About a year ago, I noticed a weird looking jar of something very unappetizing in the fridge. My wife stopped me as I was about to discard what turned out to be discard. It was a sourdough starter she got from Facebook marketplace. Perfect. There’s nothing I love more than a jar of bacteria from someone else’s kitchen. What could possibly go wrong? I returned it to the fridge and thought nothing of it. Until she baked her first loaf of bread. It. Was. Perfect. Hot and delicious. The way the butter melted into every nook & cranny, it didn’t even have to taste good. But, oh did it.

This sourdough brought on some of the biggest dreams I’ve ever dreamt. She was churning out about a loaf per week. It was so good, I begged her to open a bakery. Everything was right in the universe. I would never buy another loaf of bread for the rest of my days.

Then. Just as soon as she began, she abruptly stopped. I didn’t even get a warning. Not only that, but she exclaimed that she never wanted to make sourdough again. Grand opening, grand closing. It was over. I was inconsolable. I even found myself driving by bakeries that weren’t on the way home.

“Why? What’s the problem?” I asked. She wouldn’t even answer. She was so traumatized, so over it. She just threw up her arms and stormed out of the room.

For the past 6 months, I’ve been staring at that jar of sourdough in the fridge wondering what could be SOOO hard about making a loaf of bread. I decided it was my time to take over the baking operation. I seem to gravitate toward delayed gratification. It takes 4 weeks minimum to brew a cold bottle of beer. I’m currently also in the process of making Rumtopf, which can take most of the year before it can be enjoyed around the holidays. Sourdough is a natural fit in that it also takes time, effort, and lots of luck.

Here’s the recipe that was provided by the lady who hooked us up with the starter. I want this to unfold for you the way it unfolded for me. Breadcrumb by breadcrumb:

A 1:1:1 ratio is you weigh the amount of starter in grams and then add equal parts flour and water. So, if your starter weighs 100 grams, you’d add 100 grams of flour and 100 grams of water and then mix it up

I usually keep about 100g of starter left over but I don’t really measure it too carefully.

Feed it for a couple of days until it doubles in size within 6 hours. Use a rubber band to mark where the mixture starts and then where it is at 6 hours.

Yup! So, after you feed your starter and give it about 6 hours to double in size, then you take 150g of starter, 300g of water, 10g of salt, and 500g of flour and mix that together into a shaggy dough. Cover it for about a half hour and then do what’s called stretch and fold - just left a corner of the dough up and stretch it out, then fold it to the center and do that 3 or 4 times. Repeat that 2-3 times over the next few hours (it’s forgiving, sometimes I totally forget to do stretch and folds).

Let it bulk ferment covered on the counter - I usually do this overnight, or if I mix dough in the morning then I let it go until dinner time

It’ll double or triple in size. Then take it out, stretch it out, fold it over itself a few times and work it into a ball and stick it in a bowl covered in the fridge for an hour up to 24 hours.

Then preheat the oven to 425 with a Dutch oven inside, turn your dough over onto parchment paper, score it, then stick it in the Dutch oven, cover and bake for 25 min. Then take the lid off and bake for another 25 min and you’re done!

How hard can it be? How hard can it be? Let me tell you.

Making sourdough is what I would call a “scheduling nightmare”. The starter decides to double when the starter decides to double. When the starter decides to double, you will need a few hours available for folding, and then overnight to rise. It took me several days to time this whole thing out and produce an actual loaf of bread. If you’re home all the time & don’t have kids, I highly recommend getting after it. The bread is next level when it’s done. Here are some photos of the finished product:

I posted the above pics to Facebook and was inundated with requests for me to make loaves to send all over the country. Hysterical.

If I make you a loaf of sourdough, I must really love you to pieces. I would sooner send you a coupon for $1 off a loaf of Arnold’s.