Easy Sesame Sourdough Bread

This easy sesame sourdough bread recipe creates a perfectly golden loaf, brimming with black and white sesame seeds, followed by a drizzle of sweet honey.

Table of Contents

• What Kind Of Flour Should I Use For Sesame Sourdough?
• The Sourdough Starter
• The Sesame Seeds
  • When to Add Seeds to Sourdough?
• Sesame Sourdough Bread Recipe
  • Ingredients
    • For the starter
    • For the bread
  • Instructions
  • Baker’s Schedule
• How to Serve Sesame Sourdough Bread?
• More Sourdough Bread Recipes
• Scrumptious Sesame Sourdough Bread
• FAQs

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What Kind Of Flour Should I Use For Sesame Sourdough?

For this sourdough sesame recipe, you’ll need bread flour or strong all-purpose flour with 11% protein. When mixed with water, these flours can help develop a stable gluten network in the dough. This gets further developed through a series of stretches and folds.

The Sourdough Starter

To make a sesame sourdough loaf you’ll need an active sourdough starter. If you don’t have a starter, learn how to make one with sourdough bread for beginners.

Once you’ve made a sourdough starter, feed it regularly, remembering to discard a small amount before each feed. This ensures that the acid levels in your sourdough starter remain low. Too much acid can affect the overall structure of your loaf.

You can dispose of the discarded portion or bake a bunch of delicious sourdough discard recipes!

The Sesame Seeds

Combining white sesame seeds with black sesame seeds provides an abundance of texture and flavor to your sourdough bread, as well as a bunch of health benefits. Black sesame seeds provide a rich flavor, compared to white seeds, and you can increase their potency by toasting them.

1. Simply place a frying pan over low heat.
2. Drop your sesame seeds straight into the hot pan, and toss them for 3-5 minutes.
3. Remove them from the heat, and allow them to cool before adding them to your shaped dough.

You can also add a variety of seeds to your sourdough loaf, such as sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, linseeds, and chia seeds.

When to Add Seeds to Sourdough?

There are many delicious versions of this sesame loaf recipe. However, I like to include the sesame seeds at the beginning of the recipe, following my bread flour, so that the seeds are nestled comfortably in the dough before proceeding with the next step.

This ensures that the seeds are evenly distributed throughout the dough when stretching, folding, and shaping the dough.

You can also add some toasted sesame seeds to the top of your loaf before baking for a deliciously crisp sesame sourdough bread.

Sesame Sourdough Bread Recipe

This sourdough bread recipe contains rich sesame seeds, with a dribble of honey to balance the wonderful nutty flavors.

Take a look at the recipe below:

Ingredients

For the starter

(This would make around 125g of starter. You’ll need 80g for this recipe)

• 25g sourdough starter
• 50g flour
• 50g water

For the bread

• 280g warm water
• 1 tbsp honey
• 400g bread flour or all-purpose flour
• 50g sesame seeds
• 80g starter
• 1.5 tsp salt

Instructions

1. Mix the ingredients: Combine the starter ingredients and tip this into a clean jar. Leave this to rise in a warm place for 6 hours or until it has doubled in size.
2. After 6 hours, in a large bowl combine water and honey; mix well. Add flour and sesame seeds and mix until you’re left with a shaggy dough. Cover the dough with a damp tea towel and leave this to rest. Add 80g of starter to the dough, followed by salt. Wet your hands and squish these ingredients together.
3. Over the next 3 hours stretch and fold your dough a total of 6 times, after every half hour.
4. Bulk ferment: Once stretching and folding are complete, let the dough rest in a warm spot until it looks much puffier than it began with.
5. Shape the dough: Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and gently shape it into a rectangle. Refrain from squishing the dough, as you can risk losing its gasses.
6. Reach for the bottom third of the dough and fold it up so that it meets the middle. Take the right side of the dough and fold it so that it rests in the middle. Repeat this for the left side of the dough.
7. Shape the dough into a ball and roll it towards you to create some surface tension. Place the dough ball into a floured bowl or basket. Cover the dough with a tea towel and refrigerate for 20 hours.
8. Bake: Preheat the oven to 480 degrees Fahrenheit and place a Dutch oven or cast-iron skillet into the oven. Let this preheat for at least 30 minutes, then remove the Dutch oven and place your sesame sourdough loaf into the Dutch oven. If you don’t have a Dutch oven, then place your shaped dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place a glass of water into the oven. This will help generate enough steam, for the perfect crust.
9. Use a razor blade or sharp knife to score the loaf. Place the lid on the Dutch oven and bake covered for 20 minutes.
10. Remove the lid, and bake uncovered for another 20 minutes. Let the golden-brown sesame loaf cool for 2 hours before cutting. Check out how to cut sourdough bread for the perfect slice!

Baker’s Schedule

This is a simple overview of suggested timings in the process of making sesame sourdough bread.

• 8 AM: Feed your sourdough starter
• Noon: Mix the water, honey, flour, and sesame seeds
• 1 PM: Add the starter to the dough
• 1.30 – 4.30 PM: Stretch and fold every 30 minutes for 3 hours
• 4.30 PM: Bulk ferment
• 8.30 PM: Shape and proof the dough in the refrigerator overnight
• 8 AM: Bake!

How to Serve Sesame Sourdough Bread?

This gorgeous sesame sourdough bread is incredibly delicious when buttered and eaten on its own. However, you can elevate this sophisticated loaf with a bunch of cool, and refreshing ingredients.

Some of these can include:

• Mashed avocados: If you love avocado toast, you’ll love it slathered on a toasted sesame loaf. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, and get ready for a memorable bite!
• Sliced and seasoned tomatoes: Toast a slice of sesame sourdough bread, and top with sliced tomatoes. Finish with a light dusting of chili flakes.
• Scrambled eggs: For a scrumptious breakfast meal, top your sesame sourdough loaf with scrambled eggs. Add a pinch of salt and pepper for extra flavor, and enjoy!

More Sourdough Bread Recipes

If you love sourdough bread as much as I do, then why not put your sourdough starter discard to some use, with a bunch of drool-worthy sourdough recipes?

• Sourdough discard sandwich bread
• Sourdough zucchini bread
• Sourdough Pumpkin Rolls

Scrumptious Sesame Sourdough Bread

If you loved this scrumptious sesame sourdough bread recipe, then why not continue the happy baking, and experiment with a variety of ingredients to make delicious multigrain sourdough bread? You can also try my poppy seed sourdough bread cake!

FAQs