13 Sourdough Bread Recipes For Home Bakers • Heartbeet Kitchen (2024)

FAQs

Is homemade sourdough bread heart healthy? ›

Sourdough bread's fiber, potassium, phosphorus, and sodium content all support a heart-healthy diet. The soluble fiber found in sourdough bread binds to dietary cholesterol in the small intestine, helping pass this fat through the system instead of absorbing it.

The secret to sourdough is simple: water. The more water you add to your dough will affect how open the crumb (bigger holes and softer texture) will be once it's baked.

Sourdough bread can be really light if you know how to play with your ratios. When I want a really fluffy, light loaf with a thin crust I work 300g starter to each kilogram of flour and 500g water (less or more depending on the kind of bread I'm making). A teaspoon of sugar helps.

If you're baking frequently, feed it once or twice a day and leave it out at room temperature to keep it active. For less frequent baking, feed your starter just once a week and keep it in the fridge.

Compared to whole wheat flour, rye flour is said to be the most nutrient- and amylase-dense option for a sourdough starter. Overall, it has a lower gluten protein content than wheat flour, which means it produces slack, sticky, and dense doughs.

Whole-grain breads are good sources of nutrients that help maintain a healthy immune system. They also provide dietary fiber that can help improve cholesterol levels and lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

In fact the acidity is a dough conditioner that softens the texture of whole grains and makes the bread more pliable. Hack: apple cider vinegar. I often add about a tablespoon of ACV to bread as a dough conditioner.

Either a 9 by 4 inch Pullman pan or 8 by 5 inch Loaf pan will work for most standard sourdough bread recipes. Water pan: A metal pan works best, avoid using ceramic, glass or clay since adding water or ice cubes to the pan could cause them to break due to thermal shock.

"Soups, stews and braises are great with sourdough, anything saucy that needs to be soaked or scooped up," Zarovy said. "Sourdough makes wonderful sandwiches or toast. Leftover sourdough can be used in bread puddings, strata or to make croutons or breadcrumbs."

Why is my homemade sourdough bread so hard? ›

Avoid Using Too Much Flour On Your Dough Surface

Try to minimise the amount of rice flour you use and brush off the excess before baking. If you are rubbing your dough with flour before baking to accentuate your scored designs, this too can dehydrate your crust, causing it to be tougher and more chewy.

Sourdough bread will keep well for up to 3-5 days at a moderate room temperature of 18-20°C or 64-68°F. The warmer and more humid the conditions become, the more chance the sourdough has of spoiling.

Do I have to discard my sourdough starter? It would be best if you discarded some portion of your starter each time you feed it unless you want to continue to let it grow. Eventually, you need to discard the used “food” (flour and water) that's been used to sustain your starter during the last fermentation period.

Let your starter rest at warm room temperature for 12 hours

Your starter will wake up more quickly than it might have.

Fiber, specifically soluble fiber, can help lower bad cholesterol and therefore any bread - including sourdough - that contains a good amount of soluble fiber can help to lower cholesterol. Whole grains contain soluble fiber, so breads made with 100% whole grain flours are the best for cholesterol.

Any food which is altered during preparation is being processed - the greater the alteration, the more processing involved. A loaf of homemade sourdough bread, for example, is more processed than a bag of pre-cut green beans.