How to Schedule Your First Sourdough Bake

Why Timing Matters

If you have ever pulled a flat, over-proofed loaf from your oven at midnight, you know the frustration of sourdough timing. Fermentation phases are time-sensitive windows, not suggestions. Miss the peak of your bulk fermentation by a few hours, and you are starting over.

But here is the good news: timing your bake does not have to mean setting alarms at 3am. With backward scheduling, you can work from when you want fresh bread on your counter and figure out exactly when to start each step.

The Basic Sourdough Timeline

A typical sourdough loaf involves five main phases:

Total active time: maybe 45 minutes. Total elapsed time: 8-24 hours depending on temperature and method.

The Backward Scheduling Method

Instead of asking "when should I start?", ask "when do I want bread?"

Example: You want fresh bread for Saturday lunch at noon.

Working backward:

• 12:00pm Saturday: Bread done
• 11:00am Saturday: Start baking (45 min bake + cooling)
• 11:00am Saturday: Take dough from fridge (cold bake from fridge)
• 11:00pm Friday: Shape and put in fridge (overnight cold retard)
• 3:00pm Friday: Start bulk fermentation (8 hours at room temp)
• 2:30pm Friday: Mix dough
• 12:30pm Friday: Start autolyse

Your actual start time: Friday at 12:30pm. You touch the dough three times on Friday (autolyse, mix, shape) then bake Saturday morning.

Respecting Your Sleep Window

The cold retard is your secret weapon. By putting shaped dough in the refrigerator, you press pause on fermentation. This gives you:

• Flexibility: The dough is happy in the fridge for 8-48 hours
• Better flavor: Slow, cold fermentation develops more complex flavors
• Morning baking: Wake up, preheat oven, bake. No pre-dawn mixing.

A cold dough is also easier to score. Those dramatic ears that open in the oven? They come from cold dough meeting hot air.

Your First Weekend Bake: A Template Schedule

Here is a concrete schedule for bread ready Saturday at noon:

Friday:

• 12:30pm - Mix flour and water (autolyse)
• 2:30pm - Add starter and salt, mix thoroughly
• 3:00pm - 7:00pm - Bulk fermentation with 4 stretch-and-folds every 30 minutes
• 7:00pm - Pre-shape
• 7:30pm - Final shape, into banneton, into fridge

Saturday:

• 10:00am - Preheat oven to 500F with Dutch oven inside
• 11:00am - Score cold dough, bake 20 min covered, 25 min uncovered
• 11:45am - Remove from oven
• 12:00pm - Ready to slice (after cooling)

Two active sessions on Friday (about 20 minutes each), one bake session Saturday morning.

Ready to Try It?

Doughflow calculates all of this automatically. Tell us when you want bread, and we work backward to give you a timeline that fits your life.

Get started with Doughflow - free for home bakers.