Active Sourdough

Hello again! We have reached the end of yet another week which of course means it’s time for a new Sourdough Series post. It has been so incredibly fun writing about my sourdough journey and reflecting back on the process, how much fun it’s been, and how much more I have to learn. Sourdough is such an amazing step towards more home cooked foods, especially because of how many things you can make with sourdough whether that be from discard or active starter. In my last post, I dove into what sourdough discard is, what it’s used for, and all the incredible things you can make with it. This week, I wanted to dig into active sourdough recipes. I already touched on uses for active sourdough in my loaf mini series where I shared my experience perfecting my artisan loaf. Once you get this loaf down, you open up a new world of baking. There are SO many things you can make with your sourdough starter, an artisan loaf is just the start of it. 

First, let’s review the difference between sourdough discard and active sourdough starter. As I mentioned in my last post, sourdough discard is essentially inactive starter. In other words, your starter is at the point where it has passed its peak activation and is ready to be fed again. When you feed your starter, you want to remove, or discard, a portion of your starter first to keep it fresh and healthy. The stuff that you take out is that inactive starter that isn’t that bubbly and may be more liquidy. It’s inactive because your starter has already fed and broken down the glucose from the flour from the previous feeding and has already produced the carbon dioxide and acid byproducts that help baked goods rise. Discard still does have the capability of breaking down the flour used when you use it in baked goods and give those great fermentation benefits, but it will not give you the rise and extra fluffiness you see with active starter. 

On the flip side, active starter is what you want to use for bakes that need that good rise and extra fluffiness and airyness. Your starter will become “active” after you feed it, and every starter has a different peak activation point. Right after feeding, you will start to see your starter rise, produce lots of bubbles, and get to that beautiful thick pancake batter consistency. Each starter has their own unique “peak activation” point where your starter reaches its maximum rise right before it will start to deflate again. The time for your starter to reach its peak activation is dependent on the strength and age of your starter and your home environment so you’ll want to pay attention to your starter’s activity often because it will change. In the dead of winter and in a chilly old apartment, my young starter, Richard III, takes about 4-5 hours to reach his peak activation. This will change as the weather starts to warm up and he will probably become more active quicker with the warmer weather. As he ages, the time for him to become active may also change. With all these factors, it’s important to monitor how your starter responds to its environment over time because it will change! Most recipes I have used recommend planning to feed your starter anywhere between 4-12 hours before you plan to bake but it’s best to use your starter when it’s at its peak. I recommend experimenting at different points when practicing your artisan loaf to get to know your starter better. 

Your active starter is what will help baked goods rise. Essentially, sourdough starter is the replacement for traditional ready-to-use active yeast you see in non-sourdough baked goods. Active starter can do this because when the natural yeast and bacteria in your starter breaks down the glucose in the flour you give it during a feeding, it produces carbon dioxide and lactic acid as byproducts. It does that both directly within the starter after a feeding and when mixed with flour in the dough of whatever you’re baking. The carbon dioxide is a gas that creates bubbles in the dough during fermentation which allows the dough to rise as well as create that gorgeous, airy, fluffy texture. The lactic acid is what gives sourdough products that infamous distinct sour tinge. This rising process takes a lot longer than traditional yeasted baked goods and is what makes that initial bulk fermentation period of your bakes so essential. You need to give the bacteria and natural yeast in your starter enough time to break down the glucose and produce the gases needed for your dough to rise properly. This typically takes anywhere from 8-12 hours and is highly dependent on temperature. The warmer the environment, the quicker and more efficiently your dough will rise, so bulk fermentation time during a bake can also change when weather changes. You can also experiment with this timing during your artisan loaf process and you may have to adjust things if your environment changes. 

It may seem like yeasted baked goods are the easier way to go, and in many ways it may be for you! Any homemade baked goods will be better than commercially purchased goods that contain tons of excess ingredients and can be highly processed. But please don’t let the sourdough process scare you off if you are interested in diving in. Once you get your starter nice and healthy and get the hang of using your starter and the sourdough baking process, it truly becomes easier and almost second nature. Most of the hard work is honestly mixing up the dough and then you just have to let it sit for a long time before baking. So it does take some forethought and prep to plan out when to start your bake and when you need it to be baked and ready, but other than that I truly believe anyone can do it! I am a complete novice baker and I have made some INCREDIBLE things so far and most of the baked goods I’ve made aren’t too complicated! Not to mention that sourdough baked goods have incredible health benefits that I have discussed throughout this series. As a reminder, the fermentation process of sourdough helps break down complex carbs, helps your body absorb micronutrients, produces both pre- and probiotics that support gut health, and has a lower glycemic index to help avoid blood sugar spikes. If baked goods are made with whole wheat and natural ingredients, this can also help boost things such as fiber and other essential micronutrients. Trust me, it’s worth it, I promise!

