How To Adapt Any Recipe To Become A Sourdough Recipe - Cultures For Health (2024)

Table of Contents

ADAPTING YEAST RECIPES TO SOURDOUGH ADAPTING QUICK BREAD RECIPES Use Your Sourdough Starter to Add a Tang to Quick Breads Use Your Sourdough Starter to Create Longer-soaked (Fermented) Quick Bread Are you a sourdough enthusiast and eager to improve your baking skills? Download our Sourdough Guide and Recipe book today! DON'T BE AFRAID OF TRIAL AND ERROR FAQs

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by CFH Admin
June 23, 2022
4 min read

Once you now where to buy a sourdough starter and you have mastered that great sourdough loaf recipe, you may want to branch out and try your hand at other sourdough baked goods.

Most of us have recipes passed down in our family that we love. It might be Nana’s banana bread or Uncle Joe’s sandwich bread. If this sounds like you then you might want to continue making these baked goods, but with the use of yoursourdough culturefor the health and money-saving benefits.

You can adapt recipes, with a bit of trial and error, to use your sourdough starter. First, though, you need to determine if your recipe is one calling for yeast, like a bread loaf, or a quick bread (like pancakes) calling for baking soda or baking powder.

ADAPTING YEAST RECIPES TO SOURDOUGH

Theoretically speaking, if you know what thehydration levelof your sourdough starter is you should be able to easily adapt a yeast bread recipe to use sourdough.

The other thing to consider in the recipe you wish to adapt is the amount of yeast. The rising power of one packet of yeast is about equivalent to one cup of sourdough starter, depending on the health of your starter.

Knowing these two factors you can approximate a substitution of one cup of sourdough starter for one packet of commercial yeast. You would then lower the flour and water according to your hydration levels, being sure to measure it again by weight.

Once you have your sourdough mixed together and flour and water adaptations accounted for, you must also account for the longer rise time needed for sourdough. This isn’t as complicated as it may seem, as you will simply allow for a 4-hour (or more) rise time instead of the instant yeast rise time that is usually around 2 hours.

ADAPTING QUICK BREAD RECIPES

Quick bread recipes are slightly trickier in that most of them were created with the quick leavening of baking soda or baking powder in mind. So perhaps a little background on each is in order.

Baking soda, or the chemical compound sodium bicarbonate, is an alkaline substance that is used in baking quick breads. This alkaline powder reacts with the acidic element in a recipe (i.e., buttermilk, vinegar, etc.) to create gases that create the rise in a pancake, biscuit, or loaf of zucchini bread.

Baking powder contains both an acid and alkaline component which is why you can make pancakes or biscuits with milk (not acidic) as the liquid and still have the gases creating a rising power.

If you are interested in using sourdough in such recipes you may do so in a few ways.

Use Your Sourdough Starter to Add a Tang to Quick Breads

If you are only interested in adding the tang of sourdough to your pancakes or biscuits then you could substitute one cup ofsourdough starterfor the equivalent amounts of flour and water, by weight. This gets a little tricky when you have a recipe that contains a very small amount of milk, to begin with because you are substituting water for something that contains fats, proteins, and carbohydrates (milk).

Also, keep in mind that your sourdough starter will act as an acidic element to a recipe. So if you are using a recipe that calls for buttermilk you may be able to use regular milk instead since your sourdough will provide the acidic element for baking soda to react with.

Click here to check out all of our Sourdough Starters now!

Use Your Sourdough Starter to Create Longer-soaked (Fermented) Quick Bread

This can be done very similarly to the method of substituting sourdough for yeast above. Simply replace your water and flour by weight with your100% hydration starter.

So if you wanted to make something like thesesourdough cheddar biscuitsyou would replace flour and liquid with your sourdough starter,along with the baking soda and baking powder (which you will use less of than in most recipes),then allow the culture to raise the biscuits for 4+ hours,

For a thinner battered quick bread such assourdoughpancakes, you can actually use a straight-up sourdough starter without any additional flour or water. You may want toalter the hydration levelof your sourdough to produce a thinner or thicker pancake as desired, but no long soaking time is needed since you aren’t using any additional flour.

Are you a sourdough enthusiast and eager to improve your baking skills? Download our Sourdough Guide and Recipe book today!

DON'T BE AFRAID OF TRIAL AND ERROR

As with other elements of sourdough baking, you will want to play with recipes in order to achieve your desired results. With these tidbits in mind, though, you should be able to manipulate any of your favorite recipes to utilize sourdough.

