Baking Sourdough Bread by Göran Söderin and George Strachal

Written by Swedish bakers Göran Söderin and George Strachal, this book plays with a variety of flours and ingredients to bake bread with rich flavours and a crispy crust. It contains multiple tips on how to achieve the perfect sourdough bread, and the steps are very easy to follow.

There are multiple sourdough bread recipes you can try in this book. You can mix different types of flours, create apple and raisin bread, hazelnut and carrot bread, and a variety of other interesting doughs. It allows you to be creative and experiment with the boundaries of sourdough bread.

1. BReD – Sourdough Loaves, Small Breads, and Other Plant-Based Baking by Ed and Natasha Tatton

Sourdough bread is naturally vegan—flour, water, and salt transformed into extraordinary, delicious bread. Ed Tatton, vegan chef, artisan bread-maker, and co-owner of the popular vegan café and bakery BReD with Natasha Tatton, has been baking and refining his recipes and techniques for naturally leavened sourdough for many years—including a wide array of boules, baguettes, loaves, flatbreads, buns, and pizza. As required, he uses plant-based alternatives in some savoury and sweet sourdoughs that would traditionally include dairy (butter, milk, or buttermilk) including panettone buns, hot cross buns, sticky buns, cinnamon buns, English muffins, brioche, and babka.

Inside BReD, you’ll find these perfected recipes to start your journey in bread-making; along with a detailed sourdough starter guide with step-by-step visuals on making and maintaining a sourdough starter, levain, mixing, shaping, and baking methods.

BReD is a complete plant-based book for bakers that goes beyond just making bread. Experienced bakers and novices alike can take their baking to the next level with gorgeous vegan baked goods from cakes, muffins, and scones to biscuits, cookies, and tarts. Passionate about a vegan lifestyle for the benefit of all people and the planet, the book also includes gluten-free recipes (bread and other baked goods), discard starter recipes to further zero-waste efforts, and an offering of dips, spreads, and accompaniments to complement the breads.

ARTISAN BRYAN

A delightful twist on classic sourdough, this cinnamon raisin bread is packed with warm, spiced flavor and bursts of juicy raisins. Perfect for breakfast, snacks, or even dessert, it features a soft, chewy crumb and a subtle tang from the sourdough starter. Whether toasted with butter or enjoyed fresh, this loaf is a cozy, irresistible treat for all bakers!

Course Breakfast, Side Dish, SnackServings 2 loaves

Equipment

Planetary Mixer

Ingredients

Sourdough Preferment

• 100 grams mature sourdough starter
• 100 grams whole grain flour
• 100 grams bread flour
• 200 grams warm water

Final Dough Mix

• 750 grams warm water
• 200 grams sourdough preferment
• 500 grams bread flour
• 300 grams all purpose flour
• 200 grams whole grain flour
• 5 grams ground cinnamon
• 250 grams raisins
• 20 grams salt

Instructions

Mix 700 grams of your water, all of the flour, and the cinnamon together, but no levain. Let this mixture sit for about 30 minutes.

After you've let this rest, add your levain and squeeze into the mix. Don't tear at the dough, just gentle incorporation. Once this is fully incorporated, let it rest for 5 minutes.

Add your remaining water, the salt, and the raisins into the mix. Use the same technique to incorporate everything into the mix. Make sure you aren't tearing or pulling at the dough too hard. It will take some time but it will slowly absorb all of the water.

To evenly distribute the raisins, you can fold your dough over a few times until you are satisfied with the level of incorporation.

Once you are happy with your bulk fermentation, you can dump your dough out onto a floured work surface and divide into two.

We won't be pre-shaping this dough, so simply apply your final shape. If needed, you can slightly degas your dough. For the final shape, you can use a tension roll, a simple round, or stitching. Or anything else. You can check out my Instagram feed for various shaping videos.

Place your shaped dough into a floured bowl, banneton, couch, or kitchen cloth. Any vessel that helps maintain the structure works, but you can also flour a cutting board and place your shaped dough, seam side down, there. Cover with a plastic bag or cloth and let proof for up to 3 hours.

Sourdough Babka Recipe

Equipment

Pullman Pan

This recipe will work with many different pans, but I eventually turned to my trusty 9 x 4 x 4-inch Pullman Pan in testing. The reason is twofold: I love the resulting straight-sided and presentable sourdough babka. Second, the USA Pan has a natural silicone lining, which, combined with parchment paper, makes cleanup a snap.

If you don’t have a Pullman pan, a typical 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75-inch loaf pan will also work well.

Rolling Pin

You’ll need a standard rolling pin/dowel to roll out this dough, and this rolling dowel is my favorite (and made in the USA).

Vitals

Total Dough Weight	800 grams
Pre-fermented Flour	13.0%
Yield	One babka

Total Formula

Desired dough temperature: 76°F (24°C) (see my post on the importance of dough temperature).

Weight	Ingredient	Baker’s Percentage
357g	All-purpose flour (11-12% protein; King Arthur All-Purpose Flour)	100.0%
107g	Whole milk (cold from the fridge)	30.0%
107g	Large eggs (about 2, cold from the fridge, plus one more egg in reserve for the egg wash)	30.0%
100g	Unsalted butter (Kerrygold; room temperature)	28.0%
46g	Water	13.0%
29g	Caster sugar (superfine white sugar) (if you don’t have caster sugar, use the finest sugar you have)	8.0%
8g	Fine sea salt	2.3%
46g	Sourdough starter (100% hydration)	13.0%

Instead of All-purpose flour, feel free to use high-protein white flour (“bread flour”) in its place if that’s all you have in your pantry.

Sourdough Babka Method

In the morning, mix the following in a small jar:

All-purpose flour	46g
Water (warm)	46g
Ripe sourdough starter, 100% hydration	46g

Loosely cover the jar; it should be ready after about 3 hours at a warm temperature, 78-80°F (26-27°C). If it’s cold in your kitchen, warm the mixing water for this levain to get close to 80°F (27°C) (see my post on baking in the winter for more tips).