Sourdough Country Bread (The Master Recipe)

Sourdough country bread combines a substantial crust, a moist crumb, and the flavor of a fermented wheat dough. Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread and Ken Forkish’s Flour Water Salt Yeast offer two influential ways to make it at home. Their formulas and schedules differ; following one method consistently is more useful than mixing its timings with another recipe’s rise targets.

Below is a comparison followed by this site’s two-loaf adaptation. The adaptation preserves its own ingredient proportions and uses a warm bulk followed by an overnight shaped proof. It is not an exact recipe from either book, and it has not been independently kitchen-tested for this article.

If you’re new to sourdough, start with our beginner sourdough loaf. This method assumes an established, active starter and familiarity with bulk fermentation and shaping a boule.

Robertson and Forkish: Compare the Actual Formulas

The amounts below are ingredients added at the final mix. Flour and water already in the levain are additional contributions, included in the total-formula percentages.

Tartine’s familiar “75% hydration” describes 750 g water against the 1,000 g flour added at mixing. Including 100 g each of flour and water from its levain gives 850 / 1,100 = 77.3%. Forkish’s 78% already includes the levain. These two percentages use different accounting conventions unless you normalize them.

What changes in the methods?

Tartine’s published country bread recipe mixes the levain with 700 g water, adds the flours, rests 25–40 minutes, then incorporates salt and the remaining 50 g water. Because levain is present, that first rest is often called a fermentolyse; a strict autolyse contains only flour and water.

Its warm bulk uses a 75–80°F environment and half-hourly turns, checking for a billowy dough and roughly 20–30% growth after about 3–4 hours. Its baking method preheats the pot to 500°F, then reduces the oven to 450°F when the loaf goes in, with about 20 minutes covered and 20 uncovered.

Forkish’s Overnight Country Brown, in Flour Water Salt Yeast, uses an 80%-hydration levain, a flour-and-water rest, and a target mixed-dough temperature of 77–78°F. Its 12–15-hour overnight bulk ends near tripling, with allowance for seasonal variation. It uses three or four folds before bed and about four hours of final proof at 70°F. The basket holds the loaf seam-side down, so it can bake seam-side up without scoring. The oven is 475°F: about 30 minutes covered, then 20–25 uncovered, checking earlier if needed.

Those are recipe-specific targets. Forkish’s overnight bulk is not an instruction to leave this article’s warmer, wetter adaptation on the counter all night. Nor does a longer, cooler schedule necessarily make a sharper loaf: Forkish describes his bread as mildly tangy. Starter ecology, flour, feeding, hydration, temperature, and time all affect acidity.

The Two-Loaf Formula

Including the levain: total flour is 1,100 g, total water is 875 g, hydration is 79.5%, salt is 1.82%, and prefermented flour is 9.1%. The dough weighs 1,995 g, making two pieces of about 998 g before baking losses. If the levain is entirely white flour, the complete flour blend is 90.9% white and 9.1% whole wheat; a whole-grain levain changes that blend.

This is a fairly wet dough. Its 775 g mixing water makes it slightly wetter than the Tartine formula, not an arithmetic midpoint between the two authors’ formulas. Use flour that can support the dough and build strength without tearing it. A bread flour and a strong all-purpose flour can both work, but absorption and handling vary by product. For example, King Arthur lists 12.7% protein for its bread flour and 11.7% for its all-purpose; these are brand specifications, not universal category boundaries.

1. Prepare the Levain

Use 200 g of ripe, active levain at 100% hydration. A small build is 20 g mature 100%-hydration starter + 100 g flour + 100 g water, yielding 220 g. Weigh 200 g into the dough and keep or use the remainder separately. Maintain some starter for future baking.

Feed according to the schedule your starter actually follows. An overnight build may suit a cool kitchen or a larger feed ratio; the same build can peak much earlier in a warm room. If you prepare it the evening before mixing, check its condition in the morning instead of assuming a fixed 12-hour window.

Look for substantial expansion, bubbles throughout, and a pattern of reliable activity after feeding. Use it around ripeness, before extensive collapse, for this method. A ripe levain already contains acids; “young” does not mean acid-free. The float test can give false positives, so do not use buoyancy as the only readiness test.

2. Mix and Rest

Combine the 900 g bread flour and 100 g whole wheat flour with 725 g of the water. Mix until no dry pockets remain, cover, and rest about 30 minutes.

Add the 200 g levain, 20 g salt, and remaining 50 g water. Squeeze and fold until evenly incorporated. The dough may briefly loosen or separate before coming together. The two water additions total 775 g; do not add an unmeasured extra splash on top of that.

Water temperature is a tool for managing dough temperature, not a fixed 80°F requirement. Flour, starter, room temperature, and mixing all contribute. Measure the dough after mixing and record it with your timings.

3. Bulk Ferment and Build Strength

A warm environment around 75–80°F is a useful starting point. Begin checking progress around 3.5 hours after the levain is mixed in; a cool dough or less vigorous starter may need longer. A warm dough can finish sooner. There is no sudden failure threshold at 82°F.

Use stretch-and-folds at roughly half-hour intervals while the dough needs strength. Four sets in the early part of bulk are a reasonable starting plan for this adaptation, not a rule that every flour needs exactly four. Stretch only as far as the dough allows, and become gentler as it aerates.

