Sourdough baking is a deliciously enchanting Obsession, where flour and water dance to the rhythm of wild yeasts and timing. With each bubbly starter and golden-crusted loaf, you’re drawn deeper into a flour-dusted fairy tale. It’s part science, part magic- your kitchen becomes a laboratory, and your hands the wands. Crust crackles like spells cast just right, and every loaf tells a new story. Once enchanted, there is no turning back, one more rise, one more bake, one more crumbly adventure.
The Potion Starter: Summoning Wild Yeast Magic
How it all starts varies from person to person. Some take it as a personal challenge, others more of an organic reason, or a way to free up the grocery bill. Either way, it’s the first step of an adventure that could lead to your chickens and homesteading! But to be fair, it’s a lot of fun and there is a learning curve! Not everyone does it the same or gets the same results; it’s a mixture of your room temperature, flour, and how much you baby your starter.
Your starter has to be well established and consistent for 10 days to make sure your bacteria are balanced. So basically, if you try to make bread without this 10 (I would say 14 days), you could end up with a serious situation. Establishing a stable and thriving microbiome, ensuring the good bacteria and yeast become dominant, and achieving a predictable rise and fall pattern after feeding. This allows for a robust culture to develop, ready for baking! You have to balance the water, flour, and natural wild yeast to consume!
Why does the yeast have to be established and mature? I am so glad you asked! This part I had trouble with on my first go around. The more activity, the more rise or bubbles, the more established it is! Those are the signs of wild yeast, If you don’t want fluffy bread, then you don’t need yeast! But if you want amazing loaves of golden bread, you need yeast!
You might get sick…hear me out!! In your starter, there are bacteria (microbes) that help produce wild yeast. If you use an immature starter, you can get sick from immature microbes. You can get food positioning. This is true for any beginning discards you take off your young starter, too. ( I will cover discard, don’t worry!)
Once it’s mature, you should typically see a rise in your starter within 4-6 hours after you feed it. Yes, you feed your starter every day! Some people feed it once every day, while others will feed it every 12 hours. Just depends on what you are looking to do with it. Also, the ratio depends on what you will be doing, too!
Potion or Proof? Stirring up Sourdough Sorcery
So to start your starter, you MUST have a lid for your jar, NO paper towel with a rubber band securing it! You need to have less airflow. But do not tighten the lid down, you need it secure but loose enough to allow excess gas to get out. (There are a lot of ‘rules‘, but some are your preference. Do NOT use bleached flour under any circumstances. The bacteria will be killed, and your state will be useless, and you’ll have to start all over. Sourdough is enormously sensitive to certain things that kill the good bacteria that make up the wild yeast. Mysterious it can be, but it can be a little prissy.
Do you need a digital scale or measuring cups? It depends on what you are comfortable with! I use a digital scale! I use a 1:1:1 ratio. I use 100 grams of starter, 100 grams of bread flour, and 100 grams of filtered water. I have found room room-temperature water works best. I have used cups and I never got the hang of it with this, so I retried with a scale. I then stir vigorously with my rubber scraper.
NEVER use the metal of your sourdough, it kills the rise and flattens it. You want a consistency like pancake mix, that is the sweet spot for a good rise. Remember, mystical sourdough, it’s a journey. There will be obstacles that could cause it to fall flat.
Trust me, if Ma Kettle could keep her starter alive in the back of a covered wagon, you can too. Just pay attention, especially for pink mold, and your starter will be ready to use lickety split. Just be mindful, if you are going on vacation or will be gone from home, and you don’t want to take your starter with you, then throw it in the fridge. Yes, it will be perfectly safe for it!
The Alchemy of Dough: Mixing and Transformation
OK, so you have had your starter for two weeks. Sourdough isn’t just about throwing things together and BOOM there it is! It’s showing consistency, and you want to make your first loaf, BUT you are intimidated by what recipe to follow. Well, my philosophy is less is more. So, find a basic recipe and go from there. Don’t expect perfection in the first loaf! It’s a learning curve. If your oven isn’t the same make and model as the person who wrote the recipe (most likely it isn’t), then you probably will have different results. It’s just facts!
But finding your jive with the amount of active bubbly starter, flour, and water (don’t forget the salt) all depends on your comfort level or lack thereof. It’s not hard, I feel that we tend to overthink even the simplest things. But remember to find your groove with baking. Brewing all the parts together. Bread can be forgiving. Either way, it’s warm and yummy with butter!
The Cauldron Bubbles: Mystical Tips for Sourdough Success
Hydration, you will hear a lot about this! Is key, not enough, it’ll be dry too much, and it’s hard to work with. Not every mix will be the same. It’s important to go with your gut. Some 80% hydrated will be awful, but others, like 75%, are perfect! It just depends. Play with your process. Perfect it and know that this should NEVER be stressful!
Fermentation is a big one too; this is the gas trapped in the gluten network, making the dough rise. So when the recipe says, bulk ferment, ” that means to leave it alone on your counter and let it naturally build up gas to make it double in size. This is why this is such a long process. But watch your dough. Each time it may be different. Some days it may take 4 hours, whereas other days it will take every bit of 8.
