Everyday Sourdough Without the Ceremony

Sourdough acquired a culture of precision it does not need. Hydration to the gram, folds to the minute, temperature probes, spreadsheets. All of it is real and some of it matters at the margins, but none of it is the difference between good bread and bad bread at home.

The difference is three things: a starter that is actually active, a bulk fermentation judged by looking at the dough, and an oven hot enough.

An active starter

The single most common cause of a dense loaf is a starter used at the wrong moment. Fed and left, a starter rises, peaks, and falls; you want it on the way up or just at the peak, roughly four to eight hours after feeding depending on your kitchen. It should be domed, webbed with bubbles, and smell of yogurt rather than acetone.

If a spoonful floats in water, it is ready. If it sinks, feed it and wait.

Watch the dough, not the clock

Every published bulk time is wrong for your kitchen, because fermentation roughly doubles in speed for every 8C. Five hours at 22C might be three hours in August and seven in an unheated January kitchen. What does not change is what the dough looks like when it is ready: fifty per cent larger, domed rather than flat, wobbling as one mass, with visible bubbles around the rim of the bowl.

Under-fermented dough bakes tight and pale. Over-fermented dough spreads and tears. Both are visible before the loaf goes in the oven.

The fridge is a scheduling tool

A cold retard slows the yeast almost to a stop while the bacteria carry on producing acid, which is where the sour comes from. It also firms the dough up, which makes it far easier to turn into a screaming-hot pot without deflating.

And it means the loaf waits for you rather than the reverse. Shape at nine in the evening, bake whenever you like the next day.

Bake it dark

Twenty minutes with the lid on traps the loaf’s own steam, which keeps the crust soft so the bread can expand. Then the lid comes off and the crust dries, browns, and finally starts to blister. That last ten minutes — the part that looks like it might be going too far — is where the smell comes from. Take it out when it is the colour of an old penny, not before.