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HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Okay. Before we touch flour, let's get you set up right. I'm giving you two tiers here — what you actually need to bake decent bread, and what's nice once you know you're sticking with this. Buy the first list. The second list can wait.
I'd rather you spend your money on good flour than a fancy proofing basket you're not sure you'll use.
Budget Tier — get this before class
- Kitchen scale, grams setting. About $15. Non-negotiable, and I mean that. Cups are a guess. Grams are a measurement. This is the single biggest reason your bread will turn out — or won't.
- Bread flour, 5 lb bag. King Arthur is what I use and what I'll have in class. Costco carries a big bag too if you want to split it with someone.
- Large glass or plastic jar, wide mouth, at least a quart. This is your starter's house. I use a wide-mouth quart mason jar. No lid that seals tight — starter needs to breathe, or it needs a lid you loosen.
- Rubber band or dry-erase marker. For marking how high your starter climbs. Sounds silly. You'll use it constantly.
- Mixing bowl, one big one. Stainless or glass, big enough that dough can double and not climb out onto your counter. Ask me sometime about the night mine did that. Richard cleaned it up and never said a word, which was worse than if he had.
- Bench scraper or a wide, stiff spatula. A few bucks at any kitchen store. Makes handling wet dough way easier.
- Kitchen towel or plastic wrap, for covering the bowl.
- A sheet pan and a stainless bowl big enough to flip over it. This is your starter setup for baking with steam. You do not need a Dutch oven to get started. I baked good loaves this way for months. Buy the flour first, buy the toys later.
- Instant-read thermometer, the cheap kind. Helps you check your water temp and your baked loaf.
That's genuinely it for week one. Maybe $40-50 total if you're buying everything new, less if you've got half of this already in a drawer.
Nice-to-Have Tier — once you know you're keeping this up
- Dutch oven, 5-6 quart, enameled cast iron. Gives you the best crust with the least fuss. Wait until you've baked a handful of loaves the sheet-pan way first.
- Banneton (proofing basket). Pretty, helps with shape, not required. A bowl lined with a floured towel does the same job.
- Dough scraper set (bowl scraper + bench scraper). Small upgrade, makes cleanup less annoying.
- A second jar just for discard, if you start baking with your discard a lot — and you should, I think tossing it out is wasteful. Pancakes, crackers, whatever. Don't dump it down the drain, by the way. It'll clog on you, especially with our hard water already working against your pipes.
- A proofing box. I built mine out of a plastic tote and a seedling heat mat from the garden section. Total cost maybe $25 and it's the reason I can proof dough consistently through the winter without babysitting the thermostat. Not required for class but if you get serious, it's the upgrade I'd make first.
Local-ish shopping notes
Macey's and the regular grocery stores around American Fork carry bread flour but check the bag size, sometimes it's only the small ones. Costco's bag is a better deal if you know you'll use it. Whatever store you're in, get bread flour specifically, not all-purpose, if you can — more protein, better rise.
One more thing on our end of things: our air here is dry and we're sitting around 4,600 feet. That affects hydration and how fast your dough can crust over before it even proofs. We'll get into that more in the starter lesson, but don't be surprised if what you buy or measure needs a little adjusting from what a recipe off the internet tells you. Most of those are written by people at sea level with humidity we don't have.
Bring your scale and your jar to class. Everything else I'll have extras of if you forget.
HandoutHandout 2: Sourdough Cheat Sheet
Handout 2: Sourdough Cheat Sheet
Print this, flour on it, whatever. It's meant to get used, not kept nice. Everything's in grams because that's the only way I'll write a recipe. Get a scale if you don't have one, they're about 15 bucks and worth every penny.
The basic ratio (baker's percentages)
- Flour: 100% (this is your baseline, everything else is a percent of this)
- Water: 75–78% (I run closer to 78 with our dry air, more on that below)
- Starter: 20%
- Salt: 2%
Example for a standard loaf: 500g flour, 385g water, 100g starter, 10g salt. That's it. That's the whole load calc.
Timeline, roughly
Step Time Feed starter Morning, or night before Starter ready to use Doubled, 4–8 hrs after feeding, floats in water Mix dough 5 min Autolyse (flour + water rest, no starter yet) 30–60 min Bulk ferment 4–6 hrs at 75–78°F Shape 10 min Cold retard (fridge) 8–16 hrs, or overnight Bake 45–50 min total Our elevation and dry air mean timelines from a lot of online recipes are going to lie to you a little, especially the coastal ones. Watch the dough, not the clock. I mean that plainly — set a timer as a reminder to go check, not as the actual finish line.
How to tell your starter's ready
Doubled in size, dome on top, smells sour-yeasty not like nail polish. Drop a spoonful in water — floats, you're good. Sinks, give it another hour.
If it's ever pink or orange, throw the whole jar out and start over. Don't try to save it. Learned that one the hard way.
