Beginner Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe

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Homemade sourdough bread is one of the most rewarding baking projects you can take on. This beginner artisan sourdough bread recipe uses a Tartine-style method to create a crusty loaf with an open crumb, deep flavor, and beautiful oven spring—without kneading.

If you are new to sourdough, this artisan sourdough bread recipe walks you step by step through the long cold fermentation process that helps build structure, flavor, and rise. It is a true no-knead sourdough bread method designed to help beginners make bakery-style sourdough bread at home.

Over the years, this recipe has brought in hundreds of questions from bakers working through the same common sourdough issues: shaping sticky dough, scoring confidently, getting better oven spring, understanding crumb, and fixing dense loaves. To make this recipe easier to succeed with, I’ve linked my step-by-step sourdough guides throughout this post so you can get help exactly where you need it.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• how to build dough strength through stretch and folds
• how long cold fermentation improves flavor and structure
• how to bake for a crisp crust and open crumb
• how to avoid common beginner sourdough mistakes

Let’s walk through the process.

Start Here If You’re New to Sourdough

If you want help with specific parts of the process, these sourdough guides will walk you through each step in more detail:

• Want better dough tension and loaf shape? Read How to Shape Sourdough Bread
• Need help scoring your loaf? Read How to Score Sourdough Bread
• Want better oven spring and crust? Read How Steam Baking Sourdough Affects Oven Spring and Crust
• Not sure what your crumb is telling you? Read How to Read Sourdough Crumb Structure
• Struggling with heavy loaves? Read Why Is My Sourdough Bread Dense?
• Wondering whether you need a dramatic ear? Read Do You Need an Ear on Sourdough Bread?

This recipe is the foundation. These guides will help you understand the process and improve your results from one bake to the next.

This beginner artisan sourdough bread recipe includes a complete step-by-step video walkthrough of the Tartine-style method. If you prefer learning visually, watch the entire process from mixing to baking.

If the embedded video does not load due to ad blockers, you can watch the full artisan sourdough bread tutorial directly on our YouTube channel here.

Watch the Video Demonstration:This video compresses the 24 hours it takes to complete this recipe into about 6 minutes. You can accomplish this basic sourdough recipe. And your family will love you for it.

What is sourdough Bread? Sourdough bread is a type of bread that is made through a fermentation process that uses a natural starter culture, rather than commercial yeast. The natural starter culture, also known as a sourdough starter, is made from a mixture of flour and water that has been fermented by wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. This mixture is then used to ferment the dough for the bread, which gives it its characteristic sour flavor.

Is sourdough a Healthy Bread? Sourdough bread is made through a fermentation process that uses a natural starter culture, rather than commercial yeast. This process can result in a bread that is easier to digest for some people and that has a lower glycemic index than other types of bread. Additionally, sourdough bread is a good source of fiber, protein, B vitamins, and minerals like iron and zinc.

Read My Post on Why Sourdough Bread Is good For you. It goes deep into why sourdough bread benefits your health and should be a regular part of your diet for good health.

This is a basic sourdough bread recipe that uses the long cold rise method.  Allowing the dough to ferment in the fridge for 12 to 36 hours will develop the flavor and texture of the bread and allow the fermentation to give you the best health benefits of sourdough bread.

I have had a LARGE number of readers tag us on our various social networks and email me pics of their wonderful results. The best part of my day is seeing your successes.

Learn the techniques used in this naturally fermented bread recipe. Take every step in order and make this beautiful sourdough bread. Let us know in the comments if it helps you out. 

This is a lean bread. Very crusty with a tender, creamy well developed crumb. And only THREE ingredients. Flour water and salt.

Learn this beginner sourdough artisan bread recipe. It will pay you back every time you DON’T buy an artisan loaf from the bakery.

Artisan bread making is a HUGE subject. I will go into as much detail as I can for you here and include resources for you. Feel free to ask your questions. But FIRST PLEASE READ the entire tutorial.

Visit our Sourdough Section for more sourdough bread recipes, wild starter recipe and sourdough discard recipes.

Sourdough artisan recipes with the stretch and fold method and long cold rise are a unique class of bread. Learn the methods to make these breads and you will be a bread baking star in your foodie circle.

Do you need a dutch oven for sourdough bread?

Baking sourdough loaves in your dutch oven provides a way to steam the dough as it bakes. This helps form a crusty loaf with a tender moist center. The dutch oven sourdough bread method keeps the outside crust from becoming too tough during the main baking process. The lid comes off the dutch oven the last 10 or 15 minutes of baking which allows for a crispy crust with a tender bread center.

To ensure proper bread baking you will need to create an environment that captures both steam and maintain heat. There are a few other methods you can try if you do not have a dutch oven.

