I really enjoy making sourdough breads. I haven't yet developed many original recipes, but there are some further down the page. Here are also some thoughts and some links to more information.

In my opinion, it is best to get your feet wet (or just your hands, I hope) making non - sourdough breads using commercial yeast. When you have more experience and a good feel for bread, then by all means try sourdoughs. This may just be another way of saying, "Do what I did."

What is Sourdough?

You may be surprised to learn that sourdough bread may be made of whole wheat or rye or other whole grains as well as white flour; the flavor may be tangy or "sour" or so mild that you would hardly recognize it as "sourdough." The commonality is in the traditional method of allowing the grains' own yeast to develop slowly until there are enough yeast to power the rise of the final dough. This longer fermentation results in improved flavor and nutrition.

To purists sourdough bread is made using no commercial yeast. Others think of sourdough as only a flavoring method and rely on commercial yeast for the final rise. They do this for speed or convenience or because they are following a recipe and don't know there is any other way. I think there is room for both approaches.

What is a starter?

Almost everyone knows that sourdough bread begins with a "starter." There is nothing mystical or magical about the starter; it is merely the vehicle for holding and nurturing the non commercial yeast between baking sessions. It contains yeast, friendly bacteria and the flour and water on which they feed. I recommend that you begin by using a good commercial starter or one from a friend. You will then know that the particular strain of yeast and its companion bacteria are stable and good tasting. With more experience you may want to try making your own starter from scratch. I have heard of making these starters with raisins, grapes, cabbage or other vegetables. Why not just use the yeast that nature provides us clinging to the grains themselves?

It's Easier than You Might Think

You may think sourdough starters are temperamental and troublesome, demanding special containers and regular attention. Not so. Ask yourself how breadmaking survived through the millennia before Pasteur. Do you think it was the arcane province of a select priesthood or the widespread practice of common folks like us? Starters can last for years (even centuries) with minimal care or concern on our part. I confess to neglecting my starters for long periods without negative effects. I use tap water in my starters though I have read that this is a fatal error. No one told that to the starter though.

For years I had tunnel vision when it came to sourdough. I thought only of making hearth breads with only flour, starter, water and salt. I am now using sourdough in many kinds of bread, modifying old recipes; often the only change is an adjustment in liquid to accommodate the wetness of my starter, omission of the commercial yeast, and breaking the process into different stages.

The basic process is to prepare the starter by feeding it and letting it froth, then at the peak of activity, adding water and half the flour in a bowl for what some call a sponge and others call a second starter, then letting this sit until really bubbly (bubbles throughout the batter, not just on top.) Finally the dough is made by adding the rest of the ingredients and kneading, shaping and allowing the final rise before baking. I may never buy yeast again.

The Busy People's Bread

It may take two days to make, but sourdough is more accommodating to work schedules; your attention is required only briefly at long intervals. Meanwhile, you are sleeping, at the job, in school, whatever.

General Characteristics and Tips

Generally sourdough breads have thin, crisp crusts without any special measures on your part.

I have always stressed the importance of good kneading to adequately develop the gluten in flour. Actually, there are also chemical ways to develop gluten. I am told that big commercial bread makers rely on this to make things easier. Sourdough naturally develops strong gluten without as much kneading. So you will find it easier to achieve that perfectly springy dough. And you can make very nice sourdough batter breads.

Because the gluten is so readily developed, I think it's a good idea to use plain old (unbleached) all purpose flour in feeding your starters, especially if you think you might want to make biscuits, pancakes, waffles and the like.

Having said that sourdoughs develop gluten, I must warn you that if the sponge or dough becomes too sour, the gluten will be degraded. This can happen from letting the sponge or dough sit too long at a warm temperature. It is important to try to catch each stage at its peak of yeast activity when it is foaming and bubbling and go on to the next stage.

Rye and whole wheat flours sour more easily than white. So the above caveat about oversouring applies mostly to rye and whole wheat breads. It is actually quite difficult to develop a very sour tasting white bread. Mostly you will make fine flavored white breads that few will instantly identify as sourdough. I once made a whole wheat brad that was sour enough to give me indigestion. Most of it was thrown out. If extra sour sourdough is what you hanker for try Barb Beck's two starter method.

The dough tends to dry out quite easily and should be covered whenever you are not actually working with it. I tend to use more plastic wrap than I ever did before.

The dough is also drying to your skin. Daily baking or handling starters (and the frequent handwashing) can cause dry peeling skin. I wasn't prepared for this, since I usually don't use hand cream. I found a little olive oil on my hands worked fine. I wouldn't want to get hand lotion into the bread dough anyway.

