My Perfect Sourdough Loaf Recipe

LOOK AT THAT BREAD!! I’m beyond excited to share my Perfect Sourdough Loaf recipe with you! Recently, I picked up one of my favourite hobbies again — sourdough baking. And now that I’ve started, I genuinely can’t stop. I picked up fresh starter from one of my favourite local bakeries and have been baking loaf after loaf ever since. After lots of experimenting, tweaking, and learning the rhythm of the process, I finally perfected my go-to loaf recipe… and today I’m sharing it with you.

I think sourdough has become way more intimidating online than it actually needs to be. So many recipes and videos overcomplicate the process, making it feel daunting before you’ve even started. But truthfully, sourdough is incredibly simple once you understand the rhythm of it. This recipe is intentionally easy, straightforward, and beginner-friendly while still giving you a beautiful artisan-style loaf.

Of course, once you become more experienced, you can begin playing around with hydration levels, flour combinations, fermentation timing, and shaping techniques to create even more developed crumb structures and textures. But if you’re just getting started and want a foolproof loaf recipe that genuinely works, this is the perfect place to begin. And honestly? Every single loaf I make keeps getting better and better simply through repetition and practice.

What You’ll Need

One of the things I love most about sourdough is how simple the ingredient list really is. At its core, sourdough only requires four main ingredients: starter, water, salt, and flour. That’s it. Which means genuinely anyone can make it. The only thing you’ll need to source is your sourdough starter, and honestly, someone you know probably already has one they’d happily share. You can also stop by your favourite local sourdough bakery and ask if they sell or share starter — most bakeries are more than happy to help people get started.

While you can absolutely make sourdough using all-purpose flour, I do find bread flour gives the best structure, rise, and chewy artisan texture. But either works beautifully depending on what you have on hand. Sourdough is slow, simple baking at its finest — and once you make your first loaf, you’ll understand why so many people fall in love with the process.

My Perfect Sourdough Loaf CHECKLIST

Active sourdough starter
Filtered water
Salt
Bread flour OR All-purpose flour

Making The Perfect Sourdough Loaf

Feeding the Starter

The night before baking, I feed my sourdough starter so it has enough time to rise and reach its peak by the next morning. This timing will always depend slightly on your kitchen temperature and the season, but this is the schedule that consistently works best for me right now.

Around 9:30–10:00 PM, I’ll either feed:

25g sourdough starter
50g filtered water
50g flour

Or, if I’m planning to make a double batch:

50g sourdough starter
100g filtered water
100g flour

For this recipe, we only need 100g of active starter, so the smaller feeding works perfectly for a single loaf.

Right now, my starter typically takes about 7–8 hours to fully peak. In the warmer summer months, this may happen faster, which is always important to keep in mind while baking sourdough. By around 7:30–8:00 AM the next morning, my starter is usually perfectly bubbly, airy, and web-like — exactly what we’re looking for before mixing the dough.

Making the Dough

Once your starter has fully peaked the next morning, it’s time to mix the dough. In a large mixing bowl, combine:

300g filtered water
100g active sourdough starter

Give this a quick whisk together until the starter begins to disperse into the water. Then add:

10g salt
450g bread flour

Using a dough whisk or your hands, mix everything together until no dry flour remains and a shaggy dough forms. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfectly smooth yet — that’s completely normal at this stage. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes before beginning your first stretch and fold.

Stretch & Folds

This is where the dough begins building strength and structure while still keeping that beautiful airy texture sourdough is known for. After your first 30-minute rest, begin your first set of stretch and folds by gently pulling one side of the dough upward and folding it back into itself. Rotate the bowl and repeat this around all four corners of the dough. (watch a youtube tutorial)

You’ll repeat this process four-five times total:

Stretch & Fold #1
Rest 30 minutes

Stretch & Fold #2
Rest 30 minutes

Stretch & Fold #3
Rest 30 minutes

Stretch & Fold #4
Rest 30 minutes

With each round, you’ll notice the dough becoming smoother, stronger, and more elastic. This is one of my favourite parts of the process because you can literally feel the dough transforming in your hands.

