Blog › Recipes › Sourdough
By Amanda Paa – Updated November 7, 2023
5 from 5 votes
6 comments
If you're looking for delicious sourdough bread recipes, start here! From a basic sourdough for beginners, to Jalapeno Cheese Loaf, and a Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich bread, there are so many great options for using your sourdough starter. Each recipe has step-by-step instructions to help you learn how to make beautiful sourdough at home.
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Your sourdough starter is active and bubbly, and you’re ready to bake! These 10 sourdough bread recipes are a wonderful place to begin, yielding delicious loaves. Here you’ll find everything from my Everyday Sourdough to a unique Dill Pickle Sourdough, Spelt Sourdough, and Toasted Walnut & Honey Sourdough Bread. Plus a recipe for Rustic Rye Sourdough at the bottom of this post!
What is a sourdough starter?
A sourdough starter is a mixture of flour (I use organic all-purpose) and filtered water that has captured and cultivated wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria from the environment. It is used to naturally leaven bread and other baked goods, giving them a distinctive sour flavor and helping them rise. Sourdough bread is known for its unique taste and texture, which is achieved through the fermentation of these microorganisms.
Even though I’ve been baking for quite some time, the magic of sourdough never gets old. The idea that beautiful homemade bread emerges from three simple ingredients: flour, water, and salt is fascinating.
As you get started, here are my favorite sourdough tools:
- Large Weck Jars for holding starter
- Digital Scale
- Bench Scraper
- Round Banneton
- Bread Lame
- Challenger Breadware Pan
In each recipe, I’ve included step-by-step instructions to guide you on your baking journey. If you’re new to baking sourdough, you might find my Sourdough Starter FAQ helpful.
If you’re a sourdough beginner, or you’re advanced baker, you’re sure to to find an artisan sourdough bread in this list that you’ll love. With each bake you’ll learn new things, and find a sourdough process that works best in your kitchen.
1
Delicious Everyday Sourdough Bread Recipe
A naturally fermented sourdough bread that has a fluffy interior and golden brown crust. This is a great recipe for sourdough beginners, and walks you through the entire process of making a basic sourdough bread.
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2
Rustic Rye Sourdough Bread
A light rye sourdough bread with a soft crumb that you can make at home with active sourdough starter. Wonderful flavor and perfect for making rye sandwiches!
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3
Easy Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Soft and tender whole wheat sourdough sandwich bread that's easy to make with an overnight bulk fermentation. And the stand mixer does all the kneading for you, no stretching and folding!
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4
Top-Rated Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough Bread
This homemade sourdough bread has cheddar cheese and pickled jalapeños folded into the dough that give it fabulous flavor! The loaf is a little spicy with pockets of melted cheese.
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5
Homemade Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread (beginner friendly)
A basic recipe for naturally fermented, whole wheat sourdough bread. Using a blend of whole wheat with bread flour and all purpose flour give the loaf a nice structure with tender crumb, and nutty flavor.
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6
Dill Pickle Sourdough Bread
This sourdough bread has chopped dill pickles, pickle brine, and dill mixed into the dough for incredible flavor! Soft crumb, golden crust. Uses active sourdough starter and an overnight cold retard makes this recipe convenient to make.
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7
Toasted Walnut and Honey Sourdough Bread
A delicious sourdough bread recipe that is lightly sweetened with honey and studded with toasted walnuts. The crumb is soft and the flavor is incredible! Naturally leavened with sourdough starter.
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Simple Spelt Sourdough Bread
Made with whole-grain spelt flour, this sourdough bread has the most delicious nutty flavor and soft, chewy crumb. The outside is crisp and beautifully golden brown.
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9
Easy Seeded Sourdough Bread Recipe
Add extra flavor and nutrition to sourdough by folding in toasted pepita and sesame seeds. It's an easy technique, folding in the seeds during the stretch and folds. The finished loaf has a golden crust and soft, chewy crumb.
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10
Using active sourdough starter, you'll make the tastiest loaf of Sun-Dried Tomato & Cheddar Sourdough, with pockets of cheese and pops of sweet-tart tomatoes in each bite!