How to tell bulk ferment is done
Dough's puffy, jiggles a little when you nudge the bowl, maybe 30–50% bigger, not doubled. I'd rather you pull it a touch early than let it go too long. An underfermented loaf slices fine. An overfermented one turns into a gummy slack mess that won't hold a shape. That's just my take, but I've made both kinds and I know which one I'd rather serve.
Shaping, quick version
Flour your hands and the counter lightly, don't overdo it, you want a little grip. Fold the dough into itself, tension the surface by dragging it toward you in a circle, into the banneton or bowl seam-side up.
Scoring
One clean straight slash, about half an inch deep, at an angle, done fast and confident. That's the whole trick — confident, not careful. If you want wheat stalks and leaves, I'll be honest, that's not my department. I got bored with fancy scoring after about two weeks. Look up a video for that part.
Baking, Dutch oven method
- Preheat oven and pot to 500°F, 30–45 min.
- Drop dough in, lid on, 20 min.
- Lid off, drop to 450°F, 20–25 min more, until deep golden.
- Internal temp should read 205–210°F if you want to check with a thermometer.
No Dutch oven yet? Don't sweat it. A stainless bowl flipped over the loaf on a sheet pan works. Buy the flour first, buy the toys later.
Quick troubleshooting
- Dense, gummy center: underbaked, or water was too cold and crusted the outside before it could rise. Let it bake longer, check water temp next time (I aim for about 77°F).
- Flat loaf, no oven spring: overfermented, or starter wasn't active enough when you mixed.
- Too sour for your taste: shorter bulk ferment, or feed starter more often.
- Sticky dough you can't handle: it's probably fine, resist adding flour. Wet hands instead of more flour.
Discard from feeding your starter isn't garbage. Pancakes, crackers, whatever. Use it.
WorksheetHandout 3: Bulk Ferment & Shape Tracking Sheet
Handout 3: Bulk Ferment & Shape Tracking Sheet
Fill this in as you go. Don't trust your memory on timing — I don't trust mine, that's why I built this thing.
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Starter Check (before you mix dough)
- Time fed: __________
- Hours since feeding: __________
- Did it double? Y / N
- Smell: sour / yeasty / sweet-ish / off (if off, oh man, don't use it)
Dough Mix
- Flour type/brand: __________
- Total flour weight (g): __________
- Water weight (g): __________
- Hydration %: __________ (water ÷ flour x 100 — this is just a load calc, don't overthink it)
- Salt (g): __________
- Water temp used: __________°F
- Room temp at mix time: __________°F
Reminder: our dry air pulls moisture out of dough faster than a lot of online recipes plan for. If your kitchen's running warm and dry, I'd rather you add a splash more water than fight a stiff dough all afternoon. That's just me.
Bulk Ferment Log
Check the dough every 30-45 minutes. Note what you see, not just the clock.
Time What it looks like Fold done? - Total bulk time: __________
- Dough temp at end of bulk: __________°F
- Poke test result (springs back slow / springs back fast / doesn't spring): __________
My honest opinion: a lot of people push bulk too long chasing that big airy crumb and end up with a slack, gummy mess. I'd rather you pull it a hair early and get a loaf you can actually slice. Watch for a slight dome and some visible bubbles at the sides of the container — you don't need it doubled and jiggly.
Shaping
- Pre-shape rest time: __________
- Final shape: boule / batard / other: __________
- Bench flour used (light hand, please): __________
Cold Proof
- Time into fridge: __________
- Fridge temp (check with a thermometer, not a guess): __________°F
- Total cold proof time: __________ (8-16 hours is the range I work in, longer isn't automatically better)
Bake Day
- Oven preheat temp: __________°F
- Preheat time (30-45 min minimum with your baking vessel inside): __________
- Score pattern: straight slash / other: __________
- Bake time covered: __________
- Bake time uncovered: __________
- Internal temp at pull: __________°F (I look for 205-210)
After the Cut
- Crumb: open and airy / tight and even / gummy in the middle
- Crust: good color / pale / too dark (if it's dark, was your oven running hot? mine did once and I burned a whole batch for a gym crowd — that one was on me)
- Would you change anything next time?
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One last thing. If something goes sideways today, write down what you saw and when. That note is worth more than a perfect loaf, because it's the thing that keeps you from repeating my mistakes instead of your own.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Everything on this list happened to me at least once. Some of it happened more than once, because apparently I don't always learn the first time. Find your problem, read the fix, move on.
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1. Starter isn't rising, or barely moves. Give it more time before you panic — a new starter can take 5-7 days before it does anything convincing. If it's older and stalled, check your kitchen temp. Mine likes 74-77 degrees. If your house runs cold in winter, that's your answer. I built a proofing box out of a plastic tote and a seedling heat mat for exactly this. Cheap fix, works every time.
