craig, Author at Urban Homesteading

Author: craig

How to Make Sourdough Discard Crackers

Posted on May 1, 2025May 1, 2025 by craig

We hosted a dinner party recently and it evolved into a potluck where our guests were bringing the salad, sides, and the main course. We whipped up a dessert, but we were feeling like we should be doing a bit more since we’re the hosts, and it felt like our guests were doing all the hard work. So, I decided to add some appetizers to the menu and whip up a batch of sourdough discard crackers to serve alongside some hummus and toum.

As anybody who maintains a sourdough starter knows, you end up throwing out a lot of the starter. Every time you feed it, you discard a portion of it. While flour and water aren’t expensive, it does feel like a waste, so sourdough discard recipes are great ways to use up this discard instead of throwing it out. I recently made sourdough discard chocolate chip cookies, and as I grow this site more discard recipes will appear on the recipe index page.

These sourdough discard crackers come together quickly and easily and are highly customizable when it comes to the flavourings. I used a few teaspoons of Herbs de Provence, which is a traditional French and Mediterranean blend of herbs, typically including thyme, rosemary, savory, marjoram, oregano, and tarragon. But if I didn’t have Herbs de Provence on hand, I would have gone with just rosemary. I made these crackers on a Zoom call with my bestie who was also making it in her kitchen—she went with salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese, and they turned out excellent too.

How to make sourdough discard crackers

The first and most important thing you will need is a sourdough starter. If you haven’t got one going yet, you’ll need to do so and maintain it for at least a week before you start using it for recipes like this. You can find instructions on making a starter here.

For the dinner party I made these crackers for, I whipped up a double batch. I fed the starter an extra large helping the night before so I’d have a lot of discard on hand. Thus, all the photos in this post are for a double batch.

Step one: Setting up

Preheat your oven to 350 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Melt two tablespoons of butter and let it cool slightly.

Step two: Mix the ingredients

Put a bowl on a kitchen scale and hit the tare / zero button. Then add 200 grams of sourdough starter discard, which will amount to approximately 3/4 cup of discard.

Add the melted butter, 1/4 teaspoon fine salt, and 2 teaspoons of dried herbs (or hard cheese like parmesan).

Give everything a good mix until it’s well combined.

Step three: Spread out on parchment paper

Scoop or pour the batter onto the parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Spread it out really thin. This can get a little tricky with the dough sticking to your spatula or knife and pulling up the parchment paper, so you may need to hold down the parchment paper as you do this.

Sprinkle the top with 1/4 teaspoon flaky or coarse salt. I went with coarse sea salt, but if you have a flavoured sea salt or butcher’s salt (coarse salt with dried herbs mixed in), these would work well too.

Dough is thinly spread and ready for the oven

Step four: Bake the crackers

Put the baking sheet in the oven.

Optional: After ten minutes, if you want to score your crackers to make nice squares or rectangles, take the baking sheet out and gently run a knife or pizza cutter through it. If you prefer to break the crackers afterward for a more rustic look, skip this step.

Crackers may take as short as 20 minutes or as long as 50 minutes, depending on the variations in oven temperature and how thinly the dough was spread. Crackers are ready when they look dry and hard and are starting to turn golden brown. I found it took about 30 minutes to reach this point.

Step five: Let cool and enjoy

Let the crackers cool completely and then break them into appropriate sizes. Crackers can be eaten immediately or stored in an airtight container for about a week.

Sourdough Discard Crackers

These crackers are not only a great way to use up sourdough discard, but they're also delicious and easy to make.

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 50

Course Snack

Ingredients

200 grams Sourdough Discard (about ¾ cup)
2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter

¼ tsp Fine Salt
2 tsp Dried Herbs or Seasonings (such as Herbs de Provence or black pepper and parmesan cheese)
¼ tsp Coarse Salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Melt butter and allow to cool slightly.
Into a bowl, weigh out sourdough discard using a kitchen scale.

Add melted butter, fine salt, and herbs or seasonings, and mix until thoroughly combined.
Spread dough thinly onto parchment paper. Sprinkle the top with coarse salt.
Put in the oven and bake for 20-50 minutes, or until starting to turn golden brown. If desired, after the first 10 minutes, remove the sheet from the oven and score the crackers with a knife or pizza cutter.

When done, remove from oven and allow to cool. Break crackers into appropriate sizes. Crackers can be consumed immediately or stored in an airtight container for about a week.

Keyword Sourdough, Sourdough crackers, sourdough discard

How to Make Raspberry Crumble Loaf Cake with Lemon Drizzle

Posted on April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 by craig

While this pre-garden period drags on where there is no outdoor stuff to do, I continue to explore indoor projects. One of our goals every year is to use up what we have stocked away by the time we start stocking away new stuff from this year’s harvest. I’ve been eyeing a bag of raspberries I froze from last year that’s looking for an excuse to be eaten.

My bestie and I often hop on Zoom calls and tackle food projects together, so to use up my raspberries, we whipped up a raspberry crumble loaf cake with lemon drizzle. It’s not too sweet, has a bit of tartness from the raspberries, a sweet crumble topping, and a light lemon drizzle. It pairs perfectly with coffee or tea to make a nice afternoon snack.

The recipes I was looking at as inspiration all called for heavy kitchen appliances—a stand mixer with special attachments, a food processor—but this recipe here can all be done by hand without much effort. If you prefer to use a stand mixer and/or food processor, I’ll include those instructions as well, so you can adapt your method to what tools you’d like to use or not use.

A slice of raspberry crumble loaf cake with lemon drizzle waiting to be eaten

How to make raspberry crumble loaf cake with lemon drizzle

This batter comes together pretty quickly and you’ll soon have this in the oven. While you could certainly eat a warm slice when it’s fresh out of the oven, I’ve found it tastes better once it’s been refrigerated and is nice and chilled. Regardless of how you eat it, let’s learn how to make it!

Step one: Make the crumb topping

Add 90 grams of flour (or 3/4 cup), 66 grams of sugar (or 1/3 cup), and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to a bowl. With a whisk or fork, give it a quick stir to fully mix the ingredients. I find baking projects work best with the flour and sugar weighed, so if you have a scale I recommend pulling it out, but if you prefer to use the volume measurements, that’s fine too!

Add five tablespoons of cold unsalted butter, cut into small slices or cubes. With a pastry cutter, potato masher, or fork, combine ingredients until you get a crumbly sand-like mixture. I’ve found that it looks like it’s not working and it’s just clumping together, but as I keep going at it with the pastry cutter, it’ll suddenly turn and all come together to the desired consistency.

