How To Make A Basic Open Crumb Sourdough Bread 

Great tutorial, I especially enjoyed the feelings of impending doom triggered by the music.

O.k...I watched this video and commented, but...I have since rewatched a half dozen times. The timbre, tone and cadence of your voice is so compelling it is nearly hypnotic. Whether cultivated or a natural gift, your ability to teach and effectively convey a message is quite remarkable...and your mastery of breadmaking processes for one so young leaves me speechless. Lamination?? In all the years I have pursued this art of breadcraft, and in all the books I have sought out and studied it, I have rarely seen this technique even mentioned...yet here you are incorporating it into a tutorial and demonstrating it with very skilled hands. PLEASE consider spoken instruction in your future videos, as you did in this one. Your "silent" videos are also very well done, but this one....BRAVO dear lady...this is just an utterly superb and comprehensive guide for anyone who loves breadmaking!

all bakers, the shower cap is a great re reuseable option! People seem to use so much single use plastic prepping and baking bread. Thanks for modelling this little trick too. Great video

I'm a qualified baker with over 30 years experience and your technique is fantastic. What a beautiful loaf of bread ❤👍

Best video on SD bread making! Instructions are clear and process well explained. Would love to get open crumb and oven spring like yours! Thanks for sharing

I have struggled with sourdough these last 6 months..and was getting really frustrated. I watched loads of videos and made progress but at a snail's pace. This video has made a huge difference. It is by far the best video out there. Clear and precise and doable instructions. Can't thank you enough. Will be watching all your videos!

THIS is how you do a step-by-step video. Well done!

Of all the sourdough tutorials I've watched this one is for the books. Definetly recommended!

Today I made my first loaf of sourdough by following your recipe and technique. It came out beautifully! Thank you for your thoughtful and informative video

Very detailed instruction! One of the best! I just made one sourdough following your instruction! I used an iron cast and it worked nicely! Loved those big air pockets. Thanks a lot!😍

I’ve been baking breads at home regularly since the late 80s and sourdough since the mid-90s. Your method is elegantly simple. I love it. I baked two beautiful 100% WW sourdough batards today using your method. Thanks for the excellent video!

my third time making sourdough bread and before I started my third attemp I've watched this video and my bread came so beautiful thank you for sharing us your ideas Kristen!

Greatest instructional video i´ve ever seen on how to make sourdough bread, EVER!! Massive well done!

After several weeks of total failure with sourdough on other recipes, I've had nice success with this. I credit that to the video that explains so much detail in depth. I do live in a very humid area so I always have to cut my water back by 20% and splash add as I go through the steps.

I love that you explain what your manipulation of the dough is doing for the bread. That’s better than any sourdough video I’ve seen. I can’t wait to try your process for my next loaf.

By a mile, the very BEST demonstration I have seen on how to achieve a beautiful sourdough loaf with an open crumb. Excellent work! Succinct instructions.

This was one of the best instructional videos that I have seen. Your voice is soothing and calm and all of those steps seem doable. You are a natural instructor! Thank you.

I have been a home baker of just about every bread imaginable for the last 35 years, and the thrill of seeing the results of my effort come out of the oven is still as overwhelming as it was with my first loaf. But I must say, you handle that high hydration dough like a skilled surgeon wields a scalpel, or the fingers of a piano prodigy waltzes over the ivory keys. Your presentation is superb and I am delighted to have stumbled upon you channel! Looking forward to more of your videos.👍👍👍👍❤❤❤❤

This is hands-down the best video I’ve seen on baking sourdough bread

I think this is the best eye opening open crumb sourdough I've seen. Thank you so much.

This totally transformed the bread ive been baking for months. The texture and crumb of the bread are wonderful. Great tutorial!

I had never seen the oven set up before, thank you for that, this will definately go a long way to improving my baking

Thank you for all your tips and tricks! I am brand new to sourdough baking and have just used your method to make my 5th and 6th loaves. I am delighted with the results - your video was fabulous. Thanks again..

Thank you for putting the most informative video on sourdough EVER on RU-vid. I’ve watched a ton of them, even from other countries, but yours is so well done that I feel more confident in continuing on my sourdough journey!!!! Keep them coming!!!

