Easy Sourdough Bread – 60% Hydration Sourdough Recipe

Easy to handle, easy to shape, easy to bake – this 60% hydration sourdough recipe is just easy. If you’ve been struggling with sourdough, build your confidence with this recipe!

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It’s no wonder this 60% hydration sourdough recipe has become my go-to lately. Since it is a relatively low hydration dough, it is easy to handle and not too wet and sticky. It also holds up well in a variety of conditions – this dough can withstand a bulk ferment that ends up being a little longer than planned, or a cold proof in the fridge that lasts overnight.

It’s a very forgiving recipe if you are not so perfect with your timeline, making it great for those bakers who wear a lot of other hats! Isn’t that all of us?

While high hydration doughs are beautiful with their airy, open crumb, I usually prefer a more practical sourdough. It still tastes delicious, but is less fragile of a dough to work with, and frankly, less holes for the butter to drip through!

If you’ve been struggling with the sourdough process – maybe you’ve found the dough too sticky and hard to handle, or your loaf ends up flat after baking, trying a lower hydration recipe like this one might just be what you need to build your confidence. Go ahead, give it a shot and let me know how it goes in the comments below!

Find More Great Sourdough Recipes at Quail Creek Homestead:

• Favorite Sourdough Bread – 70% Hydration Recipe
• Sourdough Dinner Rolls
• Sourdough Sandwich Bread
• No-Knead Sourdough Bagels

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What You Need to Make 60% Hydration Sourdough Recipe

Kitchen scale

Heavy-bottomed ceramic or glass bowl

Wooden spoon

Banneton baskets, bench scraper, bread lame for scoring

Ingredients for 60% Hydration Sourdough Recipe

Water – non-chlorinated water is best. If you have to use chlorinated water, let it sit out a while before mixing the dough.

Sourdough leaven

Bread flour – a higher protein bread flour, around 12.5% protein, will produce the best results. However, all purpose flour will work if you don’t have bread flour. You just might not get the oven spring and perfect ear on the loaf that you will get with the higher protein bread flours. I always use unbleached organic flours, and some of my favorites come from Azure Standard.

Salt – any fine grain natural salt works great.

How to Make a Sourdough Leaven

A leaven is basically just a separate portion of starter prepared specifically for a recipe. I like to prepare a leaven to ensure my starter is nice and robust to leaven the recipe optimally. Here is how to make a leaven for this recipe.

Mix your leaven 8-12 hours before you plan to mix the dough. In a clean jar, combine the following ingredients well, making sure all the flour is fully incorporated.

• 100 grams bread flour
• 100 grams water, room temp
• 20 grams sourdough starter (active, but not freshly fed)

Cover loosely and let it activate. Your leaven is ready to use when it has doubled in size and has large, puffy bubbles throughout.

Instructions for 60% Hydration Sourdough Bread

In a large mixing bowl, measure the water, then gently whisk in sourdough leaven.

Add flour and salt to the bowl. Mix with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough comes together. It’s okay if it seems like the dough isn’t fully incorporated at first – it will come together once the flour fully hydrates. Cover and allow the dough to rest for about 20 minutes.

Begin stretch and folds – pick one side of the dough up out of the bowl and fold over onto itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Do this process four times total, making your way around each side of the dough. This is considered one round of stretch and folds. Cover the dough and let it rest 15-30 minutes.

Do four rounds of stretch and folds total, over the next hour or two. You don’t have to be super strict with your time intervals. As long as you’re working the dough consistently, it will develop just fine. By the last round of stretch and folds, your dough should be smooth, stretchy and pliable.

Let the dough bulk ferment for 6-8 hours, until doubled. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and divide into two portions. Shape the loaves, then cover and refrigerate at least one hour, but you can refrigerate overnight as well.

There are a lot of techniques to shaping sourdough, but here is a quick explanation of how I do it: Fold the dough over onto itself, turning it a quarter of a turn and repeating until it roughly forms a ball. Then I create tension by putting one hand on the side of the loaf and pushing it away from me, then sweeping my hand to the back side of the loaf and pulling it back. Repeat this motion until the dough is round and smooth. Pick the dough up and quickly turn into a lightly floured banneton basket. Repeat with remaining loaf.

Preheat oven and Dutch oven to 450 degrees. Turn dough out, score, and bake with lid on for 25-28 minutes. Turn oven down to 425 degrees, remove lid, and bake another 10-12 minutes.

If you try this recipe, let me know how it goes in the comments below.

And by the way, if you’re new to from-scratch cooking, I created a free guide to help you get started. Check it out here.