Lyn just left me a comment asking for my basic sourdough recipe, and I realised that I’ve never posted it here before! Just for reference, here are formulas I use for almost all my sourdough baking.
Starter
I bought my sourdough starter from the US, and it arrived as a small envelope of white flakes. These were rehydrated by mixing the flakes with flour and water over a period of several days.
Now that it is mature, I feed my starter at a ratio of one cup of water to one cup of flour. I’ve often thought about changing it to equal water and flour by weight (ie. 100g flour to 100g water), but I started with the former ratio, and it would be difficult to change all my formulas now. In addition, my very liquid starter has never blown its top or grown out of the bowl it was being fed in.
Hydration
Most of the bread I bake uses a high hydration dough.
A quick explanation (with apologies to all my breadbaking friends who already know this) – the hydration of the dough refers to the percentage of total liquid to flour. So if a dough has 750g of liquid (water, oil, milk etc) to 1kg of flour, the hydration of the dough would be 75%. This is slightly more complicated with sourdough, as the amount of water and flour in the starter needs to be taken into account as well.
Higher hydration doughs are wetter and can therefore be harder to manipulate and knead. I use the flip and fold kneading method for wet doughs (as described here), whereas lower hydration doughs require an old-fashioned pummelling.
Here is my standard formula for almost all the sourdough breads I’ve posted here – loaves, baguettes, scrolls, epi and more. The sourdough focaccia is an exception, as it uses both starter and yeast, and follows the Dan Lepard recipe that Joanna posted on her blog recently.
. . . . .
Celia’s Sourdough Formula (74% hydration)
- 200g starter (fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup bakers flour)
- 400g water
- 50g olive oil
- 700g bakers (bread) flour, or combination of flours
- 10g fine sea salt
I routinely use a mix of flours in this recipe, and will often make the following variations:
- half spelt flour, half bakers flour
- 10% dark organic rye flour, 90% bakers flour
- 500g bakers flour, 200g chestnut flour (see more here)
In conjunction with my starter (and so much of the look and taste of the finished loaf is determined by the starter), this 74% formula will produce a well risen, holey loaf with a chewy texture that my family loves.
. . . . .
When I need a lower hydration dough – useful if I’m trying to create a finished loaf that holds its shape or slashes – this is the formula I use. It’s the dough I make when I’m shaping cottage loaves – a wet dough won’t work in that instance, as the two storeys simply prove into one amorphous blob.
Celia’s Sourdough Formula (60% hydration)
- 300g starter (fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup bakers flour)
- 1kg bakers (bread) flour
- 430g water
- 50g oil
- 15g fine sea salt
This lower hydration dough requires a more traditional kneading method, as it’s too firm to flip and fold. It is a much easier dough to handle, and therefore a good formula to begin baking sourdough with, although it will produce quite a closed, tight crumb rather than a holey one.
One final note – out of personal preference, I’ve reduced the amount of salt in my sourdough breads. The usual quantity of salt added is 10g per 500g flour, but I’ve reduced that to 7g. I thought it prudent given the large quantities of bread my sons eat every day!
Please feel free to ask any questions – I have so many wonderful breadbaking friends who check in here, so if it’s something I don’t know the answer too, I’m sure one of them will be able to help!
Edit: At Lyn’s request, here are brief instructions I wrote some time ago on how I make my 74% hydration sourdough. They’re a little rough, but I don’t have time at the moment to edit them, so I hope you’ll excuse the lack of polish. The instructions were written for a friend who was starting with dried starter – obviously if your starter is already active, it’s not necessary to feed it up for several days before using it.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I swear, you should have either a cooking show or a line of beautiful cookbooks.
Maz
Hi,
I live in Sydney. I’d love to try your sourdough breads. I just need the starter. Where is the best place to get a good one?
Thanks
Maz, thank you! Now wouldn’t that be nice? :)
Jan, you could try making your own (I have lots of friends who’ve done this successfully), but I bought mine online from Teresa at Northwest Sourdough – http://www.northwestsourdough.com. I use her Northwest Starter, but her San Francisco starter is also very good.
