Heart of Arizona Sourdough
Recipes Curated by: Nicole Nungoor at For the Love of Sourdough Mesa, Arizona 2025

SOURDOUGH INGREDIENTS 

• 520 grams ofOatman Farms Organic Regenerative Whole Grain Sonoran Wheat  

• 445 grams of room temperature filtered water 

• 90 grams of active peaked sourdough starter 

• 12 grams of pink Himalayan Salt 

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR SOURDOUGH 

1.) Prepping Your Levain: If you have kept your sourdough starter inside the fridge, you will need to bring it out onto your counter and feed at least once or twice before preparing your Levain for your bread. The night before you plan to craft your sourdough loaves, you will need to ensure your starter is fed by feeding 1 part of unfed starter to 4 parts flour and water. Place into a designated mason jar with a loose lid or cloth and keep in a warm place in your kitchen overnight. 

2.) In the morning, your starter should have reached peak activity (doubled or tripled) and is ready to use in your sourdough recipe. 

3.) Pick your blend! Start by completing your fermentolyse to your dough by adding your active sourdough starter and water together into a medium sized mixing bowl and stir until starter has incorporated into the water.  

4.) Once you have mixed your starter and water, measure your flour and add to your liquid mix of starter and water. You will want to squeeze the dough on repeat for about 2 minutes until the dough is well incorporated and there is no dry flour. 

Tip: It is better to overmix at this step than undermix so don’t be afraid to get into the dough at this stage. This is a very low gluten flour with immense health benefit so please do not expect it to feel the same as using a store bought all purpose or bread flour. 

5. Allow your dough to now rest for a period of about 45 minutes covered with either beeswax, a damp cloth or some plastic wrap. This step allows the gluten to bond and allow proper introduction of the starter to your dough before the salt interferes with fermentation. This is called Fermentolyse. 

6. Once this step is complete, you will then add your preferred salt by sprinkling on the surface of the dough. You will perform your first stretch and fold to incorporate the salt versus squeezing the dough. Cover dough and rest for 30 minutes. 

Tip: AtFor the Love of Sourdough, we use pink Himalayan salt due to its health benefits and trace mineral count. Try to avoid iodized highly processed salts in your sourdough recipe. Iodine can affect the yeast and bacteria in your dough. 

7. Complete 2nd stretch and fold and rest for 30 minutes. 

8. Complete 3rd stretch and fold and rest for 30 minutes. You may need to complete one more stretch after this. You will want to see that your dough is fully mixed, has a cohesive uniformity to it and does not have significant sticking to your bowl or hands. 

Tip: Get your hands wet when completing your stretch and fold series. 

8. Once your dough has been stretched, you will now leave the dough to complete a short bulk proof or bulk fermentation period on the counter covered.

Tip: If you are living in Arizona, I would stick with no more than a 3–4-hour bulk in the hot months. If you live elsewhere, you can stretch it for another hour or two. You want your dough to rise about 30-50% inside of your bowl. 

9. Once the bulk proof is complete, dust your countertop with organic brown rice flour and pull dough out of your bowl onto the countertop. It may help to wet your hands as you are working with this dough. 

10. Complete a quick preshape to the dough. Dust the top of dough and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. 

11. Flip dough over and complete your final shaping and transfer into a Batard or Boule style shaping basket. Cover and place it into your fridge for about 12-16 hours to complete its cold proof. 

12. The following morning, remove from fridge and preheat oven to 475 degrees with Dutch oven inside with the lid on. 

13. Transfer dough by flipping onto a piece of parchment paper and score to your liking. 

14. Transfer into the Dutch oven and place the lid on top. Bake at 475 for 25 minutes. 

15. Remove the lid, reduce temperature to 425 degrees and bake for an additional 12-18 minutes depending on how you like your crust. 

16. Remove from Dutch oven and cool completely before cutting. It does help to use a bread knife when slicing sourdough. Store in a bread bag or pillowcase for the first few days and freeze anything you do not plan to enjoy right away. Freezing has significant health benefits to your sourdough as well! 

Recipes Curated by: Nicole Nungoor at For the Love of Sourdough Mesa, Arizona 2025