Bake wholesome #realbread at home with tried and tested recipes from The Bread She Bakes
Baking bread with sourdough is the purest form of baking. Commercial yeast isn’t needed as naturally occurring yeasts are taking care of the rise. Keeping the sourdough in harmonious balance, baking with it again and again and transforming the most basic ingredients into wonderfully complex loaves is the essence of #realbread baking. Based on slow fermentation, the excellent flavour and texture of sourdough loaves are sure to reward your patience.
If you are the beginning of your sourdough journey, start by creating a sourdough culture from scratch. All you’ll need is flour and water. I’ve typed up step-by-step instructions for both a rye sourdough starter and spelt sourdough starter.
If you’ve already got your sourdough starter at the ready, here are my sourdough recipes:
If you like to read up all about the sourdough process in detail, Andrew Whitley’s book Do Sourdough: Slow Bread for Busy Lives has all the answers.
I visited Nice and the Côte d’Azur a long time ago when I was only sixteen. Unfortunately, I didn’t experience much of the classic cuisine provençale. I would love to return and taste all the wonderful dishes: bouillabaisse, ratatouille, l’anchoïade or pissaladière Niçoise, the region’s beloved anchovy and onion flatbread. Inspired by this month’s garlic-themed#BreadBakers event (hosted by Karen’s … Read more
This millet bread recipe makes a perfect breakfast bread and delicious accompaniment for vegetarian stews. The recipe bakes a bread with a moist and spongy crumb and crunchy crust. Little grainy millet beads are baked into the dough. It keeps well and stays moist for days as the millet grains are great for retaining moisture. I use yellow millet … Read more
I’ve been making pita breads with yeast for a while now. Last weekend, I attempted my first sourdough pita breads. Part of me thought that sourdough wasn’t powerful enough to make the dough puff. I should of course know better by now. Sourdough pita bread (without the addition of yeast) works really well and tastes even … Read more
I’m writing this post for a friend who has been advised to eliminate wheat and rye from her diet in favour of spelt flour. As a fellow sourdough devotee, I’ve written up this spelt sourdough starter recipe to help get the new baking routine underway. Firstly, a few words about the humble spelt… Evidence suggests … Read more
Heralded as the new vegetable du jour, seaweed has moved firmly into the food trend spotlight. Having played an important part in Asian cooking (most notably Japan, Korea and China) for thousands of years, it’s finally also finding its way from the UK and Irish coastlines into our kitchens. If you are keen to dive into the refreshing world … Read more
Buckwheat galettes are a weekend breakfast staple in our house and the wonderfully distinctive taste of buckwheat flour makes for interesting bread baking too. There is quite a variety of robust tasting breads and bakes you can achieve with buckwheat. Here is my selection of the best buckwheat bread recipes. 10 things to know about buckwheat Buckwheat … Read more
This is for all bakers who are looking to work with a rye sourdough starter. Making your own rye flour based starter is the first step in the process of making rye sourdough breads. It’ll take you roughly five days to make the starter but you will be rewarded with wonderfully tasty natural rye bread loaves and will no … Read more
This month’s theme for the #TwelveLoaves bakers is Malt. I have previously used malt extract for dark wholemeal breads to add flavour and as a source of sugar for the yeast. However, with malt taking centre stage this month, I wanted to do more and decided to home-malt rye grains to make my own malted flour. … Read more
This German sunflower seed bread recipe makes a delicious loaf of rye-based bread which is infused with the earthy flavour of dry-roasted sunflower seeds. The recipe is inspired by Gerhard Kellner’s “Rustikale Brote aus deutschen Landen“. A great way to use sunflower seeds in bread baking! German sunflower seed bread recipe On the day before baking Prepare … Read more
I love polenta and it tastes awesome in bread. Here is my polenta bread recipe for a sourdough loaf with pumpkin and sunflower seeds inspired by Dan Lepard’s polenta bread in The Handmade Loaf. Polenta bread recipe with seeds Day 1 Sourdough 50g 100% hydration sourdough starter 100g strong bread flour 100g fine wholewheat flour 200g … Read more