uk sourdough
Everything you need to know about this topic — from the basics to the deep end.
Best Flour for Sourdough Bread in the UK — A Home Baker's Guide
For UK home bakers, the best flour for sourdough is a strong white bread flour with at least 12% protein — Marriage's Finest, Shipton Mill Canadian, Allinson's Strong White, or Doves Farm Strong White all qualify....
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Sourdough Proofing: How to Know Your Dough Is Ready (the Poke Test)
The poke test is the single most reliable way to know if your sourdough is ready to bake: press a damp finger 1 cm into the shaped loaf and watch how the dimple recovers. Springs back...
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Why Is My Sourdough Flat, Dense or Gummy? The Universal Troubleshooter
A flat, dense or gummy sourdough almost always traces back to one of three things: an under-developed dough, a wrong fermentation window, or an underdone bake. This troubleshooter walks through every common failure mode by symptom...
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How to Score Sourdough Bread — Patterns, Technique, Common Mistakes
Scoring sourdough is the single cut that decides whether your loaf opens up beautifully or splits at random. Hold the lame at a 30° angle, slice fast and shallow (about 5 mm deep), and finish in...
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Bulk Fermentation and Cold Retard — A UK Timing Guide
Bulk fermentation is the long first rise after mixing — typically 4–6 hours at 24°C, or 8–12 hours at the cooler UK ambient temperatures of 16–20°C. Most first-time bakers either rush it or run it long,...
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Sourdough Hydration Explained (75% / 78% / 85% — What It Means for Your Loaf)
Sourdough hydration is just the ratio of water to flour in your dough, written as a percentage. A loaf at 75% hydration has 750 g of water for every 1,000 g of flour — that's it,...
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Complete UK Beginner's Guide to Baking Your First Sourdough Loaf
Your first sourdough loaf takes about 36 hours from a mature starter to a baked loaf — but only 2 of those hours are active work. This guide walks UK home bakers through every step: feeding...
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Sourdough Discard Pizza Dough: Friday Night Pizza in 90 Minutes
Sourdough discard pizza dough turns Friday-night dinner into a 90-minute slow event the whole house wants to be part of. 250 g strong white bread flour, 200 g discard, 100 g water, 7 g salt, 1...
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Easy Sourdough Discard Bread — No-Knead Dutch Oven Recipe (UK Method)
This no-knead sourdough discard bread bridges the gap between a discard recipe and a real sourdough loaf. It's yeasted — just 7 g of instant yeast — but flavoured by 100 g of old discard from...
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Sourdough Discard Pancakes (Saturday Breakfast Recipe)
These sourdough discard pancakes use 200 g of any-age discard, plain flour, milk, egg, and a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix the night before for fluffier results, or whisk together in 5 minutes and have them...
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Sourdough Discard Crackers (UK Recipe)
Sourdough discard crackers are the easiest way to use up leftover starter. You whisk 200 g discard with 30 g olive oil and a pinch of fine salt, spread it thin on greaseproof paper, sprinkle with...
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How Long Does Sourdough Discard Last in the Fridge?
Sourdough discard lasts up to 2 weeks in the fridge in a sealed jar at 3–5°C. It's still safe to use for longer — up to a month, sometimes more — but the flavour shifts from...
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What Can I Do With Sourdough Discard? A Beginner's Guide
Sourdough discard is the portion of starter you'd normally throw away before feeding. It's still living dough — just hungry — and it adds tang, structure, and a small leavening boost to recipes from pancakes to...
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25 Sourdough Discard Recipes for UK Bakers
A jar of sourdough discard isn't waste — it's the start of pancakes, crackers, focaccia, scones, banana bread, and pizza. We've collected 25 of our favourite UK home-baker recipes for sourdough discard, organised by how old...
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From Starter to First Loaf — What Happens Next
Your sourdough starter is mature. Here's the week between bake-ready starter and baker-ready you — the UK plan, equipment, and bake-day schedule.
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How to Dehydrate and Store a Sourdough Starter Long-Term
A dehydrated sourdough starter keeps for years — making it the cheapest insurance policy a home baker can have. You spread a thin layer of mature, ripe starter on parchment, let it dry at room temperature...
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How to Revive a Dormant Sourdough Starter
A dormant sourdough starter is almost never dead — it's just hungry. Even after months in the fridge, weeks forgotten on a counter, or years tucked into a jar of dried flakes, you can usually revive...
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Rye vs White vs Wholegrain Sourdough Starter — Which Should You Choose?
A rye sourdough starter ferments fastest and gives the deepest flavour. A wholegrain starter sits in the middle — quick to lively, with a balanced, nutty character. A white-flour starter is the gentlest, lightest crumb but...
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How Long Until a Sourdough Starter Is Ready to Bake With?
A sourdough starter is usually ready to bake with after 7–10 days, but at UK ambient temperatures of 16–20°C it can take 14 days or longer. The reliable readiness signal isn't time — it's the float...
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The 1/3/3 Rule for Sourdough Starter — Explained (with the maths)
The 1/3/3 rule is a sourdough starter feeding ratio: 1 part starter, 3 parts flour, 3 parts water by weight. A 20 g spoonful of mature starter is fed 60 g flour and 60 g water,...
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What Is a Sourdough Starter? A Plain-English Guide
A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeast and lactobacillus bacteria, kept alive in a jar with nothing more than flour and water. It is the engine that makes a sourdough loaf rise, the...
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Why Isn't My Sourdough Starter Bubbling? 10 Reasons + How to Fix Each
A sourdough starter that's not bubbling almost always traces back to one of three things: temperature, feed schedule, or flour. The good news — you almost certainly haven't killed it. Starters are tougher than the panic...
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How to Feed a Sourdough Starter
Feed a sourdough starter once a day at room temperature, or once a week in the fridge. Each feed is equal weights of flour, water and existing starter — the classic 1:1:1 ratio that works in...
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Sourdough Starter Recipe — A Simple UK Method
If you can stir flour into water, you can make a sourdough starter. This is the recipe we use at the Hub. A sourdough starter recipe needs only two ingredients — flour and water — fed...
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How to Make a Sourdough Starter From Scratch (UK Method)
To make a sourdough starter from scratch, mix 50 g wholemeal flour with 50 ml lukewarm water in a clean jar, leave it loosely covered at room temperature (ideally 20–22°C), and feed it the same way...
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Sourdough Starter: The Complete UK Guide
A sourdough starter is a living mix of flour and water that captures wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria from your kitchen — usually ready to bake with in 7 to 14 days, and once made...
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