Quick and Simple Sourdough Bread Two Ways

This quick and easy sourdough bread will take less time in the kitchen than traditional sourdough and your family will love it! It uses half sourdough start and half yeast to speed up the rising time. *This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link.*

I love the texture and crust on a traditional sourdough but my kids aren’t big fans of the traditional sourdough taste. Also, I don’t like waiting 24 hours for the bread to rise, so I came up with a recipe that uses sourdough start with a little bit of yeast to speed up the process. Win, win in my book.

My friend gave me a sourdough start during Covid when we were all trying to fill all of our extra at home time. I searched for instructions on how to care for my start but I didn’t like the idea of “sourdough discard”. Why would I discard something I worked so hard to grow? I could see, however, how it would quickly outgrow it’s container if it wasn’t used.

So I put my start in a half gallon jar so it could grow to its hearts content. I also put this lid on it that I got from a lemonade in a jar in California from a Farmer’s Market. You could easily drill a hole in a jar lid to let it breath. I love this setup because if I don’t use it for a couple of weeks, I can just pull it out of the fridge and feed it, then put it back in the fridge. It has plenty of space to grow. Then, I can bake a bunch of loaves at one time, if I want.

The night before I want to bake sourdough bread, I pull out my sourdough start and feed it. You feed it with AP flour and water. You will use about equal amounts of flour and water. I usually use 1/2 cup of flour and just a little less water. I go more about how it looks then exact measurements. If I used a lot of sourdough start last time and there isn’t much in my jar, I use a bit less flour and water. If I haven’t used it for awhile and the jar is full, I’ll use a bit more than half cup of flour and water. Have you ever make pancake batter and left it in the fridge overnight and when you used it the next day it had a watery substance on top? That’s what your sourdough start will do when it’s “hungry”. It just needs some flour. So, the night before you want to bake sourdough, put it however much flour and water you think it needs and mix it up. It will look like thick pancake batter. Let it sit on your counter overnight and it will have risen and have that distinctive sourdough smell.

In a bowl of a mixer, add 1 1/2 cups of warm water (100-110 degrees). Pour in 1 1/2 tsp of yeast and 2 Tbsp of sugar. I recommend an instant yeast such as SAF. Let sit for a few minutes until bubbly. I like to add my water first and then the yeast and sugar. I once added the yeast first and then the water. It made a pocket of yeast that I later found in my dough. GRRR.

To the yeast mixture, add 1 cup of fed starter and three cups of flour. Mix with a dough hook on speed 1 or 2 if using a Kitchenaid mixer. Remember, you don’t want to go above speed 2 with your dough hook on a Kitchenaid mixer. It can burnout the motor. (Don’t ask how I know! 😉 Luckily my hubby figured out to order parts and fix my mixers.) Then add 2 1/2 tsp of salt. I like to add my salt after I have half of the flour in. I once added it straight to the yeast mixture and it sunk to the bottom. I then found a pocket of salt in my dough.

Add one cup of flour at a time until you get a stiff dough. You want to add as much flour as your dough can handle in this recipe so that it can stand on its own after it raises a second time. You will use 5-6 cups of flour. The dough will be cling to itself and clean the sides of the bowl as you can see in the picture above. You can either let the machine knead the dough for a few minutes or pull it out and knead by hand. Whatever your preference. I usually let the machine do it while I clean up.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I let my dough rise in the mixing bowl. I figure I have enough dishes to wash, why put it in another bowl to raise? I do spray the top with non-stick cooking spray, though. That helps it to not dry out on top while it’s raising. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm spot for about 90 minutes. Might take less or more time depending on how warm your kitchen is. It should double in size and leave an indentation that bounces back just a bit when you press on it.

After the dough has risen, dump onto a pastry mat that is lightly floured or your kitchen counter. Scrape out any bits and add them to the dough. I use a bench scraper to cut the dough into equal halves. Then you can choose to shape it into a boule or french bread. The video above will show you how to shape the boule. If you want french bread, spread one of the dough halves out with your hands into a rectangle. Roll the long side toward you, making sure you make the ends are a bit pointy. Repeat with other dough half. If baking the boule, place on a piece of parchment paper. If baking french bread, I prefer using a french bread pan. But if you don’t have one, you can place them both on a baking sheet that either has a silpat mat or parchment paper on it. Leave enough space in-between them to double in size and not touch each other. They will be a bit flatter on a baking sheet versus the french bread pan, but they will still be delicious.

Let rise in a warm place until double; about an hour. While the dough raises, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If making the boule, preheat two dutch ovens for 30-60 minutes.

After they have risen, sprinkle flour on top. This makes it easier to slash and it looks pretty. Make a slash on top with a bread lame or a serrated knife. I usually make an X on my boules and three traditional slash marks on the french bread. The video above will show you how to use the bread lame which I really do recommend using. Makes a nice deep cut without tearing the dough. A cut in the dough is vital because steam needs to escape. If you don’t make a nice cut for the steam, it will find it’s own way out and it probably won’t be pretty.

For the boules: Pull the hot dutch ovens out of the oven and remove lids. Working quickly, use the parchment paper as handles, place a boule in each dutch oven. Cover with lids and place back in the oven. Bake for 30 min covered and then uncover and bake for about 15 min until desired shade of golden brown in desired.

A food thermometer will read between 190-200 degrees when they are done.

For the french bread: Bake in the 425 degree oven for 15-20 min until desired shade of golden brown is reached. Let cool on pan and then enjoy!

Here’s a round-up of all of my favorite things for this project:

• Here is the french bread pan.
• Here is the flour duster.
• Here is the bread lame.
• Here is the yeast.
• Here is the bench scraper.

I hope this inspires you to bake your own sourdough bread! Ask around and I’m sure you can find a sourdough start to get you going. Happy baking!