The vast variety of sourdough bread recipes is enough to keep any baker on their toes. From a simple garlic sourdough bread recipe to a delicious rosemary garlic sourdough bread treat, you’ve involved flavor combinations that’ll delight your taste buds, and have you eager to experiment with something else. For now, we’ve managed to gather 15 delicious sourdough bread ideas, perfect for a weekend bake!
Table of Contents
- 15 Flavorful Additions For Sourdough Bread
- How to Choose the Perfect Additions for Sourdough Bread?
- Flavored Sourdough Bread
- Flavored Sourdough Bread – FAQs
15 Flavorful Additions For Sourdough Bread
When you’ve successfully baked another loaf of sourdough bread with a perfectly moist interior, and a crusty exterior, the desire for flavorful experimentation settles in. What else tastes good with sourdough? Fortunately, once your sourdough starter is activated, there’s room for improvement, and of course a vast variety of delicious recipes you can make with it! Try some of these ideas below:
- Nuts and seeds
- Jalapeno Cheddar cheese
- Olives
- Nutritional yeast
- Sun-dried tomato
- Fresh herbs
- Roasted garlic
- Pesto
- Honey and oat
- Mushrooms
- Zucchini
- Jalapenos
- Dried fruit
- Cranberry and walnuts
- Pumpkin sourdough bread
Nuts, and Seeds
For a little crunch and protein try a variety of dried fruits, nuts, and seeds to throw into the mix. Choose between walnuts, raw or toasted pecans, pistachios, pine nuts, silvered almonds, shelled pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, or poppy seeds. Nuts and seeds pair beautifully with dried fruits, shredded cheese, or dried herbs.
- Simply start by mixing all your ingredients into a large mixing bowl, or stand mixer, and combine until you’re left with a silky-smooth dough.
- Next, add the nuts and seeds, kneading until they’re well incorporated.
- Transfer the dough onto a greased or floured surface and shape the dough into a thick log. Place the log onto the bottom of lightly greased parchment paper.
- Cover the loaf and let this rise for an hour. After this, set your oven temperature to 400 degrees F and bake your bread for 40 minutes.
Chocolate Chips
For all chocolate lovers, the possible inclusion of chocolate chips should be enough to make anyone’s mouth water. Chocolate is the perfect addition to any recipe, especially basic sourdough bread.
Add chocolate chips, or chocolate chunks, followed by nuts, cinnamon, and dried fruit for a fun, sweet, and savory treat.
Enjoy delicious and easy chocolate sourdough bread, for breakfast or teatime coupled with a glob of butter (perhaps even homemade butter!), and a sprinkle of cheddar cheese.
I’ve also got a cinnamon and chocolate twist bread recipe!
Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese
Jalapeno combined with cheddar cheese is already a wonderful combination, so imagine what’ll happen when you add these magical flavors to your sourdough! You can customize this however you like. Add lots of jalapenos for a spicy kick, or fewer jalapenos, and lots of cheese for a cheesy treat!
- Simply add your jalapeno and cheddar cheese to your sourdough once you’ve completed your third set of stretching and folding.
- Stretch your dough into a rectangle, then spread cubes of cheese and sliced jalapenos inside the dough, remembering to leave the edges clear.
- Let the dough bulk rise, for 5-6 hours.
- Then shape and bake your dough in a preheated Dutch oven at 475 degrees F.
Olives
If you’re a fan of olives, then why not combine your love for these briny fruits with sourdough bread? A delicious sourdough bread, complete with an array of olives sounds like the perfect breakfast treat to satiate your growling stomach.
Before you stretch and fold your sourdough, why not add a handful of chopped Kalamata olives to the mix? The delicious sourdough flavors will include a briny kick to this basic bread recipe.
Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional yeast provides a mild cheesy flavor to the sourdough bread, without having to add cheese to the dough. It’s simple, delicious, and vegan-friendly!
Simply add a teaspoon or two of nutritional yeast, then let the dough rest before you continue with your sourdough recipe!
Sun Dried Tomato
With their low-moisture content, sun-dried tomatoes make the perfect flavorful addition to any sourdough recipe. This scrumptious flavor combination ties the tartness of sourdough together with the rich sweetness of hydrated tomatoes.
Once your dough is ready to proof, drop 40g of sun-dried tomatoes with 60g of feta, then top with a dash of dried oregano if you wish.
Fresh Herbs
If you’re an avid baker, you’ll most probably have a pantry loaded with a variety of fresh herbs and spices, and that’s the perfect addition to any sourdough bread recipe!
Choose from sage, thyme, oregano, and rosemary to tickle your taste buds into ultimate sourdough oblivion!
Roasted Garlic
If you love garlic bread, wait till you’ve tried garlic sourdough bread. The best way to include garlic in any sourdough bread recipe is by thinly slicing cloves, sprinkling garlic powder, or dropping whole roasted cloves of garlic into your dough. This way, you’ll be able to enjoy the raw powerful richness of garlic without having to minimize its flavors through numerous cooking techniques.
