The definition of “Renegade” is “a person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles.” Regarding sourdough baking, I see myself as a renegade who challenges a set of principles. I challenge the overly complex process of baking sourdough bread as it is presented by an army of experts, online and in writing. Let me be clear: they are not wrong, and I am grateful for the valuable information they provided and delivered the foundation for this renegade guide.

The problem is that these experts can be the source of frustration for beginners when the loaf does not resemble the result these experts presented. They encourage you to accept less-than-mediocre outcomes, conduct an autopsy of the loaf and the sourdough starter, and keep baking until you get it right. This process requires time and patience, qualities that not everyone possesses.

Yes, baking sourdough requires considerable work and time, and there are no shortcuts to reduce the effort involved. Consequently, when you are serious about it, you will eventually investigate the science behind the baking process. However, beginners will be much more motivated when they create outstanding results from the beginning. Baking should be fun.

I have identified two key areas that can overwhelm a beginner and complicate any attempts: 1. Creating and maintaining a sourdough starter, and 2. achieving oven spring.

In future posts, I will explain these issues in detail, but here’s a quick reference:

Creating and maintaining a sourdough starter is a complex and time-consuming process. Failure is inevitable when the starter does not bubble, is fed at the wrong time, is fed too much or too little, smells terrible, is moldy, has been refrigerated, rises too much, gets too hot, or has other problems.

A starter should be fed daily, or even several times a day, which I find highly ineffective, time-consuming, and wasteful unless you use the remnants to bake crackers or pancakes. In contrast, our ancestors would take the leftover dough from one day and incorporate it into the new batch. That’s how I do it, and the results are excellent.

Even worse is the misleading obsession with “oven spring." The dough rises during the first ten to fifteen minutes of baking, creating large holes in the crumb. The truth is that the size of the holes in the crumb does not affect the taste. A good oven spring indicates proper fermentation, but even an under-fermented or over-fermented loaf is still delicious. Creating a “satisfactory” spring involves multiple steps, starting with feeding the sourdough starter, stretching and folding the dough, scoring (not too deep, not too shallow, but at the right angle), and baking (specifically the steaming). One missed step will mess up the result (not the taste).

My Baking Process

After stepping on too many toes, it’s time to back up my claims.

The above image shows roughly 120g of my “starter levain” in the fridge. (I am not using the term “sourdough starter” since the principle differs slightly from the general perception.) I bake once or twice weekly, and the levain works surprisingly well.

My baking process isn't revolutionary or new; all my methods are well-established. I follow the recipe with standard proportions (90% bread flour, 10% whole wheat, 75% hydration, 20% starter, 2% salt). That translates into:

450g King Arthur Bread Flour
50g King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
375g Water
100g Starter Levain
10g Salt

And here is my timetable:

• 9:00 am
  Mix bread flour and whole wheat.
  Mix the starter levain with 50g of the flour mix and 50g of water.
  Let sit for three hours.

• 12:00 pm
  Use 305g of water and add the starter levain mix and the remaining flour.

  Mix until all water is absorbed.

  Let sit for 30 minutes.

• 12:30 pm

  Mix salt with 20g of water and add to the dough.

  Knead the dough for three to four minutes.

  Let sit for 30 minutes.

• 1:00 pm

  Stretch and fold the dough four times every 30 minutes.

  Let sit for one hour.

• 4:00 pm

  Remove 100g of the dough (starter levain) and keep it in a jar.

  Shape the remaining dough and put it into a proofing basket.

  Let sit for four hours.

• 8:00 pm

  Put the dough into the fridge overnight for about 12 hours.

  Bake at 8:00 am the next day.

On a side note, I maintain a dough temperature of 72°F/22°C, which determines the bulk fermentation and proofing times. I use a standard Dutch oven to bake (20 minutes with steam, 20 minutes with open cover). The only significant investment I made is for the Brod & Taylor Folding Proofer after I learned how vital temperature control is. It was a game-changer for me.

The result is shown at the top of this page. I am still working on optimizations to make the crust thicker and darker (a personal reference). Still, the crust is crunchy, the taste is excellent, not too tangy, and the loaf is great with some prosciutto or Italian cold cuts.

I will follow up with more posts and insights on the sourdough baking process and address the topic of creating your first starter levain.

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Let’s get this out of the way: I bake sourdough bread without feeding a starter. If that sounds impossible, think again. I’m a German engineer—trained in the art of precision—and I grew up eating bread every day, for both breakfast and supper.

After living in the United States for over thirty years, I also embraced the KISS principle: Keep it simple, stupid. And when you combine precision with simplicity, it becomes clear—daily sourdough feeding is inefficient, time-consuming, and frankly, wasteful.

Sure, you can use sourdough discard to make pancakes every day—or toss it in the compost or trash. And if you skip a feeding, you’ll need to revive the starter before baking. Some sources even suggest feeding it for six to fourteen days. My God, what a waste! All this fuss ties back to an almost obsessive pursuit of the perfect oven spring—a topic I’ll tackle in a future post.

