Sourdough recipes made a strong comeback in 2020 and everyone started baking. Some did it for the love of bread, others for nutritional benefits, and still others had more personal reasons. Whatever the inspiration, so many of us have been enjoying this fermented favorite for a while now.
Like many of you, I picked up sourdough recipes and tried my hand at the process when grocery stores began experiencing supply shortages and life got a little different. Silver linings, right? I did some reading and learned that sourdough recipes are a little different than other homemade bread recipes, and are loaded with nutritional benefits. But it was a little intimidating following new sourdough recipes (there’s no such thing as quick sourdough recipes), learning to measure by weight, and finding sourdough recipes to replace old favorites.
Over the last few years, I’ve found three sourdough recipes that I keep coming back to, so now I’m sharing them, and their creators, with you.
Before we dig in to these recipes, I want to be abundantly clear: I cannot and do not take credit for the recipes you are about to see. These recipes come from three different bakers who I found over the years on Instagram. These recipes are entirely theirs and a reflection of their time and dedication to sourdough and all of its perfect adaptations.
In each recipe, I have credited the baker responsible for that recipe as well as linked to their private blogs where you can find a host of other helpful sourdough recipes, baking tips, and general sourdough advice.
A note of advice: If you’re new to the art of sourdough, be it homemade sourdough bread recipes, easy sourdough discard recipes, sourdough dessert recipes, or anything else sourdough, I cannot recommend enough finding a tribe of bakers, experienced or not, in person or virtually, to inspire, motivate, encourage, and educate on the art of baking with sourdough. Anyone can do it, sure, but having a community as a sounding board goes a long way.
Without these pioneers in the sourdough world, I might have given up on sourdough recipes long ago. So I share them here, now, as an expression of thanks for their endless online instruction, demonstrations, and constant support of people embarking on their own sourdough baking journeys. I hope you benefit from their expertise and enjoy these recipes as much as I do.
Sourdough Recipes: #1, the Sandwich Loaf
This one is my staple. I wanted easy sourdough bread recipes, something soft like store-bought bread but that had the nutrition of fermented sourdough, and Audrianna over at Southworth Sourdough’s softest sourdough sandwich loaf recipe did not disappoint. It is light, fluffy, lightly soured, and also buttery smooth. As an added perk, I use honey as my choice sweetener and find that in the rare event that a loaf makes it a full week or more in the pantry, it’s still mold-free. How’s that for a win?
Ingredients:
250g Mature Leaven (for overnight ferment use 1:3:3 with 30g starter, 110g water, 110g bread flour; for the morning of use 1:2:2 with 50g starter, 100g water, 100g flour)
43g butter
6g sea salt (I use Redmond Real Salt in all of these recipes)
60g sugar (sub maple syrup or honey)
450g whole milk
780 g all-purpose flour
Melted butter to brush on the baked crust
Directions: Mix the leaven and let it rest until it reaches its peak, doubling or tripling in size into a dome shape. (The 1:3:3 ratio takes roughly 12 hours, the 1:2:2 takes roughly 6 hours.)
In a small saucepan, combine and melt the butter, salt, and sugar/sugar substitute until warm but not hot. Pour in milk and mix until warm.
Pour the saucepan mixture into a bowl with about 150g of the flour and the mature leaven. Whisk together to incorporate. Slowly add in the flour and mix on a low setting until just combined and shaggy. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, knead the mix in a stand mixer (or by hand) for 10-15 minutes until you can stretch a small amount of dough as thin as possible without tearing—you should be able to see light through the stretched dough.
Knead into a tight ball and return to bowl and cover again. Proof for 2-3 hours.
After proofing, punch down the dough and separate it into two equal parts. Shape each piece by rolling out and folding it back in to make a small log shape. Place each log into a loaf pan, seam side down, and cover for a second proofing. Proof for another 2-3 hours until doubled in size and puffy.
After the second proof, preheat the oven to 375°F. Slash the dough diagonally with a bread lame to allow for expansion. Bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the pans and bake for another 20 minutes.
Once baked, remove the loaves from the pans quickly to cool on a wire rack and brush with melted butter. Wait at least 20 minutes before cutting.