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11
Whole Grain Sourdough Bread with Red Fife Flour
A naturally fermented sourdough bread recipe made with red fife flour, which is a heritage wheat. The mild, nutty flavor is fantastic!
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12
Tart Cherry Seeded Sourdough Bread
Homemade sourdough bread with a poppyseed and sunflower seed crust, and dried tart cherries folded into the dough. The flavor is dynamite.
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13
5-Ingredient Einkorn Sourdough Bread
This healthy loaf of homemade einkorn sourdough is full of deep, rich flavor and has a golden brown crust. It's absolutely perfect for toast, with smaller holes and soft crumb. The tang from the natural fermentation and sourdough starter is lovely, too!
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13 Sourdough Bread Recipes for Home Bakers, plus Rye Sourdough
A homemade rye sourdough bread recipe, made with active sourdough starter. Plus, 13 more tasty sourdough bread recipes for home bakers!
5 from 5 votes
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Prep Time :10 minutes minutes
Cook Time :45 minutes minutes
Yield: 1 loaf
Author: Amanda Paa
SCALE:
Ingredients
- 55 grams active sourdough starter
- 280 grams slightly warmer than room temperature water, about 80 degrees F
- 15 grams honey
- 100 grams fine rye flour
- 260 grams bread flour
- 40 grams whole wheat flour
- 7 grams fine salt
Instructions
Before beginning, it will be helpful to watch theseSHORT VIDEOSto see me make this bread so you see that the dough will be stickier than normal, but it will come together – you just have to trust!
Add starter, water, and honey to a bowl. Whisk thoroughly until combined, with a fork. Add flours, and mix together first with the fork to start to incorporate, then with your hands until a shaggy dough is formed, and the bits of flour left just disappear. Sprinkle the salt on top and do not mix in, just leave it on top. Cover with a damp cloth.
Autolyse: let dough sit for one hour, covered and undisturbed.
Bulk ferment: Now you will knead the salt that is sitting on top, into the dough for about 1 min 15 seconds. There is no precise way to do this, just think of working the dough through your hands and up against the bowl, push and pull. You will start to feel the dough relax a bit around 1 minute. Continue for about 15 or 30 seconds more. Then leave the dough alone, covered, for 30 minutes. This counts as what would be your first set of stretch and folds.
After those 30 minutes pass, perform a set ofstretch and folds. Repeat 2 more times.
Now you will let sit, undisturbed and covered with a damp cloth, for about 7ish hours at 70 degrees F. If the temperature in your home is above 70, this will take less time, vice versa. You will know it is finished with its bulk ferment when the dough has risen about double, is smooth and puffy on top, with a few bubbles. It will not be as jiggly as some sourdough you’ve made before.
At this point, lightly dust your work surface with flour. Put dough onto the work surface, and pre-shape.This videowill show you what that means. Let sit for 15 minutes on your work surface.
Then shape your dough,using this method as a guide.
Place dough into your flour dustedbanneton, (or flour dusted linen lined banneton) seam side up. (Optional, you can wait 15 minutes after placing it in banneton, and pinch the perimeters of the dough into the center to hold the shape even more, called stitching.) The dough will now go through its final rise. You can do this on the counter, which will take about 2 hours at 70 degrees F for the dough to puff up and be jiggly. It will not quite double. OR you can do the final rise overnight in the refrigerator, with the banneton covered in a plastic bag or with a very damp cloth. You need this for holding moisture in.
Time to bake. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F, with your dutch oven preheating inside the oven. When the oven is preheated, flip your dough out gently onto parchment paper and score your dough. If you did the final rise in the refrigerator, take it straight from fridge to scoring. You should score it cold, and DO NOT need to let it come to room temp.
Then put dough into the dutch oven on the parchment, and put cover on. Turn oven down to 450 degrees F and slide dutch oven in. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove cover.
Turn heat down to 430 degrees F, and bake for 25 more minutes, until crust is golden brown and crackly. Remove from oven, and remove bread from dutch oven and place onto a cooling rack.
Wait AT LEAST one hour to cool otherwise, the interior will be gummy.
