How to Develop Your Own Sourdough Recipe From Scratch

After enough loaves, every baker reaches a point where they want to develop their own recipes. The good news: with baker's percentages and a methodical approach, this isn't mysterious. Here's how to do it.

The framework

Every sourdough recipe has the same skeleton:

• Flour (100%)
• Water (60–85%)
• Starter (15–25%)
• Salt (1.8–2.2%)
• Sometimes: fat, sugar, eggs, dairy, inclusions

To develop a new recipe, you decide on each variable based on the bread you want.

Step 1: Decide on the bread style

Are you developing:

• A country loaf? (75–80% hydration, 20% starter, 2% salt)
• A sandwich loaf? (70% hydration, slight enrichment)
• A pizza dough? (62% hydration, lower starter)
• A focaccia? (80% hydration, 5% olive oil)
• Something new entirely?

Knowing the style narrows the variables.

Step 2: Choose your flour blend

Pick the flour balance based on the desired flavor and texture:

• All bread flour: clean, structured, mild
• 80/20 bread/whole wheat: more flavor, slightly tighter crumb
• 70/20/10 bread/whole wheat/rye: complex, slightly tangy
• 50/50 bread/whole wheat: rustic, hearty
• All whole wheat: dense, deep flavor

Write down your flour percentages. Total must equal 100%.

Step 3: Set hydration

Hydration affects crumb openness and handling:

• 65–70%: tight crumb, easy handling, good for sandwiches
• 70–75%: moderate openness, balanced
• 75–80%: open crumb, harder to handle
• 80–85%: very open crumb, requires technique
• 85%+: only for specific styles (ciabatta, focaccia)

Pick based on the bread you want and your skill.

Step 4: Set starter percentage

Starter percentage controls fermentation speed:

• 10–15%: slow fermentation, deep flavor
• 15–25%: standard, balanced
• 25–30%: faster fermentation, slightly milder

For most loaves, 20% is the safe default.

Step 5: Salt percentage

Salt is almost always 2%. Slight variations:

• 1.8%: milder, slightly faster fermentation
• 2.0%: standard
• 2.2%: sharper flavor, slightly slower fermentation

Don't deviate much. Salt extremes hurt flavor.

Step 6: Add enrichments (if any)

For enriched doughs:

• Milk (replaces some water): 5–25%
• Eggs: 5–15%
• Butter: 5–40% (40% is brioche)
• Sugar: 2–10%
• Oil: 2–10%

Each enrichment slows fermentation. Adjust starter or time accordingly.

Step 7: Add inclusions (if any)

Common additions:

• Seeds: 5–15% (soaked first)
• Nuts: 5–10% (toasted first)
• Dried fruit: 10–20% (soaked briefly)
• Cheese: 10–15%
• Cooked grains: 15–25%

Total inclusions should not exceed 30% of flour weight.

A worked example: developing a "rustic Italian" recipe

I want a hearty, savory bread for serving with soup.

Style decisions:

• Hearty country loaf
• Open crumb but not extreme
• Slightly tangy
• Adds: olives, rosemary

Recipe:

• 80% bread flour
• 15% whole wheat
• 5% rye
• 78% hydration
• 20% starter
• 2% salt
• 8% chopped olives
• 0.5% chopped fresh rosemary
• 3% olive oil

Convert to weights (500g flour total):

• 400g bread flour
• 75g whole wheat
• 25g rye
• 390g water
• 100g starter
• 10g salt
• 40g chopped olives
• 2g chopped rosemary
• 15g olive oil

Method:

• Mix flour and water, autolyse 30 min
• Add starter and salt
• Add olive oil
• Add rosemary at fold 1
• Add olives at fold 2 (lamination)
• Bulk 5 hours
• Shape, cold retard 12 hours
• Bake at 475°F

That's a complete recipe from scratch.

Step 8: Bake and evaluate

Make the recipe. Then ask:

• How was the dough handling? (Too sticky → reduce hydration. Too tight → increase hydration.)
• How did fermentation timing go? (Too fast → reduce starter. Too slow → increase.)
• How's the flavor balance? (Too mild → more whole grain. Too sour → less.)
• How's the crumb? (Too open → tighter shape. Too tight → more fermentation.)

Adjust one variable at a time. Bake again.

Step 9: Refine over 3–5 bakes

A recipe usually takes 3–5 iterations to nail down:

• Bake 1: see what you got
• Bake 2: adjust hydration based on bake 1
• Bake 3: adjust fermentation timing based on bake 2
• Bake 4: refine inclusions or flavors
• Bake 5: finalize

By bake 5, you have a recipe worth keeping.

Step 10: Document

Write down the final recipe:

• Ingredient list with weights
• Baker's percentages
• Method (mixing, folding, shaping, fermenting, baking)
• Notes on what to look for at each stage

A recipe you can reproduce next month.

Common pitfalls

Changing too many variables at once — you can't tell which change made the difference.

Going too extreme initially — start with reasonable percentages, then push.

Ignoring fermentation timing in evaluations — same recipe, faster fermentation = different bread.

Baking only once before declaring success or failure — sourdough variability means a single bake isn't enough data.

When you're really stuck

If a recipe just isn't working:

• Bake a known-good recipe to verify your starter and process are fine
• If that loaf is good, the issue is in the new recipe
• Compare percentages with similar published recipes
• Often you'll spot what's off

When you've nailed it

A successful recipe:

• Reproducible (you bake it 3 times in a row, all good)
• Distinctive (it's not just a copy of an existing recipe)
• Aligned with your goals (the bread you wanted to make)
• Adaptable (you can scale, swap inclusions, etc.)

This is real recipe development.

Building a recipe library

Most home bakers end up with 10–20 personal recipes:

• 2–3 country loaves
• 1–2 sandwich loaves
• 1–2 pizza doughs
• 1–2 focaccia variations
• 1–2 enriched doughs
• 1–2 specialty breads (rye, multigrain, etc.)
• 1–2 favorite discard recipes

That covers most weekly baking needs. After developing your library, you rarely need to look up new recipes.

Why this matters

Recipes from books and websites are starting points. They were tuned for someone else's flour, kitchen, and starter.

Your recipes — developed in your kitchen, tuned for your conditions — will produce better bread for you than any published recipe.

This is the next step beyond following recipes: making your own.

When you stop looking up recipes

After enough recipe development, you reach a point where you don't need recipes anymore. You think in percentages.

"I want a sandwich loaf. 500g bread flour, 70% hydration, 20% starter, 2% salt, a bit of milk and butter for softness." You can mix it without consulting anything.

This is mastery. It's available to any baker who develops 10–20 of their own recipes.

A starting project

If you've never developed a recipe, start with this:

Take your favorite published recipe. Make it three times exactly as written. Then for bake 4, change one variable (5% more hydration, or 5% less starter, or 10% whole wheat instead of all white).

See what changes. Now you know what that variable does in your kitchen.

After making 10 such adjustments to favorite recipes, you'll have built the foundation for developing recipes from scratch.