You can freeze the second loave to save for a later date.
Read More: How to Start Making Homemade Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Recipes: #2, Sourdough Waffles
Who doesn’t love a good waffle? Maurizio at The Perfect Loaf nailed it with this waffle recipe. It’s savory, it’s sweet, and it hits all the key requirements for good sourdough recipes and perfect waffles. Technically, this recipe falls under sourdough starter discard recipes, but you can also use this with a fed and active starter too. Because it is a bit of a process, I like to double the below recipe and freeze the extras for an easy grab-and-go breakfast. They freeze easily and retain their flavor and crunch when reheated in the toaster oven.
Ingredients:
460g buttermilk
55g water (use only to adjust batter consistency if needed)
113g butter
100g sourdough starter
250g flour
14g sugar
2 eggs
5g sea salt
3g baking soda
Directions: The night before, add the buttermilk and melted/cooled butter to stand mixer. Add starter and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle on sugar and whisk in flour. Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight.
In the morning, warm the eggs to room temperature. Sift baking soda and salt onto the proofed batter.
Crack the eggs, placing the whites in one bowl and the yolks in another. Whisk the whites until they form stiff peaks. Scramble the egg yolks.
Pour the yolks into the batter and gently stir to combine. Then fold in the egg whites gently until just incorporated.
Cook on your preferred waffle iron and serve hot, ideally with butter and syrup.
Read More: The Incredible Benefits of Fermented Food + Recipes!
Sourdough Recipes: #3, Sourdough Crackers
If you are experienced with sourdough recipes, you know that part of the process is cutting your starter and discarding part of it routinely as you feed it to keep it healthy and active. One of the many things I love about this cracker recipe from Deanna with Homestead and Chill is that it uses the discard specifically. That extra ripe discard lends bulk flavor to these crackers, keeping them a nice crunchy health snack and the perfect addition to any charcutier board. My only caution to you: prepare for addiction.
Ingredients:
1/2C whole wheat flour
1/2C unbleached white flour
1C unfed active sourdough starter discard
1/2tsp sea salt
1/4C coconut oil
1/4C chopped fresh herbs or 2tbsp dried
Olive oil for brushing
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling on top
Directions: In a medium mixing bowl, combine the wheat flour, white flour, sourdough starter, herbs, salt, and coconut oil. (You’ll want to soften the coconut oil so that it is easy to work with and doesn’t form clumps.)
Mix thoroughly until the dough is uniform. It should not be sticky.
Divide the dough ball into two equal parts. Form each part into a flattened rectangle, and place it on a covered plate or wrap it in plastic. The dough should not be able to dry out.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. The longer the dough rests, the more it will ferment. But it will also get more firm and more difficult to work with.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Cut a piece of parchment paper to roughly the size of a baking sheet and lightly dust the paper with flour. Roll the dough out on the paper until it is nice and thin, about 1/16th of an inch thick.
Lightly brush the rolled-out dough with olive oil, then sprinkle with coarse salt.
Cut the dough into rows of square crackers (a pizza cutter or pastry cutter works great for this). Poke the top of each cracker with a fork.
Repeat this process for the second piece of dough.
Slide the parchment paper with dough onto a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, until the crackers turn light golden brown.
When done, immediately transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!
Read More: Baking Bread at Home Made Easy
Sourdough recipes are often more time-consuming to make, find, test, and perfect. But the flavor and health benefits far outweigh the struggles of getting there; the journey with sourdough recipes is all part of the process.
(If you’re feeling inspired but don’t have a sourdough starter yet, you can absolutely still get started on your own sourdough journey. You can find a friend who makes sourdough recipes and ask them to share – trust me, they’ll be excited to share the love and probably their knowledge – buy a starter, or you can make your own starter from scratch.)
These three sourdough recipes are tried and tested, and I can promise you won’t regret taking the time to try them. Each of their respective creators has many more wonderful recipes to share. So have fun, explore new recipes, and enjoy adding these three sourdough recipes to your personal cookbook.
WANT TO READ MORE?
Check out Daily Mom’s Food N’ Recipes Section for more sourdough recipes, advice, tips, and tricks.
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