A simple sourdough timetable for your first loaf

Your first sourdough takes two days, but you're only busy for about an hour of it. Feed the starter in the morning, mix the dough early in the afternoon, shape it before bed and bake it the next morning. The plan below assumes a kitchen of around 20 to 22°C. In a colder room everything takes longer.

What you need

• 100g active sourdough starter
• 350g water, lukewarm
• 500g strong white bread flour
• 10g fine salt
• A large bowl, a proving basket or a bowl lined with a floured tea towel, and a lidded cast iron pot

Treat this as a starting recipe. Once it works for you, change one thing at a time, such as a little wholemeal flour or a bit more water.

Day one

8am: feed the starter

Feed it with equal weights of flour and water and leave it somewhere warm. It's ready when it has roughly doubled and the top is domed and bubbly, usually four to six hours later.

1pm: mix the flour and water

Stir the flour and 330g of the water together until there's no dry flour left. Cover and leave it for 45 minutes. This rest makes the dough easier to work.

2pm: add the starter and salt

Add the starter, then the salt with the last 20g of water. Squeeze it through the dough with a wet hand for a few minutes until it all comes together.

2.30pm to 4pm: stretch and fold

Every 30 minutes, with a wet hand, lift one side of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over, then turn the bowl and repeat until you've gone all the way round. Four rounds is enough. The dough will go from shaggy to smooth and stretchy.

4pm to about 8pm: let it rise

Leave the dough covered. It's ready when it has grown by around half, feels airy and shows bubbles at the sides of the bowl. Go by how it looks rather than the clock.

8 to 9pm: shape it

Tip the dough onto the worktop, fold the edges into the middle, flip it over and drag it towards you a few times so the top tightens. Put it seam side up in a floured basket, cover it and put it in the fridge overnight.

Day two

Morning: bake it

Put the pot and its lid in the oven and heat it to 250°C for 45 minutes. Turn the cold dough out onto baking paper, cut a slash across the top with a sharp blade, and lower it into the pot. Bake with the lid on for 20 minutes, then take the lid off, turn the oven down to 230°C and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is a deep brown.

Let it cool on a rack for at least an hour before you cut it. The inside is still cooking as it cools.

If it comes out flat

It happens to almost everyone at first. Our post on why sourdough comes out flat goes through the usual causes. If you'd rather learn it in a day with someone watching your dough, there's a sourdough workshop in Mears Ashby.