74 bread starter recipes

Potato flake sourdough starter: a simple three-ingredient base of water, sugar, and instant potato flakes left to ferment for 3 to 4 days. The sweet, old-fashioned starter used in friendship bread and soft white loaves.

Bread machine sourdough pumpernickel with rye flour, whole wheat, molasses, and real sourdough starter. Dense, tangy, and earthy. Load the machine, press start, and walk away.

Vegan sour rye bread with caraway seeds, sourdough starter, rye flour, and gluten flour for a chewy, tangy loaf. Works by hand or in a bread machine. Freezes well.

Rustic round sourdough bread packed with savory onion flavor from soup mix. Crusty outside, soft inside, and made with pantry staples plus sourdough starter.

Casareccio is a rustic Italian wholewheat bread made with biga starter, yielding 3 crusty loaves with a chewy crumb. Fold in walnuts, pistachios, or black olives for your own twist.

Yeasted anise biscotti from Genoa, made with a sponge starter for a lighter, bread-like crumb. Twice-baked with butter and aniseed, these are nothing like ordinary biscotti.

Yeasty sourdough starter is the shortcut version: unbleached flour, a packet of dry yeast, and water mixed into a thick batter and left warm for a day. A fast track to bread baking when you don't want to wait two weeks for a wild starter.

Rustic Mediterranean olive bread with dried mint, chopped onion, and black olives baked into a round loaf. Made with a sponge starter for deep, complex flavor.

Old-fashioned milk-and-flour sourdough starter with no commercial yeast. Two ingredients capture wild bacteria for tangy bread. Patience required.

Sourdough bread machine recipe makes a tangy yeast-free loaf with active sourdough starter, flour, water, and salt. Hands-off ABM sourdough for daily slicing.

Rustic Italian yeast bread made with durum semolina flour and loaded with sautéed butternut squash, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and onions. Uses a biga starter for deep flavor and makes four golden loaves.

Rye sourdough starter made the old Jewish bakery way: rye flour, water, a packet of yeast, and a halved onion that pulls in the wild flavor for classic deli-style rye bread.

Simple sourdough starter made with unbleached all-purpose flour and warm milk instead of water. A two-ingredient base for homemade sourdough bread.

Old-fashioned potato sourdough starter built on potato water, flour, sugar, and a pinch of yeast. The starches feed wild and added yeasts together for a tangy, vigorous base for breads, pancakes, and biscuits.

Spinach salad with mushrooms, mozzarella, and a warm anchovy-olive oil dressing served with grilled bread toasts. A bold Italian-style starter with rich umami.

Homemade ciabatta bread using sourdough starter and active dry yeast for a tangy, open-crumbed loaf with a crisp, chewy crust. Makes three torpedo loaves.