Bulk Rise

Once your stretch and folds are complete, cover the dough and allow it to bulk ferment at room temperature until it has noticeably risen, looks airy, and has small bubbles forming throughout. For me, this usually takes anywhere from 5–8 hours depending on the temperature of my kitchen and how active my starter is that day. The dough should look puffier, softer, and have a slight jiggle when you gently shake the bowl. This part of sourdough baking really teaches patience. You can’t rush fermentation — the dough will always tell you when it’s ready.

Shaping

Once your bulk rise is complete, gently turn the dough out onto your counter and allow it to rest for about 30 minutes uncovered. This short bench rest helps the dough relax before its final shaping.

After 30 minutes, it’s time to shape your loaf. Everyone develops their own preferred shaping technique over time, and honestly, this is one of those steps that is much easier to learn visually than through written instructions. Depending on whether you’re making a round boule or an oval batard, I highly recommend watching a quick YouTube tutorial to see the shaping process in action.

The goal is simply to create surface tension while gently tucking the dough into itself. Once shaped, generously flour your banneton basket and place the dough inside seam-side up (right side down). This will become the bottom of your loaf while it proofs and the top once it is baked.

Cold Proof

This is where the magic happens. Once your dough is sitting comfortably in its banneton basket, cover it and transfer it to the refrigerator for its final cold fermentation. I almost always proof mine overnight because by this point it’s usually around 9:00 or 10:00 PM, making it the perfect stopping point for the day. The cold proof not only makes sourdough easier to fit into your schedule, but it also helps develop deeper flavour while allowing the dough to continue fermenting slowly overnight. The next morning, you’ll be rewarded with dough that is easier to score, holds its shape beautifully, and bakes into a loaf with incredible texture and flavour.

Scoring & Baking

The next morning, place your Dutch oven into the oven and preheat to 450°F. I like to let both the oven and Dutch oven preheat for a full hour to ensure everything is thoroughly heated. Once preheated, remove your dough from the refrigerator. Carefully turn it out onto parchment paper or a bread sling and score the top using a bread lame or sharp razor blade.

Just like shaping, scoring is something that’s much easier to learn visually. There are countless simple scoring tutorials online, and once you try a few designs, you’ll quickly find your favourites. Transfer the dough into the hot Dutch oven and bake covered for 20 minutes. Then remove the lid and continue baking for another 15 minutes, allowing the crust to develop that beautiful golden-brown colour. This timing has consistently given me my favourite results — a crisp crust, beautiful oven spring, and a soft airy interior.

Cooling

As tempting as it is to slice into a fresh loaf immediately, this final step is incredibly important. Once your bread comes out of the oven, place it on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely. I personally like to wait about three hours before cutting into it to ensure the crumb has fully set. Cutting too early can result in a gummy interior because the loaf is still finishing its baking process internally. Once cooled, slice, serve, and enjoy the reward for all of your patience. There is truly nothing better than a warm homemade loaf of sourdough with a generous spread of butter.

There’s a reason sourdough has become one of my favorite things to bake. It teaches patience, slows you down, and somehow turns four simple ingredients into something that feels incredibly special. Whether this is your very first loaf or you’re continuing to refine your technique, I hope this recipe gives you the confidence to get started. This is the perfect sourdough loaf recipe to start, I promise!

Remember, every loaf teaches you something new. Don’t stress about perfection. Some of my best loaves came after the ones that didn’t turn out exactly as planned. The more you bake, the more intuitive the process becomes. If you want more sourdough recipes check out my sourdough cinnamon buns or my sourdough focaccia, both are amazing and simple!

Now excuse me while I go make another loaf.

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My Perfect Sourdough Loaf Recipe