Thanks so much Celia! Given that you were my inspiration for starting to make sourdough (I’ve been making yeasted breads since the early nineties) it’s great to actually ‘see’ how you do it ;-)
Back on the crumpet topic (sounds slightly inappropriate, doesn’t it?), I found some large rings yesterday at Bunnings in the BBQ section. They don’t actually say they’re crumpet rings (or egg rings for that matter) but they’re really big so I bought four. Unfortunately it wasn’t until I got home that I realised I didn’t have a hotplate that would hold four! I’m off to make some crumpets today – cheers.
Thanks Meaghan! Bunnings (an Aus hardware warehouse) is always full of surprises! :)
Ah that’s what I love about sourdough there are so many different variations and they are all so delicious and lovely!
Interesting to see your ratios, I was thinking recently too, that I don’t have a basic recipe up. Ooops.
Hydration levels still do my head in.
Is amazing how good is this bread. I make the starter with organic whole flour and I made the first bread with. The bread was , how I said, a bit heavier but I think, it did not have enough time to grow and warm temperature. I made many times bread but this was unusual good. Thank you!
Brilliant! Well home made sourdough is a challenge I’m hoping to tackle this year. My only reservation is feeding it as I’m away a lot :(
This is a really excellent explanation of sour dough hydration and I’ve learned a lot. I must, must, must get a starter going again.
Brydie, Sally, sourdough hydration levels can be so confusing can’t they? Especially in my case, since my starter is kept so liquid – as a result, I’m always adding up odd numbers. :)
Carmen, thanks for stopping by!
Lorraine, I think you could get away with feeding the starter once a fortnight and keeping it in the fridge. But I have had friends who feed it even less frequently than that, and their starters have been fine!
Celia, you really should put out your own book. the ratios and hydration are such a complicated issue but you covered them so simply and clearly. The photos are stunning too. Yumm…
Thanks Becca! :)
Celia – I am so grateful for this – thanks for posting it up!
I have been feeding my ‘new’ starter for about 2 weeks now (created from scratch) and on Friday night tried a sourdough recipe which looked simple enough at first (great detailed instructions from another blog!), however, being my first sourdough attempt, it deflated during the second stage of proving the next day after shaping!!
I have no idea what went wrong, except perhaps it proved too long (can this happen?)? The other thing it might’ve been is the cooler weather in singapore on saturday…
Anyway, my starter dough is at 100% hydration – that’s about as far as I I get with the percentages (feeding it 100g flour / 100g water)… so hoping I didn’t use the wrong recipe for it….
Looking forward to my next attempt though.. thanks again for this Celia!
Lyn
Lyn, I suspect your dough overproved – in Singapore temps that would be very easy to do! A lot of trial and error will involve learning how your starter works – every starter is different. The starter I currently use – the North West starter from Northwest Sourdough – is remarkably resilient – I can leave the dough for up to 14 hours, and it will still recover and rise a second time when shaped. But I’ve bought another starter from Teresa at NW Sourdough – the Alaskan starter – and it collapses after a few hours, and doesn’t have enough oomph for a second rise if I leave it too long.
It’s possible you’ve left your dough to rise too long the first time (for your starter), and it’s run out of steam for the second prove. OR, you might have let it go too long the second time? Dan Lepard suggests letting the dough rise to just under doubled in size on the first prove for maximum performance.
The other thing of course is Singapore temperatures. Just to give you an example, it was 30C in my kitchen yesterday, and my sourdough only needed four hours for the first prove, and about 45 minutes for the second. In winter though, the first prove can take up to 10 hours, and the second, 1.5 hours.
Lots to play around with, but don’t give up, figuring out what works best with your starter is where the fun is! :)
Celia – if it’s not too much trouble, would you mind also posting up the steps for preparing the starter and the proving/shaping process you do so it’s all on the same post?
Ever so grateful again!
