How to Bake Sourdough Bread Without Fancy Equipment

Good Bread, Ordinary Kit

There is a particular kind of cookery writing that makes sourdough sound like a hobby for people with a dedicated larder and too much spare time. It isn't. A reliable loaf needs a jar, a bowl, a set of scales, and an oven that gets hot. That's the whole kit list. No banneton, no proving basket, no cast-iron casserole, no stone, no thermometer, no proving drawer. I've baked weekly for years in a small kitchen with none of those things, and the bread is better than anything I can buy locally.

What you do need is patience, and a willingness to pay attention. Sourdough is not difficult; it's just slow, and the timings shift with the weather in your kitchen. Once you stop fighting that, it becomes one of the most forgiving things you can make.

Getting a Starter Going

A starter is flour and water left to go sour with the wild yeasts already on the grain and in the air. Begin with a clean jar — a jam jar is ideal — and mix 50g strong white or wholemeal flour with 50g lukewarm water. Stir well, scrape down the sides, and leave it loosely covered with a lid or a piece of cloth.

For the next week, once a day, tip away all but a tablespoon of the mixture and add another 50g flour and 50g water. Within three or four days you'll see bubbles; by day seven to ten it should double in size within four to six hours of feeding. That's when it's ready to bake with. A warm spot of 20–24°C helps enormously; a cold windowsill will slow everything to a crawl.

• Keep it in the fridge once established, feeding once a week.
• Take it out the night before you plan to bake and feed it so it's lively by morning.
• A dark, vaguely beery smell is normal. A pink or orange tinge is not — start again.
• Don't panic about discarding. Use the excess in pancakes, crumpets or flatbreads.

The Dough, and Very Little Fuss

For one good-sized loaf: 500g strong white bread flour, 350g water, 100g active starter, 10g fine salt. That's a soft, slightly slack dough — about 70% hydration — which gives an open crumb without being unmanageable.

Mix the flour and water first and leave it for 30 minutes. This short rest, sometimes called autolyse, does more for your bread than any gadget. Then add the starter and salt and squidge everything together with your hand until no dry flour remains. It will look rough. That's fine.

Now leave it, covered, for 30 minutes. Then do a set of stretch-and-folds: wet your hand, lift one side of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the middle. Work round the bowl, four or five folds in total. Repeat this every 30 minutes, four times over about two hours. Each time the dough will feel a little stronger and smoother.

After the folds, let it sit undisturbed until it has risen by roughly half again and looks domed and jiggly. In a warm kitchen that's three to five hours; in a cold one, considerably longer.

Shaping and the Cold Prove

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured worktop. Pat it into a rough rectangle, fold the sides in, then roll it towards you to build tension across the top. Cup your hands around it and drag it gently towards you until the surface tightens.

For proving, line a bowl with a clean tea towel and dust it generously with flour — a mix of plain flour and rice flour if you have any, as rice flour doesn't stick. Place the dough in seam-side up. Cover and put it in the fridge overnight, anywhere from 12 to 18 hours. This long, cold prove is what gives sourdough its flavour and makes it far easier to handle the next day.

Baking in an Ordinary Oven

Heat your oven to 230°C fan or 250°C conventional with a heavy baking tray on the middle shelf. Let it come to temperature for at least 30 minutes — this is the one bit of preheating that genuinely matters.

Turn the loaf out onto a piece of baking parchment, score the top with a sharp knife or a wet blade in one confident slash, then slide it onto the hot tray. For steam, throw a handful of ice cubes into a small roasting tin on the bottom of the oven and shut the door quickly. A lidded roasting tin used upside down over the loaf does the same job and gives a lovely rise.

• Bake 20 minutes with steam.
• Remove the steam tray, turn the heat down to 200°C fan, and bake another 20–25 minutes.
• The loaf is done when it sounds hollow underneath and is deep brown all over.

Then leave it alone. Slicing hot bread gives a gummy crumb — wait at least two hours, ideally more.

When It Doesn't Go to Plan

A dense, flat loaf usually means the starter wasn't active enough or the bulk rise was cut short. Next time, feed the starter twice before baking and give the dough another hour. If the loaf spread rather than rose, it was probably proved too long. A tight, tunnelled crumb points the other way. None of these are failures — they're just information, and the next bake is always better for it.