5 Signs You’re Over Complicating Sourdough

There’s one thing I’ve learned over the past few years – sourdough really doesn’t have to be as complicated as the internet sometimes makes it seem. There are so many techniques, schedules, feeding ratios, fermentation charts and opinions out there that it’s easy to feel like you need to do everything perfectly just to bake a decent loaf. You don’t.

In fact, one of the biggest things I want you to understand about sourdough is that it should fit into your life, not the other way around. If sourdough has started to feel like another full-time job, here are five signs you might be making it harder than it needs to be.

1. You Think You Need to Be Home All Day to Bake Sourdough

If you’re waiting for a completely clear day before you make sourdough, you could be waiting a very long time. We’ve all got jobs to do, kids to raise, houses to take care of. There’s really never a free day anymore, right? The good new is, you do not need to hover over your dough all day. Most of the sourdough process is actually hands-off, and there are plenty of ways to manipulate the timing so it works around your schedule. It’s one of the reasons I wrote my book, Easy Sourdough On Any Schedule.

Some of the ways you can make sourdough fit your schedule:

• adjust the amount of starter you use to either speed up or slow down fermentation
• put your dough somewhere warmer to speed up fermentation (you can also keep your sourdough starter warm to make it rise more quickly too).
• use the fridge to pause or slow the process
• shape in the morning and use the fridge to press pause and bake later
• bulk ferment overnight and shape the next day (so you’re making sourdough while you sleep).

Your dough does not need constant supervision. The goal is to understand the process well enough that you can make it work around school runs, work, appointments, dinner and everything else happening in your day. Essentially you’re finding your sourdough rhythm.

2. You’re Doing Every Sourdough Technique You’ve Ever Seen Online

Autolyse. Fermentolyse. Lamination. Stretch and folds. Coil folds. Aliquot jars. Temperature checks. Windowpane tests. There’s nothing wrong with any of these techniques. They can all be useful and they all have their place in the sourdough ecosystem. But that doesn’t mean you need to use every single one of them in every loaf. More steps do not automatically equal better sourdough. Seriously! All of these extra techniques are adding extra work and making sourdough into a chore, rather than something that brings you joy.

You need to focus on getting the fundamentals right first! Before anything else, you need to make a sourdough starter. Without that, you’re never going to get a good loaf, let alone a perfect one!

Once you’ve got a strong sourdough starter, then focus on getting good dough strength and adequate bulk fermentation. Then move onto your shaping technique. Take it one loaf at a time! My simple sourdough recipe is the perfect place to start.

3. You’re Watching the Clock More Than the Dough

One of the easiest ways to make sourdough unnecessarily stressful is to treat recipe times like deadlines. We’ve all seen those detailed timing charts floating around. It really does not need to be this complicated! A recipe might say bulk fermentation takes six hours. Your dough might take four. Or eight. Neither necessarily means something has gone wrong. Fermentation is affected by so many variables, including:

• room temperature
• dough temperature
• starter strength
• how much starter you use
• flour choice
• hydration
• seasonal changes

This is why learning to read your dough is so much more useful than staring at the clock. It’s also the reason I never put a set time on bulk fermentation – because your kitchen is never going to be the same as mine! I often include a sample baking timeline in my recipes, but you’ll need to take into account your own environmental factors.

If your dough is beautifully aerated, risen and ready earlier than expected, you don’t need to wait for an arbitrary time on the clock. This is one of the biggest shifts you can make if you want sourdough to feel easier.

4. You Think Every Problem Means You Need to Start Again

One bad loaf does not mean your starter is ruined. And a sluggish starter does not necessarily mean you need to throw it away and begin again. You might just need my guide for strengthening your sourdough starter.

Sourdough has a lot of variables, which means there are also lots of small adjustments you can make before resorting to starting over. If your loaf bakes up gummy or flat, it’s a good indication that your sourdough is under-fermented.

If your starter has become overly acidic, you might need to change the starter feeding ratio you’re using, or even the frequency at which you’re feeding it. Troubleshooting one variable at a time is much more useful than assuming everything has failed. Your sourdough starter is a living colony of microorganisms that’s actually much more resilient than you might think!

The only reason you’d need to a new sourdough starter from scratch is if your sourdough starter becomes moldy or has pink or orange streaks.

5. Your Sourdough Starter Is Running Your Life

This one is a big clue. Are you feeding your starter because you think you should. Baking because it has peaked and you feel like you have to use it?

Feeling guilty because there’s discard sitting in the fridge? Planning your day around when your starter might be ready? Somewhere along the way, that jar of flour and water may have been promoted to management.

But your sourdough starter is not the boss of you! You can change the amount you feed it. You can change how much starter you keep. You can put it in the fridge. You can use different feeding ratios to manipulate when it peaks (check out my guide to understanding sourdough starter ratios).

You can even let it sit in the fridge for a while when life is busy and bring it back when you’re ready to bake again. Your starter should be a tool that helps you make sourdough, not another responsibility constantly demanding your attention.

Sourdough Should Fit Into Your Life

Great sourdough doesn’t come from following the most complicated process. It comes from understanding a few important fundamentals and learning how to manipulate them to suit your kitchen, your starter and your schedule. So if sourdough is starting to feel exhausting, simplify it.

Focus on your starter. Learn to recognise fermentation. Use the fridge. Watch the dough instead of the clock. And remember: Sourdough should fit into your life, not the other way around. Your sourdough starter is not the boss of you.

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