Free live class on Zoom

Watch a working baker make a sourdough loaf live, step by step

For home bakers who have never made sourdough: see each stage up close, and ask Ailsa your questions as she bakes.

Saturday 5 December 202610amUK time

The class goes live in

Saturday 5 December 2026 at 10am UK time

Your First Sourdough Loaf

Head and shoulders portrait of a smiling baker in a flour-dusted apron in a bakery kitchen, cane proving baskets stacked on the shelves behind her, soft morning light

Your host

Ailsa Barr

Founder and head baker, fifteen years at the ovens of a working bakery

A baker in a flour-dusted apron looking at the camera across a floured wooden bench in a Leith bakery kitchen, a round scored sourdough loaf beside her, window light

Meet your baker

Hi, I'm Ailsa. I trained on a bakery's early shift

Baking hundreds of loaves a morning, I learned to read dough: how it should look, feel and smell at every stage. Seeing it done is the quickest way to learn that, so that's how I teach.

On Saturday I'll make a sourdough loaf from start to finish on camera, at a beginner's pace, and stop to answer your questions as we go. I read every photo my learners send me and reply with what to change next time, so bring me the questions you'd ask a baker at your side.

3,200home bakers taught online

9,400learner loaf photos answered

4.9 / 5average rating from live classes

Ailsa

The class, start to finish

From ripe starter to baked loaf in six stages

Tell when a starter is ready

See how a ripe starter looks, smells and rises, so you'll know the morning your own is ready to mix.

Mix the dough by hand

Flour, water, salt and starter, mixed by hand in one bowl. You'll know how sticky your own dough should feel at the start.

Stretch and fold as it proves

Watch the dough turn from shaggy to smooth over a few sets of folds, and learn the signs that it's ready to shape.

Shape a tight round loaf

See the folds and turns that build tension, so your loaf holds its height in the oven instead of spreading flat.

Score it and bake it

One quick cut with a razor blade, then into a hot oven. You'll know how deep to cut, and when your loaf is baked.

Put your questions to Ailsa

Ask at any stage, from supermarket flour to a cold kitchen, and leave with your own questions answered.

From a past live class

I'd never made sourdough and had no idea what a ready starter looked like. Seeing Ailsa's on camera, then asking her about my cold kitchen, made it click. My first loaf rose properly, and I was proud to slice into it.

Fiona M.Home baker, Portobello, Edinburgh

Save my free seat