We should never complain about how expensive real sourdough bread is. This is a lot of work!

This is the only sourdough recipe I’ve used that has come out perfect every single time!! Thankyou 😘

Just finished making this and it came out awesome. Best oven spring I ever had. Thank you for making the video, super informative for new baker like me. Next, I'm trying your Butterfly Pea Flower recipe!

I've made this recipe several times now and it has always produced great results -- except the first time when my starter was only 6 days old... Thank you!

Thank you for this video. I have learned so much from you and it's because you explain each step so so very well and also the fact that I can see you preform the actual steps has helped me be a better sourdough baker. Please continue to talk us through your fantastic videos.

Wow, wow ... this is almost one year that I've started to bake with sourdough basically on your chart and video which is one the best videos I've saved on my list. Now I am listening to Sourdough Podcast for the very first time and guess who is the guest? My first virtual teacher Kristen 🙏🏼🍞❤ Thank you so much Kristen.

After making the Tartine country loaf for about a year, I decided to follow your incredible video/recipe. Thanks to you I just baked up my most open crumb, delicious loaf. Thanks so much!

Only been cooking sourdough bread for a month. Your technique is extraordinary. Word.

I have viewed about a hundred bread videos, this is one of the absolute best! The demonstration and narrative is excellent! I cannot wait to try this! Thank you!

Hi Kristen! I just wanted you to know that I followed your recipe to a 'T' and am very happy with the result! I am one of the many who discovered baking as a pandemic hobby over the past two years. Of course, sourdough soon became a passion. I have made many loaves in that time, but wanted to change up my baking game just a bit to see if I could get some noticeable improvements in my bread. That's when I discovered your RU-vid video (having viewed many). Something about it just rang so true to me, I decided to give it a go. Before this, I rarely autolysed, or if I did it wasn't for more than an hour. I also only did a couple of stretch-and-folds. This time, I decided I would follow your recipe and see if I could tell a difference in my results. And sure enough, my first loaf turned out great! I got a nice ear, although not as big as I'd like. This, I think, was more due to my not having made a deep enough score in the dough, than anything else (scoring has been a challenge to me). But the oven spring - wow! Such a nice rounded loaf! I'll admit to having made any number of smaller, flatter loaves over the past 2 years. All tasted great, but didn't look like they should. But this loaf is beautiful to me! I'd leave a photo, if I could. I also opted to pop for the 5$ PDF of the recipe, to get all the details written down. It's the first time I've done this, but for 5$ I figured, why not? I'm glad I did! I will search your recipes to see if I can find a sourdough recipe where other ingredients, like my two favorite ingredients, jalapenos and cheddar, are added to the dough. I would love to see your recipe for something like that! While I love making jalapeno/cheddar bread, the loaves never seem to get the spring I would like. Or perhaps you have a formula/method for adding such ingredients to this recipe? If so, I'd love to read about it! Nice video, great recipe, thank you!

Best video I’ve ever seen on stretching and thorough explanation of the beautiful process ❤️

What a thorough, well made and detailed description of your process! I love it! I'll be sharing this all over the place. That crumb is awesome. Thank you!

the background music makes it feel like im being briefed before a mission. a mission to bake

I've made this exact recipte a dozen times now. I love the results. I add garlic, rosemary and sometimes kalamata olives during the lamination stage.

Out of the many many sourdough videos I've watched you are now my go to instructor for making the perfect loaf. Thank you. Right now waiting for my levain to develop for my Sunday bake. You're excellent.

Finally a good tutorial on bread for RU-vid. Took me years to master sourdough as a style, it's very time consuming. Excellent loaf!

Man, you've done an excellent job with this tutorial. I'm very interested in bread baking, have check out a lot of You Tubers, I really like your style.

You have a super angelic voice that is clear and crisp. You make a wonderful teacher besides being a great baker! What an inspiration! 👏

The best video on sourdough baking by far I’ve watched. Very helpful, instructional and easy to follow steps. Thank you!

Thanks for this video. I bake bread every day & love watching different peoples videos and techniques. It’s really helpful.

