Course description

If you've baked yeasted bread and want to move on to sourdough, this course takes you from a jar of flour and water to loaves you're proud of, and a baking routine that fits around your job, your weekends and the seasons.

You make a starter from scratch and learn to read it, then keep it small and predictable, on the worktop or in the fridge. You learn to mix by the dough's temperature, build strength with folds, read the bulk fermentation, shape, prove overnight in the fridge, score and bake safely in a lidded pot or on a tray. You bake five core loaves and then focaccia, pizza, seeded loaves and crackers from spare starter. Every recipe is in grams, with its baker's percentages and hydration worked out. Then you plan sourdough around a working week, troubleshoot from the crumb and the crust, and learn how to share bread safely, with a clear note of the allergens in each loaf.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Liadan, a planning officer in Skipton who works nine to five, and her sister-in-law Mehrnaz, a healthcare assistant in Bradford who works shifts, from January to September 2026. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers and a cheat sheet, plus logs, charts, cards and planners such as a starter log, a hydration worksheet, a dough temperature worksheet, recipe cards, bake schedules, a troubleshooting card and a two-week plan template.

What you'll learn

• Getting ready for sourdough: what changes when you move from yeasted bread to sourdough, the kit you need and what can wait, baker's percentages and hydration with a starter, and raw flour, hygiene, hot pots and allergens.
• Your starter from scratch: what lives in a starter, choosing flour, water and a jar, a day-by-day routine for the first two weeks with a starter log, knowing when it's ready, and fixing slow, smelly or mouldy starters.
• Keeping a starter that suits your life: feeding ratios and timing, keeping a starter on the worktop or in the fridge, building a levain from a few grams, stiff and rye starters, and holidays and backups.
• Mixing and fermentation: a three-stage mix, dough temperature and the water sum, folds instead of kneading, reading the bulk, and telling under from over.
• Shaping, proving and the cold retard: pre-shaping, shaping round and oval loaves, baskets and tea towels, proving overnight in the fridge and the poke check.
• Scoring and baking: heating a lidded pot safely, scoring and the ear, baking on a tray with steam, checking a loaf is baked, and cooling, slicing and keeping.
• Your core loaves: an everyday country loaf, wholemeal, rye in a tin, a sandwich loaf and spelt, each with its percentages worked out.
• Flavour, add-ins and beyond the loaf: milder or more sour bread, seeds and soakers, olives, cheese, fruit and nuts, focaccia, pizza and flatbreads, and using spare starter.
• A baking routine that fits your week: working backwards from when you want bread, routines for a nine-to-five job, weekends and shift work, and adjusting for the seasons.
• Troubleshooting, sharing and your final project: reading the crumb, fixing crust, shape and flavour problems, allergen notes, gifts, bake sales and the rules on selling, and a two-week sourdough plan.

Who it's for

Home bakers who have made yeasted bread and would like to bake sourdough with confidence. If you've never baked bread, begin with Rootlet's Bread Baking for Beginners: From Your First Loaf to Sourdough, then come back to this course.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a home baking course. The food safety, burns and allergy lines in the lessons are based on official guidance from the Food Standards Agency and the NHS, and the short lesson on selling bread points you to the official guidance rather than giving legal advice. Sourdough made with wheat, rye or spelt contains gluten and isn't suitable for anyone with coeliac disease. Liadan, Mehrnaz and every other person in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Make a sourdough starter from scratch, read it and know when it’s ready to bake with
• Keep a small starter on the worktop or in the fridge and time a levain to suit your day
• Work out baker’s percentages and hydration, counting the flour and water in the levain
• Plan the dough temperature, build strength with folds and judge the bulk fermentation by the dough
• Shape round and oval loaves, prove them in a basket or overnight in the fridge and use the poke check
• Score and bake safely in a lidded pot or on a tray with steam, and check a loaf is baked with a probe
• Bake a country loaf, a wholemeal loaf, a rye tin loaf, a sandwich loaf and a spelt loaf
• Change the flavour, add seeds, olives, cheese, fruit and nuts, and make focaccia, pizza and crackers from spare starter
• Plan sourdough around a nine-to-five job, weekends or shift work, and adjust your timings through the seasons
• Read the crumb, fix common crust and shape problems, write allergen notes and plan two weeks of sourdough

Frequently asked questions