Tips For The Best Sourdough Bread
Tips for the best sourdough! Amanda from Heartbeet Kitchen offers her insight and knowledge on all things sourdough bread.
Sourdough, Solved!
Like so many others, the world of sourdough is something I started to explore during 2020. I was bound to my home, looking for fun new things to pass the time, and bread baking was always something I had wanted to learn about.
In my search for sourdough knowledge, I kept finding that one website continued to have the most well-written resources, beautiful imagery, and consistent recipes: Heartbeet Kitchen! As I continued absorbing every nook and cranny of Amanda’s website, making her recipes and tagging her on social media, we developed a virtual friendship which quickly turned into a live, in-person friendship! Amanda is kind, generous, and so incredibly knowledgable about all things sourdough.
I asked her to share the basics of sourdough with you, so read on to learn a few tips for the best sourdough bread!
Sourdough with Amanda
What is sourdough? How is it made?
Simply put, sourdough is naturally leavened, fermented bread, one which uses wild yeast (a sourdough starter) for leavening.
What ingredients are needed to make sourdough?
The beauty of sourdough is that you need fewer than five ingredients to make it. Just flour, water, salt, and your sourdough starter. With so few ingredients, sourdough bread is real food with much more nutritional benefit than commercially made bread.
Any special equipment needed for sourdough?
To get started, there a few must haves for sourdough baking:
- Sourdough Starter
- Food Scale (all sourdough recipes are measured in grams)
- Banneton
- Bread Lame
- Bench Scraper
- Covered Baking Vessel, like a dutch oven
What things are necessary for great sourdough?
The health of your sourdough starter and practice are the two things really necessary for making great sourdough bread. Because sourdough baking differs from typical bread making in several ways, you’ll need to learn how the dough looks and feels at different stages, which you can really only do through practice. Probably the most difficult part of sourdough baking is gauging the correct proofing, which again, is learned through practice.
What would you tell readers who are intimidated by sourdough?
Sourdough may seem overwhelming at first, but really once you make your first loaf, you’ll be hooked and want to make your next. Contrary to how it may seem, your sourdough starter and sourdough baking, in general, is very forgiving. And such a great hobby. There really is nothing like the soulfulness of baking homemade bread, and of course, eating it.
Sourdough Recipes To Try
As I’ve mentioned, Amanda’s recipes are my go-to’s whenever I want the perfect loaf of sourdough.
You’ll first need a sourdough starter, which you can purchase from Amanda here, or you can make your own! Read this article to learn more about doing that. You can also read all of Amanda’s tips for keeping your sourdough starter healthy here.
Here are a few recipes to get you started on your sourdough journey!
Check out my “So Happy In The Kitchen” page, where I share helpful roundups of products, ingredient and cooking method education, and recipe tips and tricks.
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