Crumble topping fully mixed and with a sand-like texture

If you prefer to use a big Kitchenaid-style mixer, you can put all of this in the mixing bowl, use the paddle attachment and sit it to mix on low until you reach the desired consistency. Alternatively, if you have a large food processor, you could pulse the whole thing in there until the consistency is reached.

Put the crumb topping aside until needed.

Step two: Make the batter

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl—180 grams (1 1/2 cup) flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Give it a quick stir with a whisk or fork to combine ingredients.

In a separate, larger bowl, combine wet ingredients—1/4 cup vegetable oil, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 large eggs, 3/4 cup plain unsweetened yogurt (I used Greek yogurt), and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Give this a good mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to combine ingredients.

If you want to use a Kitchenaid-style mixer, combine all the wet ingredients in the mixer’s bowl and use the whisk attachment until well-blended. If you’re using a mixer, remove the bowl from the mixer for the remaining steps.

Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until just combined and most lumps have disappeared. Be careful not to over-mix it.

Step three: Assemble the cake

Pour the batter into the greased/sprayed loaf pan.

Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups of frozen or fresh raspberries on top. Gently press the raspberries down so they embed in the batter, but do not submerge them. The end result will be cake with a layer of raspberries.

Using clean hands, pick up handfuls of crumb mixture and distribute them evenly over the cake, gently squeezing as you do so to create larger crumbs for a variety of textures and sizes.

Fully assembled raspberry crumble loaf cake ready for the oven

Step four: Bake the cake

Bake the cake for 55-65 minutes. Test with a toothpick to see if it’s done; a toothpick should be inserted in the centre and removed and there should be no wet batter on the toothpick. The raspberries may get in the way and make it difficult to do an accurate test, so you may want to move some raspberries aside with the gentle help of a butterknife.

Let the cake cool. When cool, remove from pan and transfer to a plate or serving dish.

Raspberry crumble loaf cake fresh out of the oven

Step five: Make the lemon drizzle

In a cup or small bowl, add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tablespoon of milk (milk alternatives work fine, I used almond milk), and 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice. Give it a stir with a teaspoon and it’ll soon come together to make a runny whiteish drizzle. If you feel it’s too thick, you could add a tiny splash of lemon juice or milk (like 1/8 of a teaspoon) to thin it out a bit.

Then, scooping it up with a spoon, drizzle it over the cake.

Raspberry crumble loaf cake with lemon drizzle

Step six: Enjoy!

You can slice into the cake at any time, but I do find it tastes better once it’s been in the fridge for a while and is nicely chilled. To keep it from going dry after slicing into it, put it in an airtight container or cover it with plastic wrap (you can put toothpicks in the cake to prevent the wrap from coming in contact with the cake). It’s best to consume within a few days, but good luck letting it last that long!

Raspberry Crumble Loaf Cake with Lemon Drizzle

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Course Dessert

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

90 grams Flour (about ¾ cup)
66 grams Sugar (about ⅓ cup)

¼ tsp Salt
5 Tbsp Butter, cold and cut into small cubes

Cake

180 grams Flour (about 1 ½ cups)

1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt

¼ cup Vegetable Oil
¾ cup Sugar
2 Large Eggs

¾ cup Plain Unsweetened Yogurt (can use Greek yogurt)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 ½ cups Raspberries, fresh or frozen

Lemon Drizzle

½ cup Powdered Sugar
Pinch Salt
½ Tbsp Milk or Milk Alternative

½ Tbsp Lemon Juice

Instructions

Make the Crumb Topping

In a bowl, combine all crumb ingredients. With a pastry cutter, blend the ingredients until they come together and form a sand-like texture. Alternatively, you can do this in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or in a food processor.

Make the Cake

Preheat oven to 350℉ and spray a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a bowl and mix with a wire whisk or fork until evenly blended.
In a separate, larger bowl, add oil, sugar, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla. Mix using a whisk, spatula, or spoon until evenly blended.
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl. Mix until lumps have mostly disappeared, being careful not to over-mix (so do this manually rather than with a mixer).

Transfer batter to the prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle raspberries on top and gently press them partway into the batter.
Sprinkle crumb topping on top, gently squeezing fingers while doing so to create larger crumbs.
Bake for 55-65 minutes. When done, test with a toothpick—when inserted into the cake, it should come out clean and free of batter. If the raspberries are in the way and making it difficult, gently move some aside with a butterknife and try again.

When baked, allow to cool. Transfer to a wire rack when safe to do so.

Make the Lemon Drizzle

Combine all drizzle ingredients in a small bowl or cup and stir until thoroughly mixed. Using a spoonful at a time, drizzle over the cake.

Keyword loaf cake, raspberry cake

How to Make Sourdough English Muffins

Posted on April 17, 2025April 17, 2025 by craig

Continuing with my seasonal shift in homesteading—winter and early spring being prime time for sourdough and other baking projects—this past week I hopped on Zoom with my bestie and we taught ourselves how to make sourdough English muffins. This is quite an easy recipe with very delicious results. While our sourdough English muffins didn’t turn out quite as airy and fluffy as traditional English muffins, the end result was pretty bang-on perfect.

After we let our English muffins cool for a bit, we proceeded to make Eggs Benedict for brunch—a toasted English muffin, topped with ham or bacon, topped with a poached egg, and smothered in hollandaise sauce. It was—chef’s kiss—perfect!

Eggs Benedict made with homemade sourdough English muffins

To tackle this recipe, you will need an active sourdough starter. If you’re new to the world of sourdough, you can find my guide to creating your starter here.

While English muffins do have some milk in them, you can make them dairy-free / vegan by swapping out the milk with a milk alternative. I didn’t have milk on hand so I used unsweetened almond milk and got great results.

How to make sourdough English muffins

As mentioned above, you will need an active and bubble sourdough starter. If you’re new to sourdough or haven’t made a starter in a while, you’ll want to create one first using the instructions on this page. It takes about a week for a sourdough starter to really thrive and be useful. If you’re in a colder/drier climate like me, it can take a couple weeks and then it might not get really strong for quite some time. However, my bestie is in a warmer/humid climate and her starter was very active and bubbly within a couple days and could be used almost immediately.

Now, let’s learn how to make sourdough English muffins!

Step one: The night before, getting it started

Like most sourdough recipes, this is intended to be a two day project, starting the night before. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of active, bubbly starter, 240 grams of flour, and 1 cup of milk (or a plant milk if preferred; I found almond milk worked fine). The recipe I was working from called for 2 cups of flour here, but I’ve found I get better results for bread if I weigh the flour. Sometimes it comes out a little too wet and I have to add flour, but it beats having a too-dry dough from too much flour when I measure by cups.

