My Sourdough Routine
How to get started, tips, recipes, and the weekly routine I follow
Last year I decided to start making all of our bread products from home. I love working with my hands and hate spending money on things I can make myself. It’s now been over a year since I started and it’s turned out to be more meaningful than I anticipated. As cheesy as it sounds, baking has connected me with the people in my life in a way that I find very touching. The saying “baked with love” is commonplace, but love is indeed an inherent part of the process. There is nothing nonchalant about taking the time to hand-make food for someone, it is a significant way to show that you care. It’s a true pleasure to bake for friends, share recipes, and feed my family treats they’re excited about. Standing at the counter with my 2-year-old every day shaping dough is often my favorite part of the day.
Read on for a guide to getting started with bread making, my favorite recipes, and the routine I follow.
Tools
(items I “can’t live without” are marked by an *)
Wooden Spatulas *
When I started making sourdough bread I used a metal spoon for stirring, mixing, etc. and it just never got the job done. Wooden spatulas of various sizes are the best mixing tools, especially when you don’t want to over-mix the dough, and it’s infinitely easier to get excess dough off of them.
Dough Scraper *
For cutting and handling dough. Also handy for scraping dried dough off of your countertop.
Scale *
Completely necessary as bread making works best when ingredients are measured by weight instead of quantity.
Bread Machine
I LOVE my bread machine. I use it almost every day to do the hard part of bread-making (mixing tough doughs and perfectly timing rest periods and rising periods).
Jam Jars *
Inarguably the perfect vessel to store your starter and discard in.
Glass Mixing Bowls
I love these bowls for dough that needs to be worked on throughout the day. I find that I don’t get as good of a rise when I use metallic bowls, and the glass is lightweight which makes it easier to get the dough out of the bowl.
Sourdough Home
This is the extra fancy tool that I justified because of the drastic change in temperature that occurs throughout the year in the PNW. It completely solved my temperature-sensitive starter issues!
Getting Started
1) Order the necessary tools
2) Order your starter (I got mine from King Arthur)
3) Weigh your jam jar (in grams) with the lid off. You will need this to weigh your starter in the future accurately
4) With your jam jar on your scale, zero out your scale and then transfer your starter to your jam jar, taking note of the weight (in grams)
5) Feed your starter the noted weight in both water and flour (if your starter weighs 100 grams, you feed it 100 grams of water and 100 grams of flour)
6) Let your starter sit out at room temperature (or your sourdough home) for 8 to 12 hours
7) Continue steps 5 and 6 until your starter doubles and is bubbly. You may need to discard some so as not to over-feed it. You will also need to subtract the weight of your jam jar to get an accurate weight for your starter.
8) Once your starter is nice and bubbly, you can start baking!
Tips
1) Start small and anticipate it taking a few tries to nail a recipe.
Working sourdough into your daily routine is an adjustment. You have to feed your starter ahead of time, prep your dough, and let it rise before baking. It requires a lot of planning! My recommendation would be to start with a simple recipe that is already a staple in your home, like a sweet bread loaf or rolls. Have a backup plan in case the recipe flops on the first try. Once you get the hang of your sourdough workflow with the first recipe, you can add more.
2) Schedule every part of the process
I meticulously follow my weekly planner. When I meal plan, I also bread-plan, scheduling when I need to feed my starter, prep dough, and bake dough for each recipe I plan on making. This saves me from having to constantly do math in my head to make sure the bread is made when it needs to be.
3) Feed your sourdough before you get tired in the evening
It’s too easy to convince yourself that you don’t need to bake anything the next day when you’re tired. I try to feed my starter while making dinner to ensure I get it done. Worst case you’ll end up with more discard to use.
4) Use your discard
Keep discard in mind when you’re scheduling your baking for the week. I like to make sourdough crackers and sourdough pizzas with my discard every week for lunches and snacks.
5) Clean your starter jars
Once a week I measure 130 grams of starter into a clean jam jar to start the week fresh. I have 4 jam jars that I rotate between.
Resources
Sarah Therèse
Sarah is a mom of five who inspired my sourdough dreams. Her YouTube channel is an encyclopedia of ideas, recipes, tutorials, and techniques in and of itself, but she also has an amazing website cataloging all of her recipes.
The Clever Carrot
My favorite resource for Artisan loaves and Rustic loaves.
King Arthur
Simple, entry-level recipes.
Sourdough by Science
When you’ve become obsessed with sourdough and want to go deeper.
My Favorite Recipes
Bagels
By far my most-baked recipe. I make these 2-3 times a week.
Pizza
A weekly staple. I love experimenting with different toppings. I have my eye on this cookbook...
Rolls/Burger Buns/Hot Dog Buns
Roll was one of my son’s first words due to this recipe.
Crackers
My latest obsession. These take work, but they yield SO many crackers we usually have more than enough for a whole week. I’ve also been experimenting with adding sourdough discard to this recipe.
Raisin Bread
You can’t go wrong with raisin bread, in my opinion. It’s one of my favorite recipes to bake for the weekend.
A Week of Baking
Sunday
I feed my starter every Sunday night to prepare for the week. It makes me feel like I’m ready for Monday, which I typically am not.
Monday
Monday is my “run around like a chicken with its head cut off” day. Laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning from the weekend, plus saying yes to get-togethers and play dates. I can throw ingredients for bagels in my bread machine first thing in the morning and not have to do anything with it until the evening which is ideal for a busy day.
Morning: Prepped bagel dough in the bread machine
Evening: Baked Bagels. Fed starter.
Tuesday
I dedicate more time to baking on Tuesdays so I have a bunch of bread available for the week. This Tuesday was a hangout at home and get stuff done day.
Morning: Prepped dough for rolls in the bread machine. Prepped dough for the sandwich loaf.
Mid-morning: Baked rolls. Stretch-and-folded sandwich loaf dough. Made sourdough crackers.
Afternoon: Stretch-and-folded sandwich loaf dough. Prepped pizza dough.
Evening: Stretch-and-folded sandwich loaf dough. Baked pizzas.
Before Bed: Put sandwich loaf dough in the fridge. Fed starter.
Wednesday
We had a huge beach day planned, so I baked a loaf in the morning to make sandwiches to pack.
Morning: Took sandwich loaf dough out of the fridge to sit out and warm up.
Mid-morning: Shaped and baked sandwich loaf.
Evening: Fed starter.
Thursday
More bagels are needed. I also made muffins and freezer biscuits for the weekend so I could take a day off from kitchen stuff on Friday.
Morning: Prepped bagel dough in the bread machine.
Mid-morning: Baked discard-muffins and prepped freezer biscuits for the weekend.
Evening: Baked bagels.
Friday
Break from baking! Spent the entire day outside, hiking, hanging out by the water, and playing with the dogs in the backyard. Fed my starter in the evening.
Saturday
One of our more relaxed Saturdays which included lots of coffee, a casual bike ride, and trying to teach my toddler Mancala.
Morning: Baked freezer biscuits. Prepped raisin bread dough.
Stretch-and-fold raisin bread dough a few times throughout the day. Put the dough in the fridge overnight.
Sunday
A casual day of outdoor time, errands, and reading. Had raisin bread for breakfast and lunch which is a sign of a good Sunday.
Morning: Took dough out of the fridge to warm up and rise. Folded in raisins, brown sugar, and cinnamon into dough. Shaped my loaf and let it rise. Baked raisin bread.
Evening: Fed starter
Thank you for reading! Please reply to this email with any bread-related recipes you have and love.