Same Day Sourdough Bread

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Many people ask me if they can bake a loaf of sourdough in one day, without compromising on great oven spring and sourdough flavor? The short answer is yes, you can make a same day sourdough bread recipe. It just takes a little forward planning before you start the whole process. With some forward planning and a mature sourdough starter you can definitely mix, ferment, proof and bake a sourdough loaf of bread all in one day. We are all about easy sourdough on any schedule after all!

Same day sourdough bread sliced inside a cast iron baker showing an open crumb and crispy crust.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!
Ingredients
Why This Same Day Sourdough Works!
How To Make Sourdough Bread in One Day
Keep Your Dough Warm
Short Cold Fermentation
Bulk Fermentation Tip
Baker’s Timeline for Making Sourdough Bread in One Day
How To Store and Freeze
Frequently Asked Questions
Same Day Sourdough Bread Recipe

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!

Real Sourdough, Made in One Day – This loaf is still naturally leavened with sourdough starter, no commercial yeast here! The key is using a fed, bubbly and active starter so your dough has everything it needs to rise beautifully in a shorter timeframe.

Perfect for Confident Beginners – This is a great recipe if you’re ready to make sourdough fit into your day, not your entire week. You’ll need a mature starter, but the process itself is simple, approachable and easy to follow.

Made for Busy Schedules – Same day sourdough is for those times when you want fresh bread without waiting days to bake it. It gives you a flexible, faster sourdough option while still keeping all the flavor and satisfaction of a naturally leavened loaf.

Same day sourdough bread sliced on parchment paper with butter and a bread knife beside it.

Ingredients

Sourdough Starter – I’ve used 150 grams of sourdough starter to speed up bulk fermentation and ensure this loaf can be properly fermented in just one day.
Water – I prefer using filtered water, but use whatever you would normally drink.
Bread Flour – This recipe works best with white bread flour rather than all purpose flour or whole wheat flour.
Salt

Why This Same Day Sourdough Works!

Amount of Sourdough Starter – This recipe uses a higher amount of starter than my simple sourdough bread recipe. Rather than 50g of starter, we are using 150g of starter to speed up bulk fermentation time. An increased amount of sourdough starter will decrease fermentation time and decrease the sour flavor of your loaf. You can even push this amount up to 200g if you want to. You’ll need to use this long fermented sourdough recipe if you like a strong, tangy flavored sourdough bread.

Temperature – rather than opting for room temperature, we are wanting to use a warmer temperature to boost fermentation in this recipe. Increased amount of starter and increased temperature will give you the best shot at same day sourdough baking.

Skip The Cold Ferment – in order to squeeze your bake into one day, this recipe skips cold fermentation in favor of a final proof on the counter. You can use the freezer to make scoring easier if you want to. You might enjoy this article on the differences between cold ferment and bulk ferment.

How To Make Sourdough Bread in One Day

Making sourdough bread in a same day bake process is fairly easy. It is basically the same process as you would undertake to make sourdough bread over a few days, except that you are adjusting the amount of starter and the temperature to better suit your needs, as well as altering the final proof.

Feed Your Sourdough Starter

Ideally, feed your sourdough starter in the late afternoon or evening (before bed is perfect). I like to feed my starter as follows for this recipe: 50g starter: 200g flour: 200g water (so 1:4:4).

This sourdough starter ratio gives me plenty of active starter for the recipe plus ensures that my starter is at it’s peak when I get up because it’s been given a really big feed. There’s no need to do the float test on your starter – you’ll be able to see that it’s risen the next morning and that’s all you need for a mature starter!

Fermentolyse

It’s best to start your day early so that you give yourself enough time for fermentation to occur. Weigh out your sourdough starter and water into a large mixing bowl and mix together briefly. Now add your flour and salt and mix whole lot together to form a dry dough. Cover your bowl and let it sit for around 30 minutes to an hour.

Now you’ll need to strengthen the dough by bringing the dough together into a ball. Pull the edges of the dough into the centre until it’s smoother and feels a little stronger than before. Let the dough rest again.

Shaggy sourdough dough in a glass mixing bowl during the early mixing stage.

Same day sourdough dough after mixing, resting in a glass bowl before stretching and folding.

Stretch and Fold

Over the next few hours you need to create some structure for your dough by “stretching and folding”. Aim to do around 4-6 sets of stretch and folds. Remember to keep the dough warm while you’re stretching and folding as this will help speed up the process and allow you to have a loaf baked later the same day.

Hand lifting stretchy same day sourdough dough during the strengthening stage before proofing.

Bulk Fermentation

Once you’ve finished your stretch and folds, cover the dough and let it ferment until doubled. You can’t bulk ferment sourdough quickly without increasing your temperature. Cold weather is not your friend when attempting a same day bake, because your room temperature will be too low to boost fermentation and get those natural yeasts working in a timely manner (unless you use 200 grams of starter or more)! So you’ll generally need to manipulate the temperature to speed up bulk fermentation.

Smooth same day sourdough dough resting in a glass bowl after stretch and folds.

Same day sourdough dough after resting in a glass bowl during bulk fermentation.

Kate’s SCHEDULE SAVER

Keep Your Dough Warm

Use your oven or microwave as a proofing box (you can read about how I do this inside The Pantry Mama kitchen).

Mix the dough using warm water to motivate your wild yeast and give fermentation a head start.

Use a proofing box where you can set the temperature. I like to set my Brod and Taylor Proofing Box to 28ºC (82.4ºF) when making this loaf.

Shaping the Dough

Once your dough has finished bulk fermentation, it’s time to shape it into either a boule or a batard. I don’t generally use flour to shape, but if I do, it’s always semolina flour, rather than rice flour.