Give it all a good stir until fully combined, then cover with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature overnight. You could leave it longer if you want — a pastry chef once told me that the secret to a good sourdough project is a long, slow rise, so you could go 18 or even 24 hours if you want.

The dough for English muffins, mixed and ready to rest overnight

Step two: The next morning, adding ingredients

Add 80 grams of flour (or 3/4 cups if you’re going by volume), 1 Tbsp sugar, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking soda. Mix this all with a spoon or spatula. I found this came together really easily, but if your dough is a bit dry, you may need to dive in with your hands.

The rest of the ingredients mixed into the English muffin dough

Step three: Knead the dough

Flour a countertop or table and roll the dough out of the bowl and onto the floured surface. Knead the dough for 4 to 5 minutes. If your dough is wet and sticky — and if you measure flour by weight like I do, there’s a good chance your dough is too wet — gradually add flour in small amounts until the dough is tacky but not sticky. It should feel like it’s sticking to your fingers when you remove your hand, but your hand comes away clean. If dough is sticking to your hand, it’s too wet.

Step four: Roll out the dough and cut it

When your dough is fully kneaded and not too sticky, use a floured rolling pin to roll it out to 3/4 inch thickness. Using a drinking glass or a round cookie or pastry cutter, cut out your English muffins and place them on parchment paper. If you have cornmeal (I didn’t), you can dust each side with a bit of cornmeal.

If, like me, you’re horrible at judging size and you end up rolling them far too thin, you can stack them together (before dusting with cornmeal). You should end up with 6-8, whereas I got 16, which told me I had made them way too thin. If you stack them, you don’t need to press them together; they will stick together when you cook them.

Let them rest for 45 minutes.

Uncooked sourdough English muffins, resting before cooking

Step five: Cook the English muffins

Put a large pan on the stove and set the stove to medium heat. Let it prewarm a bit. Since I didn’t have cornmeal to dust the English muffins, I gave the pan a quick spritz of cooking spray.

Once the pan is nice and warm, cook the English muffins for 6-8 minutes per side. Keep an eye on them because if your stove runs a little hotter, you may need a shorter cooking time. My first batch took 6 minutes per side and the second took about 5 per side. They can burn a bit, so keep an eye out for that too.

Sourdough English muffins cooking in a pan on the stove

Step six: Let cool and enjoy!

For best results, let the English muffins cool before cutting into them. Breads can sometimes still cook a bit with the heat retained inside and cutting them open can cause that heat to dissipate. Opening them before cooling can also allow steam to escape and make the bread a little drier.

Homemade sourdough English muffins, cooling before eating

English muffins are an integral part of Eggs Benedict, which is what we proceeded to make with these. We used my husband’s recipe for hollandaise sauce, but if you’re looking for a recipe, this one looks pretty good.

Sourdough English Muffins

These sourdough English muffins are easy to make and a delicious part of breakfast!

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 12

Cook Time 16

Course Bread, Breakfast

Ingredients

½ cup Active, Bubbly Sourdough Starter
330 g Flour (or 2 ¾ cup)

1 cup Milk (can be plant milk)
1 Tbsp Sugar
¾ tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Soda
Cornmeal, for dusting

Instructions

The night before
In a large bowl, add sourdough starter, 240 g / 2 cups flour, and milk. Stir with a spoon until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight, or longer, at room temperature.

The next day
Add 90 g / ¾ cup flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Stir to combine.
Roll out dough onto floured surface and knead for 4-5 minutes. If your dough is wet and sticky, slowly incorporate additional flour until it's tacky but no longer sticky.
With a floured rolling pin, roll dough to ¾ inch thickness. With a drinking glass or round pastry / cookie cutter, cut out muffins. You should end up with about 6-8 English muffins.

Dust each side with cornmeal and let them rest on parchment paper for 45 minutes.
Preheat a large pan on the stove to medium heat. Cook English muffins for about 6-8 minutes per side, careful not to burn them, until they are ready. Allow English muffins to cool before slicing and using.

Keyword English Muffins, Sourdough, Sourdough English Muffins

Preparing for the upcoming garden season (A garden update for April 2025)

Posted on April 10, 2025April 10, 2025 by craig

Another month and another inch closer to spring. During much of March, the snow had melted and it looked like we were headed to a very early spring—though it would have still been unwise to plant anything until the May long weekend because a good frost could kill anything.

The garden in March with most of the snow melted

But then right around the shift from March to April, the city was hit with a big dump of snow. While a lot of it has since melted, there’s still a considerable amount of snow and ice around. While we can’t plant yet, we’re still busy preparing for the upcoming garden season!

The garden in April, buried in a fresh layer of snow

Early plantings

Despite the risk of frost between now and the May long weekend, there are two things we want to get in the ground nice and early, and which can withstand some frost.

The first is garlic. We normally plant this in the fall, let it overwinter under the snow, and then it’s the first thing to come up in the spring. But last fall was unseasonably warm and very rainy and there was a very real risk that the garlic we plant would either sprout in the fall or simply rot, so we’re going to do a spring planting instead. If we get it in while the ground is still very cold, there’s a chance the garlic will still grow at the usual time.

We really wanted to replant the garlic from last year. It’s the second generation of seed garlic we had purchased from a local farmers market vendor—these ones have nice giant cloves, with only about four cloves per head. Sometimes our garlic doesn’t last till spring so we were worried it might sprout or go bad before we had a chance to plant them, but they’re still doing good, chilling out in a bag and ready to go. (We had considered freezing them to mimic the conditions of being frozen outside over winter and to make sure they don’t sprout or go bad, but just never got around to putting the garlic in the freezer.)

The second is mushrooms. We settled on wine cap mushrooms. They’re supposed to be beginner friendly, work well in outdoor beds, and dehydrate/rehydrate well. They can also withstand a little bit of frost, so getting them in around late April or early May is ideal as they fruit in the spring and fall when it’s a bit cooler.

Unfortunately, my local mushroom supplier seems to be out of wine cap spawn, so I’m looking elsewhere. I’ve found a handful of places that sell spawn online within Canada, but the shipping is very expensive (so it’s worth it to find a local supplier to save the shipping cost!). I’m continuing to explore options because we’re determined to have mushrooms this year.

Update since the first draft of this post: I’ve found an online mushroom vendor from Quebec and I’ve ordered wine cap, shiitake, and pioppino mushroom spawn. We’ll try all three and see what comes up!

