Every week we pull together some great Canadian recipes from Canadian food bloggers around the web featuring one main ingredient or dish. This week, we're sharing one of our true loves: sourdough bread recipes!
Bread can get a bad rap in today's food climate but, we're just gonna say it - we're enthusiastic bread lovers around these parts and if you've never had a slice of homemade bread fresh out of the oven you are missing out on one of life's simple pleasures. Sourdough is one of our favourites - that beautifully tangy flavour and rustic crust pair up so beautifully with some good cheese or just plain butter, melting into the crevices of a warm slice.
About Sourdough Starters
Sourdough bread gets its wonderfully tangy taste from the use of a sourdough starter, which acts as a leavening agent (what makes bread rise before baking) in place of baker's yeast.
Sourdough starter is a fermented starter, or lactobacillus culture. Basically it's a mixture of flour and water that ferments over a week. You "feed" a starter daily to get it going and once it's established you move to feeding it once a week. It's an easy process but, if the thought of creating your own starter intimidates you, ask around and see if any friends or family have an established starter they'd be willing to share with you to get you going!
Many of the recipes included in this roundup will include or have links to sourdough starter recipes.
Sourdough is one of the oldest leavening agents used in the production of bread - according to Wikipedia, the oldest sourdough loaf found at an archaeological excavation (in Switzerland) dates back to 3700 BCE - that's probably a pretty stale loaf of bread! But it's estimated that the use of sourdough goes back even thousands of years earlier! By comparison bread baking using cultivated yeast only dates back about 150 years.
Be warned, making your own sourdough bread can become a bit of an addiction, as many of the bakers here have admitted. But if you're baking faster than you're able to consume remember, there's probably somebody in your building, your neighbourhood, your kids soccer team, your friendly admin team at FBC who would love any extra loaves you have hanging around! (just saying....).
Also check out the bonus recipe for Bread Kvass at the bottom of the list. It's a great way to use up leftover Sourdough Bread and avoid food waste. And if you need more ideas to avoid throwing out old or stale bread check out these 7 Tips To Avoid Wasting Breads and Grains.
1.Fluffy Sourdough Bread and Sourdough Starter Feeding Schedule
If you've never made sourdough bread before one of the first things you need is a sourdough starter. This post from Allergy Girl Eats will get you set with a feeding schedule for your starter (she's also got a great recipe for that too!). Once you've got your starter going strong, you can make her Fluffy Sourdough Bread!
2. No Knead Sourdough Bread
If kneading bread isn't your thing, Chef Markus at Earth Food and Fire shows you how to make this gorgeous loaf of Rustic No Knead Sourdough in a dutch oven.
3. Classic French Boule Bread
It's hard not to think about France without thinking of delicious cheese paired up with a crusty slice of the most perfect bread. Pardon Your French will have you whipping up an authentic Classic French Boule Bread in a Dutch oven for a sourdough treat.
4. Make Your Own Kombucha Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
When we saw Melissa Torio's recipe for a Gluten-Free Kombucha Sourdough Starter we were very intrigued. If you're looking for a gluten free sourdough bread option this is the place to start!
5. A Complete Guide To Integral Sourdough Bread
Skillet and Pots has put together a complete guide to creating Integral Sourdough Bread. If you've never baked with, or even heard of Integral flour, it's flour that contains the entire grain - germ and hull making it an excellent source of fibre and protein (whole wheat flour does not necessarily contain the entire grain but integral flour does!)
6. Super Easy Concorde Grape and Rosemary Sourdough Focaccia
Once you're comfortable with sourdough starter and making your first few loaves of bread don't hesitate to start using your starter in new ways! It will expand your baking tremendously. This Concorde Grape Rosemary Sourdough Focaccia Bread from Dish 'n' the Kitchen is a great, easy recipe to start exploring outside of the tradition loaf!
7. Cheese and Chive Sourdough Biscuits
by leelalicious
Cheese and Chive Sourdough Biscuits from leelalicious are another creative way to use your sourdough starter and the cheese and chive flavours are a great complement to the taste of sourdough.
Bonus #8 - Bread Kvass
This isn't technically a sourdough recipe but we thought we'd include it as a bonus because it's a fabulous way to prevent food waste. Bread Kvass is a fermented beverage made with sourdough bread that's very popular in Eastern Europe and often sold by street vendors. Domestic Dreamboat put together a recipe for your to make Bread Kvass at home with your leftover sourdough bread.
A big thank you to all our FBC Members who participated in this weekend's Sourdough Bread roundup. If you're an FBC Member and would like to submit to future weekend link roundups, make sure you're signed up to receive your members-only newsletter where we list all the weekly roundups for the current month (don't receive your monthly member newsletter? Log in to your account and check off the box to receive our member updates!)
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Great bread roundup. All the recipes sound great.