I’ll let you know how my next attempt goes next weekend :)
Done, Lyn. The instructions are a bit rough, but I hope they help!
Just wanted to show you this is the first recipe I attempted – not sure if you have any comments/thoughts based on this recipe for sourdough as to why my dough deflated after shaping (it was very firm after the first prove..)
I did the option where it was overnight starter prep, then proved my dough during the day without refridgeration for the last stage after shaping….
http://bakesourdough.blogspot.com/2010/09/sourdough-loaf-dough.html
Hi Lyn
It’s all a bit tricky to start with isn’t it? It sounds like it overproved which is easy to do in a warm climate if you are following a recipe and timings written by someone in a cooler place, like Bertinet who works in Bath, England. I would suggest you go on the Fresh Loaf http://www.thefreshloaf.com/forum and ask for help from someone who lives in Singapore or similar climate and they will know exactly what to do. I am happy to try and help but you will need to tell me exactly what you did and you might get more expert help for your situation on the Fresh Loaf. Keep feeding your starter regularly until you bake again and she/he will get stronger and better in the next few weeks, young starters are always a bit temperamental too :) Good luck, Joanna
Another thought, Lyn, to follow-on to Joanna’s comment – try contacting TP via sourdough.com. She also has a website http://www.tpcalcake.net/ . TP is based in Malaysia, and bakes some of the most amazing sourdough loaves I’ve ever seen. And she’s the most gorgeous person too! :)
I think you’ve perfected your day to day loaf!
Lyn, just had a quick look at those instructions. Maybe Jo or Doc or one of my other bread friends can advise you – I never refrigerate my dough, have never been able to get that to work well with my starter and recipe.
Thanks Joanna! The thing is, I rarely vary from the recipe now, except to play around with the mix of flours. Having said that, it’s lovely to have a recipe I can make at any time without too much thought! :)
Thanks , I’ve started to try to make my own starter, and will order some from Northwest sour dough.
If mine doesn’t work. This is fun and I love eating sourdough
bread.
Many thanks,
Jan
I’m not a sourdough & bread cook at heart but your breads always look amazing & I have visions of your hungry boys bolting down these amazing breads you cook Celia. I have to agree with Bec (Intolerant Chef) & others.. I would love to see a cookbook in your future. The hydration % are tricky & complicated (at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself ever since training days when I glazed over sure that Chef was speaking a foreign language), so Go You Celia :) Great info, you’ve made it sound so approachable.
Jan, good luck with your starter! I’m sure you’ll do better than I did – all I ever managed to grow was purple mould! :)
Thanks Anna! Baking our own bread at home has saved us a fortune in feeding those two hungry wolves of mine! :)
Celia, as always, you remain a true inspiration! Thank you for sharing such valuable information with us all.
:-) Mandy
You’re always so kind, thanks Mandy! :)
Great post Celia – thank you!
I make a fermented loaf with hydration of only 60% but find this completely unmanageable to handle. I literally pour into the tin without shaping it at all. I’d like to be able to make different shapes – rolls etc. Any tips to get it more manageable? I haven’t tried your oiled bench, but that seems to work well for you. Do you knead with extra flour at all or anything on your hands?
Melissa, my apologies, I was just going through this old post and realised I hadn’t answered your question! I’m surprised 60% hydration is so wet – I always find it quite firm – maybe the hydration is higher than you think? I don’t knead with floured hands, but they do get sticky! :)
Celia and Joanna – thank you both for your thoughts/suggestions – it was such a busy week at work that I haven’t had a chance to reply.
I attempted my second sourdough last night/today and roughly following your recipe Celia and it turned out ok – chewy and thick, but still holey in crumb. I found the dough after the first prove was very ‘wet’ and sticky and hard to shape (thought I had over proved yet again!) but persevered using flour to help shape and I managed to get it into the oven after about 1.5hrs.
I then had a go at your stuffed rolls again with another batch of sourdough and again wet sticky dough after first prove. Persevered and they turned out ok – very thick underside though (not sure what caused that).
