Baking sourdough bread is different to baking a cake, in so many ways. Cake mix is usually stable before its baked and the baking process is a little more delicate. As a cake cooks it slowly rises and if you open the oven door during baking, it can cause the cake to deflate. Drastic changes temperature even after baking can cause cakes to sink or crack yadda yadda. We’ve all been there.
Baking sourdough bread is the opposite. Once your sourdough loaf hits the oven, the baking process is fairly robust. During the first 10 minutes of baking, your sourdough loaf will bring forth it’s oven ‘spring’. It’s a fast process that begins the moment your sourdough hits the heat. Some baking processes drop the oven temperature after this. Others require that you remove a lid or other. Unlike a cake, you won’t deflate your precious sourdough loaf by opening the oven. And removing your sourdough loaf completely from the heat once it’s cooked won’t cause it to shrink or crack. Instead it will cause it to sing! (Sourdough bread is known to crackle once out of the oven. It’s stunning.)
The Knock Test
This is another one of those simple ‘know-hows’ that makes life easier.
To know when your loaf of sourdough bread is cooked through, use oven gloves or a clean tea towel to pick up the loaf and turn it upside down.
Holding the loaf in one hand, take the other and knock on the bottom of the loaf as though it was a door. If it sounds hollow your sourdough loaf is cooked through! If it sounds dull or thuddy, pop your loaf back in the oven for another 5 minutes and then test again to see it sounds hollow.
No tools, no poking with a knife. Easy!
See our baking methods:
Baking your sourdough using a Dutch oven or casserole dish*
Baking your sourdough using a pizza stone
Faking it – Baking your sourdough without a Dutch oven or pizza stone
