Sour Sourdough Bread Recipe

Sour Sourdough Bread
Original recipe by Teresa L Greenway
adapted by Steven Jensen and Aimee Jensen

My dad and I have both finally achieved a true San Francisco style sourdough bread using this recipe and our own sourdough starters (no yeast!!!). I have had to change a few things because the timeline is difficult for my schedule, but if you’ve got the time, you can bake a pretty good loaf every time.

Feed the Starter: Make sure your starter is active and has been fed within the last 10 hours – this is what my dad does religiously, but he’s retired!!! If you’re like me or Noelle and don’t have time for that, you can keep your fed starter in the refrigerator and when you want to bake bread, take it out, stir it down, take out the amount for the recipe, feed the remaining amount equal parts (50g/water 50g/flour 50g/starter) mix it thoroughly, and place it right back in the fridge. I’ve left mine in the fridge for over a week, and it still produced a delicious loaf of bread!
Mix Ingredients:
Place 20 grams of starter in container (my dad uses a plastic tupperware rectangular container, I just use a mixing bowl)
Add 350 grams of purified water (distilled water they say can change the way the dough behaves, and if there’s any chlorine in the tap water, that can mess with the dough as well).
Mix starter and water with a fork thoroughly
Add 500 grams of bread flour (higher protein content) – I start with a spatula, then I use my hands squeezing the dough through my fingers to help get every bit of flour hydrated. I hold the bowl with one hand mix with the other so you can use the clean hand to scrape off the dough of your other hands using a spatula. The dough will be very very wet and sticky.
Clean your hands and wait 15 minutes then sprinkle 10 grams of salt into the dough and mix with your hand – squeezing it between your fingers until you no longer feel the grains of the salt. It will feel softer and stretchier.
Ferment: I cover the container with a wet cloth and let sit on my kitchen counter for 5 hours. My dad puts the lid of the tupperware lightly on top and places the dough in his proofer set to 74 degree F for 5 hours
Fold the dough – basically grab a the dough from the outside stretch it up and pull it to the center, repeat all the way around the dough.
Cover with damp towel and leave the dough on the counter in the container or in the proofer for 8 hours. After the 8 hours I don’t usually have the time to do the next step, so I cover it with plastic wrap, or something that seals and stick it in the fridge until I have time to do the next step. If you let it over ferment, It will become too sticky to work with and won’t rise in the oven, believe me, worst bread ever.
Pre-Shape: Remove dough from container onto a well-floured surface. Slightly shape the dough, just giving the dough the gist of what you want it to do. Let it rest for 20 minutes covered.
Final Shape: Now you can really shape the dough. I spread it out flat like a pizza, an oval shaped pizza, then fold it all into the center, stretching the outside of the dough and pulling it into the center, then from one side of the oval length-wise roll in up and it should stretch into a tight ball. You can look up final-shaping of dough online to see the technique.
Final Rise: Place ball of dough seam side up into a proofing basket (or if you don’t have a proofing basket, you can place a floured towel into any basket of the right size, or into any bowl or pot (pots are great because there’s a lid to cover it) and place dough in that), cover and let rise for 1-2 hours. My dad places it back in the proofer at 74 degrees F. Again, I find that I don’t have that much time to do the next step, so after the second rise, I cover it with plastic wrap and put it back in the fridge until I have time for the next step.
Bake: Preheat your oven an hour before you bake at 450 degrees F (optional: you can place a baking sheet in the oven before turning the oven on and heat up water and pour it in the pan after you place the dough in the oven)
Dust the peel, cutting board, or baking pan with corn meal. Take dough out of basket seam side down onto the board.
Score the bread – with a razor or knife – or you can just place the bread seam side up and skip the scoring. The bread will naturally open at the seam as if it’s been scored.
Place scored loaf into the oven, either on a baking stone, or on a baking sheet, or in a cast iron pot that is able to go into the oven at that high temperature.
Cover with a roasting lid, or the lid of the pot, for the first 15 minutes
Take lid off and take the pan of water out if there’s still water in there
Let it bake for another 15-30 minutes depending on how dark you want it. You can lower the temperature to 425 degrees
Remove bread from oven, if you want to check the temperature, the internal temperature should read at or above 200 degrees F.

Let the bread cool completely!

I know you might be tempted by the smell to eat it right out the oven while it’s hot, we’ve only been waiting 18 hours since we started the recipe! But The inside of the loaf needs to set so the bread has the right texture inside. Let it cool completely, at least an hour, then you can slice and enjoy with butter!!!