A quick explanation of commonly used terms in the sourdough baking world that will simplify it and give you a foundation of knowledge to build on as a sourdough beginner.
When I first started my sourdough journey, I was SO overwhelmed at all of the different words that were used in a single bread recipe. I mean, is there an option other than overwhelm when you see 10 terms you’ve never heard before in the first two minutes of reading over a recipe?
I’m here to tell you: sourdough baking does not have to be difficult! Once you have a general idea of the terms, you’ll be able to jump in with both feet and start baking like an old pro.
Speaking of the pros, let me be the first to tell you that I am not at all a pro! I am far from it. I would honestly still consider myself a beginner, and I’m okay with that. It’s my personal opinion that everyone needs fresh sourdough bread in their home and in their family’s bellies!
There are so many incredible benefits to baking your own sourdough bread at home. It is nutritionally dense, great for gut health, and easier on the tummy than processed breads. It also doesn’t contain any of the added fillers, chemicals, and junk that store bought processed bread does. You can also completely control the entire process and know the exact quality of the ingredients that are going into that delicious loaf of bread.
If the fear of staying in the “beginner” stage is holding you back from starting your sourdough journey, let me tell you that the beginner stage is a great place to be. You can get into a routine of recipes that you know well and can turn to time and time again. Sourdough doesn’t have to be complicated and I hope that I can help you realize that. I can’t think of anything more incredible than making bread from flour, water, and salt.
Before I get into all of the sourdough lingo and terminology, if you don’t have sourdough starter yet, reach out to me here and let me know you want to start your sourdough journey. I would love to send you some mature sourdough starter (just at the cost of postage) along with my Free Sourdough Guide to set you up for success. You can fill out a form for the free starter here.
Ok, now it’s time to go over some basic sourdough terms you might see when you’re looking at a sourdough recipe. I’m not including any advanced or intricate terms, only the ones that I feel like I come across most often when baking and using various sourdough recipes. I would also like to note that these are not technical definitions, but my own definition of the terms that I hope will be easy to understand by someone who knows nothing about sourdough (yet!).
Basic Sourdough Terms
- Starter: this is the starter culture you will keep and feed to keep it alive and active. This is the natural yeast cultures from your environment that will cause the bread to rise. Instead of using packaged yeast cultures, in the sourdough world we use sourdough starter.
- Active starter: starter that has been fed within the last 4-12 hours. Active starter will be doubled in size or has just doubled in size and is on the way back down. Active starter should pass the “float test.” This is where you put a small glob of starter in a cup of water. If it floats, it is active. If it sinks, it either needs more time to ferment and rise, OR it has already risen and fallen. You’ll use active starter for all of your bread, or anything you want to rise well.
- Unfed Starter or Discard: these terms are interchangeable in recipes. This is starter that is hungry and has not been fed in 12+ hours. You’ll use unfed starter or discard for recipes that won’t need to rise: pancakes, pizza crust, etc.
- Bulk rise (or bulk fermentation): this is the first rest and fermenting period during the sourdough baking process.
- Stretch and fold: this is like the lazy kneading method. It helps to add air to the dough without having to fully knead it. To do this, you simply grab the dough from one side of your bowl, stretch it up, and fold it over the rest of the dough. Then, you rotate your bowl 90 degrees and repeat. You’ll do this four times, or until you’ve made your way all the way around the dough.
- Proof: this is the dough’s final rise before you bake it. After you shape your dough into a loaf, it will “proof” and rise one final time before you bake.
- Score: this is when you slice the top of a loaf of bread before baking to increase the spring (rise) of the bread and to control how the bread springs. It’s also how people make pretty designs on the crust of the bread.
- Autolyse: this isn’t a term I use, but you may see it in the “sourdough world” so I wanted to make sure you knew what it meant. It’s really just a fancy word for “rest.” Autolyse means you’ll let the dough rest for a while after you have first mixed it. It gives the flour enough time to absorb the water and start to break down the proteins. You will usually let the dough rest for anywhere from 10-60 minutes. You usually will wait to add the salt until after the rest.
- Banneton: this is a basket that your loaf can proof in. It helps it hold its shape during the final proof. I don’t personally use one, but I think they’re nice and it’s on my list of things to get someday.
- Boule: this is the fancy word for the round sourdough loaves. It’s what I make the most often and what I would consider the simplest to make.
- Leaven/Levain: this is essentially just another term for your sourdough starter. You can take some of your starter and mix it with a specialty type of flour and the result would be your levain. But, if you’re a country gal like me, you just say starter for everything, ok?
- Hydration: you’ll see this term mostly with more advanced sourdough recipes. Basically, your hydration is the percentage of water (hydration) to flour. Hydration is always related to flour and flour is always 100%. I always stay in the 90-100% hydration range with my starter. This means that if I am feeding 100 grams of flour, I’m also adding 90-100 grams of water. If a recipe called for me to start with a 70% hydration level, I would feed 100 grams of flour and 70 grams of water. (I used these numbers to make the math easy, but you get the point.)
I hope this list can help you understand more sourdough recipes and give you the courage you need to get started! Here is the link for sourdough starter if you want me to mail some to you to get your started! If you are interested in my Free Sourdough Guide for Beginners, you can contact me here! Are there any terms you’ve seen in the sourdough world that are confusing or need to be added to the list? If so, please let me know in the comments or by sending me a message!