Sourdough – St. Mary’s Farm

Sourdough Bread

Welcome to Sourdough Made Easy

The goal of this page is to provide you with a basic understanding of the fundamentals of sourdough so that you can get started quickly and without lots of frustration. On this page, you can find:

Instructions for rehydrating and feeding your sourdough starter.
Instructions for making sourdough bread.
Recipes for different variations of sourdough bread.

Click on each section below to learn more information.

Sourdough Supply List:

These are all the supplies we recommended for sourdough. All of these items can be purchased on Amazon if you don’t have them already.
(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Kitchen Scale
Danish Whisk or Wooden Spatula
Mixing Bowls
Glass Jars
Bread Lame
Bench Scraper
Proofing Baskets – Round or Proofing Baskets – Loaf
Dutch Oven or Bread Pans
Deluxe Kit (includes most of the items above)

Rehydrate Starter

Day 1

In a glass jar, combine 20g (full package of St. Mary’s Farm Dehydrated Sourdough Starter) and 30g of filtered water.
Stir to mix and let sit until the starter has fully dissolved. May take several hours. Stir occasionally to aid process.
Once starter has dissolved, add 10g of flour and 10g of filtered water to mixture.

Days 2 & 3

You may notice some bubbles on these days, you may not. The yeast will slowly start activating the rest of the mixture.
Feed the starter 10g of water and 10g of flour each day, mix thoroughly. Do not discard any of the mixture.

Days 4 & 5

By this point, you should be noticing bubbles and the mixture should also be rising. Once the mixture has risen and begun to fall, you can feed your starter. (If you don’t see much rising or many bubbles, repeat the instructions for days 2 & 3.)
In a new glass jar, mix 10g of starter with 25g of flour and 25g of water.
Mark the mixture level in the jar. You can do this by drawing a line on the jar with a dry erase marker or by putting a rubber band around the jar.
You should see your starter doubling in the same day. If so, continue to the next instructions. If your starter is not doubling, repeat this step until it does.

Maintaining the Starter

To feed your starter in preparation of making a loaf of bread, combine 10g of sourdough starter with 25g of flour and 25g of water. When this starter has doubled, you will have enough active starter to make a loaf of bread.

Chocolate Starter

To rehydrate your chocolate starter follow the steps above, adding in 15g of cocoa powder and 30g of additional water for days 4 & 5.
When you maintain the starter, you will mix 75g of starter with 150g of flour, 180g of water, and 15g of cocoa powder.

Baking Bread

Feed your starter first thing in the morning. Within 4-5 hours, your starter should have doubled. If your house is colder it may take longer. If your starter isn’t doubling in that time frame, try feeding it the night before you want to start a loaf of bread.
Once your starter has doubled, mix up the dough:
- 50g of starter
- 350g of water
- 500g of flour
- 10g of salt
Mix all together. Every 30 minutes, knead the dough. Do this a total of 3-4 times. (Pretend the dough is a square. Grab a corner of the square, pull it to the middle and push down. Turn the bowl a quarter, grab the next corner, pull to the middle and push down. Do this whole sequence twice.)
After you have kneaded the dough 3-4 times, cover with saran wrap and let sit until dough has doubled. This generally takes 4-5 hours (however, it will take longer if the temperature is colder).
Plop the dough on the counter and quickly shape into a boule using your bench scraper. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Stretch dough out into a square (be gentle with the dough making sure not to tear it.) One after the other, Fold each side in towards the middle like you are folding a piece of paper into thirds. Then, roll the dough up like a cinnamon roll. Pinch the ends to make a seam. Place it upside down in a proofing basket. Cover and let sit out for about 2 hours or let it sit in the fridge overnight.
When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place dough into dutch oven with parchment paper (loaf into pan) and score the top.
When the oven is preheated, place dutch oven/pan in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and place the bread on a cutting board to cool.

Sourdough Recipes

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

When mixing up your dough using the above recipe, add in 75g of raisins. After your dough has risen and you are kneading it to set in the proofing basket, add cinnamon then. I eyeball the cinnamon. I like a lot, so I tend to add more. You can add what you feel like would be a good amount.

Orange Cranberry Bread

When mixing up your dough using the above recipe, add in 75g of craisins. After your dough has risen and you are kneading it to set in the proofing basket, add the zest of one orange.

Rosemary Garlic Bread

When mixing up your dough using the above recipe, add in 50g of garlic and 50g of dried or fresh rosemary.

Chocolate Sourdough Bread

This sourdough recipe requires the use of the chocolate starter.

When mixing up your dough using the above recipe, you will increase your water by 70g, add 50g of cocoa powder, 50g of craisins and 50g of chocolate chips (I prefer dark chocolate).