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

FAQs

What is the best flour to use for sourdough? ›

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.

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.

Health benefits of sourdough. The type of flour used — all-purpose, whole wheat, rye — can affect the nutritional content of sourdough bread, says Wee. But generally speaking, sourdough bread is a healthy option and can be eaten regularly as part of a nutritious, balanced diet.

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.

Substituting all purpose flour in a sourdough recipe that specifically calls for bread flour is not always an even swap. You'll need to REDUCE the total amount of water first. All purpose flour absorbs less water than bread flour, which can make the dough too sticky to work with otherwise.

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.

Potential Drawbacks

Also, though sourdough bread does offer many benefits, it does not contain as much fiber as most whole-grain breads. Whole-grain sourdough bread does have more fiber and isn't much harder to make at home, but you're unlikely to find it at the store.

Just remember that sourdough fermentation doesn't degrade gluten completely. So if you have celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity, it's best to avoid sourdough bread made from wheat, barley, or rye, all of which contain gluten.

Whole wheat sourdough bread is one of the healthiest types of sourdough breads. Any sourdough bread with whole grains is considered healthier to classic sourdough bread.

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 can ruin a sourdough starter? ›

Starvation - if you don't feed your starter for a long period of time it will develop harmful bacteria and mold. This will smell terrible and look orange, pink or fuzzy and green. Mold - mold can also occur in a well fed starter if there are mold spores on any of the equipment you've used or in the flour you're using.

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.

All-purpose flour works great for feeding starter, but adding a little whole grain flour can help give it a boost if needed.

While bread flour is the best option, it can sometimes be used if you don't have bread flour. “Check the protein content,” advises Chef Jürgen, since it can vary from brand to brand, and an all-purpose flour that contains protein on the higher end of the range, 12 to 13 percent, will produce a better outcome.

A Dutch oven helps you to make perfect sourdough bread because it traps steam inside the pot which stops the crust on your sourdough forming too soon. This enables your dough to expand and spring up first, giving you a lovely soft and fluffy interior and a crispy, chewy crust.

Wheat 550 – flour with even higher binding power, ideal for baking with yeast and sourdough.