Sourdough Takes Three Days But Only an Hour Of Your Time

A single loaf of sourdough might span three days, but that does not mean you will spend three days standing over a bowl of dough. Kate Freebairn wants busy people who want to bake bread to grasp this simple difference. She is a recipe developer and food blogger living in rural Western Australia. She says the biggest reason beginners stay away from sourdough is the belief that making it will consume their entire lives.

"I think that people think that sourdough is really difficult and that it takes a lot of time, but really, even though a loaf of sourdough might take three days to complete, the actual time that you'll have your hands in the dough might only be an hour," Freebairn told Fox News Digital. Her first cookbook, "Easy Sourdough on Any Schedule," is designed to fit bread baking into everyday life instead of forcing people to change their lives for the sake of baking.

For someone with a typical weekday job, Freebairn suggests feeding the starter before sleep, mixing the dough over morning coffee, and checking on it while children eat breakfast. The dough can ferment while the baker is at work, then be shaped and put in the fridge that evening. The next morning, "you can wake up, pop the oven on, make your coffee and bake a fresh loaf of sourdough," Freebairn said. "So, the actual time that you have your hands in the dough is very minimal."

There are also potential health reasons to choose sourdough. Because it ferments naturally, she noted that "the microbes in the sourdough starter, they're already doing some of the digestion for you." She added that sourdough "tends to not spike your blood sugar" and contains prebiotics which support gut health. Her favorite benefit is simpler though.

"Probably the best thing is it really does taste better," she said. Beginners do not need a kitchen full of specialized tools either. Freebairn says an old pickle jar can hold a starter, and a regular bowl works as a substitute for a proofing basket. Even her own Dutch oven is not a luxury item.

"I literally still to this day use a $30 Dutch oven I bought from Aldi," she said. Perhaps the bigger investment is patience. Freebairn recommends that beginners expect their first loaves to be imperfect and says it may take five to 10 attempts before someone gets the hang of the process.

"There's a lesson in every loaf," she said. This advice captures her approach to sourdough: start with what you have, fit it around the life you are already living, and do not worry if the first loaf is not perfect. "Easy Sourdough on Any Schedule" hits bookshelves in September.