New kitchen gadgets

My birthday was last month and my mom had originally planned to register me for a cheesemaking class at the local cooking school, but it was unfortunately cancelled. I definitely want to learn how to make cheese, so I’m keeping an eye on their website for when that comes up again.

However, in the absence of a cheesemaking class, my mom offered to buy me some items off Amazon. I poked around the site and loaded up on gadgets to help build this homesteading kitchen.

Gnocchi-making supplies

My husband and I love gnocchi, which are pillowy-soft potato dumplings from Italy that are served up with sauce. I’ve tried making them before but they were a kitchen disaster. I’m determined to learn how to make them soon, so as part of the birthday gift, I got myself a potato ricer (to make perfectly smooth potatoes) and a gnocchi board (to get the traditional ridges). I’ll be hopping on Zoom one weekend soon while my bestie and we’ll teach ourselves how to make this.

A potato ricer and a gnocchi board for making gnocchi

Spaetzle-making supplies

Spaetzle is a type of noodle. A while back I came across a recipe for how to make it using sourdough discard. I attempted it a couple weeks ago and it was delicious. However, I didn’t have the appropriate device for making it easily, so I added this spaetzle maker to my Amazon cart!

The dough is pushed through the holes, directly into boiling water. When I attempted it previously, I used a colander, which does the job, but it’s awkward.

A spaetzle maker -- a metal disc with holes in it, with a plastic scraper to push dough through the holes

Wine siphon

I make a lot of country wines. For some of them, I make big five-gallon batches and have all the right equipment for that. For other recipes, I make small one-gallon batches, and one thing that’s I’ve been missing is a small siphon to transfer wine. This will help me get clearer sediment-free wine from my small batches. (And I will have more wine recipes on this site over the next year, I promise!)

The busyness begins next month!

This was a relatively quiet month but May will soon be upon us and we’ll be diving head-first into six months of gardening, harvesting, and food processing. When I’m at the end of it, around September or October, I’m always exhausted and wishing we could scale it down and just not do as much. But when this time of year rolls around, I’m back in love with it all and I can’t wait to get started. See you next month!

How to Make Irish Soda Bread

Posted on April 4, 2025April 4, 2025 by craig

Every year for St. Patrick’s Day, we invite a friend over and put on an Irish dinner, which usually consists of an Irish stew, Irish soda bread, and either some whisky or a Guinness. I’ve made this dinner a few times now, and sometimes play around with the menu, such as adding Guinness and Cheddar Dip, Irish Potato Bread, or an Irish Drop Shot for a drink. But I’ve never really gotten the handle on the Irish soda bread—it always comes out way too dense and tough. This year I was determined to do it right, so I pulled up a few recipes online and compared them and taught myself how to make Irish soda bread. I’ve since made this recipe a couple more times and it’s turned out perfect every time, so I think I’ve finally hacked it!

What I was doing wrong before was measuring the flour by volume, when really flour should be measured by weight. The amount of flour in a cup can really vary from measurement to measurement—similar to brown sugar, it can be lightly packed or tightly packed, and that can make a big difference on your end result.

While the recipes I looked at called for flour measured by volume, I switched to a weight measurement and instantly all of my Irish soda bread is light and fluffy and soft and delicious!

How to Make Irish Soda Bread

Step one: Setting up

Preheat your oven to 425 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step two: Mix dry ingredients

Add flour, baking soda, and salt to a bowl and whisk to combine.

Step three: Add buttermilk

Create a well in the centre of your dry ingredients and add your buttermilk.

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can make it with 1 3/4 cups milk and 1 3/4 tablespoons lemon juice. If you’d like to make it vegan (or, like me, forget to buy milk but have vegan milk on hand), you can make buttermilk using the same ratios with soy milk, almond milk, or other vegan milk. For these photos, I forgot to buy milk, so this is made with almond milk.

Mix until combined.

Mix ingredients - this dough is still a little too wet

My dough was a little too wet so I added a bit of flour and mixed some more.

Step three: Knead the dough

Transfer the dough to a floured counter or table and lightly knead the dough. If it’s too wet and sticky, add flour in small amounts until dough is still tacky but holds together and doesn’t stick to your hands. I usually have to add some flour for this reason.

Step four: Prep the loaf for the oven

Roll the dough into a round loaf and place on the parchment paper lined baking sheet. With a sharp knife, score the top with an X.

Place on a baking sheet and score the top with an X

Step five: Bake the bread

Place the baking sheet in the oven for 30 minutes or until loaf is golden brown. It should sound hollow when tapped.

Freshly baked Irish soda bread, golden brown in colour

Let the loaf cool for at least half an hour before slicing. Cutting into it while still hot can lead to moisture evaporation, which can make the bread drier and tougher.

Step six: Enjoy!

Irish soda bread lasts for several days in an airtight container at room temperature. It may last longer, but we always eat it by the third day because it’s just so darn delicious!

I have a carb-loving cat who will steal bread, pasta, cereal, and more any chance he gets. I happened to turn my back for about 30 seconds after slicing some bread, and…

Irish Soda Bread

Light, fluffy, delicious, and easy to make, this Irish soda bread is a sure winner at the dinner table!

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 5

Course Bread

Cuisine bread, Irish

Ingredients

480 grams All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt
1¾ cup Buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt.
Create a well in the centre and add buttermilk. Stir until combined.
Transfer dough to a floured counter or table and lightly knead to form a round loaf. Add more flour in small amounts if dough is too wet and sticky.

Place the round loaf on the parchment paper lined baking sheet. With a sharp knife, score an X on the top of the loaf.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Bread should sound hollow if tapped.
Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing. If sliced while still too warm, moisture may evaporate and bread may become tough.

Notes

The flour is about four cups, but you’ll get better results by weighing it rather than using a measuring cup.

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can mix 1 3/4 cup milk with 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice.

If you’d like to make this vegan, buttermilk can be made from almond milk or soy milk, to varying degrees of success. The photographed bread in this post was made with buttermilk made from almond milk.

Keyword Homemade bread, Irish soda bread, soda bread

How to Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on March 27, 2025 by craig

I’ve got an active sourdough starter that’s been around for about two years now, and who has recently been named Louie. (Naming your starter is a tradition, and one I’ve held off on until recently.) Louie spends most of the summer in the fridge, getting fed every couple weeks, because garden season is just a little too overwhelming to be thinking about making bread. But once the snow falls and the garden is done, I inevitably bring the starter out of the fridge, feed it a bit more regularly, and start getting the itch to bake—as evidenced by the recent posts on making sourdough bread and making sourdough focaccia.