Use a baking stone to help maintain the high heat needed for proper artisan bread baking. Use a casserole dish or deep roasting dish that can hold in the steam. A deep cast Iron pan with a lid on it can also be used for sourdough bread baking, just make sure that it is tall enough to allow the bread to properly rise. And if all else fails try a cookie sheet with a roasting pan lid over it.

Steam Baking:

The point is you need to create steam around the dough as it bakes. Most ovens do not have a great seal. So spritzing the bread in the oven as it bakes is less than ideal. For the best crust and texture you need constant steam around the loaf while it bakes at least the first 15 to 20 minutes. Read our Guide on Steam Baking Sourdough to go deeper into this.

That shattered crust and open tender crumb is the Homemade Food Junkie Artisan sourdough goal. Learn this method. There is no going back. And you can do SO many bread varieties with this recipe.

Supplies:

If you make sourdough loaves like this for a while you will get MUCH better results from a few purchases. The crusty flavorful breads are so good. All you need is flour and salt and a few supplies to bake some pretty amazing breads.

• Measure your ingredients by WEIGHT. Measuring by weight is one of the simplest ways to improve your sourdough results. Learn why it matters in Measure Sourdough Ingredients by Weight. Flours especially need weight rather than volume measures for the most consistent results. Here’s a decent 22 lb. food scale.
• Salt measured by volume is unreliable because crystal size and density vary—weight is consistent. I use sea salt or pink salt for this recipe. Salt plays an important role in fermentation and dough strength. Learn more in Salt in Sourdough Bread: Why It Matters.
• You will need a dutch oven or other HIGH HEAT (to 500 degrees) oven safe skillet with a lid. Use either a cast iron skillet combo or a dutch oven. Here’s my 6.5 quart Le Creuset oval Dutch oven (gifted to me by my Lovely In laws).
•  I am SO happy I bought this dough scraper set . They are VERY helpful working with high hydration doughs. The bowl scraper is genius. This is a sticky dough and the bowl scraper (when wet) slides that dough around like a dream.
• 8.5 inch Bannetons are for the final long rise often done in the fridge. They come with handy cloth liners that fit to help keep the dough well formed. The finished bread has lovely ridges in if you remove the cloth liners and just flour the baskets.
• A lame knife for scoring your loaves. Also really helpful in releasing the dough to rise properly.
• A VERY good starter. You can make and strengthen your own with our tips in this post. OR buy it from our friend Sasha on etsy!

Interested in baking 100 percent whole wheat sourdough bread? Hop over to our post on Beginners Whole Wheat Artisan Sourdough Bread . 

I put helps, tips and information into the sourdough whole wheat bread post specific to working with whole wheat flour.

How to Bake Sourdough No Knead, Tartine Style Bread:

This is a basic artisan bread. The 4 stretch and folds 30 minutes apart replace the traditional kneading yeast bakers are used to. This bread does all the work for you. It just takes time.

Sourdough dutch oven bread recipe from a wild yeast starter. It uses the long cold rise and the stretch and fold technique we have discussed.

Once you learn how to make Sourdough bread a whole new baking world will open for you.

Use a very active wild yeast starter. Learn How to make Wild Yeast Starter in this post.

• Wild yeast starters provide a much Better, Fuller, more Complex….AMAZING flavor and texture  than commercial yeasts can. You can easily build your own wild yeast starter. But plan ahead.
• Give yourself about a week to get it ripe and bubbly.

Sourdough recipes with starter require a VERY active Starter. You can use any starter recipe you prefer IF it can pass the float test. MOST important for a good rise in your loaf.

Where can I buy a Sourdough Starter?

You can purchase a sourdough starter on the online if you do not have one on hand. The other option is to make your own. However, established sourdough starters are a great option to make delicious bread quicker. We have purchased this sourdough starter on Etsy and have used it with great results.

This starter is very tangy. It is local to the San Francisco area and definitely is more of a San Francisco sourdough bread flavor. Click here to purchase the BEAST sourdough starter on Etsy.

How much Sourdough Starter is needed for a loaf of bread?

You will need 100 grams of active sourdough starter to bake one loaf of bread. This recipe calls for 200 grams of sourdough starter and yields 2 loaves of artisan bread. That’s because we feed the starter before baking. Every time.

Balancing Your Starter:

Feed your starter 1:1:1 and bring it back to the float test. I feed my starter the night before I want to bake.

• 100 grams starter-unfed or recently fed-room temperature
• 100 grams flour
• 100 grams warm water

Now let it ferment several hours to overnight to return the starter to the float test. This process is a simple way to ensure your active sourdough starter is properly balanced for bread baking.

