This page is a roll-up of all our naturally leavened sourdough bread baking recipes, plus anything else we’ve managed to concoct in the kitchen. Below, you’ll find baking recipes using fruit/nut/seed mix-ins, freshly milled flour, and recipes utilizing various grains (rye flour, Sonora wheat, spelt, Khorasan, and more). If you’re looking for something very specific, use the search button in the top right of the page to get right to it. Happy baking!
Baking Guides
Head over to the Baking Guides page for in-depth guides on creating your own sourdough starter, maintaining your starter, starter storage, tips on steaming a home oven, building a dough retarder, and much more.
Sourdough Starter Creation & Maintenance
- 7 Easy Steps to Making an Incredible Sourdough Starter from Scratch
- Keeping a Smaller Sourdough Starter to Reduce Discard Waste
- How to Store a Sourdough Starter
- Sourdough Starter Maintenance Routine
- Baking Sourdough Bread with a Stiff Starter
- My Sourdough Bread with a “Young” Levain
- Managing Starter Fermentation to Produce the Best Sourdough Bread Ever
Beginner Baking Recipes
- Beginner’s Sourdough Bread
- A Simple Focaccia
- Fifty-fifty Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
- Easy No-Knead Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Bread with All-Purpose Flour
- Tangzhong Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Weekday Sourdough Bread
- The Perfect Loaf Custom Flour with Recipe
Sourdough Starter Discard Recipes
- Seeded Sourdough Discard Granola (bark-like!)
- Plum Cake (Torte)
- Seeded Sourdough Discard Crackers
- Baker’s Sourdough Discard Banana Bread
- Strawberry Shortcake with Sourdough Discard Drop Biscuits
- Clafoutis (with cherries, peaches, or any stone fruit!)
- Tangy Lemon Poppyseed Loaf
- Bread Baker’s Date and Banana Tea Cake (with Whole Grain Spelt)
- My Best Sourdough Waffles
- Sourdough Starter Discard Cake: Ciambella
- Sourdough Blueberry Muffins
- My Best Sourdough Pancakes
- Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes
- Flaky Sourdough Pie Crust
- Whole Grain Peach, Blueberry, and Lavender Sourdough Galette
- My Top 3 Leftover Sourdough Starter Recipes (Pancakes, Waffles, Banana Bread)
Cookies and Brownies
- Cinnamon Toast Cookies (Sourdough Cookies with Vanilla and Cinnamon)
- Sourdough Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sourdough Sugar Cookies
- Fudgy brownies
Biscuits and Scones
See all the sourdough starter discard recipes →
Mostly White Flour Recipes
- My Best Sourdough Recipe
- Country Sourdough with Less Levain & Longer Autolyse
- High(er) Hydration Sourdough Bread
- High Hydration Sourdough Bread
- A Return to Basics
- Tartine Sourdough Country Loaf Bread Recipe #33
Mostly Whole-Grain Recipes
- The Best Honey Whole Wheat Bread Recipe (50% whole grain pan loaf)
- Spelt, Rye, and Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread (50% whole grain)
- Fifty-fifty Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
- Ninety-Five Percent Whole Grain Sourdough
- Whole Wheat Sourdough (not 100%)
- Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
100% Whole-Grain Recipes
- Whole Wheat Sourdough Pita Bread
- Whole Grain Spelt Pan Loaf
- Honey Whole Wheat and Barley Pan Loaf
- Whole Grain Wheat and Spelt Pan Bread
- 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough
- Fresh Milled 100% Whole Wheat Walnut
Recipes with Specialty Grains
- 100% Einkorn Sourdough Bread
- Einkorn Miche
- Kamut Demi-Baguettes
- Multigrain Spelt Sourdough
- Spelt Sourdough
- Pane Siciliano (Semolina and Sesame Sourdough Bread)
- Kernza sourdough bread
Rye Flour Recipes
- Sourdough 90-Rye Bread (90% whole-grain rye)
- Light Deli Rye
- Rye Sourdough and Smørrebrød
Freshly Milled Flour Recipes
- Kernza Sourdough Bread Recipe
- Sourdough bread with 35% freshly milled flour (Yecora Rojo)
- Whole Grain Wheat and Spelt Pan Bread
- Multigrain Spelt Sourdough
- Spelt Sourdough
- Fresh Milled 100% Whole Wheat Walnut
- White Sonora Sourdough
- 50% Fresh Milled Whole Wheat Sourdough
- Baking Sourdough with Fresh Milled Flour
Recipes with Specialty Ingredients (Nuts, Seeds, and More)
- Scalded Buckwheat and Malt Sourdough Bread