Anyway, I will check out both your blog suggestions and keep at it. I have another starter which is fermenting nicely – based on Dan Lepard’s leaven recipe – this one is less hydrated so am very interested to see how the bread turns out!
Lyn
Lyn, wet doughs are quite fiddly to work, especially to begin with. As I mentioned in my post, they can’t be kneaded the traditional way. You might have more luck using a lower hydration dough to begin with, particularly in Singapore where the temperature is so hot and everything is proving so quickly? Stuffed rolls using the higher hydration doughs take some handling, they can be hard to cut and get into the pan!
Thanks Celia – I’m going to try again this weekend. Will either try your lower hydration recipe or look for another similar!
[…] Friday night after a long week at work. This time I used Celia’s basic sourdough recipe (from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial). I’ve been following Celia’s blog for a few months now and am completely inspired by […]
I have not yet had much luck getting a good open crumb with my sourdough starter, although I’m really pleased with its flavor. However, I think I’ve mastered sourdough croissants.
http://transportedtastes.blogspot.com/2011/04/sourdough-croissant-adventure.html
Thought you’d be interested in a pastry application, although you seem to be more of a bread baker than a pastry baker. The pictures don’t do them justice, and the second batch I made with all white flour had a great flaky texture.
Bethany, they look great – I didn’t think sourdough croissants were possible! :)
Hi Celia, I love your blog and your gorgeous recipes. I just ordered a bread machine from Annabel’s kitchen on ebay aust and she sells sourdough starters as well. This might be of interest to some of your correspondents.
I’ve made my own bread lots of times in the past, but thought a machine might make it easier to do regularly and not lose interest. We’ll see.
Judy
Thanks Judith! Hope you have fun with the bread machine! :)
[…] made my first sourdough loaf on Monday night using Celia method of 74% hydration. Now if anyone is able to make and explain bread, it is Cicilia – […]
Hi Celia I’m always intrigued with all your wonderful sourdough breads, but tell me where can I get or how do you make a starter?
Oops! – I’ve just seen the post from Judith! – I’ll have a look on Ebay, but do I’d still be interested to hear how you came by your starter
Julia, I ordered mine ages ago from the US – from http://www.northwestsourdough.com. I’m not sure if Teresa is still selling them, though. I wrote a bit about it here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/03/07/sourdough/
Most of my friends have managed to grow their own starters though, and Dan Lepard has some great instructions!
Celia could you tell me how much “some” starter is? I know to feed it at 1 cup water and 1 cup flour but how much starter do I add all that to for your lovely bread? – and how long would you leave it to bubble for? It’s going to be about 28 here today! Thanks
Julia, I’m sorry if I’ve been confusing!
Firstly, if your starter is good and bubbly, then it’s probably fine to try baking a loaf. If you’ve been feeding the starter at a ratio of 1 cup water to 1 cup flour, then the hydration of the starter (flour to water ratio) is 166% and perfect for the recipes I’ve written here. Just measure off 200g or 300g as per the recipe above. If this is the first time you’re baking sourdough, I’d suggest you start with the lower hydration loaf (60%) as it’s much easier to handle.
Secondly, once your starter is ripe and bubbly, you don’t need to keep feeding it every day. You can pop it into a covered container in the fridge and just feed it up the day before you want to bake with it, or once a week. How much you discard each time you feed (you don’t really need to discard any, but if you’re not baking with it, your starter can grow…and grow…and grow.. :)) depends on your storage capacity.
If you have lots of excess starter, you might want to make some pancakes with it – my boys love them! Our pancake recipe is here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/09/13/sourdough-pancakes/
Please let me know if any of that doesn’t make sense.. :)
Yep all good EXCEPT – how much starter to each cup of flour and water? This morning I took out the frothy starter I put in the fridge yesterday and took out 1 cup starter and added 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour – I do hope this is an OK ratio! I kept 1/2C approx of starter and added 1/2C of water and flour and stuck it back in the fridge – is it OK to stick it back in the fridge straight away or do I need it to get bubbly again? I am fit to busting to start making bread! – I think this may be a lesson in patience… I had another (not so good) revelation yesterday – I’ve just created yet another ‘something’ to feed! aaaahhhhh!