The float test:

The float test is NOT 100% accurate. But it most often works well as a tell for starter readiness. If Your starter is weak from going hungry too long, don’t use the float test. Rather feed the starter 1:2:2 and if it doubles in 4 to 8 hours it’s probably strong enough.

Most time the float test is a good indicator of starter readiness. If you take a teaspoon or so of starter and drop it in a cup of room temperature water it will float when it’s ready to make bread.

If your starter does NOT float. Feed and balance it as I describe above and try again after several hours to overnight.

But, even more important, make sure your starter is active enough to double in 4 to 8 hours or overnight. If it doesn’t, I recommend you feed it again before baking.

After the starter is active like this one, (and floats firmly in a cup of water) it’s time to bake bread.

Use high protein bread flour:

When I started making sourdough I used my all regular all purpose flour. The bread was delicious BUT it did not give me the form or the rise I prefer.

I was schooled on this by our contributor Sasha Hunter our bread baker extraordinaire friend.

Sasha recommends King Arthur bread flour or high protein All purpose Montana White flour. What a difference in my loaf rise! Look for flour the is over 12% protein or 5 grams protein on the label. Flour choice has a big impact on dough strength and rise. For a deeper look at how different flours behave, see Sourdough Flour Types Guide.

More Helpful Tips:

• Expect the dough to be sticky:
• WET HANDS really help when handling this dough. The stretch and fold process transforms the dough from a sticky shaggy mess to a workable dough. But it will always be slightly sticky with 100 percent white flour and High hydration.
• MEASURE YOUR INGREDIENTS BY WEIGHT FOR BEST RESULTS:
• Your climate, flour type, season of the year…all sorts of stuff changes the way a bread baking recipe works. This is especially true of this type of bread.
• High hydration loaves can be tricky. Help yourself out and weigh the ingredients.  WEIGHING is best for consistent results. Read more about measuring by weight.
• Begin with a healthy leaven (your wild starter) that bubbles and floats in a cup of water. (More on that below.)

What Is Autolyse vs Fermentolyse?

In traditional bread baking, an autolyse is a resting stage where only flour and water are mixed and allowed to hydrate before adding starter and salt. This helps develop gluten and improves dough structure.

In this recipe, the starter is added at the beginning, which makes this step a fermentolyse rather than a true autolyse. That means fermentation begins during the resting period, not just hydration.

Both methods help improve dough strength and handling, but fermentolyse combines hydration and early fermentation into one step, simplifying the process for home bakers.

This is done immediately after you mix your starter, flour and water. The purpose of this passive process is to fully hydrate your dough.

Fermentolyse 60 minutes. it’s Important for complete dough hydration and good fermentation- you can rest the dough up to four hours. Do NOT skip this step.

Hydration and flour type both affect how your dough develops during this stage. Learn more in Understanding Sourdough Hydration.

REMEMBER Temperature affects ferment rate.

• Keep the dough at around 70 to 75 degrees F. for the bulk rise.
• Some flours are easy to over ferment and other flours need a warmer temp (Not too warm though) to get properly fermented.
• Learn your dough as you handle it. Watch it go through the stages. If it gets slack and won’t rise the dough might be over fermented. (pizza!)

f you’re unsure whether your dough is ready to move to the next step, see How to Proof Sourdough Bread for clear visual cues.

The stretch and folds replace kneading in this recipe. Making sourdough bread no knead makes it simpler and less likely you will overwork the dough. In my opinion, the bread texture is significantly improved with the no knead method of sourdough bread making.

Your Dough should pass the windowpane test. Which means when you stretch the dough it’s pliable and stretches thin enough you can see light through it.

This is a test of gluten strength. Read more about dough structure.

The Final Rise.

Cold fermentation and proofing time both affect structure and flavor. This recipe uses both the cold bulk (referred to in this recipe as the Long Cold Rise) and the cold proof (dough in banneton, in fridge for final rise.) Learn more in Cold Proof vs Cold Bulk Sourdough. It explains both processes and why we use them as we do.

• Cold temperature (below 55 degrees F- I use my fridge temperatures) and long rise (12 to 24 hours) give the dough a chance to develop better texture and flavor in the final rise.
• I have made this bread with a four hour final rise and also a 36 hour long cold rise. It all impacts the results. I do notice an improvement in the dough structure with the overnight rise.

NOTE: I sometimes cheat on this recipe by fudging the rise times or reducing the other steps. Life happens 🙂

However, The results DO vary. For best results FOLLOW the directions and keep to the timetable for every step. As you gain experience with this recipe your hands will learn the dough. Then you can play around with it and still get good results.

