You’ve made your decision. You’ve prepared for days. You’re rough and ready. It’s time… to make your first loaf of sourdough bread!

Take a deep breath; this recipe is so un-fussy that even the least experienced baker can get it to work. We’re working with 100%  white wheat flour so that even if something doesn’t go quite right, you’ll still end up with a really nice loaf of bread.

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Beginner’s White Wheat Sourdough Boule

Let’s talk for a minute about my recipes. At first glance, they can look a little confusing because everything is timed and weighed and calculated. But as soon as you get the hang of it, they’re really easy to read and customize.

Column A gives the general step while Column F spells each step out in more detail. If you want to know more about each step, head over to my detailed post.

Column B gives you the time when each step should be done. You can adjust the timetable based on your schedule by making yourself a copy of the speadsheet (File > Make a Copy…) and entering the time you want to start your first mix in Box B6 (which is dark blue). Although the timetable is great for planning, I use an app to do the actual timing when I bake.

Columns C, D, and E are the actual recipe. Column C gives the ingredient. Column D gives the ingredient in terms of mass. Column E gives the ingredient in baker’s percentage. You can change how much bread you’re making by entering a larger or smaller mass in Box D2 (which is also dark blue). The grey boxes are greyed out because, while they provide information that is important for my spreadsheet to auto-calculate, they don’t actually list anything that’s directly relevant to the recipe.

Column G is for you, dear baker. Use it to write notes and observations so that your next loaf is even better than this one. At the end, in rows 25-38, there’s space to describe your boules so you can remember a really good loaf or troubleshoot for future bakes.

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