Alternatively, roasting a head of garlic produces sweeter flavors as opposed to raw garlic cloves and their overpowering taste. If you want to try this scrumptious flavor combination, check out this garlic sourdough bread recipe!
Pesto
If you’ve ever considered adding a dribble of pesto to your sourdough bread, then why not add a few spoonfulls directly to the dough instead?
Since pesto is a wet ingredient you may want to reduce some of the water in your recipe so that your dough doesn’t become extremely hydrated and hard to handle.
I have a great pumpkin seed pesto recipe you can try!
Honey and Oat
Another delicious flavor combination involves sourdough bread featuring fragrant honey and crisp oats, which makes the perfect breakfast treat. It is extremely versatile and requires an active sourdough starter, honey, and oats.
If you’re looking to delight your gut, then try this sourdough bread with a glob of butter, and a steaming mug of tea or coffee.
Mushrooms
Velvety mushrooms are certainly amazing, though they tend to release lots of water whilst cooking. Because of this, you must cook your mushrooms in a pan beforehand, ensuring they shrivel up and dry before they can be included in your sourdough.
On the other hand, if you prefer a subtler mushroom flavor then you can choose the easier option and incorporate 50g of dried mushroom powder into your dough instead.
Zucchini
For a flavorful combination that produces a cakey textured bread, try this amazing sourdough zucchini bread recipe. When preparing your zucchini for your sourdough, ensure all the moisture has been squeezed out of the vegetable, so that the baked loaf doesn’t emerge incredibly moist.
Additionally, you can take this recipe a couple of steps further and include chocolate chips, dried cranberries, crushed walnuts, or cocoa powder, for a fantastic sourdough bread bursting with a variety of flavors, that’ll delight your taste buds.
Dried Fruit
For a fruity treat, consider adding raisins, cranberries, dried cherries, dried apricot, or dried apples to your sourdough bread. Don’t forget to add a sprinkling of cinnamon and lots of honey too!
By the way, I’ve got an amazing sourdough fruit loaf I’d love for you to try.
Cranberry and Walnuts
Another brilliant flavorful combination to satiate your cravings is demonstrated through this mouth-watering cranberry walnut sourdough bread. The crushed walnuts impart earthy notes, coupled with dried cranberries’ tart flavors, that blend beautifully with soft, and chewy sourdough bread.
Cranberry walnut bread can be served like any bread, whether it’s toasted and dripping with melted butter, or enjoyed as a breakfast sandwich.
Pumpkin Sourdough Bread
A great way to bring forth seasonal sensations is through this scrumptious pumpkin sourdough bread. You can choose to make your very own homemade pumpkin puree or purchase canned pumpkin puree for your sourdough loaf recipe. It’s important to note that the pumpkin puree will increase the hydration of your dough. Therefore you must ensure that you reduce the water content in your sourdough recipe so that your resulting loaf doesn’t emerge incredibly moist.
Try to add 280g of water to your dough at autolyze. Then 20g more if needed during the next stage. This delicious sourdough loaf is pretty simple to make, despite the increased hydration. Don’t let this deter you, as the honey and pumpkin puree should produce a silky-smooth dough for you to work with.
How to Choose the Perfect Additions for Sourdough Bread?
Generally, there is no right or wrong way to add mix-ins to sourdough bread. Although there are a few rules to follow, to avoid disaster!
Firstly, if your additions are dry like fruits or nuts, then adding them to your dough should be a piece of cake. However, if you’re dealing with wet ingredients like frozen berries, milk, or honey, then things can get tricky! You may need to increase or decrease the water content in your dough, to compensate for the wet additions.
Any sweet additions to your dough will feed the yeasts in the sourdough, therefore speeding up the fermentation process. Remember to keep an eye on the dough once you’ve included your flavors.
When to Add Mix-Ins to Sourdough Bread?
Most sourdough additions can be added to the dough during the third fold. However, you should aim to include your optional mix-ins to your sourdough during the first set of stretches and folds. Then repeat the folding process every 30 minutes for 4 hours. You can even add your mix-ins to your dough before bulk fermentation, or after combining your ingredients to make the dough.
I demonstrated adding a yogurt mix-in into my sourdough bread on my blog!
Flavored Sourdough Bread
If you love baking sourdough bread, and experimenting with a variety of flavor combinations, then why not have a go at some sourdough discard recipes? Each scrumptious bake is worth the effort!
These sourdough breads will go great with soup, and I’ve got recipes for you on the blog:
Flavored Sourdough Bread – FAQs
What Flavors Can You Add to Sourdough Bread?
When it comes to flavorful additions to your sourdough bread, you can choose anything you fancy. Consider adding raisins, cranberries, dried cranberries, dried apricot, or dried apple.
How Do I Make Flavored Sourdough?
Choose your favorite flavor combinations and add them to your dough.
Is There a Sourdough Flavoring?
Yes certainly, the sourdough flavoring is designed to emit a sourdough taste without the inclusion of a sourdough starter. It can be used in bread, crackers, chips, or English muffins.