Look for a dough that has gained volume, holds together better, and has a lighter, aerated feel with bubbles around the container. Tartine’s 20–30% rise is a useful reference for a warm dough heading into a substantial final proof. It is not a universal sourdough endpoint. Judge the combined signs and remember that a large warm dough continues fermenting while it cools in the refrigerator.

Avoid waiting for Forkish’s near-tripling target in this method. That target belongs to a different formula and fermentation schedule.

4. Divide and Shape

Turn the dough out carefully and divide into two approximately 998 g pieces. Preshape into rounds, cover, and rest about 20–30 minutes, or until relaxed enough to shape without tearing.

Create surface tension with a light hand. Use enough flour to prevent destructive sticking, while keeping excessive bench flour out of the interior. An almost unfloured patch can provide useful traction, but sticking so badly that the dough tears is not the goal.

Shape a boule or a batard, matching the basket and baking vessel. For a softer everyday pan loaf, use our sourdough sandwich bread.

Put each loaf seam-side up in a banneton dusted with rice flour or a rice-and-wheat-flour blend. Cover so the surface does not dry out.

5. Refrigerate and Assess the Final Proof

Refrigerate at 40°F (4°C) or below, using a thermometer to check the appliance. An overnight final proof, provisionally around 12–18 hours, is a planning range for this adaptation. It is not a promise that every loaf will be ready after that duration. Starter activity, bulk development, dough size, and cooling speed affect the result.

Cold slows both yeast activity and bacterial metabolism. It does not stop fermentation instantly, and it does not selectively switch on an “acetic acid bacteria” stage. Do not assume that 36–48 hours will automatically improve the loaf or that degradation begins only after hour 48.

Check the loaf before heating the oven. A properly proofed loaf should feel aerated and expanded rather than tight and dense. The poke test provides one clue, but cold temperature, flour, and dough strength affect the response.

You can bake a sufficiently proofed loaf straight from the refrigerator. If it still needs proofing, leave it covered at room temperature and reassess. King Arthur’s refrigeration guidance makes the same distinction: readiness determines whether a warm-up is useful. Chilling often makes scoring easier; it does not replace proofing.

6. Bake and Cool

Preheat the oven and an appropriate Dutch oven to 475°F (246°C). Allow about 45 minutes as a starting estimate for a heavy pot, but follow its manufacturer’s preheating and temperature limits, including the lid and knob. A ceramic cloche may have different instructions.

Turn out one loaf seam-side down. Score with a lame to give it an expansion path, then load it carefully. Use dry oven mitts, a stable heatproof surface, and a transfer method compatible with the pot. Keep hands and face away from escaping steam when removing the lid.

Bake covered for about 25 minutes, then uncovered for about 20 minutes, checking color and extending the bake if needed. These are starting times for this adaptation, not guaranteed doneness. Aim for a well-colored crust without burning; ovens and pots can brown the base faster than the interior finishes.

If you have one pot, keep the second loaf covered in the refrigerator and reheat the pot before baking it. The 45-minute bake estimate is per loaf; sequential baking takes longer overall.

Cool on a wire rack until the interior has cooled and the crumb slices cleanly. Allow a few hours in your plan for loaves this size. Exact cooling time depends on the loaf and room; a fixed two-hour deadline is not a reliable test of readiness.

A Planning Timeline

This example starts with an already ripe levain and assumes the dough follows the estimated warm-bulk window. Move the next step when the dough needs more or less time.

Reading the Crumb

The crumb is evidence, not a complete diagnosis. Compare it with your dough temperature, rise, shaping, and bake notes. In particular, large tunnels over a dense base can reflect underfermentation, as illustrated in Tom Cucuzza’s comparative sourdough bakes.

See Overproofed vs Underproofed and Why Is My Bread Dense? for more troubleshooting.

Adjust One Variable at a Time

Hydration: this formula already sits near 80% on a total-flour basis. More water does not guarantee more open crumb. King Arthur’s open-crumb guide emphasizes flour, fermentation, strength, and handling together. Learn what the dough can support before increasing hydration.

Flour blends: replacing some white flour with whole wheat, rye, or spelt changes both flavor and handling. There is no single “add 2–3% water per 10% alternative flour” rule that fits them all. Try a small substitution and adjust by the particular flour and dough feel.

Levain consistency: a 60%-hydration levain changes the dough’s flour and water balance. Do the arithmetic before substituting it gram-for-gram. Culture and feeding conditions also affect flavor; stiff does not automatically mean sharply acidic, nor liquid universally mild. Research on firm and liquid sourdough propagation found changes in both microbial communities and fermentation products.

Inclusions: add nuts, olives, fruit, or seeds using a recipe designed for their quantity and moisture. They can be incorporated during mixing after initial development or during a suitable fold; the last fold is not the only possible moment. Wet olives and soaked fruit change dough handling, while sharp or heavy pieces call for care.

Other uses: your starter can also make sourdough bagels. Use suitable mature discard in pizza dough when you have leftovers; a levain build need not create a large amount of waste.

Use Baker’s Bench to scale the formula, counting the levain flour and water consistently. Treat Starter Clock as a scheduling aid and check the actual culture.

Emile Henry Bread Cloche is a ceramic alternative for covered bread baking; follow the specific model’s instructions.