Flipping same day sourdough bread dough on counter to begin shaping.

Same day sourdough bread dough on counter next to semolina flour and an oval banneton to begin shaping.

Use a silicone dough scraper to gently ease the dough out of the bowl. You want it to land upside down on your counter so that the smooth top of the dough is on the countertop and the sticky underside is facing up. This will make it easier to shape. Once the dough is shaped into a tight dough ball, place it into your banneton basket smooth side down, so your seam is on the top.

Stretching out same day sourdough bread dough on counter to begin shaping.

Folding same day sourdough bread dough over itself for shaping.

Same day sourdough dough being shaped on a work surface beside a banneton basket and semolina flour before final proofing.

Oval shaped sourdough dough resting beside a proofing basket dusted with semolina flour.

Same day sourdough dough shaped and resting beside an oval banneton and semolina flour.

Proofing

Now the dough is in its proofing basket cover it loosely with a plastic bag or damp flour sack towel and let it sit on the counter to proof. You’ll need to let it sit for around an hour or two. Just be careful not to let it get too puffy or you’ll lose your oven spring! If it does start to rise too much in the banneton, place it in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

Kate’s SCHEDULE SAVER

Short Cold Fermentation

If you do have a few hours until you need to bake your sourdough then place it in the fridge for a short cold ferment. This will make it easier to score. You may end up with a more rustic looking sourdough if it has not had any fridge time, but looks aren’t important for this quick artisan sourdough bread!

Preparing to Bake

Now it’s time to bake! Once you’re ready to bake your sourdough, you’ll need to preheat your oven to 230ºC/450ºF. While your oven is preheating, place your sourdough in the freezer. This prevents it from over fermenting and also makes it easier to score.

When your oven is at temperature, gently tip your sourdough out of the banneton and onto a piece of parchment paper. If it hasn’t been in the freezer, just handle it very gently as it may be very soft.

Gently score your bread with a lame, clean razor blade or knife and carefully transfer it to your hot Dutch oven using the parchment paper as handles and then into the hot oven.

BAKE TIME:

30 Minutes with the lid on at 230ºC/450ºF plus

10-15 Minutes with the lid off at 210ºC/410ºF

You’ll find full step-by-step instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Proofed same day sourdough dough scored and ready to bake in a cast iron baker.

Freshly baked same day sourdough bread in a cast iron baker with a deeply golden crust.

Kate’s Pro Tip

Bulk Fermentation Tip

Judging bulk fermentation can be tricky, even for the most seasoned of sourdough bakers, but you can use this little trick to help you.

Take a little piece of dough and form it into a ball. Pop it in to a small shot glass and mark where the dough is on the side with a sharpie. Once the dough inside the glass doubles, your bulk fermentation should be finished and you can move onto shaping it and placing into your banneton basket or other shaping container. This technique is called an “aliquot jar“.

This is a better technique than using the poke test to judge whether bulk fermentation has finished, because the poke test is better suited to dough that has been shaped and proofed.

Baker’s Timeline for Making Sourdough Bread in One Day

This is a sample baking schedule for you to use to make your own same day sourdough bread.

Night Before – before you go to bed, feed your sourdough starter (check out these sourdough starter ratios if you need help).

7:30 am – Mix ingredients (use a higher percentage as per recipe to ensure shorter fermentation).

8:30 am – Commence stretching and folding the dough to strengthen gluten.

12:30 pm – Dough has doubled and is now ready to be shaped.

1:00 pm – Place your shaped dough into a banneton. You can now place it in the fridge for a short cold ferment. Alternatively, for a faster loaf, you can do a counter proof skipping the cold fermentation.

3:30 pm – Preheat your oven, bake your sourdough bread and allow to cool for a few hours (ideally 4 to 6) but if you need it sooner there are no hard and fast rules … you can eat it with dinner!

If you are looking for a same say sourdough bread with yeast added, you will enjoy this slow cooker sourdough discard loaf, this sourdough pane di casa or perhaps this sourdough sandwich discard loaf is more your style.

How To Store and Freeze

This loaf is absolute perfection to eat fresh, at least within 24 hours of baking. I like to store the leftovers from this loaf under a glass cloche for up to 3 days. It’s best to eat toasted if you’re eating it past 24 hours. This loaf freezes really well when following these instructions for freezing sourdough bread.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to do cold fermentation when making sourdough bread?

Short answer is no you don’t have to do cold fermentation. The yeast go to sleep during cold fermentation so it’s only the bacteria that are still working away in the fridge. This is why cold fermentation gives you that deep, complex sourness that a lot of people love.

Can you use sourdough starter the same day you feed it?

Yes you can use sourdough starter the same day as you feed it. You just need to make sure you get the ratio right so that it doubles in a reasonable time frame. You must wait for your sourdough starter to double before you use it if you want to use it at the best time.

How long does sourdough bread need to ferment?

This is an open ended question since it really depends on the amount of starter you use and the age of your starter, the temperature of your dough and your kitchen. The other ingredients in your dough will also make a difference to fermentation time.

Does same day sourdough bread still taste good?

Yes sourdough bread made with a single day process will still taste good! It still contains wild yeast and lacto acid bacteria. It won’t however have that strong sourdough depth of flavor because it has not had a long cold ferment. It won’t have the complexity of sourness that you might otherwise expect from this type of bread.

Can I use sourdough discard to make same day sourdough bread?

Yes you can, but you will need to add some commercial yeast because your sourdough discard will more than likely exceed the desired one day time frame.

Same day sourdough bread sliced on a wooden board with text overlay showing an easy same day sourdough recipe.

Freshly baked same day sourdough bread sliced in a cast iron bread pan.

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