Gluten development, this is the “spider webs‘ when you pull it apart or when you are mixing it. This structure is crucial for the development of the bread. So kneading aligns gluten strands into an elastic web. This elasticity allows the dough to stretch and trap gases, giving the bread its chewy texture and open crumb. Yeah, we will cover that too!
Proofing goes hand in hand with bulk fermentation. As the mystical dough rests (rising) and ferments, it doubles in size. Timing again is crucial for texture and flavor. Over-proofing, the dough can collapse, and under-proofing won’t be airy enough. I know it comes down to finding your mystical process.
The Rise and Fall: Proofing with Patience
In baking, proofing is where the magic of the dough awakens quietly, a patient phase where time becomes an ingredient. I am addicted to checking it every hour, almost down to the minute, to check how sticky it is and how it’s set up. I am a nervous baker, yes, it’s a flaw, but I love making sure my spell is cast the right way. Powerful journey of finding your internal mystical sourdough rhythm. Stretch, fold, and let it rest.
The rise that gives life, and the fall that teaches humility. You won’t get it right all the time or on your first couple of tries. But each time you will get closer, watching your oven like it is your cauldron springing life from the very depths of your growling need to make more. It’s addictive and fun.
During proofing, wild (or if you are making a discarded loaf of commercial yeast) feeds on sugars, releasing the CO2 that gets caught in the gluten web, and inflating the dough. This slow breathing expands the dough, giving it softness, airiness, and that PUFFED anticipation before baking your mystical sourdough. The first proof builds flavor, structure, and the foundational strength of the loaf. “Let the dough rise and in rising, it remembers the hands that shaped it.”
For the Love of Mystical Loaves
Patience isn’t passive, attentiveness. Or in my case, obsession, either way, it’s a deep need. Proofing dough means listening with your hands and eyes. Is it soft but springy? When you touch it, does it stick? Does it slowly bounce back when gently pressed? Does it jiggle like it’s alive? Is it mystical? The best bakers learn to wait just enough to catch the dough at its peak, before it crests and sinks.
Good bread isn’t rushed. It’s coaxed. This is more than just a mix and boom, it’s ready. No, it’s like a flower. To let it bloom, we must wait till it’s ready to gently open its petals and give us the joy of its beauty to shine on us. Temperature, humidity, flour, and mood all play their part. Allow it to take you on a spell-binding journey, let it speak to you, and sing an enchanting song that sirens would be jealous of.
The Fire Ritual: Baking the Crusty Spell
Preheated like a kiln, the oven is not just hot- it is primed with intention. Its dry heat and radiant energy are the catalysts that awaken the final spell-binding transformation. Watching it transform from a pile of dough to a beautiful, golden crust. The final step will have you sitting in front of your oven window and watching its transformation from dough to a beautiful, enchanting loaf of sourdough. It’s not as mystical as you’d think. It’s a process of happiness!
Is more than just magic, it’s a hypnotic journey that takes you on a journey of understanding that your hands can conjure a work of art, even if it takes a few tries. You will be addicted when you pull your loaf from the oven. The smell alone is heaven on earth. The warm, nutty scent ensnares all of your senses. Cooling takes a millennium, when you cut into it and see the soft perfection, it makes it all worth it, honestly.
Starter Ingredients:
This will take 7-14 days to get ready for baking
A glass jar with a lid is key!
⦁ 60g flour
⦁ 60g water
⦁ Stir into a thick paste (pancake mix) and cover
⦁ The next day, stir it and leave it alone
⦁ Day 3 will be the first day of feeding. Discard half the starter (weigh it all!!!)
⦁ Add 60g of flour and 60g of water and mix vigorously
⦁ It should start to smell tangy and bubble a bit
Repeat till it doubles in size each feeding, it smells tangy, and it’s been 7-14 days!
Ingredients: Mystical Sourdough
⦁ 500g bread flour (or a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat)
⦁ 350g water (room temp)
⦁ 100g active bubbly starter (fed within 4-6 hours)
⦁ 10g salt (about 1 1/2 tsp)
Basic timeline:
Mix (morning)
⦁ In a large bowl, mix the flour, water, salt, and starter. Let it sit 30-40 minutes
⦁ Cover and rest for 1 hour
⦁ Stretch and fold!!
⦁ Every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours, perform a stretch and fold: Grab one edge of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over. Turn the bowl and repeat 3 more times.
⦁ Rest and cover (this depends on your temp, 4-8 hours)
Shape and rest (Afternoon/Evening)
⦁ After bulk Fermentation, turn the dough onto a floured surface.
⦁ Gently shape it into a round loaf
⦁ Let it rest 20- 30 minutes
⦁ Finally, shape it, then place it into a floured banneton or a bowl lined with a floured towel.
Cold Proof (overnight)
Cover and refrigerate the dough overnight (8- 14 hours). This slows fermentation and builds flavor. The dough is fine in here for up to 3 days.
Bake
⦁ Preheat your oven to 475 Degrees with a Dutch oven inside for at least 30 minutes
⦁ Turn the dough out onto parchment paper, score the top with a sharp knife or razor
⦁ place into the hot Dutch oven. Cover and bake for 20 minutes
⦁ Remove the lid and bake another 20-25 minutes until golden and crusty
Cool
Let the bread cool completely on a rack before slicing- about 1-2 hours! Eat and Enjoy!