Shaping your dough:

Learning how to shape sourdough properly is key to oven spring and crumb structure. For a full step-by-step breakdown, see How to Shape Sourdough Bread.

Learning how to properly form your dough into loaves is one KEY to building the rise in your loaves.

• To have a open crumb you have to be very gentle when handling your dough in these final stages. The dough is full of air.
• You want to retain those bubbles in your dough as you work.
• It’s all about keeping the dough arated while you work it and building tension in the surface of the dough.

TIP: Please watch the video and look at how I pull the loaves around to keep the surface tension of the loaf while shaping the boules. This is key to building a good rise.

Making Sourdough Bread in bread pans

You might prefer an even crumb baked in a loaf pan for sandwich bread. Here are the steps.

Shaping dough for bread pans:

• I use two 9 x 4 oiled bread pans.
• After the final rise roll the dough into a rectangle so all the gasses are deflated.
• Fold the wide sides of your rectangle to the middle.
• On ONE end fold the corner to the middle seam making a point.
• Roll your loaf up from the point to the other end.
• Pinch the seams and ends.
• Place in oiled bread pans.
• Rise at room temperature until the dough is at the top of the pans.

IF your dutch oven is large enough put the loaf pan right in the dutch oven and cover it. Bake as directed. Works great!

Baking sourdough hearth breads in bread pans:

• If you have a large dutch oven bake one loaf at a time in it. Follow the directions in the recipe card.
• If you cannot fit the bread pans into your dutch oven place them on a cookie sheet.
• You will also need a lower heat. Preheat to 400 degrees F. for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake another 30 to 40 minutes.
• On the shelf below the pans fill a pan with water (like a roasting pan) for steam.
• Spray your unbaked loaves liberally with water before setting them in your hot oven.
• follow the recipe instructions. Do the thump test to make sure they are done.

Sourdough Bread Recipe with Starter is very different from other yeast bread recipes.

Cooling Your Loaves:

You MUST resist cutting your divine smelling sourdough bread until it’s room temperature all the way through. Why?

• Your loaves are still baking and developing the crumb and crust even as they cool.
• Do you hear the ‘bread music’? Bread music is the crackling sound your crust makes as it cools. This creates a shattery artisan crusty loaf. Let it happen!
• Inside your bread the crumb is also going through its finishing touches. The crumb is setting.
• If you cut your bread when it’s still piping hot you will squish that gorgeous loaf. The crumb will be crushed and your experience with your sourdough artisan bread will disappoint.
• Cut your cooled loaves with a GOOD sharp serrated knife. The crust will be crusty. A good knife will penetrate the crust and NOT squish the tender crumb.

If you print the recipe the pictures will not print. This is to save you paper and ink.

Common Beginner Sourdough Problems

This post has over 600 comments and questions asking about all things related to baking sourdough. We answered! To help our bakers, we have created, (and will continue to create) an entire sourdough guidance section on this blog to help bakers bake better. We hope these posts help.

• Bread turns out dense: Why Is My Sourdough Bread Dense?
• Dough spreads after shaping: How to Shape Sourdough Bread
• Score won’t open: How to Score Sourdough Bread
• Crust is soft or pale:  How Steam Baking Sourdough Affects Oven Spring and Crust
• Not sure what your crumb means:  How to Read Sourdough Crumb Structure
• No ear on your loaf:  Do You Need an Ear on Sourdough Bread?

In addition to this list, if you read the post in. its entirety it has even more helpful post links answering questions about measuring, flour and salt. Find our complete Sourdough Guides Hub here and remember, we are always here to answer your questions and help you be a sourdough baking success!

More Sourdough Artisan Bread Recipes:

These breads all turn out perfectly when you follow the instructions. If you need more help with getting sourdough bread you want read our sourdough guides.

After you gain experience, feel free to go your own way with techniques and recipes. Please share with us your successes!

• Milk and Honey Sourdough Sandwich Bread
• Rosemary Garlic Sourdough
• Whole Wheat Sourdough
• Walnut Cranberry Sour-dough Bread
• Oatmeal Sour-dough Bread
• MultiGrain Sour-dough Bread
• Sourdough Banana Bread with Blueberries

These gorgeous dutch oven breads are so flavorful and crusty. 

We love to see our baker’s results with this recipe. Be sure to share pics on Instagram and tag me in them. We like comment and occasionally share your pics of our recipes on our stories.

Resources:

These books all were very helpful to me. They are probably available in your local library but make valuable resources to keep on hand. Make your best sourdough bread recipe by getting information and experience.

Books:

• Tartine By Chad Robertson
• Tartine 3 By Chad Robertson
• The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart