Sourdough Bread

Grades 9 to 12

For high school culinary classes, those who have experience with baking, meet daily, and have access to scales.
Students begin their own sourdough starter and use it to make sourdough bread.
Classes receive baking supplies, lesson plans, and other resources to bake and share.

How it works

This program is designed for high school classes with a foundational knowledge of baking principles and practices, such as reading recipes, using scales for measurement, and kneading bread dough. If your class hasn't baked bread before, we suggest starting with our Bake for Good FCS/Culinary program option, which is ideal for introducing yeast bread.

In this 3-week lesson, students will explore the science behind cultivating and maintaining a sourdough starter and then using it to bake delicious sourdough bread. Each team will produce two loaves: one for tasting at school and another for donation or sharing as an act of kindness.

Due to the daily attention required for sourdough starter development, your class schedule must be that you meet daily.

Weeks 1 and 2

Students work in teams of 2 or 3 to cultivate and maintain their own sourdough starters.
Teachers supervise the starters, check for mold, and refrigerate them overnight as needed.

Week 3

Teams build up their starter and bake the Rustic Sourdough Bread recipe, yielding two loaves: one to taste in class and one for sharing/donation.

Resource Materials

We provide flour, yeast, and bread bags based on the number of teams baking, and each student receives a dough scraper to take home.

Learn, Bake — and Share

At King Arthur Baking Company, building community through baking lies at the heart of our mission. The BFG bread recipe makes two loaves or a few dozen rolls, your students will extend the joy of their baking experience by sharing half of their baked goods as a donation to a food shelf, or as an act of kindness.