How to Make Sourdough Bread—Even Taylor Swift Is Doing It

Taylor Swift talked about more than her new album during a September 2025 appearance on New Heights, the podcast hosted by her pro football player fiancé, Travis Kelce, and his brother and former pro football player Jason Kelce. Among other things, she revealed her passion for baking sourdough bread.

“Right now, we're very deep in a sourdough obsession that has taken over my life,” Swift shared on the podcast.

The pop princess is in good company. The 2020 pandemic rekindled interest in sourdough, an ancient technique once favored by California gold miners in mid-19th-century San Francisco. What’s the appeal? It’s flavorful, fragrant, and easier to digest than conventional yeasted bread.

But as any beginner soon learns, making sourdough bread can be tricky to master. From cultivating the starter to baking the perfect loaf, it’s a process that requires patience. Here are some expert tips to help you bake the perfect sourdough bread.

The starter

Sourdough bread begins with a good starter—a simple mix of flour and water that, over time, creates a living culture of wild yeast and beneficial bacteria. This mixture produces carbon dioxide, which gives sourdough bread its signature tang and airy texture—no packaged yeast required. With regular feeding, it can live indefinitely. Refrigeration slows things down, so you don’t have to feed it daily.

Where to get a starter

The easiest way to begin is to borrow some from a friend. Lisa Keys, a former champion of Food Network’s Chopped, has been keeping hers alive for 20 years and happily shares it with friends. “Sourdough starter is resilient,” says Keys, who runs the food blog Good Grief Cook.

No sourdough-savvy friends? You can buy a starter kit online or at some specialty grocery stores. These kits usually come with dried starter and clear instructions. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, you can make your own from scratch.

Making a starter from scratch

To make a starter, combine equal parts flour and unfiltered water in a nonreactive container (glass, stainless steel, or ceramic). This simple mix creates the environment for wild yeast and bacteria to grow. While you can use just one type of flour, some bakers prefer to mix flour types for the best results.

Jessie Johnson of Life as a Strawberry, a food and recipe site, starts with equal parts all-purpose and rye flour. Maggie Turansky of No Frills Kitchen uses a ratio of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour at first and then switches to just all-purpose or bread flour for the regular “feedings” she gives twice a day.

Feeding and maintenance of the starter

In the early stages of sourdough, regular feedings are key to encouraging a healthy, active starter. Turansky recommends beginning with a 1:1:1 ratio: one part starter, one part flour, and one part water. Each time you feed the culture, you’ll need to discard some starter to maintain this ratio and keep your container from overflowing.

Be sure to use dechlorinated water (such as filtered tap or spring water), as chlorinated tap water can harm the microbes you’re trying to cultivate.

As your starter matures, its feeding needs will change. Johnson says a young starter often is “happy” at a 1:2:2 ratio (starter, flour, water), while stronger, more established starters can handle larger feeds. Turansky, for example, uses a 1:4:4 ratio once a week, typically feeding it at night so that it’s ready to bake with in the morning.

If you’re not baking regularly, you can slow fermentation by refrigerating the starter or lowering the feeding ratio. “I’ve let mine go for over a month with no feedings, and it’s bounced right back,” Turansky says.

To revive a dormant starter, Keys recommends mixing equal parts starter, water, and all-purpose flour.

The bake

A strong, active starter will double in size within a few hours after feeding and smell pleasantly sour. That’s your signal it’s ready for baking.

“Many guides will say that it takes about a week for a new starter to get established,” says Turansky, “but don’t be alarmed if it takes longer; it almost always does in my experience.”

If you’re a first-time baker, don’t overcomplicate it. Start with a simple, no-knead sourdough recipe; many of the blogs mentioned earlier are great resources. “All you need is flour, water, salt, and your starter,” says Jamie Saechao, who writes the blog Ginger Homemaking.

The first few tries might feel a little clumsy. That’s normal. Regardless of the results, repeat the recipe and take notes. Small changes in temperature, flour type, or timing can affect the outcome, so pay attention and adjust as you go.

In other words, experiment, observe, repeat.

“My number-one tip for success is to have fun with the process,” says Saechao. Ultimately, sourdough bread baking is part art, part science, and learning as you go.

And if your first few loaves come out too flat, too dense, or not quite what you pictured, take the advice of Taylor Swift and, as the chorus of one of her hit songs goes, “shake it off.” A healthy starter means you get another chance.