Sourdough Bread Recipe: One Formula, Three Schedules

A great sourdough bread recipe is four numbers and a schedule you can keep: 500 g of flour, 375 g of water, 100 g of ripe starter, and 10 g of salt. This is the recipe for sourdough bread I bake every week — one 900 g loaf with a crackling crust, an open, custardy crumb, and a gentle tang. It's written in grams, timed for a normal home kitchen, and flexible enough to fit a weekday evening, a lazy weekend, or a two-day split.

Why this recipe works

The formula sits at 75% hydration — wet enough for an open crumb, dry enough that a beginner can still handle it. The 10% whole wheat adds flavor without the handling problems of a fully whole-grain dough. And the three-schedule structure means the same recipe works whether you have 14 hours or just two evenings.

Ingredient	Percentage	Weight (this recipe)
Bread flour	90%	450 g
Whole wheat flour	10%	50 g
Water	75%	375 g
Active starter	20%	100 g
Salt	2%	10 g

Every loaf starts with these five lines. Want to understand the math behind them? The baker's percentages guide explains how to scale this formula up, down, or sideways.

Pick a schedule

The dough follows the same path every time — autolyse, mix, folds, bulk, shape, proof, bake. Only the timing changes.

Same-day (about 13 hours). Mix at 8:00, fold until 10:30, bulk until 3:00, shape at 3:00, proof until 4:30, bake at 4:30, slice at 7:00. Best for weekends and a starter at peak on a schedule you can watch.

Overnight bulk (the weekday version). Mix and fold in the evening, then move the bowl to the fridge right after the last fold. Shape the next evening, proof 45-60 minutes, bake. The cold bulk does the work while you sleep, and the flavor deepens.

Two-day (slow and forgiving). Follow the overnight schedule, but after shaping, proof in the fridge for 10-14 hours. Bake straight from the cold the next morning — score deeper, and add 5 minutes to the covered bake. This is the most forgiving route for beginners because the fridge gives you a huge window.

The stages, explained in order

The autolyse is flour and water resting alone for 30 minutes before the starter arrives. It hydrates the flour and starts gluten development with zero effort. See the full autolyse guide for timing tables and the mistakes that turn it sour.

The folds replace kneading. Three rounds, 30 minutes apart, build strength while the dough ferments. You are not trying to make a smooth ball — you are teaching the gluten to hold the gas the starter will produce.

Bulk fermentation is where the dough goes from dense to alive. Watch the dough, not the clock: you want it puffy, domed, and 60-70% larger, with a few bubbles on the surface and edges that have rounded off. Under-proofed dough is the number one cause of dense loaves. When in doubt, wait 30 more minutes and use the dough poke test to check.

Shaping builds surface tension so the loaf can rise up instead of out. Preshape, rest 20 minutes, then shape into a tight boule or batard — the shaping techniques guide walks through both hands-on.

Proofing is the final rise. Room-temperature proof is 45-60 minutes; a cold proof is 10-14 hours. Either works with this recipe.

Baking happens in a preheated covered pot: 475°F (245°C) covered for 30 minutes, then 450°F (230°C) uncovered until the crust is deep amber. Full details live in the Dutch oven baking guide.

Common mistakes (and the fix)

• Dense crumb: under-proofed, or sliced too early. Give bulk another 30-60 minutes and wait the full 2 hours to cut.
• Flat, wide loaf: over-proofed, or shaping lost too much tension. Cold-proof next time and re-read the shaping guide.
• Pale, soft crust: not enough steam, or the oven ran cool. Keep the pot covered for the full 30 minutes and check your oven with a thermometer.
• Burning on the bottom: the Dutch oven is too close to the element, or preheated too hot. Slide a baking sheet under the pot, or bake on a lower rack.
• Gummy, tight crumb: cut too early, almost always. Two hours on a rack, no exceptions.

Variations

• Whole wheat: swap the bread flour for 250 g whole wheat and add 25-50 g water. The 100% whole wheat sourdough recipe handles this properly.
• Rye: replace the whole wheat with 50 g rye for a deeper, darker crumb. The 90% rye loaf goes all the way.
• Walnut-cranberry: fold 100 g toasted walnuts and 80 g dried cranberries in during the last fold. Full instructions on the walnut cranberry sourdough page.
• Higher hydration: want the big open crumb? The high-hydration sourdough guide explains how to push this same formula to 80% and beyond.

Before you bake

This recipe assumes an active sourdough starter. If yours is new, weak, or hasn't risen today, the sourdough starter guide will get it to peak — start there, then come back. Everything else you need is probably already in your kitchen. New to sourdough entirely? Walk the whole bake end to end in the beginner's guide to sourdough. And when it goes wrong — not if, when — the sourdough troubleshooting hub has the direct answer for every failure mode. For more ways to use your starter and its discard, the sourdough discard recipes hub has you covered.

The complete guide library

Every technique this recipe relies on has its own in-depth guide on this site — each one links back to this recipe and to the sourdough starter guide, so you can always find your way home:

• Beginner's guide to sourdough — the whole bake end to end
• Autolyse — the 30-minute rest that starts every good dough
• Proofing bread dough — bulk fermentation and final proof, timed
• Dutch oven baking — crust, steam, and oven spring
• Shaping bread dough — preshape, boule, and batard
• Dough temperature — the temperature chart that makes timing predictable
• Dough poke test — knowing exactly when proofing is done
• Feeding sourdough starter — keeping the jar strong between bakes
• What is a levain — building a recipe-sized portion of starter
• Bread flour vs all-purpose — choosing the right flour
• Sourdough bread flour — protein, brands, and storage
• High-hydration sourdough — pushing past 75% the safe way
• Same-day sourdough — the 8-hour bake when you're in a hurry
• Baker's percentages — the math behind every formula