No.72 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Basic Country Sourdough

Made famous by Chad Robertson

Photo: Tomascastelazo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Tartine Bread, 2010.

Tartine's country loaf taught a generation of home bakers to keep a starter, and it was the bread everyone made in 2020.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in Tartine Bread.

Ingredients

• For the leaven: 1 tbsp (20 g) active sourdough starter, 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (100 g) flour (half white, half whole wheat), 1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp (100 g) water at 78F (25C)
• For the dough: 3 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp (750 ml) water at 80F (27C), divided
• 7 1/2 cups (900 g) white bread flour
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp (100 g) whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp (20 g) fine sea salt
• Rice flour, for the baskets

Steps

1. The night before, mix the leaven: stir the starter, flour and water together, cover, and leave at cool room temperature overnight, 10 to 12 hours. It's ready when a spoonful floats in water.
2. In a large bowl, stir 200 g of the leaven into 700 g of the water. Add both flours and mix by hand until no dry bits remain. Cover and rest 30 minutes to 4 hours.
3. Add the salt and the last 50 g water, squeezing and folding it through until the dough comes back together.
4. Bulk rise for 3 to 4 hours at about 78F (25C). Every 30 minutes for the first 2 1/2 hours, give it a series of folds: wet your hand, lift one side of the dough, fold it over, turn the bowl a quarter, and repeat four times. The dough is ready when it's 20 to 30 percent bigger, airy and billowy.
5. Tip it onto an unfloured counter and cut it in two. Shape each loosely into a round with a bench scraper and rest 20 to 30 minutes.
6. Shape each into a tight loaf: flour the top, flip it, fold the bottom third up, the sides in, and the top down, then roll it over so the seam is underneath. Put seam side up in baskets or towel-lined bowls dusted with a rice-and-wheat flour mix.
7. Let them rise 3 to 4 hours at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate overnight (8 to 12 hours) for a tangier loaf.
8. Heat the oven to 500F (260C) with a lidded Dutch oven inside for 45 minutes. Turn one loaf onto a piece of parchment, score the top with a razor or sharp knife, and lower it into the pot.
9. Cover and bake 20 minutes. Turn the oven to 450F (230C), uncover, and bake 20 to 25 minutes more, until the crust is very dark brown. Cool on a rack at least 1 hour before slicing. Reheat the pot and bake the second loaf.

Chef's tips

• A dark crust is the point. Pale crust means flat flavor.
• Weigh everything. Cups are given, but this is a loaf where grams make the difference.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson: get the book, No. 23 on The 100 Greatest Cookbooks.

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