There seem to be more gooey bowls and containers to clean. Use cold water to rinse away most of the goo before washing with hot suds.

Use SD starter in quick breads, like biscuits, pancakes, scones. Sure, they're no longer quick, but there are benefits. You will need less fat. You will use less baking powder and or soda and notice a wonderful absence of chemical odors and flavors. The yeast in SD makes wheat more useable by our bodies, so it is more nutritious. There are some recipes further down this page, but experiment on your own as well.

For More Information and Recipes

Since I don't believe in reinventing the wheel, I refer you to the many excellent sources already available:

Darrell Greenwood has collected articles from the Sourdough Newsgroup that will get you off to a good start.

Stephanie Kuzmack offers recipes and tips.

Joe Jaworski provides a recipe with photographs of each step in making San Francisco sourdough bread.

Carl Griffith will send you a dried bit of the starter his great grandmother brought on The Oregon Trail in 1847. The cost is merely a self addressed stamped business envelop (US postage $0.32) Mail your request to:

Carl Griffith
322 Ravens Ridge Road
Sequim WA 98382

Sourdoughs International sells starters from all over the world and a book "World Sourdoughs From Antiquity." The book tells the interesting stories of how Ed Wood gathered these starters and how he participated in a National Geographic project to duplicate the ancient bakery that fed the builders of the pyramids. It gives good advice on maintaining and using starters. The recipes include everything from hot dog buns to Christmas stollen. I am a little disappointed in the rye and whole wheat recipes; they are mostly white bread. I wouldn't make his bagels which contain milk and eggs. I like that these recipes nearly always yield enough sponge to make an instant treat of waffles while waiting for the bread.

My Recipes

Seven Grain Sandwich Bread

Sponge:
1 cup starter (fully bubbling and frothy)
1 cup warm water
1 cup white bread flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup 7 grain cereal

Dough:
2 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp honey
2 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup white bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

Mix the sponge and let sit in the bowl until bubbly and about doubled. This may take several hours or overnight.

Add the dough ingredients and mix until it becomes difficult to continue. Dump out onto your kneading surface and knead in the last flour plus additional flour to keep from sticking. When dough is smooth and elastic, shape and place in a large buttered loaf pan. Cover with buttered plastic wrap and let rise until very light and risen above top of pan. Slash vertically (split-top style) and place in cold oven. Turn oven to 400 degrees and bake until done (about 50 minutes.) I only recently realized that most pan breads can be started in a cold oven. This is especially nice in summer and conserves energy anytime of year.

Light Rye Bread

This is good all by itself or with split pea or other soups. Sponge:
2 cups starter (frothing, a medium batter consistency)
2 cups water
3 cups bread flour
2/3 cup rye flakes (rolled rye kernels)
2 Tbsp fennel seeds
1 Tbsp caraway seeds

Dough:
1 cup strong Bigelow Orange & Spice tea (or other rose hip tea) cooled
3 cups unbleached flour
2 Tbs brown sugar
3 Tbsp oil
2 tsp kosher salt
zest of 1/2 orange
3 cups rye flour
The rye flakes are optional. They add chewiness and rye flavor. If you use them, toast them lightly first, either on a baking sheet in the oven or in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. As long as you are toasting the rye flakes, you might as well toast the seeds with them. Watch the flakes closely; they burn easily.

Mix the sponge ingredients and let sit in a large bowl until very frothy and doubled in bulk.

To the sponge, mix in the tea, then the bread flour, sugar, oil and salt. Beat this vigorously by hand or in a mixer until elastic. Remember rye flour has no gluten, so the white flour's gluten must be sufficiently developed to carry the entire loaf. Then stir and knead in the rye flour. Use just enough more white flour to keep from sticking to the kneading surface. Let the rounded dough rest, covered, for ten minutes before the final shaping. Divide into halves; shape and place in two oiled small loaf pans. Let rise until the dough is risen above the top of the pans (if in doubt, under-rising is better than over-rising.) Bake at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes.

Whole Wheat Bread With Corn and Flax

Using a rye-whole wheat starter will give this bread a more pronounced tang. Or use a plain white starter for milder flavor.

For the sponge:

2 cups fully frothing and bubbly sd starter
2 cups cool water
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups KA White Whole Wheat flour

For the dough:

1/4 cup flax seed meal
1/3 cup whole grain corn meal (I like Arrowhead Mills Hi-Lysine)
3 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup honey
4 cups KA White Whole Wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp salt
Additional flour as needed

Mix sponge ingredients in a large bowl. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let sit until very bubbly and doubled in volume.