- Hop Miche (Sourdough Beer Bread)
- High-fiber seeded sourdough pan loaf
- Brown rice and sesame sourdough bread
- Jalapeño-Cheddar
- Apricot and Thyme (50% whole wheat)
- Dark Chocolate-Cherry Sourdough Bread
- Green Olive and Herb
- Sunflower and Sesame Sourdough Bread
- Pumpkin Cinnamon Sourdough Bread
- Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough
- Sourdough with Roasted Potato and Rosemary (Potato Bread)
- Sour Cherry, Toasted Pecan and Buckwheat Levain
- Apricot, Lavender and Walnut Sourdough
- Seeded Sourdough
- Fresh Milled 100% Whole Wheat Walnut
- Fig and Fennel Sourdough (Plus a Little Family History)
- Natural Sourdough with Spent Beer Grains
- Golden Raisin and Fennel Seed Sourdough
- Seeded Whole Wheat Sourdough
- Walnut Cranberry Sourdough
- Tartine Olive Sourdough
- Stout Country Sourdough
- Tartine Country Sesame Sourdough
- Tartine Country Walnut Sourdough
- The Wheat Germ Experiment
Recipes with Sprouted Grains and Cereals
- Malted Wheat Sourdough Bread
- Sprouted Grain Sourdough Bread (sprouted whole white wheat)
- Sprouted Buckwheat Sourdough
Porridge Sourdough Recipes
- Soft Honey Buckwheat Sandwich Bread
- Polenta and Rosemary Sourdough
- Tartine Millet Porridge Sourdough
- Oat Porridge Sourdough
Baguettes
Specialty Bread Shapes
- Hop Miche (a large French-style loaf with beer)
- Einkorn Miche (a large French-style loaf)
- Green Olive Filoncini (Twisted Baguettes)
- Sourdough Friselle (Italian-style rusk)
- Fougasse
- Ciabatta
Buns and Rolls
- Fluffy milk bread hamburger buns (using tangzhong)
- Sourdough pumpkin dinner rolls
- Homemade hot dog buns
- Super Soft Sourdough Dinner Rolls (with Tangzhong)
- Soft Sourdough Potato Buns (great for hamburgers, as rolls)
- Brioche Hamburger Buns
Enriched and Sweet Dough Recipes
- Hot Cross Buns
- The Fluffiest Sourdough Challah
- Sourdough Chocolate Knots
- Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)
- Cardamom Rolls
- Sourdough Babka
- Pain de Mie (Pullman Loaf)
- Naturally Leavened Bomboloni (Sourdough Doughnuts)
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
Sourdough Pizza, Calzone, and Focaccia Recipes
- Sourdough Pizza Dough and Recipes (for the home oven)
- Detroit-style Pizza (Pan pizza)
- A More Whole Wheat Sourdough Pizza Dough
- Sourdough Pizza al Taglio (Rectangular Sheet Pan Pizza)
- Wood-Fired Sourdough Pizza Dough Recipe
- A Simple Focaccia
- Focaccia Pugliese (focaccia with potato)
- Calzone Recipe
- Cornmeal Skillet Sourdough Pizza
See the guide to all things sourdough pizza for more →
416 Comments
I baked my first two loaves. How do I store the second loaf to preserve freshness?
I usually use a bread box to store my bread after it’s been cut. If I’m using a bread box I won’t place the bread in anything — just straight into the box. The purpose of the box is to keep just enough humidity in there to keep the bread soft but not too soft. If I’m not using my bread box then I’ll either be sure to keep the crumb side of the loaf down on the cutting board so the crust naturally surrounds the entire loaf. Imagine cutting a loaf directly in half and then turning those halves down.
When freezing, I’ll wrap an entire loaf several times in plastic wrap and then place it into a freezer ziplock. When I want to eat it I’ll take it out the night before and let it thaw in the fridge. Then, you could pop it into the oven to warm up the next day or slice and toast the slices.
If you plan to eat it somewhat in the near term, you could slice the entire loaf then place the slices in a freezer ziplock back. Using a toaster (like this awesome toaster from Breville) you can thaw and toast the slices in one step and they come out fantastic.
I absolutely am enamoured with your recipes, your recipes are intuitive enough for me to go off and perform slight modifications and still have incredibly successful loaves to show for it.
I have done both beginners loaves and your favorite loaf, All of the loaves I’ve baked tasted complex and had the delicate intricacies of any of the best sourdough loaves I have ever tasted. Thanks so much
I’m looking to move your technique to pretzels next wish me luck.