Maintaining a sourdough starter means discarding a lot of the starter every time you feed it, which can feel wasteful. Thankfully, there are hundreds of recipes that use up this starter, making good stuff out of the waste. For this post, we’re going to learn how to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies.

What makes these sourdough chocolate chip cookies good?

I love cookies. Like, all kinds. There isn’t such a thing as a bad cookie.

Continue reading →

Garden Update: March 2025

Posted on March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 by craig

We’re having an unseasonably warm couple of months here in Winnipeg.

While there is normally a warm spell around this time—there’s a winter festival every February that includes snow sculptures and it seems that every year it’s warmish at that time and the sculptures melt a bit—but this year has been warmer than normal. In fact, tomorrow it’s supposed to go up to +8 degrees Celsius. After that, though, we’re expecting a winter storm and some colder temps, so it’s evening out a bit.

The main concern about a too-early spring is that the perennial plants might come up a little too early, then be damaged if there’s a cold spell. However, since they’re perennials, they can likely get through it just fine. We won’t be planting anything until it’s finally and fully on the warmer side of things, which tends to be around the May long weekend.

The one exception is garlic. We normally plant that in the fall and let it rest under the snow all winter so it sprouts up first thing in the spring. We didn’t have time to do it last fall, so as soon as the ground is workable, we might plant the garlic so it’s still in there nice and early.

The seed orders have arrived

Last month’s garden update included a lengthy list of what seeds we need to order, what seedlings we’ll buy at the greenhouse, and what perennials we can expect to come up.

Sometimes it makes me think of this meme that was sent my way a while back:

A meme using an image from Lord of the Rings in which Bilbo Baggins is holding an image of vegetables. It reads "After all... why not? Why shouldn't I plant every single vegetable?"

We plant a lot of different things. When people ask me what we grow in our garden, I rattle off forty or fifty things and end my list with “I’m sure I’m forgetting a few plants”.

But when our goal is to grow all the food we’d need in a year—vegetables, some fruit, herbal teas, and alternative proteins—that requires the huge diversity that we’ve got going. It also helps balance things out if some crops do better than others. This past year, broccoli did very well, but peppers didn’t do as great as the year before, so overall it averages out to about the same total load as last year.

I’m working on a blog post for how to plan a garden to provide food for a year. It’ll mostly be based on our own experience, which may not be applicable to every reader, but it will hopefully provide a good starting point for those who are interested.

Still figuring out mushrooms

Last year we planted king oyster mushrooms under our cedar trees.

The results were…less than stellar.

A very small king oyster mushroom growing in the ground.

After creating two large beds for mushrooms and investing considerable time and energy into it, we got one piddly mushroom.

However, in hindsight that might be best. While oyster mushrooms are great for cooking, they’re not great for preserving—while they dehydrate fine, they apparently don’t rehydrate very well as they turn into mush—and if we’d harvested a huge bounty, we’d either have to eat it all ASAP or throw some in the compost.

We are, however, determined to make the mushroom thing work.

I did some digging around and it looks like winecap mushrooms are beginner friendly for garden growing and my local mushroom supplier has winecap spawn. I still have to do more digging to see how well they dehydrate and rehydrate. However, this will likely be our next mushroom venture.

Keeping busy in the kitchen

I’ve had a little more time on my hands lately, so I’ve been working on a few things here for the blog.

Looking ahead to spring

Next month’s garden update will likely be brief like this one, but then once May rolls around we’re launching full-on into garden season and these updates will be packed with photos and info. The summer is a hectic time of year and we’re always exhausted by the end of it, but we love it. And when it comes to this time of year, we’re already itching to get started outdoors.

Sourdough focaccia bread topped with rosemary, roasted garlic, and cherry tomatoes

How to Make Sourdough Focaccia Bread

Posted on March 10, 2025March 10, 2025 by craig

My family is pretty big into movies. My husband and I watch movies at home every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then every Tuesday (which is “cheap Tuesday” at the theatres here) we check out a new release with my mom. While we sometimes skip a day here and there, it works out to about 200 movies a year.

So when the Oscars comes around, it’s a big event for us. We all invite ourselves over to my sister’s place (because she’s the only one with cable to watch the telecast), and my husband makes a big dinner for Caesar salad, fettuccini Alfredo, and apple crumble, all made from scratch (even the Alfredo sauce and Caesar dressing).

Normally we buy a loaf of garlic bread from the grocery store to go with it—but I’ve been in a real baking mood lately and offered to make sourdough focaccia bread.

Sourdough focaccia bread is easy to make if you have a healthy sourdough starter bubbling away, and the toppings are completely optional and customizable to your tastes and what you have on hand.

I ended up topping mine with herb salt (also known as butcher salt), roasted garlic, dehydrated rosemary, and (dehydrated and then rehydrated) cherry tomatoes.

It was soft and airy like you expect of focaccia, with the chewiness and tang of sourdough, and immensely tasty with the toppings I added. It immediately became a crowd pleaser.

How to make sourdough focaccia bread

The first thing you’ll need before even starting this recipe is a healthy, active sourdough starter.

If you’re brand new to sourdough and don’t have a starter, I have a post here to help guide you through the steps of creating one. It takes about a week to get one going and your success will vary based on local climate conditions and a number of other factors. Your sourdough starter will likely get stronger as time goes on, provided you take good care of it, so your results with this recipe may be partly influenced by how old your starter is.

Step one: Make the dough

Start by adding 50-100 grams of sourdough starter to a bowl. I went with the full 100 grams because my starter can be a little slow to rise sometimes, especially in the winter (and I was making this in early March), so I figured extra starter would be better.

To the starter, add 10 grams of salt and 440 grams of water.

Stir to combine as best you can. A spatula will work well, but I sometimes opt for a fork.

Water, salt, and sourdough starter mixed together

Then add 512 grams of flour. As I outline in my post about sourdough starters, I’ve started doing a mix of whole wheat flour and white flour, as it works better in my local climate, so feel free to experiment with flour if you’re curious. If you’re not in Canada, you’ll likely want to use bread flour as it will likely give you better results. All-purpose flour in Canada is similar to bread flour, so I just use the standard all-purpose.

Mix in the flour with your spatula or fork until you get a rough and wet dough ball.

Step 2: Rest and fold (and rest again)

Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let the dough ball rest for about a half hour.

Then do a “pinch and fold”. Grab a pinch of dough from the edge of the ball, pull it upward and toward the centre of the ball, folding it over. Go around the dough ball, doing this about 8-10 times. Try not to tear the dough as that’s not the goal.

Gently rub a splash of olive oil over the top of the dough. I have to confess that I used canola oil because it’s what I had on hand (and olive oil has become very expensive lately).

