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
Hi Maurizio,
I’ve been baking breads with yeast for years but now when I found your site I decided to try the sourdough breads. Congratulations on well structured site, full of useful information.
I could not find an answer for one question that is very important for me. How would I make 4 or 6 loaves of bread in one batch? I still need to keep some of the starter for next use, but I need enough levain to make for 4 – 6 loaves.
Any idea please?
Thanks, Dejan, I appreciate that. I prefer to always keep my starter separate from any bake, and make what’s called a “levain” (or leaven) for a single bake. Some bakers use their starter directly in a dough and scale it up if they need to bake more, or scale it down if they need to make less — then they would pinch off a bit of that starter each time to ensure they keep their “mother” culture going. I keep them separate just in case I forget to save a bit. If you want to scale things up to bake more bread, use your starter to make a larger levain that satisfies the formula you’re working from. Using baker’s math (see my beginner’s sourdough post for more on baker’s math) to scale up any recipe you’re using if necessary.
I hope that helps!
That’s fantastic, Gail! Glad to hear it. I’ve gone as low as 1.7% (to flour weight) salt in a bread recipe, but not any lower. My feeling is overall the salt is relatively low compared to how much nourishment you’re getting from the bread itself (not to mention how filling it is), but of course each person’s dietary restrictions do play a role in what’s acceptable and not 🙂
hi Maurizio thanks for your shared so full of informations and learning site, I cant support everymonth but today i gave my contribuition for so good work and share.. thanks a lot God bless you.. Today i m looking for a babka… do you have?
Silvia — thank you so much for your contribution! It doesn’t matter the amount, I’m appreciative of everything 🙂 I don’t have a babka recipe up yet but it’s something I’m working on! Happy baking 🙂
thanks my friend, I already found one with a friend here in my bake group. If you want I can send to you. God bless
MAURIZIO:
I have been making sourdough bread for 25 years using starters I bought. I tried making a starter from scratch about 15 years ago, but never succeeded. My son-in-law, Jeff Whalen told me about your web site. He succeeded making a starter that works well. I am very excited to try your method and your recipes. I will let you know how I do.
Barry L. Siegel, MD
Right on, Barry — have fun and keep me posted!
Maurizio, another question. Other than time (say 4 hrs ar 25c) and/or expansion say doubling in size are there any other indicators you use to determine the ferment is at optimal stage to begin forming? Often neither of those criteria may lead the baker to believe the dough is at the optimal stage as while time has been met rise has not but still some ferment activity is visible. Another breadsite I enjoy is the sourdoughbaker.com.au and his test technique is to plunge a wet finger into the fermented dough and if the hole made remains it is probably at optimal stage. But this seems a bit hit and miss. Love to hear your process. Les
There are many methods for determining when to end bulk fermentation, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most challenging things in baking. I actually just wrote a post on this topic for King Arthur Flour, it’ll be posted on their Flourish blog soon. I’d say check there next week for the post, it has quite a bit of information on what I use to look for when bulk finishes!
I’ll also be writing a post for my website here at some point, I know it’s an important topic and I’ve been waiting to dig into it with a lengthy post… Sorry for the delay in all this, that post should be up soon!
With regard to plunging the finger in: I’ve never heard of this technique but I understand why it might be a good one. It should give you a sense for when the dough is strong enough in bulk to hold shape and not immediately spread together after removing your finger, which is really what you’re looking for. However, I’m not sure I’d go that route, I use a combination of observations coupled with the time I expect bulk to finish (based on levain %, final dough temp, and ambient temp). It’s a combination of these “inputs” that leans on my experience with a particular recipe and baking in general to make the call when to end bulk. That said, I still miss the mark from time-to-time, as we all do 🙂
Usually I say to wait to divide unit the dough looks nice and smooth (it’ll smooth out as bulk progresses), the edge where the dough meets the container should be domed downward, and if you tug on the dough a bit with a wet hand it should show some resistance. The dough should jiggle in the bowl when you shake it a bit, it should look alive. It should have risen to some degree (although I don’t use exact volume increase, just a general indicator that it has risen in a healthy way).
I hope that helps. My post at the King Arthur blog has lots of photos and more explanation!
Maurizio, your website is a wealth of information and practical descriptions and advice. Thank you.