2. Starter has pink or orange streaks. Throw it out. Don't smell it, don't taste it, don't try to save it. Pink means bad bacteria got in, and it's not worth the risk. Start over with a clean jar. This happened to my very first starter and I about cried, but a new one from scratch is a five-day inconvenience, not a tragedy.
3. Dough won't come together, feels shaggy and dry. Add water a tablespoon at a time. Our dry air here pulls moisture out of dough faster than recipes written for humid places account for. If you're following an online recipe from somewhere coastal, expect to add a little more water than they call for. That's just how it goes at our elevation.
4. Dough is a sticky, unworkable mess. Too much water for your flour, or your flour has less protein than the recipe assumed. Add flour a tablespoon at a time until it's workable. Oh man, I know it's tempting to just add flour by the handful — don't. Small additions, mix, check again.
5. Loaf came out dense with a gummy middle. This is almost always underproofed, or your water was too cold when you mixed. Cold water crusts the outside of your dough here before the middle ever gets going, especially in dry winter air. Aim for water around 75-80 degrees when you mix, warmer in winter than you'd think you need.
6. Dough overflowed the bowl during bulk ferment. You forgot about it. I know because I did this exact thing before a Saturday framing job — left it overnight, came home at four, and it had climbed out onto the counter. Set a timer. An actual timer, not a mental note. Bulk ferment usually runs 4-6 hours at room temp, less in a warm kitchen, longer in a cold one.
7. Bread is flat, doesn't rise in the oven. Overfermented. This is the mistake I see most, because everybody's chasing that big airy crumb and pushes fermentation too far. A dough that's gone too long loses its structure and just spreads instead of rising. I'd honestly rather you pull it a little early. Underfermented bread you can still slice and eat. Overfermented bread is a pancake.
8. Crust is rock hard, almost burnt. Your oven runs hot, or you left it in chasing a darker crust like I did once — set off my own smoke alarm and served a gym group jerky-hard bread. That one's on me. Get an oven thermometer, they're cheap, and trust it over your dial.
9. Loaf spreads out instead of holding a round shape. Under-shaped, or the dough was too wet for your skill level yet. Shaping builds tension on the outside of the dough, kind of like how a good tie-down keeps a load from shifting. If you're new, go a touch drier on hydration until your hands catch up.
10. No oven spring, loaf doesn't open up where you scored it. Either your scoring wasn't deep enough (go a good half inch, confident cut, one pass) or your oven wasn't fully preheated. Give it a full 30-45 minutes to heat with your Dutch oven or stone inside before the dough goes in. Rushing this step wastes everything you did before it.
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If you're still stuck after this, bring your starter or a photo of your loaf to class. I can usually tell what happened just by looking, sometimes just by feel. That's not magic, that's just doing this wrong enough times myself to recognize it in someone else's dough.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so I'm just saying, if the smoke alarm goes off during class, that's a normal Tuesday for us at this point.
SHARON: Oh man, don't scare them off in the first five minutes.
JESS: I'm not scaring them, I'm preparing them. This is Sharon Atkinson, she teaches Sourdough Bread from Scratch, and I'm Jess, I produce these things for Utah Community Learning. Sharon, tell people what they're actually signing up for.
SHARON: Flour, water, salt, and time. That's it. That's the whole class, really, we just spend six weeks arguing with the "time" part.
JESS: You say that like it's simple.
SHARON: It is simple. It's not easy. Those are different things. I came at this thinking bread's just a load calc with wetter numbers, and hydration percentage, sure, that clicked the first afternoon. What didn't click was waiting. I've spent forty years on job sites where a frame goes up and it stays up. Bread doesn't work that way. It makes you wait on it, and it doesn't care that you've got somewhere to be.
JESS: You've told me the smoke alarm story. Should we do the smoke alarm story?
SHARON: Oh, the jerky bread. Yeah, that one's on me.
JESS: Set it up for people.
SHARON: So I'd had a gym crowd over — some folks I work out with early mornings — and I was chasing a darker crust, really wanted that deep mahogany color you see in the nice photos. Left it in too long watching for it. Alarm goes off, whole kitchen's got smoke in it, and I pull out this loaf that's basically leather. Crust like a boot sole.
JESS: And you served it anyway.
SHARON: I served it anyway. Told them straight up, that one's on me, my oven runs hot and I got greedy with the color. They were polite about it. Somebody said it'd make good jerky if you fed it to a dog, which, fair.
JESS: This is a pattern with you, owning it in real time.
SHARON: Well, what's the alternative. I'd rather tell you where I blew it than have you think it's supposed to look like a hockey puck or taste like a boot. My first real loaf ever was dense as a brick, too, before I figured out our dry air here crusts the outside of the dough before it's even had a chance to proof properly. Nobody warns you about that in a recipe written by somebody at sea level with regular humidity.
JESS: Okay, give the podcast people something they can use tonight. No class required.
SHARON: Buy a kitchen scale. Fifteen dollars, maybe twenty. Weigh your flour and water, don't measure by cups. Cups are not consistent, a cup of flour packed is a different cup than one scooped light, and you'll never repeat a good loaf if you don't know what you actually put in it. That's the single biggest thing. I'm a little annoyed, honestly, that recipes still get printed with cups on them.
JESS: You say that a lot.
SHARON: Because it's true a lot. Grams. Get a scale. That's the tip, that's free, you don't even have to come to class for that one.
JESS: What's on deck for session two, for the people who did sign up?
SHARON: We're making a starter from scratch. Flour, water, a jar, and patience — there's that word again. I'll tell them up front some of theirs might go pink around day four or five, and if that happens, don't panic, don't try to save it, just dump it and start over. Happened to me my first time and I about cried over a jar of flour paste.
JESS: What'd you do?
SHARON: Second try, I put it in the oven with just the light on for warmth, kept it steady, and that one took. I still keep that same starter going now, named it — well, Richard named it, really. He calls it the sponge and it stuck.
JESS: The sponge gets its own segment eventually, I feel like.
SHARON: The sponge is the whole class, Jess. Everything else is just what we do with it once it's alive.
JESS: All right. Bring a scale if you've got one, bring a jar either way. We'll see everybody Tuesday.
SHARON: Wear something you don't mind getting flour on. I mean that.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —so I told her, I said if the dough climbs out of the bowl one more time I'm calling animal control.
SHARON: Oh man, don't even joke, that's a real thing that happened to me once.
JESS: Wait, seriously? Okay, we have to back up. Tell the people.
SHARON: So this was a Friday, I had a framing job Saturday morning, and I set a dough to bulk ferment before bed, figuring I'd deal with it at like six a.m. Just totally forgot about it. Got home from the job site at four in the afternoon and that dough had climbed clean out of the bowl and onto the counter. Like it was trying to leave the house.
JESS: No.
SHARON: And Richard had already cleaned it up. Just wiped the counter down, didn't say a word to me about it.
JESS: Which is somehow worse than him saying something.
SHARON: Way worse. I'd rather he'd teased me. Instead I just get this quiet counter and I know exactly what happened.
JESS: Okay but this is a good excuse to actually talk about bulk ferment, because I feel like that's the part people mess up most.
SHARON: It's the part I mess up most, and I've been doing this two years. Bulk ferment is just the first rise, after you mix the dough and before you shape it. That's when the dough's building strength and flavor. And the mistake — my mistake, specifically — is thinking of it like a load that's cured once it hits a certain time on the clock. It's not. It's done when it looks and feels done.
JESS: What's it supposed to look like?
SHARON: You want it puffy, not doubled and desperate. Jiggly a little when you nudge the bowl. If you poke it gentle with a wet finger, the dent should slowly fill back in, not spring back fast and not just sit there like a hole in drywall.
JESS: Okay that's the tip, right? People listening who aren't taking the class, they can use the poke test tonight if they've got dough going.
SHARON: That's the one. Poke test. Forget the clock, especially around here — our dry air and the elevation mess with timelines you'll read online. Somebody in Florida tells you ninety minutes, that means nothing to us at 4,600 feet with our dry air. Watch the dough, not the recipe.
JESS: And this is why you built the — what do you call it, the tote thing?
SHARON: The proofing box. Yeah. That's a plastic tote with a seedling heat mat under it, and I stuck a thermometer inline so I can hold it right around 78 degrees. I built that specifically because I know I can't be trusted to babysit dough on my own timeline. I measured it, leveled the mat, labeled the whole thing. It's the most me solution I've ever come up with, and Richard still laughs at it, but I use it every winter.
JESS: It's very "measure twice, cut once" for bread.
SHARON: That's exactly it. It's a load calc with wetter numbers, that box is just me building tolerance back into a process I know I'll rush.
JESS: Okay, last thing before we wrap — what are we doing next class?
SHARON: Shaping and scoring. We'll take the dough through a stretch and fold session first so everybody feels what good gluten structure is supposed to feel like under their hands, and then we shape into a boule, and I'll show my one straight slash. I'm not going to pretend I do the fancy wheat-stalk designs, that's not my thing, but I'll get you a clean score that opens up right in the oven.
JESS: No pressure to make it pretty.
SHARON: No pressure. Pretty's optional. Rise is not.
JESS: Perfect note to end on. See everybody next week — bring your starter, fed and happy, please.
SHARON: And don't forget your scale.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but you can't just leave it there, what happened to the deck?
SHARON: There is no deck. That's the whole joke. Richard finds this sheet of paper in my truck, numbers everywhere, percentages, and he holds it up and goes "are we building the deck out of dough now." Because it was a lumber takeoff sheet. I'd flipped it over and converted a bread recipe into baker's percentages right on the back of it, didn't even think about it, that's just where the paper was.
JESS: That's so you though.
SHARON: Oh, completely. Hydration percentage is just a load calc with wetter numbers. Once that clicked I couldn't unclick it. I look at a recipe now and I'm not thinking "two cups of water," I'm thinking 78 percent, does that track for this flour, does that track for our air.
JESS: Which is a good segue actually, because last week people were asking about that. The air thing.
SHARON: Right, our dry air and the elevation. We're up around 4,600 feet here and it is dry, dry enough that dough can crust over on you before it's even done proofing. I had a loaf early on come out looking like a hockey puck, dense, gummy in the middle, wouldn't rise right. Took me a while to figure out the water was too cold and the surface had crusted before the inside ever caught up.
JESS: So what's the actual fix. Like if somebody's listening and not even in the class.
SHARON: Two things, and you can do both tonight if you've got a starter going. One, use water on the warmer side, I like it around 90 to 95 degrees for the final dough, not hot, just warm to the wrist. Two, cover your dough like you mean it. Plastic wrap pressed down, or a lid, not just a towel over the bowl. Our air will pull moisture off the top faster than a coastal recipe expects, and then you get a skin, and a skin stops your rise cold.
JESS: Warm water, tight cover. I can do that.
SHARON: That's it. That's the whole tip. Fifteen-dollar scale, warm water, real cover. You don't need anything fancier than that to get started.
JESS: Okay, so, the thing I actually wanted to ask about today. Somebody in the Tuesday group said their starter doubled crazy fast and they didn't know if that was good or bad.
SHARON: Oh man, I love that question, because I remember exactly what that felt like the first time it happened to me. My starter doubled in four hours, first time, and I took a picture of the jar with a rubber band on it marking the line. Like you'd photo a finished frame, you know, before-and-after. I still have that picture on my phone. That was the day it clicked that the thing was actually alive and actually working, not just sitting there.
JESS: That's a good moment.
SHARON: It's a really good moment. Four hours is fast, that tells you your sponge is strong and your kitchen's probably warm enough that day. Doubling is what you want, whether it takes four hours or eight just depends on your temperature. I wouldn't worry about the speed, I'd worry if it wasn't doubling at all.
JESS: Good to know. Okay, last thing — next session.
SHARON: Next time we're doing shaping and scoring, and I'll say up front, I am not your girl for the fancy wheat-stalk designs on top of a loaf. I did that for about two weeks, got bored, went back to one straight slash across the top and never looked back. That's just me. But I will show you exactly how to do that one clean cut so your loaf gets good oven spring instead of splitting open wherever it wants.
JESS: Honest advertising.
SHARON: That's the only kind I do. Bring your starter fed and see you Thursday.
FlashcardsPrintable flashcards — Sourdough Bread from Scratch
Print it, fold it, stick it on the fridge.
Sourdough Bread from Scratch — Flashcards
Cut along the lines. Fold or box them however you keep your recipe cards — I use a rubber band and an old check box, which tells you something about how long I've been doing this.
FRONT BACK What do you actually NEED to start? A scale, a jar, flour, water, salt, and a bowl. That's it. Banneton, lame, Dutch oven — all of that can wait. I baked my first six loaves with a mixing bowl and a bread knife I wasn't supposed to use for scoring. Why a scale over measuring cups? A cup of flour can weigh anywhere from 120 to 180 grams depending on how you scooped it. That's not a small error — that's a different load entirely. A $15 scale removes the guesswork. I don't trust a recipe that hasn't been weighed. Baker's percentage — what is it? Everything's a ratio against the flour weight, which is always 100%. Flour 1000g, water 700g = 70% hydration. It's a load calc with wetter numbers. Once that clicks, you can scale any recipe up or down without panic. What flour should I buy starting out? Plain unbleached all-purpose or bread flour. Bread flour has more protein, which means more structure — think of it as a higher load rating. Don't buy specialty flour on week one. Learn the baseline first. What salt works, and what doesn't? Fine sea salt or non-iodized table salt. Skip iodized — it can slow fermentation. Skip the fancy flaky finishing salt for mixing in; save that for topping. Day One: starting a starter Equal parts flour and water by weight, in a wide-mouth jar. Mine's a quart jar, lives by the toaster. Loose lid or cloth on top — it needs to breathe, not seal like a jar of pickles. Days 2–7: what should actually happen Bubbles by day 2 or 3, a slowdown or smell around day 4 (normal, don't panic), then real rise and fall by day 5–7. It's not a straight line. Bread doesn't care about your schedule. Starter turns pink or smells like nail polish remover Pink, orange, or fuzzy = throw it out and start clean, no negotiating. Nail-polish smell alone is just hungry starter — feed it and it usually comes back within a day. No proofer — how do you keep dough warm? Oven light on, dough inside, door cracked if it's running hot. That's it. It's not elegant. It's also free, and it works better than half the gadgets I looked at. How do you know a starter's ready to bake with? The float test: drop a spoonful in water. Floats, it's ready. Sinks, give it more time. Also look for doubling in size within 4–8 hours of a feed — that's your real signal, the float test is just confirmation. Feeding ratio and schedule 1:1:1 by weight — starter, flour, water — once a day if it lives on the counter, once a week if it's in the fridge. Pick one schedule and stick with it. Consistency matters more than the exact ratio. Counter or fridge? Counter if you bake weekly — it stays strong and active. Fridge if you bake every week or two — it slows down and you feed it less. I keep mine on the counter because I bake often enough to justify it. What do I do with all this discard? Pancakes or crackers. Don't feel obligated to keep every ounce alive — discard isn't precious, it's a byproduct. I make crackers on a Sunday just to clear the jar. My starter's been neglected for weeks — dead? Probably not. Scrape off any liquid or hooch, feed it, give it 24 hours, feed again. Most starters bounce back within two or three feeds. Give it the benefit of the doubt before you toss it. What's autolyse, and why bother? Mixing just flour and water and letting it rest, 20 minutes to an hour, before adding starter and salt. It lets the flour hydrate fully first — think of it as letting materials settle before you load them. Makes the dough easier to handle later. My dough's always too dry — why? Dry air and altitude both pull moisture out faster than a humid climate recipe assumes. Add water in small increments, 1–2% at a time, until the dough feels tacky, not stiff. Adjust for your kitchen, not for the recipe writer's kitchen. Stretch and folds — how do I know I'm doing it right? Wet hand, grab one side, stretch up and fold over the middle, turn the bowl a quarter turn, repeat four times. Dough should feel tighter and smoother after each round. If it's tearing, let it rest longer between folds. How do I know bulk ferment is done — by feel, not time? Dough's puffy, jiggles a little when you shake the bowl, and has visible bubbles at the surface and edges. It should have grown by 30–50%, not necessarily doubled. The clock's a guideline. The dough is the answer key. Building a proofing box on the cheap A plastic tote, a seedling heat mat underneath, a thermometer to check you're not cooking it. Cheaper than a proofer and I've used the same tote for two years now. Pre-shape vs. final shape — what's the difference? Pre-shape is a loose round, just enough to build tension, followed by a 15–20 minute bench rest. Final shape is tight and deliberate — this is the shape that holds in the oven. Skip the rest step and your final shape will fight you. How tight should the final shape be? Tight enough that the dough resists you a little when you drag it across the counter — that resistance is surface tension, and it's what gives you height instead of a pancake. Too loose and it spreads. Too tight and it tears. Do I need a banneton? No. A bowl lined with a floured towel works fine. I used a colander for the first year. Buy the banneton once you know you're sticking with this. Why cold-proof overnight? Better flavor, easier scoring, and it fits an actual schedule — shape at night, bake in the morning before work instead of standing around all afternoon waiting on the dough's timeline. Scoring — one slash or fancy patterns? One clean, straight, confident slash at a 45-degree angle, about half an inch deep. That's oven spring insurance. Save the wheat-stalk patterns for once you've got twenty loaves behind you. Dutch oven vs. bowl-over-a-sheet-pan Dutch oven traps steam best — that's your oven spring and your crust. No Dutch oven? A metal or oven-safe bowl over the loaf on a hot sheet pan does the same job. Steam is the requirement, not the specific vessel. How do I know it's actually done? Internal temp of 205–210°F, hollow sound when you thump the bottom, and a crust that's deep golden-brown, not pale tan. Underbaked bread looks fine and eats like dough. Check the temp — don't guess. Gummy crumb — what went wrong? Usually underbaked, or cut too soon. Bread keeps cooking as it cools; slicing into a hot loaf is the single most common way to blame the recipe for a patience problem. Dense, flat loaf — what went wrong? Under-proofed starter, under-fermented dough, or shaping that was too loose to hold. Rule out the starter first — float test it before you touch anything else. ---
Aside: I still get impatient and cut a loaf too early about once a month, after all this time. Richard just watches me do it and doesn't say anything, which is its own kind of feedback.
Memory helpsMnemonics & memory helps
Print it, fold it, stick it on the fridge.
Mnemonics & Memory Helps ### Sourdough Bread from Scratch — Sharon's Class
A few of these are corny. I know it. I wrote them at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and no shame, and every single one has saved me from screwing something up. Use what sticks, ignore the rest.
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1. "Pink means stop. Everything else, keep going."
Unpacks: When it goes pink or smells wrong.
This is the one rule with no exceptions in the whole class. Gray fuzz, orange streaks, pink anything — that's mold or the wrong bacteria, and you toss it and start clean. Everything else — gray liquid on top, smells like nail polish, looks sad and separated — that's just a hungry starter telling you it's been a while. Feed it and give it time. I tell people: if you remember one sentence from this whole course, remember that one. Pink stop, everything else keep going.
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2. "Grams don't lie. Cups do."
Unpacks: Why a 15-dollar scale beats measuring cups.
A cup of flour scooped straight from the bag can weigh anywhere from 120 to 160 grams depending on how you scooped it. That's not a rounding error, that's the difference between a dough you can work with and a brick. In forty years of drafting nobody ever asked me to eyeball a tolerance. Same thing here — weigh it.
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3. "Flour, water, salt, wait — that's the whole load."
Unpacks: What you actually need (and what can wait).
Four things carry the entire project. A scale, a jar, and time do the rest. Everything else — the banneton, the lame, the proofing box — is nice-to-have, not need-to-have. If you're staring at a shopping list feeling overwhelmed, say the sentence and remember: bread doesn't need the extras. You do those later, if you fall for this the way I did.
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4. "The recipe is the frame. Baker's percentage is the load calc."
Unpacks: Baker's percentages, explained like a load calc.
Everything is a percentage of the flour weight — flour is always 100%. Water at 75% hydration means 75 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. Salt's usually 2%. Once that clicked for me it was exactly like reading a load chart — one number the whole system is built against, everything else relative to it. If percentages give you a headache, just remember: flour's the beam everything else hangs off of.
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5. "Monday: feed it. Tuesday through Thursday: feed it and wait. Friday: it either floats or it doesn't."
Unpacks: The first week, day by day.
I gave people a day-by-day printout and they still asked "so what do I actually do on day 3." Nothing dramatic — you feed it, you watch it, you're bored, that's correct. The float test is the finish line, and it doesn't usually show up before day five or six. Don't rush Friday's outcome into Tuesday.
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6. "Double, dome, bubbles, done."
Unpacks: How to tell when it's ready to bake with.
Four things you're looking for before you build a dough with your starter: it's roughly doubled in size, it's got a dome or crown on top (not sunk in the middle), the surface is full of bubbles, and it floats in water — done. All four, or wait another feeding. I made that four-word chant because I got tired of people baking with a starter that only had one or two of the signs and wondering why the loaf came out flat.
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7. "Poke it. If it slow-springs back, it's ready. Bounces right back, too early. Doesn't move, too late."
Unpacks: Reading bulk ferment: dough, not the clock.
This is the single hardest habit to build, because everybody wants a number of hours. I want a number of hours too, believe me — I'm the woman who thinks in tolerances. But dough doesn't care what the clock says, it cares what the kitchen temperature is doing. Poke test, every time, and let the clock be a rough guide, not gospel.
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8. "Oven light on, door cracked with a wooden spoon — that's your proofer."
Unpacks: Warmth without a proofer: the oven-light trick.
You don't need equipment for this one. The oven light alone runs a few degrees warmer than most kitchens — enough to help a sluggish starter or a cold dough along in fall and winter. Prop the door with a wooden spoon handle so it doesn't get too warm and cook the thing. I did this for a full year before I ever built the tote-and-heat-mat setup, and honestly I still use it half the time.
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9. "Tuck, tuck, tuck, turn — tight as a drum."
Unpacks: Final shaping into a tight round.
Shaping is the step people rush, and a loose shape gives you a flat, wide loaf instead of a tall one with good spring. Tuck the sides under, rotate, tuck again, rotate again, and by the end the surface should feel like a drumhead — taut, no slack. If it's still baggy, you're not done tucking.
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10. "One slash, straight and confident — not a signature."
Unpacks: Scoring for oven spring (one straight slash).
People want to get fancy with scoring — wheat stalks, leaves, initials. Save that for loaf twenty. For now: one clean diagonal or straight cut, about half an inch deep, done in one motion. That's the vent that lets the loaf spring up instead of splitting wherever it wants to. Hesitating with the blade drags the dough and closes the cut instead of opening it — commit to the slash like you mean it.
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Quick Reference Table
Memory Hook Topic The One Thing to Remember Pink means stop Spoilage vs. normal funk Pink/fuzzy = toss. Everything else = feed it. Grams don't lie, cups do Scale vs. measuring cups Weight, always. Volume is a guess. Flour, water, salt, wait Minimum gear Four things carry the whole project. Frame vs. load calc Baker's percentages Flour = 100%, everything else relative to it. Feed, feed, feed, float First week schedule Don't expect results before day 5-6. Double, dome, bubbles, done Starter readiness All four signs, or wait and feed again. Poke it Reading bulk ferment Dough tells you, not the clock. Oven light + wooden spoon DIY warm spot Cheap proofer, no equipment needed. Tuck, tuck, tuck, turn Final shaping Tight as a drum, no slack in the skin. One slash, not a signature Scoring Commit to one clean cut, don't hesitate. Cheat sheetOne-page note card — Sourdough Bread from Scratch
Print it, fold it, stick it on the fridge.