Cover again with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest for 4 to 18 hours. Since it’s winter here, things are cool and dry, I went with the full 18 hours. What you’re ultimately looking for is for the dough to have doubled in size, so how long this takes will vary based on where you are and where you leave the dough. it might be tempting to put the dough in a warmer place like in an oven with the oven light on, but this might become too warm. Your best strategy is to do this at room temperature and just let it take how long it’s going to take. As a chef once told me, the key to making anything with sourdough really good is a “long, slow rise”.

Step three: Transfer dough to baking dish

Drizzle a few tablespoons of olive oil in a 9×13 baking dish. To make sure nothing would stick, I also gave the sides of the dish a spritz with some cooking spray.

Gently scoop the dough out of the bowl and into the dish. It will likely form an oval shape. Gently grab each side and fold toward the centre so you roughly have a rectangle. Flip the dough over to the seam side is down.

Sourdough focaccia dough resting in a baking dish

Rub the top of the dough with more oil, then cover again and let it rest for 4-6 hours.

Step four (optional): Prepare toppings

Focaccia can be made with just a generous sprinkle of salt over the top, but I wanted to make mine a little extra special, so I roasted a head of garlic in the air fryer until the cloves were soft and cooked, and I threw some dehydrated cherry tomatoes into water to plump them up a little bit.

Step five: Bake the sourdough focaccia bread

Heat oven to 425 F.

Rub some oil onto your hands and then press down on the dough to create dimples. Do this across the whole surface.

Sourdough focaccia with dimples pressed into it

Add toppings of your choice. At a minimum, you should add a generous sprinkle of sea salt / chunky / flaky salt. I used:

The garlic I roasted in the air fryer
Drained rehydrated cherry tomatoes

Dried rosemary
Butcher’s salt (a flaky/chunky salt with dried herbs mixed in)

Sourdough focaccia ready for the oven, with roasted garlic, cherry tomatoes, rosemary, and salt on top

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

When ready, remove dish from oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing. If you cut into it while it’s hot, moisture could evaporate, so it’s best to let it cool even longer.

You should have an absolutely delicious sourdough focaccia bread that will impress anyone.

Sourdough Focaccia Bread

Light and fluffy focaccia with the tang of sourdough, this easy to make recipe is a crowd-pleaser.

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 25

Resting Time 1

Course Appetizer

Cuisine bread, Italian

Ingredients

50-100 g Bubbly and Active Sourdough Starter
10 g Salt

440 g Water
512 g Flour (see note)
3 Tbsp Olive Oil

Flaky salt and/or other toppings of your choice (cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, rosemary, etc.)

Instructions

Add sourdough starter, water, and salt to a bowl. Mix with a spatula or fork until well blended.
Add flour and mix until a dough forms.

Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rest 30 minutes.
Do a "pinch and fold"—pinch the outer edge of the dough ball and fold it to the centre. Do this 8-10 times around the dough ball.
Gently rub the top of the dough ball with a splash of oil.

Cover and let rest 4-18 hours, until doubled in size.
Once doubled in size, drizzle about 2 Tbsp oil into a 9×13 baking dish. Optionally, you can spray or grease the sides of the dish to help prevent sticking.
Scoop dough into baking dish. It should form an oval. Fold the dough so it roughly looks like a rectangle and flip the dough so the seam side is down.

Cover and let rest 4-6 hours. During this time you could prep any optional toppings that need prepping, such as roasting garlic.
Heat oven to 425℉.
Rub oil on your hands and press down on the dough, creating dimples across the top. Sprinkle with flaky salt and add any toppings you wish.

Bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.
Let rest at least 20 minutes before slicing. If it's hot while slicing, moisture may evaporate, leaving a dryer, denser bread.

Notes

Note on flour:

If you’re in Canada, all-purpose flour should be fine. I opt to use a blend of about 20% whole wheat flour and 80% all-purpose flour.

If you’re outside of Canada, you will have better results using bread flour.

(Canada’s all-purpose flour is similar to bread flour in the rest of the world.)

Keyword focaccia bread, sourdough focaccia

How to Make Tofu From Black Beans

Posted on March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 by craig

We’ve been having slightly warmer than usual weather lately and it has me already dreaming of our upcoming garden. But, despite this warm spell, the start of garden season is still a ways away, and harvest season is even further away. Plus, we still have a lot of last year’s harvest to work our way through.

My project this last month has been to do stuff with the dried beans. A few weeks ago I canned up some of our black beans so I have fully-cooked beans ready at a moment’s notice for dinners.

With that out of the way, I turned to a fun bean-related project—making tofu from black beans.

Burmese tofu

Tofu as most people traditionally know it is made from soy beans in a process that is not easy to replicate at home. Burmese tofu, on the other hand, is slightly different and can easily be made at home with no special equipment other than a blender or food processor.

Burmese tofu is typically made from ground yellow split peas or chickpeas, but the process works with pretty much any type of bean or lentil.

Burmese tofu is much softer than soy tofu. So when you’re including it in your meal, you have to be extremely gentle with it when frying it because it will fall apart. This softness also excludes any recipe that involves pressing tofu or treating it with anything other than gentleness. This is something I’ve struggled with, but I’ve discovered a hack with the air fryer for perfectly cooked Burmese tofu that makes it crispy on the outside and pillowy soft on the inside, which I’ll share at the end of the post.

How to make black bean tofu

Like most bean recipes, this is a two day process, requiring soaking the beans the night before and using them the next day.

Step one: Soak the black beans

I find for our two-person household, 100 grams of black beans makes enough tofu for us, leaving no leftovers. I’ve found that leftover Burmese tofu, even if used the next day, isn’t always so great, so I’ve taken to only making what I need.

If you’re cooking for three to four people, you’ll want to go with 200 grams of black beans.

Put the beans in a large pot or jar and cover with plenty of water, submerging the beans by at least several inches. Let sit at room temperature overnight.

Step two (the next day): Make a bean slurry

Drain and rinse the beans, then throw them in a food processor or blender and and pulse them until they’re roughly chopped.

If, like me, you went with 100 grams of beans, add in 250 ml (one cup) of water. If you went with the full recipe of 200 grams, use 500 ml (two cups) of water.

With the blender or food processor, puree the mixture until you have what resembles a bean slurry, or looks like a watery Oreo milkshake.

Bean slurry of pureed beans and water. It's white with black flecks, resembling an Oreo milkshake.

Step three: Strain the slurry

Using a wire mesh sieve over a pot, strain the slurry. You’ll want to press the slurry with the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula to get all of the liquid out. (It’s the liquid you want, so make sure you get as much out as you can.) I often find that even when it looks like I’ve gotten everything out, if I stir it vigorously with my spatula, inevitably more liquid will come out.