I notice all of your “regular” recipes for sourdough bread using white and/or wholewheat are dated 2013-2016 and I am wondering if those are still the recipes generally used by you today or if your 2019 iterations are changed in either quantities, ingredients or techniques? I gather from reading your posts you are now baking higher hydration breads and these I gather are in the 85% range and you must be using flours able to support such high hydration. Hope to hear your comment. Regards. Les
You’re very welcome, Leslie! Things have definitely changed here in my kitchen, but baking in general is always a series of evolving changes (even from week-to-week!). I’ve definitely changed flour sources many times, and continue to do so, but all the flour I use is listed in my recipe as I use it. The hydration of my dough hasn’t always increased, though, it really has depended on the recipe and what I’m after. That said, I’m definitely more proficient with a more wet dough given the extensive practice I’ve had between 2013 and today.
I keep my website very updated, though, and anything I learn or “discover” I like to go back and update. This is especially try for my sourdough starter posts and all the posts on my Guides page.
I hope that answers your question!
I had an interesting conversation with two friend that are glucose intolerant. They were in Solvang at an Italian restaurant looking over the menu. The Italian chef came out to talk to them and said that his pizza and pasta were made with Italian Flour and they use no pesticides in Italy. They ordered pizza and suffered no problems. They were staying in Solvang and ended up eating in his restaurant three times with no GI or headache problems. The chef said that all USA flours are contaminated with pesticides used by the farms. I have never heard of this. What are your thoughts?
You’ve written glucose intolerant but given that this is a bread site & most of the intolerance discussion centers around *gluten* I’m thinking it might be a typo. If not, please disregard. 🙂
My husband has celiac disease so we’ve lived with & done much research on this. We can totally understand your friends’ desire to have great food but what they did is really dangerous for folks with gluten issues! First off, even when folks have gluten intolerance or even celiac they show GI symptoms only about 30-50% of the time, so *not having a GI reaction is *not* a good way to gauge if they’ve been affected. Biopsy-confirmed research shows that when folks do or don’t have a GI reaction it is in *no way* correlated to how severe the GI & immune system *damage* is, and that internal damage is the main problem. That damage can last 6 months or more, even from very small amounts of gluten. Finally, if they truly have gluten intolerance or celiac the research is clear: pesticide or other substances don’t cause the same sorts of breakdown or immune system reactions. Sorry, but that’s the reality. :/
Hey there! I’m assuming you meant “gluten intolerant,” but regardless, I haven’t heard of this correlation between pesticides and gluten sensitivities in people. It’s my understanding that these are not related at all. However, I personally am not gluten intolerant so I have very little knowledge of this! Sorry about that.
I handle my dough using the “Tartine’ turning method, my dough is usually very soft and difficult to handle. After the final rise in the banneton it wobbles like jello and then spreads out when I tip it into the cloche baker giving a flat loaf. How do I fix this. Roger
Roger — it sounds like your dough is likely not strengthened enough. You could do a little kneading before bulk fermentation (try doing 50 or so stretch and folds in the bowl right after you incorporate all the ingredients, or a technique I often refer to here: slap and fold). If the dough still feels very slack and weak through bulk fermentation, add in another set or two of stretch and folds there as well.
Finally, if the dough still feels weak despite all this, try reducing the hydration 10% — the reduced water will bring a lot of strength to the dough early on.
I hope that helps!
Is there some way to achieve a soft, rather than a crispy crust for a basic sourdough bread? Just not a huge fan of an ultra crispy crust.
Thanks, Andrea.
I prefer a softer crust as well, and the best method I’ve found so far is to brush or spray a little water on the outside of the dough just before it goes into the oven and then let it bake the first 30 minutes inside a dutch oven with the lid on. The moisture in the dough will cook off as it bakes, and dutch oven holds that moisture close to the bread to keep the crust softer.
Typically this can be achieved by baking at a lower temperature, perhaps for longer. However, there’s only so much you can do there, evntually it will harden off. You could also do as Jason suggested below: add a bit more water in the oven when you’re steaming to see if that helps. Finally, adding enrichments to a dough (such as butter or olive oil) definitely helps here — the added fat, even in small percentages, will make a big difference! Check out my pain de mie recipe for an idea along these lines!
I bake for 52 minutes to achieve an internal temp of 99c. For a dark crispy crust: 235c for 40 minutes lid on – then 215c for 12 minutes with the lid off. For a lighter crust 235c for 47 minutes and turn down to 215c and bake for 5 minutes lid off.
