After years of watching sourdough videos, reading recipes, and lurking this sub – I finally tried my hand at making my first loaf. I have a lot to learn and work on but I’m SO proud of how it came out for my first try. I was gifted an established starter by a coworker since I was impatient. I’m still working on getting my baby starter to grow but I’m excited I get to try out baking while my starter is coming alive.

My home sits at around 68° and I had a busy schedule this last weekend. My starter was ready around 7:30 pm so I played around with a few recipes and tried out the following so I wasn’t up all night:

10g starter

362g water

500g flour

12g salt

I mixed all ingredients for ~5 mins

Covered dough and let sit for an hour

Stretch and fold every 30 minutes x4

Bulk ferment on counter overnight

Shape in morning

Cold proof in fridge while I ran errands for ~5-6 hours

Bake in preheated Dutch oven at 500 covered for 35 mins, drop temp to 425 and bake uncovered for the last 10.

Cool on rack for at least 2 hours before slicing

by idkdiklol

11 Comments

  1. Ja-mafia

    For a 1st time, well flipping done OP 😄👏

    This is where experimenting with different ratio levels ( like stater, hydration, etc..) can be an interesting learning experience; which can also be it’s own reward when you tailor a recipe to fit your desires 😋

    Either way awesome work! 😎

  2. jigamuffin

    Did you make your own starter? 10g is not much compared to recipes I’ve seen. Looks great!

  3. bringthedoo

    Looks great! Only 10g of starter? Is that a typo and s/b 100?

    Also 45 total mins in the DO might be why you had bottom of loaf issues. Try shorter time covered (10-15) and you should be done by 32-35 min mark at those temps.

    Was it all bread flour?

  4. slow-tf-down-dude

    To me, this looks like perfection.

  5. idkdiklol

    **EDIT**

    50g starter NOT 10g – I did 10% of flour weight. That’s what I get for posting while at work 🙂

    362g water

    500g flour

    12g salt

    I mixed all ingredients for ~5 mins

    Covered dough and let sit for an hour

    Stretch and fold every 30 minutes x4

    Bulk ferment on counter overnight

    Shape in morning

    Cold proof in fridge while I ran errands for ~5-6 hours

    Bake in preheated Dutch oven at 500 covered for 35 mins, drop temp to 425 and bake uncovered for the last 10.

    Cool on rack for at least 2 hours before slicing