A Basic Sourdough Boule Recipe (2024)

HOW WE TEACH YOU TO MAKE SOURDOUGH

The Sourdough Club is where weteach you how to make our amazing healthy bread. It is the part of The Sourdough School where we share our recipes, tutorials, tips, lessons and support you so that you can learn how to make Sourdough where ever you are as part of a community.

I am often asked for a basic sourdough recipe, and for the cost of making a sourdough boule – it can cost as little as 20p – but in so many ways I am somehow reluctant to give a sourdough recipe because a recipe in itself really does not guarantee a good loaf.

There are many variables that affect a good sourdough bread, from the kind of flour, to the amount it is handled, to the weather on the day. These are things that I cannot account for in a recipe.

Learn to bake this sourdough on our online course

HOW WE TEACH YOU TO MAKE SOURDOUGH

The Sourdough Club is where weteach you how to make our amazing bread. It is the part of The Sourdough School where we share our recipes, tutorials, tips, lessons and support you so that you can learn how to make Sourdough where ever you are.

There are many basic sourdough recipe posts online, some good and some not so good, but baking a beautiful loaf is about more than just the practical external factors. To make a really great sourdough you need the ability to judge the dough; to know it, understand it, feel it and instinctively correct or modify your technique on any given day. This takes practice, time, understanding and patience. The ability to judge these factors and allow for them is one of the things we teach on oursourdough courses.But more than that I teach people to understand sourdough. Once you understand sourdough then you will always bake a great loaf.

That said, nothing gets you off to a better start at the weekend that a warm crusty sourdough loaf fresh from the oven and there are many bakers who read this site too far away to attend a course. So this is my basic sourdough recipe; it is based on the French country Pain de Levain that I grew up baking in the village bakery in the South of France, and is timed so as to be ready to take out of the oven on a Saturday morning to bake.

Sourdough bread.
A traditionally French shaped sourdough boule. Allow yourself about 4 hours for the dough to be mixed, folded and shaped ready to place in the coldest part of the fridge to prove overnight. (If you are new to bread making, you can, instead of shaping the dough and putting it into a banneton, grease a 2lb bread tin liberally with butter, let the dough rise in it overnight in the fridge and then bake as per the recipe instructions below.)

If you do not yet have a sourdough starter you can buy The Sourdough School’s white sourdough starter kit here.

Equipment:

A large mixing bowl
A round cane banneton
2clean tea towels
A Dutch oven, La Cloche or bread pan
A large heatproof pan, a sharp knife or ‘lame’ to slash the dough with.

Ingredients:
300g water
100g sourdough leaven* (made with your starter)
100g of stoneground organic wholemeal flour
400g organic strong white flour
10g fine sea saltmixed with 15g of cold water
25g rice flour mixed with 25g of stone-ground white flour (for dusting your banneton)
Semolina to dust the bottom of the baking surface

Makes 1 loaf

Directions:

Late afternoon

Mix

In a large bowl, whisk your water and starter and mix well. Add all the flour and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball.

Cover with a clean damp cloth and let the dough rest on the side in the kitchen for between 30 minutes and 2 hours – this what bakers call Autolyse

Fold

Add the salt mixed with the water and dimple your fingers into the dough to allow the salty water and salt to distribute evenly throughout the dough. Leave for 10 minutes.

Next, lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat 3 times at 30 minute intervals, with a final 15-minute rest at the end.

Shape

Shape the dough lightly into a ball then place into a round banneton dusted with flour (If you don’t have a banneton then use a clean tea towel dusted with flour inside a colander). Dust the top with flour, then cover with a damp tea-towel.

Prove

Leave your dough to one side until it is 50% bigger then transfer to the fridge, and leave to prove there for 8 – 12 hours.

Bakethe following morning

The next morning, preheat your oven to 220 °C for at least 30 minutes before you are ready to bake. Place your cloche or baking stone in the oven and a large pan of boiling water underneath (or use a Dutch oven). The hydration helps form a beautiful crust.

Once the oven is up to full heat, carefully remove the baking stone from the oven, taking care not to burn yourself dust with a fine layer of semolina, which stops the bread sticking, then put your dough onto the baking stone and slash the top with your blade. This decides where the bread will tear as it rises. Bake for one hour.

Turn the heat down to 180 °C (and remove the lid if you are using a Dutch oven) and bake for another 10 -15 minutes. You need to choose just how dark you like your crust, but I suggest that you bake until it is a dark brown – it tastes much better.

Storage

Sourdough is really best left to cool completely before slicing, and is even better if left for a day to let the full flavour develop.

Once your sourdough has cooled, store in a linen or cotton bread bag, or wrapped in a clean tea towel.

Note: if you don’t like a crunchy crust on your sourdough bread, simply wrap your bread in a clean tea towel whilst it is still warm.

• * To make 100g of leaven, use 1 tablespoon of sourdough starter, 40g of water and 40g of strong white flour, mix well and leave, covered on the side in the kitchen in the morning. It will be lively and bubbly and ready to bake with in the evening.
• More advanced recipes and tips are available to members of the sourdough club.

Learn to bake this sourdough on our online course

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