Learn how to make sourdough bread.

Hey friends. Let’s make some sourdough bread! I’m very excited because finally we get to make this together. So, our starter is really nice, has doubled in size, and really great and bubbly. Look at it, that’s exactly what you want. So, I’m going to stir it down before we measure it we like to pop all the air bubbles out so we get an accurate measure. But for this recipe we’re going to need just a quarter a cup of starter. And of course now that we’ve taken some of the starter away, some of the starter away from our jar, we are going to feed our starter again. So again two big scoops of flour and enough water to make it that perfect kind of cake batter brownie batter consistency. And then let it sit with his lid kind of vented so that it can breathe. And when it bubbles again and gets doubled the size and you can put it in your fridge and come back to it later. It’ll be fine to ignore for a week, which is great.

So here’s our quarter cup of starter, and in my bowl here I’ve measured 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. To that I’ll add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 and 1/2 cups of water, and our quarter cup of starter. So it really doesn’t take that much, which is pretty cool. And so it’s the evening now, and so I just want to start this tonight so that I can get to making the bread tomorrow. It’s going to just rest overnight and be ready for the next step after a good solid rest.

Now, noticed I put my spatula way. I’m going to use a wooden spoon. But I’m not going to use this end, I’m going to use the handle end, which sounds strange, but it’s a very very wet dough and it will come together and what kind of knot up on the end of the spoon. And it doesn’t really matter if you’ve got lumps in it or not, because those lumps will be absorbed by the water anyways. So I’m going to kind of… I don’t know, make a huge mess.

And get it to come into a ball, it’s going to be like a ball. And thi is what bakers consider a high hydration dough. It can be kind of finicky to work with. But I’ll show you some tips on how we can work with sticky dough without adding too much flour to it. So, it comes together and looks ugly and that’s okay, it’s going to look great in the morning. So I’m going to squeegee this off, and get my lid, and I’m going to put it to bed, and then we’ll come back to you in the morning.

I just wanted to do a little public service announcement about how to properly measure out your flour. Because if we just scoop the flour up it can be sometimes way too heavy. So let me show you exactly what I mean. So I’ve got a half cup here. Now most bakers who are quite serious, or they are professionals, they measure out the flour and their water by weight. Which you’ll get consistent product that way. But I know a lot of us don’t have scales at home. But I did want to show you why it’s so important to measure out the flour properly.

So my half cup here, I’m just going to scoop up my flour and kind of level off with a little shake. This is the wrong way to do it. So let’s weigh it. This is 75 grams just for your reference. Now, I’m going to put this flour back, and I’m going to show you the proper way to measure your flour.

So I like to kind of stir the flour a bit in the container and then take your measuring thing and a spoon and you spoon it into the measuring cup. Not packing it down, and then you level it off. And so let’s weigh it to see the difference. So it’s 61 grams. Now that’s a lot, especially if this measurement is quadrupled. Right? So, it makes a big difference, and also it will change the consistency of your flour. So, if you’re following this recipe, or really any recipe, this is the proper way to scoop out your flour. So there you are, and now you’ll know and you’ll get the result.