Healthy Sourdough Bread Recipes: A Comprehensive Guide

Sourdough bread has surged in popularity due to its unique flavor, texture, and potential health benefits. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of healthy sourdough bread recipes, addressing common misconceptions and offering step-by-step instructions for both beginners and experienced bakers.

Understanding Sourdough and Addressing Misconceptions

Many people are initially intimidated by sourdough bread making due to perceived complexities and time commitments. However, with the right knowledge and techniques, sourdough can be a simple and rewarding process. Here are some common misconceptions:

You DO NOT have to throw away any of your sourdough starter.

If you have a mature starter you’ve gotten from a friend or family member then you do not need to throw away any of your sourdough starter when you go to feed it. The reason this gets confusing for some people is because when you are MAKING your own sourdough starter (aka literally starting with just flour and water) that is when you need to actively be feeding and throwing away starter. This is because each time you feed your starter (since it isn’t mature) you need to be feeding it equal parts water and flour. This means if you never discarded any of the sourdough starter you would end up having to feed it crazy amounts of flour and water in order to keep the proportions correct. If you have a mature starter, you can simply feed it with water and flour and keep everything.

You DO NOT have to feed your sourdough starter every day.

As you can see in my easy sourdough bread recipe routine video, I store my sourdough starter in the refrigerator take it out, and feed it ONLY when I want to use it, which is normally once a week. So for instance, I will take out my sourdough starter on Sunday morning, feed it water and flour, mix it, and let it sit for four+ hours until it is bubbly and active. Then Sunday afternoon I will make use of some of the bubbly starter to make my easy sourdough bread dough. Then I will put the lid back on my sourdough starter and place it right back in the refrigerator.

You DO NOT need to feed your starter before putting it in the refrigerator.

After using fed starter to make dough, biscuit, or cookie dough, just place it right back in the refrigerator without feeding it again. If you used a lot of your sourdough starter for your recipe and you feel like you don’t have much left, then I would feed it a bit of flour and water and then place it back in the refrigerator so it is at a decent level.

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Making sourdough bread takes so long.

Yes, making sourdough is a process that overall takes a couple of days minimum, BUT the actual active kitchen time of you doing any sort of work is literally 30 minutes or LESS. This is why I love this specific easy sourdough bread recipe so much and I’m able to keep up with it while still being a very present mom of three.

Getting Started with Sourdough

Obtaining a Sourdough Starter

The first step in making sourdough bread is obtaining a healthy and active starter. Here are some options:

1. Ask friends or family: If you know someone who bakes sourdough, they may be willing to share a portion of their mature starter.
2. Purchase a dehydrated starter: Several online retailers sell dehydrated mature sourdough starters, which can be easily rehydrated with water and flour. Ballerina Farm is a recommended source.
3. Make your own starter from scratch: While this option requires more time and effort, it allows you to create a starter with your preferred flour and characteristics.

Making a Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter

It is possible to create a gluten-free sourdough starter using whole grain gluten-free flours like sorghum, brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, or millet flour. Bakerita has a full blog post on how to make your own gluten-free sourdough starter. Using an already mature gluten-free starter would also be really helpful if you’re just starting out.

Determining When Your Sourdough Starter Is Ready

A simple and practical way to determine if your starter is ready is to check if it doubles in size and is bubbly. You can also perform a float test: drop a small piece of starter into a glass of water. If it floats, it's ready to be made into easy sourdough bread. If it sinks, the sourdough starter needs to be fed a few more times in order to get a good rise.

Feeding Your Sourdough Starter

There are a couple of ways to feed your starter. For this easy sourdough bread recipe, I love feeding my starter by how it physically looks. I don’t measure anything. I add the unbleached flour and water, mix it, and look at the consistency. It should look like a thick pancake batter. If you’re more of a measuring person, you can feed it equal parts starter, water, and flour. This means the ratio 1:1:1. For instance if you have 20 grams of starter you’ll feed it 20 grams of flour and 20 grams of water. A scale is helpful here. You can also try 1 cup starter, 1 cup flour, and ½ cup- ¾ cup water. Basically, if it looks like a thick pancake batter, you’re good and it should start bubbling up and doubling in size within 4-12 hours depending on the humidity and environment (sourdough loves humidity & warmth).

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Easy Sourdough Bread Recipe

This recipe uses only fed and bubbly starter, water, unbleached flour, and pink Himalayan salt.

Ingredients:

• Fed and bubbly sourdough starter
• Water
• Unbleached flour
• Pink Himalayan salt

Instructions:

1. Make the dough: Follow the recipe listed in the recipe card of this blog post. I have all the measurements and steps listed there.
2. Stretch and fold: Grab a portion of the dough, stretch it upwards, then stretch it toward the front of your bowl. Rotate your bowl and grab another section of dough, stretch it upwards and then fold it over to the front of the bowl again. Rotate the bowl again and repeat stretch and folds until the dough is feeling tighter and getting too hard to stretch and fold (4x) then let the dough rest. After it has rested around 30 minutes- 1 hour or more, repeat stretch and folds. Do this at least 3 times before refrigerating overnight. Dough should be on the counter for a minimum 4-6 hours.
3. Refrigerate overnight: This is called bulk fermentation. Cover your dough with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning your dough will look puffier and larger. This is good! Normally shape my loaves sometime during that next day. Don’t feel like you have to do it first thing in the morning. You can shape your loaves whenever you get a chance or right before dinner time to have freshly baked bread.
4. Shape bread: (check below for…
5. Score and Bake: 30 minutes before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven, with the dutch oven inside, to 450°F (232°C). Using long silicone gloves, carefully remove the hot dutch oven and take the lid off. Score the top of the dough with a razor or a sharp knife. Once again, use the parchment paper as a sling to lift the dough up and transfer it into the dutch oven. Place the lid on the dutch oven, return it to the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until crust is golden brown. (The internal temperature of the bread should be around 205-210°F (96-99°C) using a digital food thermometer.)
6. Cool: Transfer the baked bread to a cooling rack for 1-2 hours before slicing. The bread will continue to cook inside during this time. If you slice into it too soon, it will result in a gummy loaf.
7. Store: Keep the bread at room temperature, in a bread bag, wrapped in a kitchen towel or beeswax wrap. You can also store the bread, cut-side down, on a cutting board with a cake-stand top covering the bread. Do not refrigerate.

High-Fiber Sourdough Bread Recipe

This recipe incorporates whole wheat flour, seeds, and oats for a nutritious and flavorful bread.

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour
• Bread flour (13% protein)
• Water
• Active starter
• Salt
• Seeds (sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, ground flax)
• Rolled oats
• Honey
• Wheat bran

Instructions:

1. Prepare the dough: Add water, salt, and seeds to a large bowl. Then add the whole wheat flour. We can use the same amount of other whole grain flour as well, like spelt, rye, einkorn etc. Then add bread flour, which has 13 % protein in it. For making sourdough bread , it is advisable to use bread flour than all purpose flour or plain flour. Now combine everything together until there are no dry flour left. Cover and let it sit for around one hour.
2. Add the starter: After one hour, let’s add in the starter. We need to make sure that our starter is active and good. It should get doubled in size in around 6 hours after feeding it. It should smell yeasty and should taste pleasantly sour. When you drop a small portion of bubbly starter in water it should float, as it has lot of air inside it. Now incorporate the starter into the dough so that we will get a homogenous dough. Now we prepared the dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough ferment.
3. Bulk ferment the dough: The dough will bulk ferment for about 5-9 hours depending on the temperature. During the first half of this; that is first 2-3 hours, we can build the strength of our dough. Here in this healthy sourdough bread recipe with 2 rounds of brief stretch and folds between each 30 minutes. To stretch and fold, lightly damp your fingers (this will help the dough not to stick) and pull up on the side of the dough and fold it back down on itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Do this until you have stretched and folded all 4 sides of the dough. Turn the dough over, cover, and allow it to ferment for 30 more minutes until the next round.
4. Flatten the dough: Once you are done with the second round of stretch and fold, keep the dough covered for 1 hour. After one hour, let’s flatten the dough and then fold it so that it will create multiple layers. Spray the work surface with water(so that the dough will not stick to the surface) and then spread the dough evenly as possible to form a thin sheet. Then fold the dough from both sides and then lengthwise as in the video.
5. Coil fold: Keep this dough in a greased glass container. Cover and then wait for one hour. After one hour do one round of coil fold. Now cover and let the dough sit for until it gets 50% rise in volume. It may take 2-3 hours (a total of 5-6 hours of fermentation).
6. Transfer the dough: Transfer the dough onto a floured work surface. You will be rewarded with a Bread, with a thin, crunchy brown crust and airy, soft and tender crumb inside.

Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe

This recipe is designed for a soft and delicious sourdough sandwich bread, made with whole wheat flour and seeds.

Ingredients:

• Strong bread flour (at least 11% protein)
• Wholemeal flour
• Water
• Active starter
• Chia seeds
• Sunflower seeds
• Ground linseeds
• Blackstrap molasses (or honey/maple syrup)

Instructions:

1. Feed the starter: The night before I want to bake, I feed my starter. Because it’s being fed so far in advance, I feed my starter 3 times the amount of fresh flour as I do seed starter. This is so it slows it down so it doesn’t peak overnight before I’m ready to use it. So, overnight I’d feed my starter 1:3:3 (that’s 1 part starter, 3 parts flour, 3 parts water).
2. Combine ingredients: Combine all the dough ingredients except for the starter in a bowl and mix it into a sticky dough.
3. Autolyze: Leave the dough to sit for around 30 minutes to hydrate. Cover the bowl with a plate to stop it from drying out. This step is called the autolyze.
4. Add starter: After the dough has hydrated, add in the risen starter. This is a sticky job.
5. Coil folds: I let this dough rest for around 30 minutes, then perform 4 x sets of coil folds, one every 30 minutes. In between each fold, cover the dish with a plate to stop the dough from drying out. The dough is technically still very sticky. If you squished a dry hand into it, it would get stuck to your skin.
6. Rest: After 4 folds are completed, leave the dough to rest for another 30 minutes, then it’s time to shape the dough.
7. Shape: With the seams facing up, push the ball out onto the bench, and roll it up like you would a sleeping bag or a Swiss roll. Place the dough, seam side down into a paper-lined loaf tin. I really recommend lining it as every time I have tried it without baking paper, my bread has stuck.
8. Rise: Now leave it to rise in a warm place until has bulked out by about 50%. A warm room temperature will help the dough to rise. If necessary, create a warm spot such as an oven that has been lightly preheated and then turned off. In a warm spot like this, it should take approximately 3 hours, but it may take longer in cooler temperatures. It’s best to watch the dough and not the clock. The risen dough should look and feel airier if gently prodded with a wet finger.
9. Cold-proof: Now the dough is put in the fridge for cold-proof, where the fermentation is slowed down and the flavour is developed. This can be for a minimum of 4 hours or all the way up to 20 hours. The longer the cold-proof, the sourer the sourdough will taste.
10. Bake: The bread is baked for around 30-35 minutes. You will know it is done if you lift the dough out of the tin and tap the bottom of the bread.
11. Cool: Now it needs to cool right down, for a minimum of 2 hours before slicing it.

Essential Kitchen Items for Sourdough Baking

To ease the process of baking sourdough bread, have the following kitchen items on hand:

• Dutch oven: A Dutch oven helps crust the outside of the sourdough loaf while maintaining a soft center by steaming the dough as it bakes, much like a brick oven.
• Large mixing bowl: The dough will rise in a large bowl overnight. You need a large bowl since your dough may rise considerably, depending on how active your starter is!
• Dough scraper: Scrape the dough from the bowl to preserve air bubbles in the dough. Don’t deflate the dough!
• Proofing basket: These cute baskets help preserve the shape of the sourdough loaf during its final rise. If you don’t have room for proofing baskets, line a bowl with a tea towel coated with flour and let the dough rise in there.
• Bakers scale: a kitchen scale is highly recommended.
• Bench scraper: an essential tool in my opinion.
• Parchment paper: each piece can be used more than once.
• Banneton: 9" proofing baskets provide structure to the dough as it rises. Any similar sized bowl lined with a kitchen tea towel will achieve a similar result.
• Freezer thermometer: I place one on the counter near the dough.

Troubleshooting Common Sourdough Problems

• Why didn’t my sourdough bread rise? Make sure your starter has been recently fed and is active with lots of bubbles! This was a good learning experience for me.
• Why did my sourdough loaf spread out? The dough possibly wasn’t stretched and folded enough, so it didn’t have enough tension.
• How can I tell if my dough is over-proofed? If the dough is sticky and hard to shape, it's more than likely over-proofed. Take note of the temperature of your kitchen and adjust the rising time of your next bake accordingly.
• Why is my sourdough bread so sour? If your sourdough starter is not fed regularly, it can take on a more sour flavor because of a build up of lactic acid. To get a less sour flavor, feed your starter more frequently before you bake with it.
• Why is my sourdough bread not rising in the oven? More than likely the sourdough starter is not strong enough or the dough wasn't shaped properly before the second rise.
• What makes sourdough crust hard? A hard crust on the bottom of the loaf can be caused by a dutch oven that is too close to the heating element of the oven. An over-all hard crust can be caused by a high oven temperature or over-baking.

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tags: #healthy #meals #with #sourdough #bread