of flour and water for the next feeding. I put 50 grams of sourdough into a clean jar, added 50 g of water and 50 g of flour (10 and 40), and left the mixture at room temperature overnight (a 1x1x1 ratio).

I put the different color rubber band on the new jar so I could see the volume grow the next morning.

I fed the leftover sourdough from the old jar and put it in the refrigerator. I planned to bake it as a special “bread” for the traditional Russian fermented bread beverage “Kvass.”

As you can see, I waste nothing. Everything is environmentally friendly.

I simply fed this part of sourdough with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of flour, and right to the refrigerator it went.

Day 4 — My sourdough is gaining strength

On the morning of the fourth day, the leaven had a very pleasant fruity-milky aroma. It has risen by about 7-8 millimeters, but there were still not very many bubbles on the surface. The growth in volume and pleasant aroma showed the starter was developing in the right direction.

I gave my culture a little boost and fed it with a smaller amount of food. That day I was home and could watch it closely in case it needed an extra feeding before evening. So, I fed my sourdough with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of flour. I mixed everything vigorously and moved it closer to the stove (the warmest spot in the kitchen). My sourdough was very comfortable.

I checked the fermentation progress almost every hour. I did not want to miss the peak of its activity.

Voila! By 8 in the evening, the sourdough had grown well in volume. I did a floating test.

The “Floating Test”

I do it like this: I take 1 teaspoon of sourdough and carefully pour it into a glass of cold tap water. If the leaven remains on the surface, it is ready, and you can use it to leaven the dough. If it goes down to the bottom of the glass, you need to let it ferment longer.

My sourdough floated on the surface of the water.

I fed my sourdough culture 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of flour. I mixed everything vigorously again and left at room temperature for several hours. Before going to bed, I put it in the refrigerator. My sourdough rested in the refrigerator until the next morning.

I like to control all stages of the leaven’s development, hence retarding the fermentation process in the refrigerator worked well for me. In the morning, I resumed my regular feeding schedule (twice a day with a 1x1x1 ratio or a 1x2x2 ratio depending on its behavior) the next morning.

My quest to breed a new starter culture from scratch was almost over. I could already leaven bread with this sourdough. But it had not gained its full strength to rise my bread to its full potential. So, I continued feeding my new starter twice a day and kept it at room temperature for a few more days. It got stronger with every feeding.

How to determine the ratio of flour and water for feeding

It should be a 1x1x1 ratio if you are going to feed it twice a day, or a 1x2x2 ratio for feeding every 24 hours. Depending on the activity and strength of your culture, you can use either lukewarm water to speed up the fermentation or icy cold water to retard the fermentation a bit.

Gradually, the interval between feedings will decrease. This will be the evidence that the leaven is gaining its full strength. When your sourdough reaches its full potential, you may start storing it in the refrigerator between baking sessions.

Day 5 — The sourdough is getting stronger

A note: We need a strong sourdough culture that can leaven the bread dough. With each subsequent feeding, the starter culture increases in volume faster and faster – gaining strength.

I was on vacation, and I could monitor my sourdough progress during the day. So, I fed it with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of flour and let it rise after every feeding. This way I had to feed it more than twice a day.

Advice: You could still stick to the twice-a-day schedule and use the ratio recommendation above. I had the time, and I wanted to do it faster.

At 9:30 in the morning, I took the starter out of the refrigerator and put it in a warm place by the stove. After a little over an hour, the leaven was ready for the next feeding. It was fast because I put my sourdough into the refrigerator when it almost reached its peak of activity (not immediately after the feeding). Plus, my sourdough spent only a little time in the refrigerator. Thus, activating the starter culture was quite fast.

The general rule: The longer your sourdough stays in the refrigerator, the longer it takes to wake it up.

By two o’clock in the afternoon, my starter was ready for the next feeding. I kept feeding my sourdough with 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of flour. With each feeding, I would literally beat the mixture for a few minutes. Thus, the leaven got aerated and the enzymatic processes got a good start. I created the most favorable conditions for the parallel development of two processes – the accumulation of lactic acid bacteria and the growth of the wild yeast. Lactic acid bacteria give the starter its unique aroma, while yeast contributes to the sourdough’s leavening power. 

When the leaven is almost at its peak, you can put it back in the refrigerator. It will not take too long to activate the starter culture just before baking. You will need to refresh (feed) it and leave it at room temperature for 1-2 hours so it grows in volume several times, looks bubbly, and is actively breathing.

I started my new sourdough in the summer. It took me 5 days to get it ready for baking. In colder weather, it might take up to 7-10 days (sometimes even longer). Have patience, observe the process, and feed your starter on time. The breeding time of your starter culture is as individual as the starter itself. The primary criteria for the activity of the starter are the abundance of bubbles on the surface, pleasant aroma, and the increase in volume. The volume usually increases up to 2-3 times. If you are unsure of the result, just do the floating test, as I described above.

If like me, you like sourdough bread that is not too sour, then your sourdough feeding schedule will roughly be 1: 3. That is 1-part sourdough to 1.5 parts flour and 1.5 parts water. The acidity of the starter will be about 4.2-4.5 pH. The leaven can increase in volume by three or more times. This largely depends on the individual qualities of your flour and the sourdough itself. Gradually, you will develop your own schedule for feeding and working with your starter culture.

If I need 200 grams of sourdough in the morning, then I take 60 grams of sourdough from the refrigerator and refresh it with 90 grams of water and 90 grams of flour the evening before mixing your dough.  That way I will have 200 grams of active sourdough in the morning and extra sourdough to keep in the refrigerator for future use.  This is what ratio 1:3 means for sourdough feeding.

I would feed this extra sourdough with 1 teaspoon of water and 1 teaspoon of flour and put it into the refrigerator until my next baking session. I bake 2-3 times a week. My sourdough does not get too inactive.

If you do not bake that often start refreshing your sourdough a day or two before mixing the dough by refreshing it every 12 hours using the same 1:3 ratio. If your sourdough is very dormant, you can use 1 part sourdough, 1 part water, and 1 part flour to start up the refreshing schedule. For the next feeding, you will get to a 1:3 ratio (1 part sourdough for 1.5 pars water and 1.5 parts flour).

Good luck with your quest!

A few words about sourdough cultures from other types of flour:

• If you want to keep two sourdough starters, you may convert part of your white sourdough into a different starter. If you like rye bread, then you should definitely have a rye sourdough starter handy.
• All you need to do is to switch your second starter to a new type of flour. Increase the amount of new flour over the course of a few days. Keep the same feeding ratio. Soon you will have two different sourdough cultures.