Different ways of baking bread with sourdough starter

I thought it would be useful to have a thread where we could post our different ways of baking bread with sourdough starter.

I got this idea from this thread, where there was a bit of discussion about baking bread even without an oven!


Here’s my basic recipe and process:

For one 500g loaf

375-390g water (75-78% hydration)
300-350g wheat flour
150-200g of barley flour or einkorn flour
10g salt

1. (the evening before) feeding the starter, 1:5:5 ratio, 10g starter, 50g water, 50g flour
2. (in the morning, when the starter peaks)  mixing the starter, water and flour
(rest for an hour, autolyse)
3. add salt, mix well, rest for an half an hour
4. bulk ferment for about 4 hours (so that the dough rises up 30-50%), streching and folding every half an hour or so at least 3-4 times (this builds the gluten net)
5. shape, let it rest for 20 minutes, shape again and put in to a proofing basket
6. Stick it in the fridge (cold proof, slows down the yeast activity while letting the flavours develop)
7. (next morning) bake the bread, 20 minutes in 250C (482F) oven with steam, 20 minutes in 220C (428F)

I bake my bread on a baking tray, so I really have to work the gluten net with the stretch and folds and make sure I have good surface tension with the shapings, otherwise the bread won’t keep it’s shape when put in oven.


But there are other ways! Many other ways, simpler ways!
Please share your technique and tips and tricks for creating everything breadlike with sourdough starter!

There are so many different ways to make bread, rolls, and pizza and so many different uses for sourdough:

https://permies.com/t/53607/Creative-sourdough-stuff-bread

One of the ingredients usually found in sourdough is yeast.

I like to make sourdough without yeast.

This is the thread where I learned about Wild Yeast:

https://permies.com/t/53601/Catching-Wild-Sourdough

This is my project thread with the recipe I used to make my starter:

https://permies.com/t/97835/Sourdough-Project

This thread is about another wild-fermented bread starter:

https://permies.com/t/57081/Bread-yeast

Another unique idea that I have not tried is:

https://permies.com/t/171849/idea-sprouted-grains

This thread is about some starter resources:

https://permies.com/t/171804/Sourdough-starter-sources

Anne! Thank you for the links, those are all great resources!

Your starter project thread was fun to read, good tips and links in there! Are you still baking bread with a sourdough starter?

I've moved to a much simpler technique.
The hardest part is obtaining a good flavour from the starter, since it rests for too long in the fridge. So I just keep a nudget, and make it grow slowly two days before baking. I make a 62-65% hydration dough, using all purpose cheap flour.

I mix everything from the start in this order:
Starter + Water + Salt. Mix. Add flours. Mix. Let it rest 30-60 minutes.
Add extras: oil, seeds, whatever. Mix again.
Kneed for 5 minutes, just to make sure all ingredients are well mixed.
Let it rise in the bowl, form the dough ball, cover with flour, move it to a banneton, and keep covered in the fridge until baking (probably next day).
I bake 1,5 kg dough in a gas oven at 210ºC, 45-50 minutes. No steam or extra water.
When it's cool, I keep slices in the freezer (my climate is not friendly to bread).

The dough is long enough in the fridge for developing the gluten net.
I don't get a fancy crust, but the bread tastes great and the effort is minimum, which suits me.

Here’s the recipe and the one that finally clicked for me. I love this woman and her recipes!
https://venisonfordinner.com/kates-soft-sourdough-master-recipe/#recipe

Also with that recipe, I’ve found not being overly picky about rise time- meaning forgetting it for hours longer than it calls for or shaping and pan rising overnight makes for a beautiful tall loaf.

Hi....thank you for doing this thread...always love to read up on sourdough starters.  Even though I have used sourdough starter for many many years, I still consider myself quite the novice.  My friend once gave me a loaf of her bread made with only 3-4 ingredients (made with freshly ground, very finely, hard wheat flour, it was so amazing and sandwich loaf consistency, so moist that I couldn't wait to make a peanut butter sandwich.  The bread seemed to just melt in my mouth.  She shared some of her starter with me and I took down her recipe, step by step, and was successful many times.  Unfortunately, with time restraints on hand at the time and all the rules I knew at the time about sourdough starters, I could not keep up with it and let it sit in the fridge for over a year or two, actually I've done that with another starter I purchased from Azure Standard.  When I took it out of the fridge, needless to say, it had that famous dark liquid on top-that I experienced before.  I purchased the one from Azure Standard thinking the one my friend gave me was dead.....which I let sit unopened for over a year too... My friend who shared the starter with me said she had success with adding pineapple juice to her starter and it came back to life.....but I don't think she ever let it sit for over a year.  I did not have pineapple juice but I had apple juice.....and wallaahh...both starters came back to life.  So no more worrying for me with adding flour according to the rules.  I will let it sit in my fridge for weeks without touching it, never have done a discard pile and I still get amazing bread every time.  I do keep two jars of it just in case.  I just feed it before using, let it sit on the counter overnight and it is bubbly and ready for use the next day, if it shows a slow start I just repeat the process and it comes back every time.  I use Azure Standard organic all purpose flour because I do not have that amazing grinder my friend has...I don't think they make it anymore, she inherited it from her mom.....and honestly, I did not want to invest in a grinder not knowing if it would come out as fine as hers.

Heidi shared a recipe from Kate but I wasn't sure if it is the same Kate that I found my soft loaf recipe...I also make rolls with the batch---it's a big recipe that even for my needs I can store some in the freezer and share a few loaves to dear friends...never had a complaint, only praise.  
Being a visual learner, I found this YouTube recipe from Kate who also has an Amish background....very easy to follow along.  I enjoy her channel.  The recipe Heidi shared looks similar, but the website looked unfamiliar.  Here is the YouTube link:

I make this recipe in Utah, but I've recently made it Florida, still came out pretty much the same.  I didn't make any allowances for altitude according to the books,  just watched what the culture and the texture of the kneading process was doing, adjusted if necessary and baked it at the usual recommended temperature.  
Hope this helps those that stress over the starter.....feel free to experiment and learn from your schedule.

Abraham, thank you for sharing your process!

Heidi, thanks for the link! I checked it out and I'm definitely going to try it at some point. I will report back with the results!

Monica, great to hear about your adventures with your starter! I'm hoping that more people will be encouraged to try sourdough baking when they hear all the different ways of taking care of the starter and baking with it.


I really miss baking sourdough bread. It's so amazing to see how the dough changes so fast from a sticky mess to a beautiful ball of dough with just a few strecth and folds. And the end results after all the waiting! Can't wait!

Heidi Schweitzer wrote:Here’s the recipe and the one that finally clicked for me. I love this woman and her recipes!
https://venisonfordinner.com/kates-soft-sourdough-master-recipe/#recipe

I tried the recipe and the end results were really good!

I was a bit worried first because the measurements were in cups instead of grams. Cups are hard for me, my measuring cups are in deciliters, 1 cup is about 2,4dl so measuring 3/4cups with 1dl and 0,5dl measuring cups is difficult. The dough behaved a bit differently than what was said in the recipe, I'm assuming because my measurements were not accurate. I think I'm going to translate the measurements to grams for myself for the next time.

I'm definitely going to make this again. Thank you so much Heidi!