My Top 5 Sourdough Cookie Recipes by Make It Dough (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to sourdough? ›

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.

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

Simplicity is a virtue, and a marker of good sourdough bread. The bread should only have Flour, Water, Salt, and Starter (also referred to as Culture on some labels). While the first three are the basic ingredients, the Starter or Culture should be the natural starter used to leaven (raise) the dough.

For more tang: Incorporate some rye flour and/or whole wheat flour early in the bread-making process, such as when feeding the mother culture and the preferment. Rye flour in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.

Keeping the lid on for the first part of baking allows steam to expand between the gluten fibers to rise the bread and create a fluffy loaf. Step 4: Remove the lid and bake for an additional 12-14 minutes or until the crust is crispy and golden brown. Once you take the lid off, the bread likely won't rise anymore.

If you don't get rid of the excess, eventually you'll have more starter than your feedings can sustain. After a few days, your daily 1/4 cup flour and water won't be enough to sustain your entire jar of starter, and your starter will be slow and sluggish, not much better than discard itself.

What Size Jar is Best For a Sourdough Starter? No single-sized jar is best for every baker because it depends on how much sourdough starter they regularly need for baking. However, for most people, a 3/4 liter (28.7 fluid ounces) jar is perfect as it can store both a small sourdough starter or a large one.

Other natural ingredients can be added but genuine sourdough bread making does not involve the use of baker's yeast, chemical raising agents, so-called processing aids or other additives.

Preheat your oven with a baking surface or combo cooker/Dutch oven inside to 450°F (230°C). Remove your dough from the fridge, score it, and transfer it to the preheated baking surface or combo cooker. Bake for 20 minutes with steam.

What is the perfect sourdough crumb? ›

Sourdough crumb should be even, meaning there won't be any areas that are super tight or with giant tunnels. The crumb should be light and fluffy - not wet and gummy. The holes inside the sourdough may seem shiny. This is a sign that the gluten is very well developed.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

You can always use this discard by directly mixing it into a dough for baking. Your discard, as long as it's in good shape, will leaven any bread dough just as well. The discard is just like a levain you would make for a recipe. The only difference is it's the same makeup as your starter.

First, the production of lactic acid (as well as acetic acid) lowers the pH of your starter to around 3.5 (and as high as 5). This lowering of pH results in that characteristic sour flavor of sourdough. Second, a low pH eliminates unwanted pathogens like enterobacteria or Staphylococcus.

The fermentation temperature probably plays the most important role in sourdough baking. Warmer temperatures encourage lactic acid production making your bread less sour. Cooler temperatures (such as room temperature) on the other hand favor acetic acid production and make your sourdough more sour.

Sourdough bread's signature taste comes from friendly bacteria and yeast, which produce flavorful lactic and acetic acids in rising bread dough.