How to Convert Any Recipe To Sourdough | With Conversions (2024)

FAQs

Can you make sourdough bread with a different flours? ›

You can feed your sourdough starter with any flour you like, as long as it provides the starches the wild yeast in your sourdough starter need to convert to Co2 to rise your dough. The flour you choose should always be unbleached flour.

If you don't have a sourdough starter yet, you'll find instructions for making a sourdough starter from scratch here. 100g of bubbly sourdough starter can be used to replace one packet of commercial yeast.

The more starter you use, the faster your dough will ferment - resulting in a less sour loaf. Of course the amount of starter is actually a ratio in relation to the flour - so 50g of starter to 500g of flour will ferment at a much slower rate than 200g of starter to 500g of flour.

However, this cost does not include feeding your sourdough starter, your time or labor or the cost of electricity of equipment. So if you look solely at the ingredients, it is cheaper to make your own sourdough. But if you bring other factors into it - it might not be as cheap.

It is fine to feed your sourdough starter any wheat flour (all purpose, bread, einkorn, rye, emmer…etc.) and probably many non-wheat flours. It's also fine to switch flours regularly. Maybe you've always fed your starter rye flour and now only have all purpose flour.

Rye Flour

Compared to wholemeal flour, rye flour is said to be the most nutrient and amylase-dense option for a sourdough starter. Overall, it has a lower gluten protein content than wheat flour, which means that rye flour produces slack, sticky and dense doughs.

It's usually given as starter:water:flour, so a 1:1:1 ratio means 1 part starter, 1 part water, and 1 part flour.

Adding yeast to a sourdough can result in a lighter, more tender crumb and a crisper crust than the same loaf without it. Now I like the texture of a crusty, chewy sourdough loaf most of the time, but there are instances where I find this effect especially useful.

In another study, sourdough bread, either made spontaneously or with a starter, significantly lowered the gastric emptying rate compared with that with baker's yeast bread in healthy subjects. No effects of bread on gastrointestinal symptoms were reported [13].

If you have too much starter compared to the additional flour and water you're adding, your hungry starter consumes all the nutrients and then it's not as bubbly.

Can you overfeed your sourdough starter? ›

The colony of wild yeast and bacteria inside your starter jar are fairly resilient, however, like most living things, they can be overfed. When you overfeed a sourdough starter you dilute the natural population of yeast and bacteria, making your sourdough culture weak and inactive.

If you are new to sourdough baking or don't have the time or inclination to make your own starter, a bought starter may be a good option. However, if you enjoy the process of creating your own starter and want more control over the fermentation process, making your own starter may be the way to go.

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?

Sourdough bread is a great alternative to conventional bread. It's richer in nutrients, less likely to spike your blood sugar, and generally easier to digest. Just remember that sourdough fermentation doesn't degrade gluten completely.

I prefer to keep around 200g of ripe sourdough starter on hand for baking, but you can certainly reduce the quantity of flour, water, and ripe starter to keep a smaller starter.

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.

You could also mix them together in different ratios—say 80% of the bread flour dough and 20% of the whole -wheat one in one batch, and 20% bread flour and 80% whole wheat in the other.

This recipe uses regular, everyday all-purpose flour, but you can certainly make sourdough using whole-wheat, rye, or any other kind of flour. Wild yeast is everywhere, after all! If this is your first time making sourdough, I'd recommend starting with all-purpose flour because it tends to behave the most predictably.

You can always substitute all-purpose flour for bread flour one for one in any recipe that calls for it. Your bread might not raise quite as high or have quite as much chew, if you are using all-purpose flour, but it will still be delicious and homemade and all the good things.