During the COVID quarantine I saw so many people trying sourdough. I was interested, but it just wasn’t the right timing for me. Then this past fall, I had the urge again. I was inside more and I had a renewed spirit and energy to learn more about how I can feed my family more healthy foods and be more sufficient on what we have in our home and on our property.
You all, I have had SO MUCH fun and received SO MUCH joy from learning sourdough. I was slow and hesitant at first, but after a few weeks, my confidence began to build.
I was learning and growing and enjoying it!
The first thing I wanted to accomplish was making a simple sourdough boule, and I think that turned out to be a good choice! It was SO satisfying and rewarding to see and taste beautiful bread. Plus it was fun to score it. 🙂 I didn’t have any fancy equipment—I scored them with a razor blade and used a bowl on top of my pie pan to act as a Dutch Oven.
Next, I couldn’t resist trying cinnamon rolls that a friend told me about. They were much simpler than I thought, and their taste was so incredibly delicious that we are now spoiled and can not eat normal cinnamon rolls from a can!
I quickly entered a routine of making these for the family every Sunday morning.
One Sunday morning my son and I even tried making cream cheese frosting for them.
Absolutely decadent!
From then on I couldn’t resist trying several new recipes each week.
Everything from sourdough chocolate chip cookies to homemade sourdough crackers to hot dog buns, pizza crust and apple fritters.
Here are our top 10 favorites!
Our Family's Top 10 Favorite Sourdough Recipes
This was the very first sourdough recipe I ever tried! I improvised it a little bit (like I do with everything it seems) but its still my go-to recipe. I love it's simplicity.
My shortened version is:
- Mix 3.5-4 cups flour, 2/3 cup starter, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 cup water in a mixing bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let set over night.
- Fold dough onto floured surface, like an envelope, several times til you form a nice dough ball.
- Put the dough (seam side up) in a floured basket or bowl lined with a tea towel and let rise for 1-3 hours.
- Flip the dough out onto a sheet of parchment. Score the top.
- Lower loaf on parchment into your Dutch Oven.
- Bake at 475F with lid on for 25 minutes, then take the lid off and bake for another 1-15min or more, depending on how hard you like your crust.
You haven't had a good cinnamon roll til you have tried one of these! Previously I made the kind from a can, or made my own regular dough. They don't compare at all! These are so light and fluffy and just amazing!
I just made these for the first time, and I have to admit they were pretty tasty. Not too difficult either. Just be ready to fry them up in your skillet in the morning.
Love, love, love these pancakes! They are light and fluffy and taste amazing. Our favorite is to add blueberries to the batter and serve with maple syrup. Maybe a sprinkle of confectioner's sugar if we're feeling really special that day. It's almost like eating a funnel cake, they are that good. And if you've never made sourdough pancakes before, like I hadn't, you'll probably find it exciting when you add the baking soda. So much fun!
Super-simple and super-delightful. I never thought making my own bagels would be so easy or taste so good!
On the first snow day of every school year, our tradition is to make donuts. Specifically apple fritters. They are so yummy! Someone told me that you can make sourdough apple fritters too, so we of course had to try it. I actually love both recipes, so we may always make two different kinds every year now. 🙂
I was not going to make this recipe, except I had extra sourdough discard and wanted to experiment. I figured we wouldn't care for the texture or flavor of homemade crackers.
To our surprise, the entire family loved the flavor in these sourdough crackers and they were gone in a flash! Certainly a new favorite over ordinary wheat thins, and they mixed perfectly with our venison sticks and any type of cheese.
Here's the recipe:
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unfed sourdough starter
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup thyme or rosemary (I used dried, just a lesser amount)
- 1/4 cup olive oil or avacado oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Combine everything except the sea salt to form a ball of dough that is not sticky. Divide the dough into two rectangles. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate til firm (30 minutes to 2 hours). Lightly flour your rolling pin and roll one piece of dough into a thin 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick piece on top of parchment paper. Pick up the dough and transfer to a baking sheet.
Repeat with second piece of dough and then lightly brush the pieces with oil and sea salt. Cut into 1 inch squares and prick each with a fork.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (I often rotate my pan in the middle).
The kids absolutely loved these! I was surprised, because to me I could really taste the sourdough and it just wasn't the same as a normal chocolate chip cookie to me—although it was quite tasty!
I have tried two different kinds of pizza crust. They both taste fine but I prefer this one the best because its more like traditional pizza dough.
Simple recipe:
- Combine 1 cup sourdough discard, 1 T olive oil, 1 t salt and 1 cup flour.
- Mix by hand for 5 minutes.
- Add a little more discard or water if its too dry.
- Knead 5 minutes and then rest 30 minutes.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
The other type of pizza dough I've tried is just pouring your sourdough discard right on your HOT pizza pan and baking it for a few minutes before adding your toppings and baking again.
To make these, I use this dinner roll recipe but shape them into hotdog buns (I also use about half the amount from a hamburger bun dough). I let them rise overnight, and bake them in the morning so they are nice and big.
These are SO LABOR INTENSIVE. It took me three days to make them and the whole time I said I will absolutely never make them again, no matter how good they taste! Then I took my first bite. I literally felt like I had walked into a European bakery. Absolutely amazing!
I'm not certain this will be our all-time favorite recipe for sourdough soft pretzels, but it was a good start. We made these on Superbowl Sunday as a fun snack. 🙂
What are your favorite sourdough recipes? I would love to hear from you!
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