Sourdough Terms 101 🍞✨
New to sourdough baking and not sure what all the words mean? Don’t worry—we’re here to make it simple. Here are a few must-know sourdough terms to help you feel confident and ready to bake!
Starter – The live, fermented mixture of flour and water that gives your sourdough its rise and signature tang. At Acts of Sourdough, we make it easy with our tried-and-true sourdough starter flakes.
Feeding – Adding fresh flour and water to your starter to keep it bubbly, active, and healthy.
Discard – The portion of starter you remove before feeding. It’s still packed with flavor—perfect for sourdough discard recipes like waffles, crackers, or banana bread! But whatever you do, don’ actually discard it!
Bulk Fermentation – The dough’s first rise after mixing. This is where the flavor starts to develop and the dough becomes light and airy.
Proofing – The final rise before baking. Your dough gets one last rest before heading into the oven.
Stretch and folds – This is the process in which you take one side of the dough and pull it up and towards the middle “stretch up and fold down”, this is typically done before the bulk fermentation and strengthens the gluten in your dough.
Scoring – The decorative slashes you make in the dough right before baking. This helps control how your bread expands in the oven—and looks beautiful too!
Boule – A round loaf of sourdough. Think: rustic, simple, and classic.
Batard – An oval-shaped sourdough loaf—kind of like a cross between a baguette and a boule. Great for sandwiches!
Crumb – The inside texture of your baked bread. An open crumb has lots of big, airy holes. A tighter crumb is soft and more even.
Don’t stress about learning it all at once. The best way to learn sourdough is to start baking. We’re here to help you every step of the way. 💛
your bread bestie,
xo, Courtney
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