If you’re new to sourdough, this is the best place to start. I’ve put together this collection of beginner sourdough resources to help you make your first sourdough starter, understand how it works, and learn how to bake beautiful bread without letting sourdough take over your life. I’ve spent years teaching home bakers how to make sourdough work in real kitchens, around family life, work, school runs and everything else that fills a day. My approach is simple: understand the fundamentals well enough that sourdough can fit around your schedule, not the other way around.
Because here’s the thing: sourdough does not need to be complicated, rigid or something you have to plan your entire day around. From the very beginning, I want you to learn how to make sourdough fit into your real life: your schedule, your kitchen, your family, your workday and everything else you have going on. Here you’ll find simple guides to help you create a bubbly, active starter, feed it with confidence, understand when it’s ready to use, and start baking sourdough in a way that feels calm, flexible and doable.
Making A Sourdough Starter
Everything starts with a healthy sourdough starter. Whether you’re making one from scratch, reviving one or figuring out what someone has just handed you, you’ll find your first step here.
Maintain Your Sourdough Starter
Once you have a starter, you need to learn how to keep it healthy without letting it take over your life. It’s also really important to understand what’s happening in your starter jar too!
When Is Your Sourdough Starter Ready?
A bubbly starter isn’t automatically a bread-ready starter. Learn how to recognise when yours is strong, predictable and ready to raise a loaf.
Bake Your First Sourdough Loaf
When your sourdough starter is ready to bake with, my simple sourdough recipe is the best place to start!
How To Bake Simple Sourdough Bread: A Beginner’s Guide
A simple step by step recipe for baking delicious sourdough bread in a manner that fits your busy lifestyle. Make this recipe & timeline suit you.
Learn To Read Your Dough
Once you’ve baked a loaf or two, stop focusing only on times and start learning what your dough is actually telling you.
Confused by a Sourdough Term?
Levain? Hydration? Bulk fermentation? Banneton? Sourdough has a language all of its own, but you don’t need to memorize every term before you start baking. Keep my complete sourdough glossary handy and look things up as you go.
The Complete Sourdough Glossary: Sourdough Terms Explained Simply
Sourdough can sometimes feel like it has a language all of its own … bulk fermentation, levain, hydration, autolyse, bannetons, ears and even hooch! But you don’t need to understand every sourdough term before you can bake good bread.
Something Went Wrong?
Troubleshooting Sourdough Bread Problems
Sourdough troubleshooting – a guide to understanding what went wrong with your sourdough bread when it comes out of the oven.
