Sourdough Baking Schedule Calculator
Calculate your sourdough baking timeline backwards from when you want fresh bread.
Plan bulk fermentation, proofing, and bake times around your schedule.
Why sourdough timing is critical:
Unlike commercial yeast bread, sourdough fermentation is driven by wild yeast and bacteria in your starter. The timing shifts with temperature, so warm kitchens ferment fast and cool kitchens ferment slowly. Underproof and the bread is dense and gummy. Overproof and the loaf collapses in the oven with a flat, gummy interior.
A standard sourdough timeline:
| Stage | Typical Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter feeding to peak | 4-8 hours | Use at peak activity |
| Autolyse (optional) | 20-60 minutes | Flour + water resting |
| Mix, fold, and strengthen | 30-60 minutes | 3-4 sets of stretch-and-fold |
| Bulk fermentation | 4-12 hours | Temp-dependent (see below) |
| Pre-shape and bench rest | 20-30 minutes | |
| Shape and final proof | 1-4 hours room temp OR 8-16 hours fridge | |
| Bake | 45-55 minutes | Dutch oven at 475-500°F, lid off after 20 |
| Cool before slicing | 60 minutes minimum | Non-negotiable, see below |
The calculator works this chain backwards from the moment you want to slice the loaf, so the number you type is the time bread is on the table, not the time it goes in the oven.
Bulk fermentation by temperature:
| Dough Temp | Bulk Time |
|---|---|
| 65°F (18°C) | 10-12 hours |
| 70°F (21°C) | 6-8 hours |
| 75°F (24°C) | 4-6 hours |
| 78°F (26°C) | 3-4 hours |
| 80°F (27°C) | 2-3 hours |
The cold retard advantage:
Shaping the dough and placing it in the refrigerator for 8-16 hours (cold proofing) develops deeper flavor and gives you scheduling flexibility. You can bake in the morning from a fridge-proofed loaf started the night before, or leave it up to 72 hours for extra sour flavor.
About that starter feed:
The schedule assumes your starter peaks about 6 hours after feeding, which is roughly a 1:2:2 feed at 75°F. Feed it 1:5:5 and the peak is more like 10 to 14 hours out, so push the feeding time back accordingly. Our starter feeding ratio calculator works out the peak window for whatever ratio you use.
Baker’s percentage reminder:
A standard sourdough (75% hydration):
- 450g bread flour (100%)
- 337g water (75%)
- 90g active starter (20%)
- 9g salt (2%)
Total dough weight: 886g, which yields one 750g loaf after baking (bread loses about 15% of its weight as steam).
A pedantic but useful note: the starter itself is roughly half flour and half water, so the true hydration of that dough is 382g of water against 495g of flour, or 77%. Bakers quote the 75% figure anyway because counting the starter separately is what makes recipes comparable.
Why the cooling hour is not optional:
The loaf is still cooking when it leaves the oven. Starch retrogradation is still setting the crumb and steam is still escaping. Cut it at twenty minutes and you get a gummy, compressed interior and a crust that goes soft within the hour. The schedule builds in a full hour on a rack, and that hour is why the loaf you cut at breakfast tastes better than the one you cut standing at the oven.
When to know bulk fermentation is done:
The dough should increase by 50-75% in volume and have a domed top with visible bubbles. The dough should feel airy and jiggly, not dense. The “poke test” (dough springs back slowly when poked) is unreliable, so go by volume increase instead.
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
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