Sourdough recipes: every bake, sorted by skill and time

Every recipe here runs on a healthy, active starter, so the real question is time and confidence, not difficulty. If you're new, start with the everyday sourdough bread: one dough, one rise, one bake, and the forgiving template the rest build on. If you've baked a few loaves and want range, the German Brote and enriched doughs add rye, spelt, seeds and sweetness. And if you just fed your starter and have a jar of discard staring at you, jump straight to the discard bakes, which need no rise at all.

Two things make any of these easier: bake to your starter's actual peak rather than a clock (the ready-to-bake signs tell you when), and log each attempt in Sourdough Tracker so the next loaf starts from notes, not memory.

These are the recipes most people bake on repeat. Master the everyday loaf and the rest are variations on the same rhythm.

The German tradition leans on rye and spelt, which behave differently from wheat: stickier doughs, denser crumb, deeper flavour. They reward a strong starter and a little patience.

Enriched doughs are heavier for the yeast to lift, so they want a particularly lively starter and a longer rise. Worth it for the payoff.

Discard is the flour-and-water you remove before a feed. It's not leavening anything, so these recipes are quick and beginner-proof, and they cut waste.

A few supporting guides make every recipe above turn out better. