Made everything, onion, jalapeño and cheese, Asiago, and plain bagels.

2g active starter, 519g warm spring water, 1111g bread flour, 49g raw sugar, 54g pure maple syrup, about 1.5 tsp instant yeast, 22g salt, 1 tbsp honey for the water bath

Mix the water, maple syrup, starter, and yeast mixture together. Combine flour, salt, yeast and sugar in a big bowl, add the wet, and knead 5 to 10 min until smooth and elastic. Add in and inclusions you want and continue to knead the dough for another 5 minutes. You can use a stand mixer with a dough hook as well. Rest 30 min, knead a minute, ball it up, and bulk ferment until risen about 60 percent, roughly 60 to 90 min.

Divide into 16, roll tight, rest 20 min. Poke and shape the holes, proof 20 to 40 min until slightly puffy and they pass the float test, then re-stretch the holes. Boil 20 seconds per side in honey water, top them, and bake at 425F for 15 to 17 min until golden.

Set on a cooling rack until completely cool.

I leave a few out but I generally Saran Wrap and then tightly foil them individually and freeze them. When I go to reheat I take it out of the wrapping, wet a paper towel and wrap it around the bagel and microwave for one minute. Comes out just like it did out of the oven. You can cut it and toast or just eat it as is.
Float test if you are unsure: floats means ready, sinks straight down means give it more time.

I struggled with getting darker loaves with my previous gas oven but with my electric one, they come out beautifully. The taste with the darker crust is 🤌🏻

My go to recipe: https://matthewjamesduffy.com/beginner-sourdough-recipe/

I have ADHD, and while I love cooking generally. Was intimidated by the thought of sourdough simply because I knew I’d forget about the culture in the back of the fridge, probably kill it multiple times, and the extra executive step of prepping the starter for baking seemed like too much.

My wife bought me the King Arthur Flour Sourdough Sidekick for my birthday- and it has been awesome. I only use the auto function- I just tell it how much fed starter I need and when I need it, and the device does the rest.

I can totally understand y’all wanting to nuance your starter hydration and the process not being down with a device like this- but for someone like me, it’s awesome.

This is my go-to recipe as well… makes a really nice loaf:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/no-knead-sourdough-bread-recipe

It may be 90 degrees outside, it may be humid af, but gosh darn it, it’s September 1st and I just baked a loaf of apple cinnamon. 😤 I declare fall!

Recipe link.

I followed a Reddit poster’s steps who also forgot the original poster I only have a screenshot. But it worked! Only thing I tweaked was how hot my oven was preheated Dutch oven with oven to 450. Bread in oven at 450 for 30 minutes. 25 minutes uncovered at 425.

The tip to share was feeding the starter I planned to use in a separate jar with KA bread flour! I feel
Like this really gave me a good spring.

Edit: added a picture of the crumb in the comments. Crispy crust with an airy crumb. My husband cut it lol bear with us.**

Original instructions:

• 500g white bread flour
• 350g water (room temp) Mix this together very well and cover with wet tea towel and let rest for 45 minutes
• Add in 110g of active starter Incorporate VERY WELL.
Maybe 3 minutes all together of incorporation Wait 30 minutes
• Add 10g salt stretch and fold a lot to incorporate Perform two to three more stretch and folds every 30min All in all I did 4 stretch and folds not including when I added the starter
• Bulk ferment to double in size- about 5-6 hours
• Shape with light flour on surface. Make into small rectangle and then fold and do some push and pulls
• Put into fridge for 12 hours (could do longer)
• Preheat Dutch oven to 500F
• Turn oven down to 450F
• Bake with lid on for 30 minutes
• Take lid off, bake for 15-20 more minutes
• Let rest on cooling

Made my first ever inclusion loaf - pumpkin, cinnamon, pecans. Really happy with how it turned out, highly recommend the below recipe!

Recipe: https://cultured.guru/blog/sweet-sourdough-pumpkin-bread-with-cinnamon-and-pecans

I haven’t had the chance to make pizzas in a while but threw some dough together Saturday while making some bread and cooked them off last night. I’ve been working on my recipe for a while and I have it dialed in.

Makes 3, 375g doughballs for 14” pies

Flour 100% (589 g):
- 95% bread flour (560 g)
- 5% whole wheat (29 g)
Water 64% (377 g)
100% hydrated sourdough starter: 20% (118 g)
Fine sea salt: 3% (18 g)
Sugar: 2% (12 g)
Olive oil: 2% (12 g)
Diastatic malt powder: 0.3% (2 g)

Combined dry ingredients except salt and mixed in starter and warm water (DDT 78). Waited 40 min. Added salt and olive oil. Hand mixed until it was a cohesive ball. Bulked for about 4 hours with three sets of S&Fs spaced at 20 min each. Maintained dough temp consistently. Balled into 3 dough balls and refrigerated overnight. Removed from fridge about 4 hours before baking. Stretched to 14” and launched on a steel I preheated at 550 for over an hour. Cooked in about 7 minutes.

Recipe: 100g starter 500g bread flour 325g water 12g sea salt

Starter water and flour mixed and set aside one hour. Add salt. Into a stand mixer 10 minutes low speed. Rest 30 minutes, then 3-4 folds every thirty minutes. Rest for a couple hours, tossed into fridge for twelve hours. This was all done in the stand mixing bowl.

Next day take out of fridge rest on counter two hours. Shape and toss into a basket, preheat oven 450 with dutch oven inside. About 90 minutes later put bread into dutch oven (lid shut) for 25 minutes. Remove bread from dutch oven snd place directly on oven rack. Note cookie sheet on lower rack. Continue baking 20 minutes.

Now, normally I’ve just kept it in the dutch oven and removed the lid. I wanted to try this for two reasons. First, the bottom gets more toasty and harder to cut through when kept in the dutch oven. Second, the coloring is not consistent and often requires more time to finish. It was also coming out more gummy?

I’ve done this method twice now and happier with the results. Bread not gummy, color is uniform. Anyone else finishing their bread on the rack?

I used ChatGPT to help with the recipe, but essentially, I got this sourdough starter three days ago from a coworker (named fro-dough Baggins), and this is my first sourdough loaf ever.

🍞 Fro-dough Baggins — Beginner Sourdough

All bread flour • ~71% hydration • Dutch oven

Ingredients

• 500 g King Arthur Bread Flour

• 340 g water

• 100 g active sourdough starter (100% hydration)

• 11 g salt

True hydration: ~71%

Today — Make the Dough

1. Mix Combine 100 g starter + 340 g water. Stir until cloudy.

Add 500 g bread flour and mix until no dry flour remains. It'll be shaggy and slightly sticky.

Cover and rest 30 minutes.

1. Add salt Add 11 g salt. Pinch and fold it into the dough with slightly damp hands until incorporated.

2. Stretch & folds — 2 hours Do 4 sets, 30 minutes apart:

• Stretch one side up and fold it over.

• Turn the bowl ¼ turn.

• Repeat until you've folded all 4 sides.

• Cover and rest 30 minutes.

The dough should progressively become smoother, stronger, and less sticky.

1. Bulk fermentation After the final fold, cover and leave the dough undisturbed in your warmer room.

At your normal 65–70°F kitchen temperature, expect this to take a while. Don't rely solely on the clock.

Look for:

• Roughly 50–75% increase in volume

• Bubbles along the sides/top

• A slightly domed surface

• Dough that feels airy and jiggles when you move the bowl

1. Shape Turn it onto a lightly floured counter.

Gently form a round and rest 15–20 minutes.

Do your final shaping, building some surface tension without crushing all the gas.

Place seam-side up in a well-floured banneton or towel-lined bowl.

1. Refrigerate overnight Cover and refrigerate 8–16 hours.

───

Tomorrow — Bake

1. Preheat Put your Dutch oven inside and preheat to 475°F for about 45 minutes.

2. Score Take the dough directly from the refrigerator.

Turn it onto parchment or your silicone sling, seam-side down.

Score the top about ½ inch deep with a razor or very sharp knife.

1. Bake475°F — 20 minutes COVERED

Then remove the lid and reduce to:

450°F — 20–25 minutes UNCOVERED

Mugshots of this morning's bake

Early morning. Take 100 g of starter from the fridge and feed with 200g of the flour and 200g water. Leave to do it's thing, took about seven hours yesterday when the ambient temperature was 22°C (72°F).

When the starter is ready to use reserve 100 g and return that to the fridge. Combine the remainder with the rest (255g) of the water. Mix the salt into the flour and then add the dilute starter. combine just until all the flour is incorporated, cover and rest for 20 minutes.

Tip it out and give it a series of stretch and folds until it begins to show some structure and resistance. It'll still be a pretty shaggy mess at this point, don't look for perfection or you might as well be kneading it.

Cover and rest for 40 minutes. Repeat this three more times but the end of which you should have a ball of smooth, elastic dough that obviously resists manipulation after three or four stretches.

Place in a well floured banneton, smooth side down. Put the whole thing into a large plastic bag and set into the fridge. Mine was showing 5°C (41°F) overnight.

Next morning preheat oven to 240°C (475°F). Take dough out of the fridge — where it had been hanging out for 11 hours by this point — unwrap and turn out into a suitable baking thing. If you have a cast iron bread baking cloche or Dutch oven, great. I have neither so it's a conventional roasting tin with a couple of ice cubes added, covered with kitchen foil tented over and crimped to the sides.

Bake covered for 30 minutes then uncovered for a further 20 minutes with the temperature turned down to 220°C (425°F).

Cool on a rack. When cool the finished weight was exactly 1 kg (2lb 3oz). Rising it hit the sides of the tin so the loaf isn't quite round, measuring 10 by 11 inches (244×279 mm).

After my first loaf being okay, and my second going wrong, I've just cut into my 3rd attempt and I'm really pleased with how it's gone! I know there are still improvements to be made and I'm more than happy to hear any suggestions of what to do.

400g strong white bread flour

100g wholemeal bread flour

350ml tap water

100ml active sourdough starter

10g salt

1. Prepped my starter (very well established starter gifted from a friend).

2. Mixed 100g of starter with 350ml of water, then added 100g wholemeal bread flour and 400g of white bread flour until fully incorporated.

3. Left in a cling filmed bowl for 30 minutes.

4. Added 10g of salt and mixed through, then left covered for 30 minutes.

5. Did stretch and folds every 30 minutes for 2.5 hours (5 in total) in 22 degrees C.

6. Pulled it out of the bowl and shaped it in my hands and laid it into an oval banneton basket covered in cling film.

7. Left it in my kitchen for 2.5h then put it in the fridge for 13.5h.

8. Put it on the side in the kitchen for 45 minutes while the oven and pizza stone preheats with a tray of water at the bottom of the oven for steam.

9. Tipped it out onto some baking paper and tried to score the top (but it was quite liquid and didn't hold its shape very well).

10. Used a pizza peel to slide it onto the pizza stone and baked for 22 minutes at 220 degrees C (fan).

11. Took out the water tray and turned the oven down to 200 and baked for a further 18 minutes.

12. Cooled on a wire rack for 5h before slicing.

Thanks!

My first loaves! The sliced one is a little gummy, but not bad. I havent cut open the second one yet. Just had to share with the class😂. Dont mind the bites out of it or the horrible cutting. I need to sharpen my knife.

I followed this recipe. It uses just flour, water, starter, and salt. I modified one loaf to include colby jack and parmesan cheese in the stretch and fold process.

Hey all! I’ve been on and off my sourdough journey since early January. Honestly, it all started coming together after I read The Bread Code by Hendrik Kleinwaechter. He introduced me to the concept of stiff starter - it was a game changer for me.
So here is my first decent loaf! Please tell me what could I do better? (The parchment paper got stuck to the bottom - my bad, took the poor quality one)

125 g stiff starter
479 g strong flour
350 g water
10 g salt

Mixed all together, left for fermentoloysis 30min, then a few sets of stretches and folds (30 min break between each). 4h of rest, shape, and to the fridge for the night.
Oven preheat to 250c, dough went into a hot Dutch oven for 20min with a lid, and then 20 min without the lead.

That is all. I finally pushed BF far enough to see what my dough looks like overproofed. Couldn't be more pleased!

Around 460g flour
300 g water
75 g starter
8 g salt

Slap and folds for 4 rounds, every 20 minutes
Bulk ferment at 75 degrees for around 8 hours
Pre shaped, bench rest for 20 minutes, then final shape
Put in fridge for about 18 hours
Baked at 475 in Dutch oven for 7 minutes, scored, then baked covered again for 13 more minutes
Uncovered and baked for 17 more minutes

All of my recipe and timing is “approximate “ because I ran out of starter and had to calculate a 67% hydration, and my starter was becoming acidic so I was constantly just checking the status of the bread rather than focusing on time. I did have to add flour after the first folds.

I definitely love how the 5-7 min score method!!

My first try went alright too, but i ended up with some large uneven pockets. My second try was much better, I think this is a decent crumb right? I need to work on my scoring :)

- Ingredients
500 g bread flour
350 g water
100 g active starter
10 g salt

- Mix
Rest 30 min
Add salt
Stretch & fold ×4
Bulk ferment at ~75–80°F until 30–50% rise, puffy and bubbly
Pre-shape
Rest 15–20 min
Final shape
Cold retard — cover and refrigerate 8–16 hours
Score cold
Bake directly from refrigerator

450 bake, 30 lid on, 20 lid off

- toasted Brie
- apples
- fig jam
- praline
- rosemary

Recipe/tutorial used: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8cJtRcS/

100 g starter
350 g water
500 g bread flour
10 g salt

Bulk fermented for approximately 7 hours
Cold proof for approximately 16 hours

I made my own starter from scratch and it’s been a struggle. For weeks, I was feeding her too soon. I kept seeing conflicting information to increase my ratio so I increased it to 1:5:4, however I wasn’t waiting for her to rise and double before feeding her again. I thought she wasn’t rising but really she was probably just slowly eating still so I diluted the f outta her. Once I lowered the feeding ratio back down to 1:2:1.5 she started rising again! I then made this loaf 5 days after she was consistently rising within a reasonable period of time. I’m very happy with the outcome of my first loaf! I’m even happier than I have started to understand my sourdough starter and what it needs!

I definitely didn’t do the expansion score right. I think I scored it too shallow since the ear isn’t clean. Also my knife was sooo dull so when I sliced into the loaf it was not clean or pretty lol. I ordered a new bread knife though 🙌

My usual recipe:
125g starter
300g water
500g flour
12g salt

I usually follow the basic 1 hour rest, then 4 sets of stretch and fold & coil and folds.

I bake with a lid for 25 minutes at 250c, then without a lid for another 20 minutes at 220c! And I do a 7 minute scoring.

I think im doing pretty decent but I still sometimes mess up my bulk times which I think is common 😅 lately though I’ve been looking at TikToks and comparing the sizes of my loaves with the ones on social media and mine always seem to turn out smaller? I can’t tell if it’s the angle of the cameras or what but it’s been on my mind a lot ):

Any tips or c&c on my crumb and oven spring would be so appreciated.

I’ve been hyperfixating on sourdough for about two months now. So still new, but my ADHD brain has nothing but bread in it right now hence lots of loaves.

What is everyone's thought about this flour I need to order some flour.

My starter is active and i’ve made a few good loaves but recently my starter hasn’t been growing very much and it’s not floating when i test it in water. my starter used to triple after each feed and now it barely reaches the halfway point. there’s is still a lot of webbing and bubbles so i know it’s active it just won’t rise as well. my kitchen temperature hasn’t changed and i haven’t changed my brand of flour so im not sure what could be causing this. im wondering if it could be my ratios but ive been keeping it the same since i started and i haven’t noticed any problems before this. usually do a 1:1:1 ratio at about 100g each lately ive been adding a bit more flour in hopes that will wake something up but it’s been about a week and a half now and it just won’t double properly. any advice helps !!!

My starters first loaf after being in the fridge for 3 months.

I totally messed up the swirl..lmao

Lavender Tea (I suggest doing this the night before)

360 grams of boiling water

2 tbsp of lavender buds

1tsp of honey

and a jar

1. ⁠Pour all of your lavender in your jar
   
2. ⁠Pour your honey in there then your water
   
3. ⁠Stir slightly and put a lid on it (do not take it off until it is time to bake, taking the lid off lets out the essential oils leading to a dull taste)
   
4. ⁠Let cool at room temperature

Bread-

500 g of bread flour, like most i use king arthur unbleached

360 grams of the tea

10 grams of salt (i use iodized)

90 grams of starter

10 grams vegetable oil

10 grams olive oil

100grams of ground up freeze dried blueberries

1. ⁠Autolyse: mix all of your flour and tea together then smooth (I use a stand mixer) then cover for 45 minutes
   
2. ⁠Fermentolyse: Add all of your starter and mix ensuring that your dough stays smooth, cover let rest for an hour.
   
3. ⁠Add your salt mixed with 10 grams of water and dimple the salt in again mix till fully combined.
   
4. ⁠If you have a stand mixer mix it for around 7-8 minutes
   
5. ⁠Cover and let rest for around 20 minutes then check for windowpane, if it has reached it the windowpane let rest for bulk ferment if not repeat the mixing until windowpane.

I like to use the rhubarb method to put some air in the dough early on. Totally optional tho.

7) Once fully proofed put on a lightly floured surface and preshape and bench rest for 30 minutes

8) Grind up freeze dried blueberries and set aside.

9) Stretch out dough until roughly 12 by 12 and envelope fold, hard to explain look up a video if youre not sure. Then between each fold sprinkle blueberries

10) Cold proof once in banneton overnight (8-12 hours)

11) Score on parchment paper or a sling and put in your preheated dutch oven on 475 covered for 25 then uncovered on 425 till desired browning

12) Let cool then enjoy!

I made my first loaf yesterday. Starter was about 13 days old, which I think probably contributed to the tight crumb. It was demolished today so I’m going to make another loaf tomorrow so tips would be welcomed!

I followed @chloejp.yaps 1 day beginners sourdough loaf tutorial on tiktok - link to video here.
Recipe is:
•130g starter
•500g strong white bread flour (I’m using Churchill White Premium Strong White Flour from Matthew’s Cotswold Flour, I’ve never really bought anything other than generic store brand before and I’m not sure if this is making a difference)
•315g water
• 10g salt (I over poured and put 12g in - don’t think it made a difference!).
Mixed it all together, did 2 slap and folds 30 minutes apart (or was meant to - see mistake 2), then 2 sets of stretch and fold and two sets of coil folds each 30 minutes apart. Did a pre shape and then left it to rest on the counter for 4 hours (see mistake 4). I baked it in a round Dutch oven (but have a baguette bannetone) which also caused some confusion in my brain.

I definitely made some mistakes. Mistake 1 - I didn’t realise there was a short rest period between mixing the ingredients and doing the first set of slap and folds, which meant my dough was very sticky at first and impossible to work with. I put it back in the bowl after a few minutes of trying and then went back ten minutes later and was able to slap and fold properly.

Mistake 2 - I was out for the first couple of hours after making the dough and doing the first set of slap and folds - so I did step one and two, then

Mistake 3 - I didn’t put it in the fridge for the final rise after shaping. I am not sure if this made much difference.

Mistake 4 - I definitely didn’t do the final rise for as long as requested in the recipe and bunged it in the oven after 3 hours, not four as it was getting late and I wanted to go to bed (this was caused by mistake 2 as I had to play catch up somewhat from mid morning)

Mistake 5 - trying to expansion score was really tricky. I ended up double cutting it and getting this weird crackle in the middle.

Overall, the taste was great and the texture was so soft and chewy! It wasn’t overly fermented tasting (but this could be the same day approach and the “young” starter I guess) and had very few large air bubbles but it made some of the best Nutella toast and sandwiches I’ve had in a very long time. As someone who’s never really managed to make “traditional” bread work I was amazed and so pleased it turned out resembling something more than just edible!

I think I’m ready to make this my whole personality, haha!

Hello bakers! I’ve noticed with my last few bakes. I’m getting these strange perpendicular splits from my scored dough. I’m not sure if I changed anything, but I’m looking for advice to get that cleaned score and ear back.