Liquids strained from the black bean slurry

The solids left in your sieve can either be composted or saved to add to a soup or stew for extra protein. There are many potential uses beyond soups and stews, but keep in mind that beans must be cooked before eating and these remnants have not been cooked, so ensure you cook them for however you use them.

Step four: Thicken the liquid

Add a little bit of salt, and then over medium heat and stirring constantly with a whisk, bring the mixture to a gentle boil and simmer. As it cooks and as you whisk, it will soon become very thick, almost paste-like. This should take about a minute.

Thickened black bean slurry that looks paste-like in consistency

Step five: Pour into mould and let it set

Once thickened, remove from heat and immediately pour into a mould of some sort. I use a small square glass container. When I used to make full-sized batches I used to use bread pans. Do not grease the pan or dish; the tofu will not stick to it.

Freshly-poured black bean slurry that will solidify into tofu

Leave it alone for at least an hour for the tofu to cool and set.

Black bean tofu that has set and hardened

Step six: Enjoy your black bean tofu! (Here’s the air fryer tip!)

Once fully set, you can cut up the tofu and cook it however you’d like.

It’s common to roll the tofu in cornstarch or rice flour and then gently fry them.

Like I said above, I have difficulty with that and they often fall apart. I found, though, that using an air fryer removes my hands from the process and thus they don’t fall apart!

Starting with the same process of rolling them in cornstarch or rice flour, put them into the air fryer basket. I sometimes give them a few spritzes of a cooking spray so they get extra crispy. With the air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, cook the tofu for five minutes at a time until cooked and crispy on the outside, shaking the basket at each five minute interval.

To serve, I typically layer noodles, then stir-fried vegetables, then tofu, then sauce. With my most recent tofu dinner, I used a simple teriyaki sauce, but I often make this ginger peanut sauce—both are great!

Black Bean Tofu

Easy to make, nutritious, vegan, and tasty, this black bean tofu is an all-around winner!

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 12

Cook Time 5

Resting Time 1

Course dinner, lunch

Cuisine Tofu, Vegan, Vegetarian

Equipment

Blender or Food Processor
Container or Small Baking Dish (This will serve as the mould for the tofu to set in.)

Ingredients

200 g Black Beans

2 cups Water
½ tsp Salt

Instructions

The night before, place black beans in a bowl or pot and cover with plenty of fresh water, submerging them by at least a few inches. Let sit overnight.

The next day, drain and rinse the beans.
Put beans in a food processor or blender and pulse a few times to break them up.
Add water to the beans in the blender and puree until a liquid slurry forms.

Strain mixture through a mesh sieve, collecting liquid in a pot. Press beans with the back of a spoon or a spatula and/or mix vigorously in the sieve to ensure as much liquid drains as possible. Bean solids left in the strainer can be composted or reserved for other uses.
Add salt to liquid. Heat liquid over stove, bringing to a gentle boil and stirring constantly to ensure slurry stays nicely mixed and does not burn. After about a minute of cooking, the liquid should become very thick and paste-like.
Pour slurry into a mould, which can be a container or small baking dish.

Let rest for at least an hour. The slurry will cool and solidify into tofu.
Once fully set, remove from mould and use as desired. (See notes below.)

Notes

I find the texture isn’t as desirable the next day, so I recommend only making what you need and using it all. I usually halve this recipe for the two of us, but if you’re cooking for three or four people this full recipe would be ideal.

Black bean tofu is a form of Burmese tofu, which is very soft and must be handled very gently. General practice is to roll it in cornstarch or rice flour and then fry it. This can also be done in the air fryer—I usually give the cornstarch-covered cubes a few spritzes of spray oil and then air fry at 400 in fie minute intervals, shaking each time, until crispy on the outside.

Keyword Black Beans, how to make tofu from black beans, tofu

How to Bake Sourdough Bread from Scratch

Posted on March 3, 2025March 3, 2025 by craig

It seems like it was the “millennial thing” to learn how to bake sourdough bread from scratch during the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. While I never really got into it, I did at that time pull out my husband’s uncle’s bread machine and finally teach myself how to make bread (albeit machine-assisted).

It was surprisingly easy, but it left me unsatisfied. I wanted more control. I wanted the artistic flair that you see on social media posts (which I’m still working on), and more importantly… I wanted sourdough.

There’s a local chain of cafes here that offers a phenomenal breakfast sandwich, which I always order on sourdough bread. It’s tangy, it’s chewy, and it just complements the sandwich filling perfectly.

So once I learned the basics of machine-assisted bread, I decided it was time to take the plunge and learn how to bake sourdough bread from scratch.

Starting with a sourdough starter

The first step was creating a sourdough starter, which I detail in my post here.

Bubbly active sourdough starter that is spilling over the edge of the jar it's in.

Over the course of several days, you mix flour and water in a jar and let it sit. It eventually captures yeast from the air in your kitchen and that yeast thrives in the starter. Essentially, the starter becomes a living thing that requires regular feeding and maintenance.

I wasn’t having the greatest luck with creating a bubbly, active starter, but I at least had something. I later learned from a friend who used to work in a bakery that the local climate is not great for sourdough starters, and tweaking my starter to include some whole wheat flour might solve that problem. And it did!

I also learned that, as long as the starter is regularly fed and taken care of, it gets stronger over time. My starter is a few years old now and when I give it a good feeding, it easily doubles in size—whereas in the first year of its life, a good feeding would result in maybe a twenty percent increase in size.

Learning how to bake sourdough bread from scratch

Once you’ve got a good starter going, it’s pretty easy to make bread.

There’s definitely a lot of fear about whether or not things are going right, but I’ve learned if I just trust the process and follow the directions, things will turn out just fine.

I’ve outlined the steps to making sourdough bread from scratch below, and again in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

How to bake sourdough bread from scratch

The first thing to know about making sourdough bread is that it takes a long time. In addition to the weeks (minimum) of building up a healthy starter, the actual process of baking bread takes two days—or one day if you get up really and bake bread late at night.

Beyond time, there are really only two other things you need—a Dutch oven and a kitchen scale.

When I bought a Dutch oven a few years back, they were expensive. I got it on a massive sale and then had store points to get it even cheaper. But something must have happened, like there’s suddenly more supply than demand, because prices have fallen and they’re quite cheap now.

Here’s a decently priced Dutch oven on Amazon. It can seem like a steep investment for making bread, but I’ve found I use my Dutch oven quite often for things like soups, stews, pasta sauces, and canning recipes that require a large pot (such as when making salsa).