If you're ready to start utilizingsourdough culturesin your recipes, Cultures for Health is here to help.

We have thelargest collection of cultures and fermentation products. From tools to individual starters to our all-in-one kits, Cultures for Health has everything you need to successfully start making your own food at home. Embrace natural eating now with Cultures for Health.

Click here to check out our Artisan Sourdough Kit with everything you need to make a sourdough culture at home now!

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How to Convert a Quick Bread into a Sourdough Recipe
Sourdough Baking Tips and Tricks

FAQs

What can be used to start a sourdough culture? ›

flour and water

Mix 6 cups of all-purpose flour with 3 cups of whole wheat flour and store it in a container with a tight-fighting lid. NOTE: A sourdough starter can be created with all-purpose flour alone but the addition of whole wheat flour will give the starter a boost in the fermentation process.

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Which flours can you use to start a sourdough culture? ›

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. Why do you need to use these two types of flour?

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Is sourdough culture healthy? ›

Sourdough's Health Benefits

Sourdough's long fermentation and rising time leads to changes in the bread that don't occur in conventional yeast-leavened bread. These changes may have health benefits for some people, especially those with certain digestive issues.

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What is the healthiest flour for sourdough bread? ›

Whole Wheat Flour: Some bakers swear by using whole wheat flour in their starters. This flour includes the whole grain of wheat, including the bran, endosperm, and germ.

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Why is my sourdough starter not bubbling cultures for health? ›

If a sourdough starter is not bubbly, it may require more frequent feedings. If feeding every 12 hours, increase to feeding every 8-10 hours, to make sure the culture is getting enough food. Check the temperature in the culturing area. Sourdough likes a temperature between 70°F and 85ºF, around the clock.

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How do you start a healthy sourdough starter? ›

There is no single best ratio, but I've found a ratio of 1:5:5 fed twice daily at 12-hour intervals to produce a sourdough starter that's strong and healthy. This ratio corresponds to 20% ripe starter carryover, 100% water, and 100% flour (a mix of whole grain rye and white flour) at each feeding.

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What is the difference between sourdough starter and sourdough culture? ›

Now comes the main difference between a sourdough starter and a sourdough culture, a preferment is a living thing and requires maintenance. Depending on how diligent you are, your sourdough starter will require feeding once or twice a day to keep it healthy.

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How is sourdough culture made? ›

Despite all the mysticism and lore about creating the concoction, a sourdough starter is merely a naturally fermenting mixture of flour and water. Add water to dry flour, let it sit on the counter for a few days, and you'll see nature weave life into a once lifeless lump: bubbles will appear and the mixture will rise.

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How old is the oldest sourdough starter? ›

The World's 'Oldest' Sourdough Starter Was Made With 4,500-Year-Old Yeast. There's no bread quite like sourdough. In addition to being tasty as a sandwich bread, delicious as sourdough croutons, and even great just toasted with butter, sourdough's production process is decidedly unlike other breads.

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Do you have to discard sourdough starter every time you feed it? ›

With each sourdough starter feeding, you'll be discarding some to avoid it from becoming overly acidic. Most will compost or trash this discard, but you can save it and use it in other recipes!

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What is the best combination of flour for sourdough? ›

Glutinous flours, such as Churchill Flour or our Strong White Bread Flour combined with spelt flour, rye flour and wholemeal flour, tend to work best for producing sourdough.

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What is the healthiest sourdough bread? ›

Whole grain and whole wheat sourdoughs offer more healthy nutrients. If possible, opt for whole wheat or whole grain sourdough, as these will have much higher levels of fiber and micronutrients than their white counterparts.

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How do you make sourdough healthier? ›

Now, for maximum benefits you need to:

Ferment the dough for at least 12-24 hours. Ideally use freshly milled flour. Since the process makes the nutrients more available, you want to use a flour that is high in vitamins and minerals.

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Is it OK to eat sourdough bread everyday? ›

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.

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What is the fastest way to activate a sourdough starter? ›

Take your starter from the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Feed it with 30g of strong white flour + 30g of water, stir it well, and allow it to become fully active and ready to use, this can take 2-6 hours depending on the room temperature.

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How long does sourdough take to activate? ›

Fed sourdough starter refers to a starter that has been fed flour and water (preferably by weight). You should feed the starter equal or greater than its weight after discarding a portion. You should wait at least 2-4 hours or until the starter is at its peak before you use it in your baking.