Ingredients weigh 1297 gms. Finished loaf weighs 1160 gms. Weigh everything. Keep temperature as close to 26c as possible from the start of mixing to oven entry.
I heat the Lodge Combo on the gas rings until the oven (electric) passes 150c then place empty Lodge Combo in the oven with oven set for 260c which provides a buffer for loading and unloading the oven. Bake at 235c reducing to 215c as above. Results are exactly the same for every bake because all parameters are exactly the same each time. Very satisfying. Experiment with ingredient size and weight and lid on/ lid off times to get your desired result. Using a closely fitted lid on cast iron will compensate for main oven irregularities because you are in effect using a small easily controlled oven with excellent temperature stability and excellent moisture control within an oven that may fall short in a number of areas.
Hello, Maurizio! It looks like you’ve already got quite a few suggestions here, but I was curious if you were thinking about trying out a croissant recipe? Would be interested to see your take on it, and maybe if it was a 100% naturally leavened recipe! Cheers
Hey there! Yes, that’s absolutely something I’m going to tackle — stay tuned 🙂
Hi there Maurizio
Thanks for your clarity and well designed site – I hope they reward you again !
I have a starter at day 5. Day 3 it was as happy as a clam – after feeding it went quiet – and at day 4 + 5 (today _ its as flat and unresponsive as a rock.
I’m doing the twice day feeds – no hooch or smell, except for a light sweet one.
Should I drop back to 24 hours and see if the microbes can finish their dinner ( or no icecream for them !)
thanks
jane
In my home baking experience sluggish starter needs much more food (water and flour) to starter proportionally. I have never fed twice a day unless I am getting ready to mix dough in the evening. Anyway, 100g each flour and water to 1T starter and another 100g each the next day seems to launch everything back to full vigor.
Thanks so much, Jane!
It’s normal to see a burst of activity in the beginning (possibly with lots of bubbles) only to see a decline the day(s) after. Stick with the starter creation process of feeding and discarding and it will eventually take hold. That initial activity is most likely a bacteria we don’t want to stick around in the long run, it will eventually die off when the bacteria/yeast we do want acidifies the culture to the point where other bacteria cannot survive. I’d say if you don’t have your starter going by now, yes, go back to feeding every 24 hours and keep rye flour in the mix.
Stick with it!
Ciao Maurizio, I would like to ask you if you consider to make in near future rosetta or michetta breads.As you know you need an italian biga and not sourdough for this kind of bread and I would like to know if you ever baked them home.Its rather challenging to get that hollow rosetta and even having the proper rosetta stamp and strong flour and biga and steam ,I cant achieve yet the internal best result.
I am sure that with your knowledge you could uncover all the secrets for achieving the proper rosetta.Ciao
Massimo — I’ve not considered making this bread; yes, I’ll definitely add it to my list of things to work on! I have planned to take a deep look at more Italian-style breads (and things like panettone) this year… Stay tuned and thank you so much for the suggestion!
Maurizio, for this time of the year, and assuming your Italian origin, a Sourdough Panettone recipe is a must!
I second this request!
I’ll be working on this soon!
Ahh, yes. This is definitely something I’m going to be tackling soon, I’m just not quite there yet. It’s going to take quite a bit of effort!
Thanks for this explanation. Your recipes simply state “mix” and don’t really give us much guidance. I got the impression that you were encouraging as little mechanical work to develop gluten as possible. So I think I have been under-working the dough a bit. One of your acolytes posted a video on Feedspot Today of him making your recipe for baguettes and he spent a lot more time slapping and folding that I would guessed from your recipes. Thanks again for your blog, it has again piqued my interest in baking.
It’s so hard to convey dough strength through a website, even with a video, but yes I’ve been making an effort lately to try and add more details around dough strength and fermentation level. A challenge but I’m working on it!
Cheers, Mark, happy baking!
So general sourdough question….I tend to do around – 35-40% fresh milled flour in most of my usual bakes for home and around ~80% hydration. My question is about gluten development, I typically do the slap/fold method on the counter because I just think its easier to bring dough together that way, but should I be concerned about developing “window-pane” gluten during that process when it hasn’t even begun bulk? If so, should I even bother doing turns during bulk? I am concerned the fermentation process (whole wheat, fresh milled starter that is pretty strong) is breaking down some of my gluten development…any thoughts on this, I haven’t found much luck when researching this. Cheers!