Step one: Making the dough

Mid-day to early evening of the day before you want your bread, you need to feed your starter. If you’re new to sourdough starters, you can find out how to make and feed one in this post. The goal is that once the starter gets really bubbly and active and rises from the feeding, we then scoop some of that out to make the sourdough.

We’ll start by putting 50g of bubbly, active starter in a large bowl, along with 330g of water. Mix this with a fork until it becomes incorporated.

Then add 9g of salt, 125g whole wheat flour, and 375g all-purpose flour. I use a mix of whole wheat and white flour because it works well for my local climate. You can certainly use only all-purpose flour. If you’re outside of Canada, you may want to use bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. (In Canada, all-purpose flour is closer to bread flour in the US and other countries.)

Mix this all with your fork until it becomes a shaggy ball. You’ll likely need to then go in with your hands to incorporate it a little better and make a ball.

Place the ball back in the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a towel and let it rest for at least half an hour.

Step two: Pinch and fold

After the resting time is over, take the ball of dough out of the bowl and “pinch and fold” the dough. Grab a hefty pinch from the side, stretch it out, and fold it into the top of the dough ball. Rotate the ball about 1/6 to 1/3 and do it again. Keep doing this until you’ve gone around and pinched and folded the entire thing. Be careful not to tear the dough—sometimes it’s more flexible than others, so work with the dough and its capabilities.

Sourdough dough that has been pinched and folded.

Put it back in the bowl—pinched side down—and cover it again. Let it rest overnight, or about 10-12 hours.

Step three (the next morning): Pinch and fold again

The next day, the dough should have roughly doubled in size. I find my dough rarely doubles, but it does increase in size, so don’t panic if yours doesn’t expand as much.

Remove the dough ball from the bowl and place it on a floured countertop pinched side up. Do another round of pinch and folds.

Flip it back over so the pinched side is down, and let it rest on the counter (or in the bowl again), covered with a towel, for 30 minutes.

Step four: Yes, pinch and fold one more time, plus start the oven

Flip the dough ball and pinch and fold. This time let it rest seam side up, preferably in a bowl, covered with a towel, for 30-60 minutes.

Sourdough resting inside a towel, sitting in a bowl.

While the dough is resting, crank your oven up to 450 Fahrenheit.

Step five: Put it in the oven

Transfer the dough ball to a piece of parchment paper.

Make a few shallow cuts along the top of the dough. I typically do a north, east, south, west pattern, but sometimes do three parallel lines. Whatever you do is up to you.

Raw sourdough loaf with shallow cuts in the surface, sitting on parchment paper.

Grip the edges of the parchment paper to move the dough—lift it and put it in the Dutch oven and place the lid on top.

Put the Dutch oven in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 425 Fahrenheit. Bake for 20 minutes, remove the lid, and bake for 40 more minutes. The loaf should have a nice brown crust, but if it doesn’t, bake a little longer until the colour is achieved, checking every five minutes.

Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and carefully gripping the edges of the parchment paper, remove the loaf from the Dutch oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Step six: Enjoy!

Allow the loaf to cool for at least an hour, but cooling to room temperature is even better. If you cut it too soon, some of the moisture could escape via steam and leave you with a drier, denser loaf.

Sourdough is best stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Storing it in the fridge and lead to some tough chewiness.

If it happens to be pumpkin season, pumpkin butter makes a great topping for your sourdough bread.

Branching out from basic sourdough bread

Once you’ve got the basic loaf nailed, the options are pretty limitless from there.

For example, I’ve done (and have posts) on these:

Jalapeno Cheddar Sourdough Bread

Sourdough Bagels (four flavours!)

In the next week or so, I’m hoping to try making some sourdough focaccia—I’m eyeing this recipe from Alexandra’s Kitchen as a template—and hope to post about my success soon. I’ve also been interested in making pasta and I found a fairly simple recipe for sourdough spaetzle from Amy Bakes Bread that I’m going to try and tweak (and hopefully post about soon too).

Sourdough Bread

Chewy, tangy, and oh-so-delicious—sourdough bread seems complicated but is surprisingly simple to make.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 14

Cook Time 1

Course Bread

Cuisine bread

Equipment

1 Dutch Oven

Ingredients

50 g Bubbly, active sourdough starter
330 g Water (1⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp)
9 g Salt (1½ tsp)

125 g Whole wheat flour (can round to 1 cup)
375 g All-purpose flour (can round to 3¼ cups)

Instructions

This recipe starts the night before and concludes the next day.

The night before:

Whisk starter and water together in a large bowl. Mix in flour and salt with a fork until the dough becomes stiff and shaggy. Finish mixing with your hands.

Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
After resting, work the dough into a ball using the "pinch and fold" method. Grab a pinch of dough at the edge and fold it / press it into the middle of the ball. Rotate the bowl a bit and do it again, repeating until you've gone all the way around. The dough will feel tighter as you do this.
Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let it rise overnight at room temperature, about 10-12 hours.

The next day:

After 10-12 hours, the dough should double in size. Don't panic if it doesn't; while mine does get larger, it certainly doesn't double in size. A lot of this comes down to local climate factors and my local climate is not amenable to sourdough. Sometimes if you leave it longer, it will rise some more, so feel free to do this too.
Sprinkle flour on your work surface, like a counter or table. Scoop the dough out of the bowl and onto the work surface. Use the pinch and fold method to start shaping the dough into a ball.
Once you've gone around the whole ball, flip it over so the pinched seam is down. Cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Flip it over again so the seam is up. Pinch and fold the dough one more time.
Line a bowl with a dry towel and sprinkle the towel with flour. Let the dough ball rest in the towel, seam side up and with the towel edges covering it, for thirty minutes to an hour. The dough should rise some more, but again local climate may give you different results.
Preheat oven to 450℉.

Cut a sheet of parchment paper larger than your dough. Place the parchment over the dough and flip the bowl so the dough is now resting on the parchment in your hand. Set it down on the counter and with a sharp knife, make some shallow cuts in the top surface. For example, you could do four shallow cuts at north, east, south, and west points (or 3, 6, 9, and 12 on the clock), or some parallel lines across the top of the loaf.
Grabbing the edges of the parchment paper, lift the dough and place it into the dutch oven and put the lid on.
Reduce oven heat to 425℉ and put the dutch oven in on the centre rack.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid. Bake for an additional 40 minutes. If the bread doesn't seem ready, bake for ten more minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for at least an hour before slicing.
Sourdough is best stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Keyword Sourdough, sourdough bread, sourdough starter