I would love to share some things that I have baked so far on my sourdough journey and also share some things I am dying to try. I hope this will either inspire you to start a sourdough journey on your own or give you some inspiration on your next bake if you have an active starter already! There are truly an endless amount of things you can create with your starter and you will be amazed by the increased quality of your food. In my house, we rarely buy store bought bread products, baked goods, pastries, or packaged baking mixes anymore. I am baking at least 2-3 times per week and we have noticed huge differences in our grocery bill, the flavor and quality of our food, and the digestibility of the things we’re eating. Everything tastes like it’s fresh from a professional bakery and we honestly don’t experience that heavy feeling we often experience after eating packaged goods from the grocery store. It has become a slight addiction and my favorite place to be is in my kitchen with a mug of coffee doing my stretch and folds to Frank Sinatra radio with the smell of bread surrounding me like a warm hug. Have I convinced you yet? This could be you too!

Now, onto what I have experimented with and made so far with my cute lil’ starter, Richard. After I mastered my artisan loaf the first thing I made was cinnamon rolls for a family gathering. This was a bit risky given the fact that I have never even made regular cinnamon rolls before but hey, you gotta try eventually right? And man, was that the best decision I have ever made. These were seriously the best cinnamon rolls I have ever tasted. I decided to make them fall themed so I filled them with spiced apples and pumpkin butter and drizzled a cinnamon glaze over the top…I am drooling just thinking about these things. They were so fluffy and literally melted in your mouth. I, of course, used a Farmhouse on Boone recipe as a guide for the dough but added my own flavors to it (I will link all the recipes I used below!). Next, I volunteered to make pull apart dinner rolls for Thanksgiving and whelp, they have become a new Thanksgiving staple in my household and I don’t think my family will ever accept any other bread for this holiday moving forward. Similar to the cinnamon rolls, they were perfectly fluffy and airy and seriously just disintegrated into buttery goodness in your mouth as soon as you took a bite. These two bakes alone made me spiral and I have created a LENGTHY list of sourdough creations I am still working through. I then tried bagels which were definitely a bit harder than the other two recipes. I have to practice my bagel shaping skills since they lost their distinct hole and turned more into a cute dimple. Regardless, they were some of the best tasting bagels I’ve ever had and we now always have a stock of them in our freezer. Last week I tried pizza dough and oh man, I don’t even think I can go back to discard pizza dough after trying this. It is now our pizza staple and admittedly we now always have pizza dough ready to go in the freezer too. If you want the most airy, pillowy soft pizza crust that gets a perfectly crisp outside, you gotta go full on active sourdough. Lastly, I recently tried out a whole wheat sandwich bread and I no joke got a text from my husband while he was at work RAVING about how it was the best sandwich bread he’s ever had in his life. I mean, if that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will. And I can fully back him up that I almost cried happy tears eating my sandwich for lunch, the bread was to die for. 

I am now on a mission to make everything we normally buy weekly from the grocery store from-scratch at home. This includes regular artisan bread, pizza dough, bagels, rolls, and sandwich bread so far and I am still experimenting. The next things we eat frequently that I want to master are tortillas, english muffins, and tons of other types of breads like focaccia, baguettes, and buns. And this is just active sourdough! I am making so many other things with my discard too that we will truly be at a point where I will be able to make mostly every baked good from scratch. The beauty is, if I am making a batch of something I am usually making anywhere between 12-24 servings where any extras just go straight into the freezer and store incredible in there! I want to convince you that I am just an average joe, novice baker that just decided to start a starter after taking a bread baking class one day. Truly, if I can do it, so can you. And it doesn’t even have to come close to the extent I am doing it. I just absolutely love baking so it doesn’t feel like a chore to me, but if this seems extremely overwhelming and out of reach for you, start small. Start with your artisan loaf and a few discard recipes and see where that takes you! Think about what you buy most from the grocery store and just bake those things for now. Have some extra time on Sunday? Make a double batch and store any extras in the freezer. This does not have to be an all or nothing approach. Start small, make it achievable for you and your family. But most importantly, make this an enjoyable experience. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to become this master baker that doesn’t have to buy anything outside of the home again. Start small and have fun!

As promised, here are the recipes I used for all the above mentioned bakes:

Sourdough Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls 

Sourdough Dinner Rolls

Sourdough Bagels 

Sourdough Pizza DoughSourdough Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

I hope this week’s post inspires you to pop your favorite radio on, pour yourself a warm drink, and start shaping some dough!