Really glad to hear you’re finding such value in my website, Peter! Thanks for the kind words. Good luck on pretzels, that’s something I’ve had experience with lately and they’re delicious! Happy baking.
Ciao Maurizio! Love the website; very inspiring. I am only missing one thing in your recipe list: a sourdough focaccia… with your Italian roots and your love of amazing bread, it would fit right into the list in my opinion. Any plans to add a recipe?
Hey! Thanks so much for the kind words. Yes, definite plans to add a focaccia recipe and it’s something I’ve been working on for a while. I have really high expectations for focaccia so it’s going to have to be just right, but I am working on it. Happy baking!
Hi, I love your website! I decided that this is the year that I nail making sourdough and so far (5 loaves in) am loving it and finding your website super useful and detailed! I just have one question though that I can’t seem to find an answer to anywhere on the internet… The most recent loaf I baked yesterday on cutting open is baked through, however the inside of the bread seems quite sticky. Its not under-baked, but I can’t work out why the stickiness and slight chewiness in this loaf. Any ideas? I didn’t know if maybe the dough wasn’t hydrated enough, or if there was maybe too much starter used? Rough quantities I used I think were 40g starter + 80g flour + 80g water for levain, then an additional 500g flour + 350g water for the dough
What is the ratio to starter/flour/water for pizza dough?
All the information about my pizza dough is in the post! Have a look at my sourdough pizza dough and recipes.
I’m confused how I get from the starter to the Levain? I’ve scoured your post but no luck!
Victoria — a sourdough starter and a levain are essentially the same thing: they are both stable, fermenting mixtures of bacteria and yeast. Your starter continues and lives on in perpetuity. You feed it periodically to keep it going and use a bit of it to make a levain any time you want to make bread. However, a levain is an off-shoot of your starter that’s only used for a single bake.
To make a levain, take a portion of your mature (when it’s “ripe,” or risen to it’s maximal height) starter, place it in a new jar and add flour and water. Once this levain is ready, you use it in total in a single bake — it ceases to exist after it’s baked with the rest of the dough in the oven.
I hope that makes sense! To see more on how I maintain my sourdough starter, and when exactly I make a levain from it, have a look at my post on maintaining a sourdough starter.
Happy baking!
Also, what about combing the leftover leaven from a recipe to your old starter?
Leaven = 50g starter 200g wheat 200g water 200g, total 450g leaven.
So, 450 g leaven -250g for recipe= 200 g leftover leaven.
Can you do that? Is that a bad idea? When you make your other recipes, where do you get that starter/leaven?
Thanks again, Nina
Sorry for all the questions.
There’s no need to combine any leftover since that leftover will really be “spent” or fully fermented. You could use that leftover to perpetuate your starter (and thus not keep a separate jar with a starter in there) or use it in making waffles, pancakes, or banana bread (see my recipe for these above).
When I want to make bread I take a small portion of my starter (which, for me, is always in its own jar fermenting) and make what’s called a levain. The levain (leaven) is an off-shoot of my starter that will cease to exist when I bake my bread as it’ll be mixed into the dough in total.
Hope that makes sense!
Couple of thoughts:
1. I NEVER believed I would EVER be able to bake “professional” bread. Well, by following your instructions I finally have. Wow! It really works! I’m still in shock. Now baking bread (really well) is my obsession and I’ll be trying all of your recipes. Thank you!
2. It would be nice to have videos of how to handle the dough, with the folding shaping, etc. I YouTubed it, but you could have a link! Or you could show your very own hands doing the stuff!! Anyhoo,
3. How about a recommendation for a baking dish (cloche?) for a batard? I’ve been looking on Amazon, but I’m not sure which one would be good.
4. Do you already have a book?( I should have checked before I started question 4.) So, thanks for this great website!–Nina
Awesome, Nina, glad to hear your bakes have gone so well!
Yes, videos are something I’ve been meaning to get to… I understand how beneficial it would be to see actual, moving hands in the dough. Working on it, hopefully sometime soon.
I’ve never used a cloche, but I do know they have some over at the King Arthur store at their webpage. When I bake a batard I always steam my home oven this way.
I don’t have a book!
Thanks and happy baking 🙂
I only learn from the best, mostly you haha and Sarah and Chad Robertson. If you have any other recommendations of sourdough bakers and books I’d really appreciate it. One quick and final question for today. I’m having such great success with your Rye bread in the Pullman pans. But i just ordered 2 more pans and ordered the 13 inch pans by mistake this time. Any idea what I can bake in such a large pan or should I just return them? Its through Amazon.