Hey, Brett. Your thinking is correct, you want to mix/knead upfront only to the point such that any remaining stretch/folds during bulk will finish off the dough strength you’re after. In other words, only slap/fold upfront enough so the dough is strong enough to still need some strengthening if you’re planning on doing stretch and folds. If you slap/fold very, very far and the dough is fully developed you wouldn’t really need any stretch/folds during bulk (although there is some benefit to still doing this very gently to regulate dough temperature and slightly degas).
Typically I’ll slap/fold the dough just until “medium” development, meaning I’m anticipating still performing 2-3 sets of stretch and folds during bulk. If you want to do less stretch/fold, then slap/fold more upfront — and vice versa.
Hope that helps!
I accidentally bought 5kg of atta flour, do you know if I can work this into the sourdough recipes in place of whole wheat? Or is it best to just use it up on chapattis instead? Thank you!
Yes, you could definitely work it into a sourdough recipe! I have some atta here, too, but I haven’t yet tried using it in bread, I typically use it for roti. I know some bakers who have worked atta into their recipes in varying percentages with great success. Since it is whole grain wheat flour you won’t get a super open interior but it should taste great!
Have you ever made Sourdough Pita bread? It is my understanding that using a starter culture was the traditional way of making it, since commercial yeast was not available – my Palestinian grandmother made it this way. Alas, she has passed into the spirit world. Any thoughts?
Yes! I have actually played with making pita bread and other types of breads like this (tortillas and naan, too). I’ll likely have a recipe for that up here at some point but a good starting place for me has been my pizza dough. Reduce the weight of one of those balls and just toss the shaped and proof round right onto a smoking hot baking stone — works pretty well so far!
Awesome, I’ll give that a try! Thanks.
Hey, I’m surprised you don’t have one already, but I would love to see your take on a semolina bread. Not a 100% durum loaf, but the kinds American bakeries make with some semolina and some soft wheat. They usually roll them in sesame seeds. Just a favorite of mine, and since you’re Italian…
I’ve been meaning to work more with semolina — that’s a great suggestion. Adding it to my list, thanks!
Hey, Eric! I’m sure you could use 100% natural leavening for those. You will likely have to give the dough more time to rise and find the right amount of leaven — probably more than 40% if you want to try and stick to the same timetable, or less with more time. These are something I will hopefully get to work on this year, I grew up eating them and they’re delicious!
Hi Maurizio,
Hope things are great in Albuquerque! This past weekend I made English muffins from a recipe in the Tartine Bread book, they were awesome! It uses Robertson’s recipe for baguette dough, which has equal volumes (40%) leaven and poolish. Since the poolish is made using 3 grams of active dry yeast, I was wondering if based on your experience you think this could be done using just leaven? Thanks for your thoughts!
Sure, a “discard” is basically a mature levain ready to be used in baking — so long as it’s not overly ripe!
I am waiting for this! I reckon discards would work in a focaccia?
Hello Maurizio,
Have you experimented with spices? I was thinking of trying a basic sourdough with maybe rosemary and thyme, but I wasn’t sure how that would affect the fermentation, or the end product. Thoughts?
Thanks!
Hey! Yes, I have experimented quite a bit with spices. Rosemary and thyme shouldn’t really do much to the dough, you should be able to add them without any issues. I have several recipes here at my site where I use rosemary, have a look at my recipes page for some ideas!
Thank you! I’ll take a closer look.
By the way, here is my first crack at your beginner sourdough:
https://imgur.com/lbaDFlc
Happy baking!
Those look fantastic, really nice work!
Maurizio, So much great info on your site! Thank you for your generosity. Do you make sourdough challah? If so, will you share your recipe?
You’re very welcome, Dana, glad to have you along! I have not tried making challah yet but it’s on my list of things to try this year. It will definitely be a sourdough variant. Keep a lookout here for when I get my take posted. Until then, happy baking!
Have you ever made sourdough foccacia???? I really want to make it and am looking for a recipe from a baking blog I trust! Let me know 🙂
I make it often! I’m still working on a recipe to post here, though — I haven’t been 100% satisfied with my results. Still working on it!