Sourdough Oatmeal Walnut Bread

The first sourdough bread I made was from  Miriam Kresh’s recipe at Israeli Kitchen. Since then I’ve made it numerous times, especially when I am hosting a meeting or party. I’ve recently made some healthy adjustments including cutting out sugar and substituting olive oil. I often add nuts, and substitute spelt for some of the […]

Sourdough Pizza Recipe

When my niece visited recently, she asked me for the recipe for sourdough pizza. If you have never baked with sourdough, this is a good recipe to start with. Keeping a jar of sourdough starter on hand is an easy way to bring your cooking and baking to the next level. You make it from […]

Ripening Sourdough: Images at Various Stages

To make sourdough starter, all you need is equal measures of flour and water. Stir it every day for a few days. At some point, usually after two to four days, the starter will be ready for feeding.

For more detailed instructions, see Make Your Own Sourdough Starter at Home.

When Do I Start “Feeding” My Starter?

  • When you see tiny bubbles throughout the batter, it’s time to start feeding. You may have to enlarge this picture to see the bubbles. When you see plenty of bubbles throughout the batter, even after you stir it, discard about half of your starter. Add a cup each of flour and water. Do this every day until the starter is ripe.

Converting Commercial Yeast Recipes to Sourdough

Laurie Ashton is a Twitter friend who caught my attention with her recipe for sourdough challah. When Aleeza asked how to convert regular yeast recipes to sourdough I thought of Laurie, and sure enough, she came through with a clear and thorough explanation. Her guest post is below.
Convert Standard Yeast Recipes to Sourdough

Guest post by Laurie Ashton

I’m not a long-time sourdough baker – I’ve only been baking sourdough (wild yeast) bread for the last couple of years. Since I don’t digest commercial-yeasted bread well, I use sourdough exclusively, which also means trial and error in converting recipes to sourdough.

Learning to Cook, Step by Step

When I wrote Make Your Own Sourdough Starter at Home, I also started a discussion on the Facebook fan page to walk readers through it.

Here’s what Aleeza had to say:

Guess what I don’t get is why recipes can’t be simple. I need directions with numbers like step 1, 2, 3, 4.

Sourdough Pancakes

Cooking with sourdough requires new recipes. This one is similar to most pancake recipes, except that you add sourdough with the liquid ingredients and use baking powder instead of soda. I’ve made it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Sourdough Muffins

Batters with sourdough have a special flavor. Even when I do it “wrong,” sourdough muffins can’t be compared to ordinary ones and if I only used sourdough for this recipe, it would be worth the trouble.

The recipe comes from Richard Packham’s Sourdough Recipes. I’ve added my comments at the end.