That said, I still enjoy baking sourdough bread. So I began digging into how our ancestors did it—without maintaining a dedicated starter. What I found is that they simply saved a piece of dough from one bake and incorporated it into the next. In fact, many German bakers still do this today. But even they “feed” these leftovers after baking to build up enough levain for the next batch.

I suspect this practice eventually morphed into the daily feeding ritual. But for home bakers—who don’t bake daily—this leads to feeding without baking, which feels unnecessary and inefficient. I admire those who put in that level of care and passion, but it’s not for me.

Instead, I keep things simple. After bulk fermentation, I set aside 120 grams of dough—about 20% of the total flour weight, for those following baker’s math. I refrigerate it and bake roughly twice a week. At first, I worried it might be too weak, but I’ve found that this leftover dough performs just as well as a traditional wet starter.

My method differs in two key ways: it includes salt and has a much lower hydration level, both of which help preserve the levain. And I don’t feed it before baking. The results? A crisp crust, airy crumb, and great flavor.

I’m still refining the bulk fermentation stage—arguably the most critical part of sourdough baking. It’s a process that’s been documented in great detail by many experts… just rarely in a way that’s actually helpful to beginners.

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Everything you need to know about making a perfect loaf is here, from folding and shaping techniques to flour, yeast, and temperature information. You'll also find essential tips, such as how to work with temperamental dough and best practices for storing different breads. A gorgeous four-color photo accompanies each recipe, and the instructional information includes step-by-step photography and QR codes that direct you to how-to videos. More Information…

Let me say it upfront: The headline is meant to be ironic. Let me also caution you that this post does not offer a foolproof, easy-to-follow recipe, even though I have a recommendation for novices on the topic. However, listening to the baking artists (which I am not) creates many obstacles to overcome, including their well-intentioned but misleading tips and tricks that complicate matters and kill the fun of baking bread. I intend to help by sharing my experience of simplifying the process.

About a year ago, I rediscovered my passion for bread baking. I had moved just a few miles north from Massachusetts to Vermont, just far enough to cut me off from my valuable bakery products. I have been known for driving 30+ miles for a good loaf of sourdough bread, but now it was time to take matters into my own hands.

After several months of intense research and multiple tries with varying success, I am more than satisfied with the results. However, the road to success was rockier than expected, and I only got there by returning to the basics while wasting too much time trying to be perfect.

The Problem and the Solution

The ingredients for bread baking are simple and familiar: flour, water, salt, and yeast. In the case of sourdough bread, you replace the yeast with a sourdough starter (some recipes call for both). These ingredients are readily available in your local supermarket. But what about the sourdough starter? No problem! You can make your own! Creating it takes only weeks, if not months, and the process is not straightforward.

On a side note: Multiple videos on YouTube or other online sources promise the “easiest no-knead sourdough recipe,” and they all refer to “See my other video on how to make a sourdough starter,” which defies the “easy” aspect.

As I wrote, after some time of trying, I returned to the basics because most of the problems I encountered involved an underdeveloped sourdough starter.

If you are passionate about baking sourdough bread and need a good head start, I recommend the King Arthur Classic Fresh Sourdough Starter (I am not affiliated with King Arthur and am not compensated for recommending them). Activating the sourdough starter still takes a few days, but the method described is foolproof. The starter also includes a little pamphlet with instructions and, after all, recipes. I followed all of them, and they worked like a charm.

Finally, this gave me a good head start and motivated me to explore more recipes and improve my baking techniques.

The Challenge of Baking Sourdough Bread

I want to start with an issue I wasted too much time on. Most experts are obsessed with the “oven spring,” which distinguishes a good loaf of bread from a great one. Bread rises rapidly during the first 10-15 minutes of baking. Bakers call this rise “oven spring,” and they believe perfecting it is mandatory. That includes, among other things, the correct scoring of the bread: not too deep, not too shallow, and at the right angle.

Consequently, you must inspect your baked sourdough loaf to determine what went wrong. The loaf is under-fermented, over-fermented, underbaked, overbaked, slightly over-fermented, slightly under-fermented, baked too hot, baked not hot enough. There was a lack of steam. The dough lacks the necessary strength. Which one applies to my loaf, you may ask? Well, all of them.

The sourdough bread-baking process is indeed influenced by various factors, such as the environment (humidity, temperature), the type of flour you use, the protein percentage, the sourdough starter percentage, the hydration level, the quality of your water, the baking equipment and tools, and more. Understanding these factors and how they interact is vital to mastering the art of sourdough bread baking. That also includes knowledge of the interaction between acid and bacteria… Okay, let’s stop right here.

The goal is not to be an artist but to bake some bread (as our ancestors did, without the scientific background). Let me repeat. I went back to the basics. The recipes worked. The results may not always be as perfect as the experts demand, but they look and taste great.

The point is to have fun baking and enjoy the result. Don’t overthink it. Once you have a basic grasp on how things work, do more research.