Julia, it doesn’t matter. :) If you’re always feeding your starter at a ratio of 1 cup water to 1 cup flour, then it doesn’t matter, because your starter is always at the same hydration.
So, for example, you can feed half a cup of starter with half a cup of water and half a cup of flour, OR you could feed one tablespoon of starter with half a cup each of flour and water, and the resulting starter would still be at the same hydration. You also don’t need to use a whole cup of flour and water if you don’t want – it’s just that the proportions need to stay the same!
When I feed my fridge starter – I stir in the water and flour and stick it straight back in the fridge, and it’s always fine. The stuff on the bench needs to get bubbly before I use it to make the dough though, or else it won’t rise well.
A lot of this stuff is quite intuitive once you start, honest.. :)
Not sure what your cryptic last line means – good news I hope? :)
Cheers, Celia
No – not that kind of “news”! – I meant that in addition to a Husband, a Schnauzer, a senile Tabby-cat and now 3 chickens – clearly that wasn’t enough to feed first thing in the morning (very early now with the 3 noisy clucking girls…) – I now have “Stan” the starter to feed as well!! – at least now he’s only once a week!
Thanks for the detailed explanation of the ratios – several other sites make a bit of a deal about “50g starter, 100 g flour” etc so I got a bit confused with the “some” word/concept!! I think I’m getting there and thank goodness its intuitive because at several stages of growing the starter I took a few “intuitive” left turns but its’ still bubbling! Now just got to get cracking with making some bread – I’ll keep you posted!!
Thanks again so much for your generosity – I feel like you are my unseen “hand holding” companion on this exciting adventure :) X
Oh sorry more things – how much is your “some”? Does it make a taste difference the more starter you start off with do you use? Do you vary the type of flour you use in the feeding stage depending on the bread you are going to make? – eg rye flour if making rye bread – I’ll stop now….. ;)
I don’t think it makes a difference – or at least not one I can notice – whether you start with a lot of starter or a little during the feeding up process in preparation to bake. Sometimes when the starter gets sluggish, I’ll use just a little bit and feed it vigorously over a couple of days and that usually brings it back to form. Because the starter is alive, and every starter is different, it will vary enormously depending on how your Stan or my Priscilla feel on any given day.. :)
I don’t feed my starter with anything other than straight bakers flour, but lots of other people do!
No worries! Don’t fret too much about all the numbers – that can often put new bakers off – when you’re baking at home, it’s quite a laid-back process!
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/02/21/demystifying-sourdough/
Celia it worked!!!!!!!! I can’t believe it I have my very first loaf (half eaten) and only a few rolls left now! They’re nowhere near as good looking as yours but I now know where I’m headed! – and Husband gives it the big 2 thumbs up! Ready for more action today and will TRY to be more patient with the rising times!! Oh-oh…… I’m addicted……..
Thank you again for all your help and guidance! Julia X
Hooray! So glad to hear that, Julia! It’s a slippery road now.. ;-)
Hi Celia
Two things I wanted to share. First, I went to the UK for a month and left my starter in the freezer in a Kilner jar. When I got back, I just took it out, noted that it had tried to climb out, left it to defrost, then fed it, and it’s as good as new (or old, I suppose). I made this starter and it’s great.
Also, bread machine is terrific and no fuss, so I use that for wholemeal bread for every day and make sourdough bread in between. Altogether, it’s a great success on both counts. I’m having fun and you’re a great inspiration!
Hi Judith, sorry I missed your comment when you posted it! I’m glad you had luck with keeping the starter in the freezer – mine didn’t survive the defrost, but I have had some luck with drying a little off into flakes, and then reconstituting it with water. We had a bread machine for years, but I finally gave it to my sister-in-law – we ran out of space on the bench! :)