Bravo. The absolute BEST bread baking video I have ever seen. To beginners watching this video pay attention to how the dough LOOKS at each step. This is so much more critical then exact weighing. Why? Because in the countless books that I have on bread baking there is very little talk of the effects of where you live on flour hydration. I have a second home in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and depending on the time of the year, flour can weigh 15% to 20% more due to the high humidity levels. Using the same proportions as I do at home produces pancake batter. So thank you SO much FPB for such an excellent video where we can actually almost feel the textures as you progress through your explanations.

I'm a relative newbie at sourdough - failed at several recent tries using other methods. Your videos are the only ones that explain WHY you do things. It's resulted in (2) excellent loaves of bread this week - my first excellent loaves. So many videos say "until the right consistency" or they seemingly randomly vary the ratios - leaving me wondering why they changed it. I watched you starter videos and it was the first time someone said, "Look at the growth, look at the fall, etc. and adjust acccordingly." It made so much sense at that point. I do have one question that I see in videos that hasn't been answered: Why do we need to take the temperature of the dough and record it? What's the purpose? Thank you in advance. Thank you for your excellent and thorough instruction.

I have watched countless videos on sourdough baking ! This, by far, is the best one. I have watched 3 times and now feel ready to try baking. Thank you for this great, easy to understand, video. 🇨🇦

Thank you for sharing this great video with detailed, but very simple, instructions. This is better than some of the professional chef videos I've TRIED watching on RU-vid! You've answered many of my questions for making sourdough.

Your videos on bread are nothing short of extraordinary, not to mention the top quality information shared. Seriously impressed :) Thanks for making these videos

The best step by step I've ever seen! Great job

I have watched at least five other bakers making sour dough on youtube. This is one has the best explanation of why you do certain steps, the range of variety in the steps and why you would resort to them. Excellent how-to video. Makes me want to try the process yet again.

For me, you have baked THE BEST RU-vid sourdough bread technique and tutorial video out there. So clear and concise AND totally changed my 3+ years sourdough game. Thank you. 🙏

Still a fairly new sourdough newbie here and have been producing some lovely Sourdough loaves but the ultimate goal is to get to that open crumb type of loaf. My mother prefers an open crumb loaf to my slightly more dense versions (which is super tasty!) looking forward to testing it today. I am currently building my levain. :)

I love this video! I began my sourdough journey with a class in San Francisco, then explored the slightly different Tartine method, but can't wait to try this recipe and method! Your results look stellar, and the explanations of exactly what's going on with the dough are so timely for me in my learning process. Thank you for making this video, I just purchased the pdf to make it easier for me and to give you a little support -- I appreciate the time and effort you have put into this!

Amazing! First I I have to say, I listened to your interview, on Sourdough pod cast. And it led me to this amazing (I know I said it already)Tutorial. Thank you. I've been doing sourdough bread for 12 years now, and just can't get enough information. Fantastic.

Sis, you are a dough saver! This just leveled up my sourdough game🤟 thank you

One of the best sourdough instruction video on RU-vid; maybe the best looking bread as well! Great job & thank you for sharing your tips.

Crystal clear instructions, thank you :)

Glad to find you! Into my almost number souggdough making.. follow your video I am no longer making the sad flat looking bread.. but it was still over fermented a bit ! Thanks you a millions ..

I cannot believe your clarity of process. Wow -. I saved this puppy for sure. Thanks.

you are amazing! I can't believe you even wear your wedding ring while doing all these hand mixing steps!!!

I watched this early in my sourdough adventure and watching again now I picked up so much more. Thank you for being so thorough and detailed. I’ll be watching again after another couple of dozen loaves 🙃

These videos are SO informative. Much better than a lot of the pro sites that just gloss over some of your tips. I wish I had found these videos when I first started baking sourdough - excited to try out your tips!

This sourdough method has changed my life! Using these techniques the loafs always gets beautiful crumbs! =) Thanks for sharing with us.

Excellent tutorial, with really useful visual cues. The menacing background music makes you realize that, despite the near-perfect instructions, there’s a dimension of mystery and horror for newbie sourdough makers. Seriously, the bread turned out great - and it's my first time. And I must invest in a shower cap pronto!

I've been watching every sourdough tutorial on RU-vid that I can find. Your series puts it all together so well. I didn't quite get the idea of a mature starter and the feeding schedule to develop the starter to be ready for the bake. I tried to rush it and it just didn't have the spring yet. I have three kilos of dough ready for final shaping now. I had done machine kneading for so long, I couldn't quite let myself go for the long autolyse and fold process. Have to confess I had to let go of the sticky hand phobia. Your method is super. Just a little sticky mix for the autolyse and then the incorporation of the levain. The rest of the turns and folds no sticky! Six preshaped for baguettes that I am going to bake off tonight without an overnight proof and two shaped for boules to bake in the morning. Thanks for such a clear video with no distractions!

Hvala gospodjice! ovo je najbolji recept koji sam gledao, bravo. Pozdrav.

One of the most helpful and thorough bread making videos I have seen to date. Thank you so much!

You are an Angel sent from heaven to show me the path to open crumb,and good looking chunky bread.I agree with what other comments have said.I have watched alot of RU-vid videos trying to find a solution to my flat looking bread,and yours is the only one that solved my problem.I like your thorough method of explaining the process step by step.God bless,and keep making your excellent videos.

Wow, finally a video that has no annoying music, or youtube personalities, or cringey editing. Just the basics, with no frills, perfect

Thankyou for generously sharing your method of getting an open crumb, i've been to so many classes all over the world and ive only managed to achieve 'open crumb ' that im happy with, only after watching your video... im definitely getting all your pdf 🤓

Thanks for you clear recipe and videos. I considered myself an intermediate sourdough baker in that I could always make a good loaf, but I wasn't getting an open enough crumb. Your instructions took me up to a higher level.

Definitely the best starter video I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot). And Kristen is speaking so clear and easy to understand that also a german baking enthusiast will understand every word. Thank you so much, Kristen!

My dear, this is a near perfect instructional video on the perfect loaf of sourdough bread. Great job!! I'm a professional baker, making sourdough everyday, and I learned a few new things from your video. Keep up the good work. Also, are you on the "perfect sourdough" group on FB? I'll be sharing your video as often as I can. Good job!

By far the best video on making a great sourdough bread. Lots of textbook concepts correctly implemented on your process. Thanks for the video !

absolutely a lifesaver of a video! every step present, all the phases visible, going to adjust my current beginners process to incorporate a lot of things from this video. thank you so much for doing this!

Thank you SO much for this video! I posted my first go 'round on a sourdough FB group and gave you a big shout out. My loaf was beautiful! AND HUGE! Now I am literally about to laminate with a whole grain, whole wheat (very excited!), and would love to know the best point at which to divide the dough into smaller loaves. At shaping? Please let me know!

Baking videos, I watched many of them by the best and not so, but by far this was the best of them all, the crumbs made my stomach growl, I eat one meal every 48 hours, I am in my 30th hour, your loaf is great looking I smelled the aroma, some good olive oil little bit of salt in it, your loaf to dip OH is magic, I wonder what 53 CRAZY A**HOLES give a thumbs down for? This is a master peace start to finish, great video, great sound, great instruction and great loaf, firm even thickness crust, one color all around, no burns, no shape deforming, lovely crumb, some people are real sick and jealous, thank you for a great creation. I will share it with every one I know.

Well, I’ve followed all your instructions to the letter. My sour dough is in its last proving in my fermentation chamber before a night in the fridge. It felt great in the final forming stage- elastic and alive. My first bread bake is prepared for tomorrow. Thanks so much for being so clear and scientific in your instructions, both in this video and the starter ones too. Your method is refreshingly different from others, stretching by lifting and tucking rather than stretching over the top. It seems more logical this way. Well the proof is in the pudding (or loaf) so let’s see what I get tomorrow. Many thanks.

I've finally gotten a high hydration loaf right! Now it all makes sense. Thanks for your clear and detailed directions..

Your voice is very relaxing, you should read bedtime stories too!

I love your videos!! thank you

Thank you for such a detailed tutorial! I got my very first open crumb on a loaf after following and taking notes during my breadmaking process!

A fantastic tutorial, and well worth the steps. I've gotten tasty bread from other sourdough recipes before, but this gave me by far the best-looking loaf, highest rise, and open crumb. Ensuring my starter was at max peak potential was a big component, as well as the all the folds.

Thanks for sharing your method and for the great video. Unfortunately, this method for me resulted in a complete disaster 😅 The dough was super sticky and it was impossible to handle. I attempted to cook it anyway and it ended up being burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. I tried again, lowering the hydration to 70% and it was better. I tried a third time with a 60% hydration and the result was even better. With this water percentage the dough wasn't sticky, I could fold it nicely and the bread was thoroughly cooked with a good rise in volume! The thing to keep in mind is that every flour is different. What might work with 80% hydration using a particular flour might not work with another flour, because each flour is able to absorb a certain maximum amount of water. More precisely, one should look for specifications called W and P/L. So for everyone attempting this recipe, you need to know what is the maximum amount of water that the flour you are normally using is able to take and modify the recipe accordingly. If you watched the video of @Foodgeek trying to replicate this recipe, you can notice that he also had troubles with the sticky dough because his flour is different. Consider that if you get the wrong amount of water (too much), you will need to wet your hands more in order to handle the dough, which makes the dough even more hydrated, which means it will be even more sticky, which will require more wet hands to handle and so on, like a snake that eats its own tail. So I advise starting with a low hydration and adjust it later little by little. Another consideration about the great amount of time/work needed to perform this recipe: I think you can skip autolyse and add the salt at the beginning and you will still get the same result, saving some valuable time. The real advantage that I noticed using this method is the lamination and the stretch and fold. With the addition of these two techniques my bread springed much more than before. By the way, lamination is so fun to do! Happy baking everyone!

I love, love, love this recipe! The delicious open crumb results are so worth the TLC time it takes to make it and the $5.00 transcript! Thank you for sharing!

I have watched this video so many times, pretty much every time I bake bread, and I still chuckle every time you say, "Carefully flip out..." towards the end. Just strikes me as funny.

Fantastic video! I learned a LOT! Never seen lamination before and I love that you give attribution for some of the methods, creating a kind of “midrash”... really lively and well done video! ❤️

Well, I've been making sourdough bread for the last 3 years, and the one thing that I've struggled with is getting a consistent open crumb result. First try with your method, and I'm impressed with the result. Thank you for your video!

Kristen your method and this video is magic, I have been baking sourdough bread for 30 years I had followed many great bakers including Cyril Hitz, Jeffery Hammelman, Nancy Silverton and Trevor J Wilson, and while I have baked many delicious loaves I was never able to attain the coveted open crumb loaf. My bakes we're inconsistent, and sometimes discouraging. When I came upon your video I wasn't sure I wanted to continue baking, but I decided to try one more time. My first loaf following this video was beautiful mahogany Crust, open crumb and simply delicious. Yesterday I baked my sixth loaf, it was the most beautiful loaf I have ever seen much less baked myself, every Loaf I have baked from this recipe has been consistent. Your ability to teach is simply magic.

This is the most comprehensive, detaiked, and well-explained video I've seen so far on RU-vid. I cannot wait to try it! Thank you!

This is probably the best tutorial out there. i saw hundreds so far. This goes through all process of high hydration dough, and explains how and why. Let's see my results. I am baking tomorrow morning!!!!

While I greatly enjoyed this video, I am smiling at the idea that it is a "basic" method. It seems to me a rather elaborate and time consuming method, even though the results look excellent. If this method is "basic" I have no idea what an "advanced" method would be? :-)

Holy smokes, I am surprised that loaf did not lift the lid off of my Dutch oven. I never would have imagined that much oven spring!

Please always keep this video on youtube. Such a brilliant method.

Gosh I absolutely love the sound of your voice...so soothing. How could I ever fail at my sourdough bread after this tutorial. 🙂

Idk how you keep your hands so dough free, but I'm jealous

So glad to find you! Thanks for your exellent presentations...🙏 Your new subscribers👏

I am a fan of John Kirkwood's videos on baking. This is also great. Thanks.

This is my first time baking sourdough bread, I followed your tutorial on creating a starter and all the way through to the final bake and the result was really wonderful and somewhat surprising because I didn’t think it would turn out so well. You’re a great teacher, thank you.