Mix in the flax meal, corn meal, oil and honey. Add the flour gradually until you can't mix by hand any longer. Knead in remaining flour and then knead in the salt in two portions. Form into a ball and let sit for 20 minutes, covered. Knead some more (remember, this is whole wheat and requires good long kneading) until smooth and elastic, adding flour as required.

Divide in two and shape into loaves. Brush the loaves completely with oil and place in large (9"x5") oiled pans. Cover with floured towel and let rise until above the pan. Slash tops with three diagonal cuts (straight down; not like baguettes) and put in a preheated and steamed oven at 400 degrees. After 10 minutes, lower heat to 350 . Start checking for doneness at 45 minutes.

My old friend the bagel is lighter but still chewy made with sourdough.

Sourdough Waffles

Waffles made with sourdough are light and crisp whether baked as Belgian or traditional waffles. They're perfect for topping with fruit and are especially nice because they require far less fat, only a couple tablespoons of oil or melted butter in a large recipe. They smell great, like bread.

There's hardly need for a recipe; almost anything works. You can make them without milk; you can beat the egg whites separately or just throw in the whole eggs; they will still be light. Use whole wheat or multigrain or white flour. The batter can sit for quite a while or be used right away, just be sure to add the soda just before baking. Basically, you add milk and eggs and a little oil or melted butter to your basic sourdough sponge (this may be leftover from a bread recipe.) I'd use 1 egg and 1 Tbsp oil for one cup of sponge; double that for two cups of sponge. Then add enough flour to make the waffle batter consistency. Let it sit to bubble some more. Just before using the batter, add the soda, 1/2 to 1 tsp, depending on whether the amount batter and whether it contains buttermilk. The soda mixes in more readily if you first dissolve it in a small amount of water.

Multigrain SD Waffles

These can become quite tangy. For milder flavor, keep the batter refrigerated or shorten the rise.

Sponge:
1 cup starter
1 cup warm water
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour

Final batter:
1/3 cup Malt-o-Meal
1/3 cup rolled oats
2 Tbsp oil or melted butter
1 Tbsp sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
flour as needed
1/2 tsp soda

Mix the sponge and let it sit for several hours to develop bubbles throughout.
Mix the batter, omitting the soda until just before baking. Let the batter sit overnight. Stir in the soda, dissolved in water, and bake.

Ableskiver

These are the lightest, best tasting ones I have ever had.

1 cup frothy starter
2 eggs
2 Tbsp oil or melted butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp cardamom
enough all purpose flour to make a thick pancake-like batter 1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Mix all ingredients except baking powder and soda in a large bowl and let sit for several hours until very bubbly. Stir in baking powder and soda at last minute. Brush each section of the heated ableskiver pan with ample butter. Fill the molds 3/4 full with batter and cook over medium flame until batter swells and a crust starts to form. Use a wooden skewer or knitting needle to pierce the crust and flip each pancake, letting the batter spill into the mold to form the sphere. It will take a little practice to develop your flipping technique. Continue cooking until done. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar and berry jam on the side.

Pancakes

I was leery of sourdough pancakes. The ones I had tasted many years ago were thick and not very light. Being very fond of buttermilk pancakes, I didn't want to try sourdough; but after my experience with sourdough ableskiver and biscuits, I skeptically turned my hand to pancakes. They were wonderful.

2 cups fully foaming starter
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp oil or melted butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
flour (any kind) as needed
1/2 tsp soda

Mix everything except the soda and let sit overnight (if kept in the refrigerator, allow time to come to room temperature in the morning.) Add the soda just before baking on a hot griddle.

Cornbread

Most cornbread is wonderful hot but gets dry and scratchy when cold. This cornbread can be eaten cold as well as hot.

1 cup SD starter, activated
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Stir together the starter, milk, cornmeal and flour and let it sit, covered, in a cool place overnight. Heat an oiled iron skillet or a cake pan in the oven at 400 degrees F. When the oven and pan are really hot, stir the egg, oil, salt, sugar, baking powder and soda into the batter. Pour the batter into the hot pan and pop it into the oven to bake until done, about 25-30 minutes.

Sweet Potato Fritters

I would call these Latkes, but there's no mahtzo meal or eggs in them. They are very crisp.

1 1/2 cups grated sweet potato
grated onion (I like 1 Tbsp)
some freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup SD starter
1/2 tsp baking soda, dissolved in very little water
oil for frying
kosher salt

Stir together the potato, onion and nutmeg. Stir the soda/water into the starter and then mix it into the potatoes to bind. Drop by spoonfuls (make these a little smaller than usual latkes) into 1/4 inch hot oil and fry until deeply browned. Drain on paper and sprinkle with kosher salt. Serve with applesauce and sour cream.