🍞 Sourdough Bread Calculator
Calculate exact flour, water, starter, and salt using baker's percentages
| Hydration | Dough Feel | Crumb Structure | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60–65% | Stiff, easy to handle | Tight, dense | Beginners, sandwich loaves |
| 68–72% | Smooth, workable | Semi-open | Everyday sourdough |
| 75–80% | Slightly sticky | Open, airy | Artisan country loaves |
| 82–87% | Very sticky | Very open, irregular | Baguettes, experienced bakers |
| 88%+ | Slack, wet | Lacy, large holes | Ciabatta, advanced bakers |
| Ingredient | Baker's % | Amount (g) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flour | 100% | 500 g | Always the base |
| Water (70%) | 70% | 350 g | Adjust to hydration |
| Starter | 20% | 100 g | Active & bubbly |
| Salt | 2% | 10 g | Never skip |
| Total Dough | 192% | 960 g | ≈800g baked loaf |
Sourdough bread is made of dough that rises without help of outside agents. Rather than commercial yeast or chemical additives like baking powder or baking soda, it depends on natural starter for rise. The typical sourness of that bread results from the activity of bacteria and wild yeast in the dough.
Those wild tiny organisms come from the environment what becomes truly wonderful if one thinks about the cause.
What Is Sourdough Bread
Natural starter is a living culture from flour and water, that ferments. There are various kinds of such starters. One can prepare them, buy or receive from other bakers.
During the making of dough, one adds part of the starter in it. Later, one fills the container with fresh flour and water, to replace the used amount.
Regular bread relies on commercial yeast, namely one species called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This is the same as the yeast for brewing, only in a slightly different state. Store breads usually carry sweetener, for instance honey, corn syrup or sugar.
Sourdough bread, on the other hand, uses wild yeast and bacteria, what requires longer and slow rise to develop its rich flavour.
Ideal sourdough bread loaves have airy and light insides, with crisp brown crust outside. The texture is rough and chewy. The bubbles in the crust form thanks too high humidity and heat during the bake.
Some recipes give bread with soft, common centre. Others favour crusty surface with fluffy interior.
Some recipes are so simple, that they do not require any kneading. For instance, one only mixes the ingredients, leaves to rest, lays the wet dough in a baking form, waits more and bakes. Some methods use little amount of starter, what means long fermentation, so that the dough can rise the whole day or even overnight.
Sourdough bread one can prepare fully vegan, although some bakers include ingredients from animal origin. Various flours work well. Whole grains like whole wheat, rye or others work, and one can add raisins, olives, spices or dark chocolate for variety.
Multigrain mix offers fresh flavour range.
That kind of bread beats store bought breads, because it raises the blood sugar less. It holds also fewer harmful things called phytates, that block the taking in of nutrients. In a correctly prepared version, natural enzymes strongly reduce the gluten, what helps folks with gluten sensitivity.
But it does stay gluten rich, so it does not work for celiac illness. At the end of everything, it is only bread, and too much ofit can cause weight gain.
Sourdough bread goes with many dishes. It works well for avocado toast. Same does onion soup or a plate with cheeses, pickles, fruits and cured meats.
One other nice idea is to dip it in olive oil, lightly toast and rub with raw garlic.