Hah, thanks! My favorite books are listed over at my reading list!
I have 13″ pans also. I usually increase the dough weight to 1000g or even up to 1200g when baking in those. They’re nice pans and it really depends on what type of bread, and what size, you’re looking to make mostly!
Hi Maurizio,
Alot of friends are counting on me to deliver breads tomorrow. Here is my issue. I ordered more 10 inch round banneton proofing baskets from Amazon so I’d have enough. Due to the high volume of orders Amazon is late in my delivery, even with Prime. Argh!!
Anyway I do have 10 inch oval bannetons but they are only 6 inches wide. Ive never used them. Are they big enough to hold one of your country white tartine loaves in?
I am also waiting on the stone you reccomend which is also delayed. I have recently purchased a steam injected oven and am wondering can I put my bread in my Lodge dutch oven, lid off and use the lid as well for baking? So have them without lids so I can use the space in my oven better?
Hey, Sharon! Those bannetons should fit the dough, but it’s hard to say for sure since there are a lot of factors involved (how much rise there is, how tight they’re shaped, and so on). I would say try it out and keep an eye on them near the end of the proof just to make sure. They might rise up over the rim but as long as they don’t spill over you should be good. The alternative would be to use other bowls in your kitchen lined with towels, just in case. I’ve never used a banneton with a 6″ diameter!
You can definitely bake one loaf on each side of the Lodge combo cooker but then you won’t be getting the steaming effect when it’s sealed shut. If you go that route I’d recommend steaming your oven with my home oven steaming technique. This way, the Lodge will act as the baking stone and you’ll also get plenty of steam.
I hope that helps and good luck!
Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly. I made Sarah Owens Oatmeal honey Spelt bread and used the small oval bannetons I mentioned and the bread turned out great. Great shape and crust. My oven comes with a resevoir for water and somehow traps moisture inside when I use the “steam bake” setting. So I was able to use both the dutch oven bottom and top separately side by side without a lid. All the breads look great. I’ll let you know once they’ve been tasted.
Very cool, I have Owens’ book and it’s great! That’s a really, really nice feature of your oven (jealous). Glad the bake turned out so well for ya!
Hey Maurizio, have you ever made panettone? Do you have a recipe for this? Hint hint 😉
Hey! I haven’t, yet. I plan on it for sure, but I know it’s quite challenging so I need to give myself some time before I dig into it — I’m hoping next year to really spend the time to make something incredible. Stay tuned!
Hi Maurizio,
I’ve been baking bread recently and playing with flavours but i’m having a problem with a specific bread.
My first question is, is it better to knead the dough in the kitchen aid until a good gluten strength is reach and then do the bulk fermentation, or use your way and build the gluten through folding ?
Now, i want to bake a confit garlic and rosemary sourdough. At the moment my recipe is :
472g White flour
18g Salt
190g Starter
365g Water
90g Confit garlic
8g Rosemary
The basic recipe only called for 315 water but i would like a more open crumb and less dense loaf hence the try on higher hydration.
I use the kitchen aid for the kneading. The bread come out all right with the basic recipe, but since i had more water i seem to only be harder to work with and didn’t improve the crumb so much.
Any suggestion ?
Thanks
Hey, Quentin. I actually like to do a mixture of both: mix some by hand (slap and fold or spiral mixer) until medium development, and then 2-3 sets of stretch and folds as needed.
Increasing hydration doesn’t guarantee a more open crumb necessarily, there are lots of factors in play to achieve a consistently open interior — the most important being strong fermentation. I’d say increase water until the dough is comfortable for you to handle, it much better to be able to shape gently and sufficiently with lower hydration dough than shape roughly with higher hydration dough. That’s my experience at least!
I hope that helps — happy baking, Quentin!
I was just wondering what your take would be on making rolls, dinner rolls to be specific. I wanted to make some for Thanksgiving and am wondering what technique I should implement for proofing them and baking them. I will probably use a mostly white recipe.
Ashley — I have been using my brioche hamburger bun recipe to make dinner rolls for a while now, they’re awesome! If you wanted to make them with 100% white flour that would work equally well. I don’t yet have a recipe up for dinner rolls that are not enriched with butter… That’s something for me to work on!
I just wanted to post and say thank you so much for taking the time to document your sourdough journey. Your site has helped me troubleshoot so many times and i’m forever thankful i stumbled across you! Thanks again!! 🙂
Bonnie — thanks so much, I really appreciate that! I’m glad my site has helped, happy baking!
Would love if you could adapt a sourdough recipe to a weekday schedule! Having trouble figuring out the timing.