THE FRIDGE CARD Sourdough, Start to Finish — keep this where you can see it
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What You Need (Everything Else Can Wait)
Have This Skip This (For Now) A $15 kitchen scale Bannetons — a bowl and a towel work Wide-mouth quart jar A proofer — the oven light does the job Flour, water, salt Special flour blends A Dutch oven OR a bowl + sheet pan Lame — a sharp paring knife scores fine Why the scale matters: measuring cups are a tolerance nightmare. A cup of flour can be off by 20%, and bread doesn't forgive that the way soup does. This is a load calc, not a suggestion — weigh it.
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Baker's Percentages (It's Just a Load Calc)
Flour is always 100%. Everything else is a percentage of the flour weight. That's it.
Ingredient Typical % What It Means Flour 100% Your baseline Water 70–75% This is your hydration number Starter 20% Your leavening Salt 2% Non-negotiable, don't eyeball it Our air is dry. Start at 75% hydration, not 70%. If the dough feels tight and tears instead of stretching, add water a tablespoon at a time next round.
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The Starter, Week One
Day Action 1 50g flour + 50g water, wide-mouth jar, loose lid 2–3 Feed once daily, same ratio, watch for tiny bubbles 4–5 Bubbles picking up, maybe a funky smell — normal 6–7 Doubling in 4–8 hrs after a feed = it's alive and working Pink or orange = throw it out and start over. No exceptions. Fuzzy mold, same answer. A sour, yeasty, even slightly cheesy smell is fine. That's just the argument it's having with your kitchen.
No proofer? Oven light on, door cracked, jar inside. Cheap and steady — that's all warmth needs to be.
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Feeding Schedule (Counter vs. Fridge)
You Bake Storage Feed Weekly or more Counter jar Once daily Less than weekly Fridge Once a week Ratio for either: equal parts starter, flour, water by weight (1:1:1).
Ready to bake with: it doubles in a jar within 4–6 hours of feeding, and a spoonful floats in water. If it sinks, give it more time.
Neglected starter in the fridge, gray liquid on top? Pour off the liquid, feed it, give it 2–3 days of daily feeds before you trust it again. It's usually fine.
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Dough Day: The Short Version
- Autolyse: mix flour and water only, rest 30–60 min before adding starter and salt.
- Bulk ferment: read the dough, not the clock. You're watching for roughly 30–50% rise, some bubbles at the surface, a jiggly wobble when you nudge the container.
- Stretch and folds: 4–6 sets, 30 min apart, until dough holds its shape without you touching it.
- Pre-shape, bench rest 20–30 min, then final shape into a tight round — surface tension is the whole game.
- Cold proof overnight in the fridge. Easier schedule, better flavor, more forgiving bake window.
- Score one clean, straight slash before baking — gives the dough somewhere to go instead of blowing out sideways.
- Bake in a Dutch oven (lid on, then off) or a bowl inverted over a sheet pan. Done when deep golden brown and it sounds hollow tapped on the bottom.
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Troubleshooting Fast
Problem Likely Cause Gummy crumb Underbaked, or cut before it cooled Dense loaf Underproofed starter, or bulk ferment cut short Flat, spread out Overproofed, or shaping too loose Discard piling up Make pancakes or crackers — don't waste it ---
You will mess up a loaf. I did, more than once, and the sponge is still sitting by my toaster. Bread makes you wait — that's the whole lesson, not a bug in it.
Around the web
Sites we keep coming back to. Some picked by your instructor, some shared in class.
- Sourdough (Wikipedia) ↗
A solid overview of the history and science behind sourdough fermentation, good background reading before we start baking.
- Baker's Yeast (Wikipedia) ↗
Useful for understanding how wild yeast in your starter differs from commercial yeast.
- Gluten (Wikipedia) ↗
Explains the protein structure we're developing when we knead and fold our dough.
- The Perfect Loaf ↗
Maurizio's site is one of the most detailed and trustworthy resources out there for home sourdough bakers, I reference his methods often.
- King Arthur Baking - Sourdough Guide ↗
A reliable baking company with genuinely good technical guides, this is where I send people who want tested ratios and troubleshooting help.
- The Clever Carrot ↗
Emilie's blog has clear step by step photos that make the stretch and fold process much easier to visualize.
- Weekend Bakery ↗
A husband and wife team who write thoughtful, detail heavy posts on bread science, worth reading once you want to go deeper.
- Breadtopia ↗
A longtime specialist site with good videos on starter maintenance and shaping that pair well with what we do in class.
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- STEP-BY-STEP SOURDOUGH FOR BEGINNERS: How to Make Sourdough Starter & Sourdough BreadLauren I A Bright Moment
Watch how the starter is fed and tested for readiness before moving on to mixing the dough.
- How I'd Make Sourdough If I Could Start Over (For Beginners)Grant Bakes
Pay attention to the simplified folding and shaping method meant to make the process less intimidating for first timers.
- Bake the Perfect Sourdough Bread: A Step-by-Step GuideNatashas Kitchen
Follow along with the full timeline from mixing to baking to see how long each rise stage should take.
Practice corner
6 quizzes and 2 games. Playable by anyone, no account needed.
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