I think a lot of the modern approach to sourdough is from people who have a lot of time and cash on their hands and wonder “how do I spend my time and money to make perfect artisan bread?” whereas the pioneers were more focused on “how do I feed people?”.
Maybe if someone does all this finicky stuff and has all this expensive gear, they’ll get slightly better bread. But honestly, I don’t do any of this stuff, I sold my bread at markets, and I was getting comments from chefs that my bread is the best they’ve ever tasted.
Today I just had someone tell me that charging US$18/loaf for bread from home-milled flour is justified because home milled flour requires a very expensive mixer and a bunch of extra time and expertise…Other times I see people saying that you can only get good bread when you feed your starter with white supermarket flour… So many opinionated people out there who insist that you have to do things in an exact way, and in the meantime, I’m in the forest with my goats, ignoring the internet, and just getting on with baking delicious bread and feeding people.
So to make bread, probably just ignore the internet (except for Permies), focus on treating your starter well, figure out a schedule that works for you, and try bread at different hydrations and figure out what you like.
My process for feeding people with home-milled flour is:
Feed up the starter or build a pre-ferment (levain)
I use more seed starter (old starter) when weather is cold or when I want it to be ready sooner, less when it’s warm. Warm water in cold weather, cold water in hot weather.
Remove starter, mix final dough
Set aside some starter for the next day, then add all the dough ingredients and mix until *just* combined. I use 100% whole grain home-milled flour and keep it quite high in hydration - high hydration = better rise in non-perfect proofing temps and better flavour.
Rest, then stretch and fold
I rest it for 10 minutes to an hour, then do a typical stretch and fold, there are photos of it on my blog here:
https://thenourishinghearthfire.com/2026/05/04/fresh-milled-flour-sourdough-beginners/
Ferment, maybe do more stretch and folds if you have time
Only that earlier set of stretch and folds is the essential one. You can optionally do a another 3 rounds of resting, stretching, and folding within the fermentation time, but if you aren’t going to be around the house you can skip it.
This fermentation time depends on how much starter or pre-ferment you are using. I adjust this amount through the year depending on the room temperatures I’m working with, and the timing that I want to fit into my life. I’ve put instructions in my book for how to adjust things around, and different recipes that work well in different seasons.
You can do this fermentation overnight in the fridge, if that is what works for your schedule.
Shape and proof
Grease your loaf tin or flour a tea towel in a bowl. Shape into whatever shape you want, and put it in there for a while - in warm room temperatures it might be ready to bake in an hour or two, in cold temperatures you can leave it several hours (or even overnight).
Bake
Pre-heat oven. If you’re using a dutch oven, pre-heat that in the oven. I like to bake whole grain bread at around 220ºC (430ºF), for white flour bread, you can bake it a bit higher.
If you want the best rise, you can figure out a way to steam the oven. For pan loaves, I’ll sometimes put a cookie sheet over the top (or you can use a second loaf pan if your loaf is high). For dutch oven breads, the dutch oven does this. For any bread, you can also pre-heat a cast iron skillet with the oven, and throw some ice cubes or water into it when you add your bread (or slightly before).