Check out my Weekend Baking Schedule post!
I am on day five of the sourdough starter. I’m Planning on making the beginners sourdough bread, but I was wondering if you have a recipe for sourdough donuts?
That’s great, Ashley! I don’t have a recipe for sourdough doughnuts up, but that is definitely something I’m going to work on in the near future!
Thanks I used your cinnamon roll dough! Amazing!!!!
Hey, why didn’t I think of that!? Great idea! Now I’m going to have to try this myself 🙂
What’s the best way to store fresh sourdough and is it possible to freeze?
If I’m going to store the bread for a long term I’ll wrap the cooled loaf several times in plastic wrap, then place it into a freezer Ziplock bag (and write what kind of bread it is + date on front) and into the freezer. If I want the bread to last longer than a week, but am still going to eat it within a month or so, I’ll let the loaf cool, completely slice it and then place all the slices into a freezer Ziplock back. Then I can take each slice out and toast them in my Breville toaster (it’s amazing, it has a “frozen” function) when needed.
When I take out a loaf that hasnt been cut I unwrap it and either let it defrost a bit in the fridge, or I just plop it onto my cutting board and let it come back to room temp, works really well!
So I was a a little place last week when I was back home in Arkansas and had a sandwich on “buttermilk sourdough” and could not get that out of my head. I’d love to attempt it, I guess a quasi-enriched dough is what it would be, not really sure. Ever attempted anything like that before? Currently working on 100% milled pizza dough (because I have a wonderful mill but no sieve, so everything is whole wheat, including some Apple-Pecan Scones that just came out!).
Anyway…buttermilk sourdough, what do you think? I have looked all over the internet for a “pure” version but can’t find anything!
That’s a really great idea, I haven’t thought of making a buttermilk dough before. I’d imagine it would have a more sour flavor but probably lots of savoriness as well from the milk/cream. I can’t recall ever having bread like that anywhere either… I’ll add this to my to-bake list! Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
100% ww pizza dough sounds fantastic!! I haven’t yet tried that but it’s definitely on my list.
I milled the flour that morning and, lets just say, I over-proofed it haha. A little active on the fermentation side of things when it comes to 100% freshly milled WW.
Another attempt shall be made.
Yes, fresh milled flour is incredibly active! I usually reduce my levain percentage quite a bit when I have a significant portion of fresh milled flour in the recipe. Good luck on the next go!
Hi Maurizio, your blog it’s amazing! It’s so helpful for home bakes and beginners as myself!! I would love a ciabatta recipe, if possible! Thanks in advance, and congratulations!!
Thanks so much Maria, I appreciate that! I’ll definitely be getting to ciabatta here sometime soon… 🙂
Thanks so much Joas! I replied to your email but I’ll echo it here: I don’t have a recipe for a bread like that but will add it to my list of things to bake! Happy baking 🙂
I have found this blog so amazing and help full. I have my starter ready and will be baking my first sourdough bread ever. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. Thanks Maurizio for this good work.
Can you maybe do a post on the journal/notes you take when baking bread, and what information is helpful to write down and such? I’m so much of a “how to” guy, I’d love to see what others do.
Hey, Koby! Sorry I missed this comment (not sure how that happened). I like that idea, I’ll add it to my list of things to post, I think people would really benefit from that. Thanks and happy baking!
Found it after reading your comments. Thanks
Hi Maurizio, would you be able to put the recipe that is half ready on today’s instagram with the lemon rind, sunflower seeds (not sure what the other is) up somewhere please. I NEED TO MAKE IT!!!!! Thank you for everything you have done so far and sharing your recipes and methods etc.
Was just going to point you to it: Seeded Sourdough. Enjoy!
Hi, I came across your web page via Face Book and I very much like your demonstration video. I have made sour dough before but thought I would give your methods a try. When making the first batch of Levain do I have to use a glass bowl? Is there any reason why I shouldn’t use a stainless steel one as that’s all I have. Thanks.
Hey, Robert! Glad to have you along. I’ve actually never used a stainless steel bowl, surprisingly. Should work just fine, though!
Happy baking!
I’ve been tryng to find the facebook page but can’t find it. What do I search for?
Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/theperfectloaf
Ciao Maurizio, so glad to have found your blog! I started experimenting with sourdough in December and since have been getting decent results. I am now at a point where I developed a weekend schedule that works for me.
I’ll read through your various posts, there is so much to discover and learn. Exciting!
Thanks for your passion and dedication.
Sven — really glad to read all that! Happy to hear your baking schedule is working out, that’s half the battle 🙂 Happy baking!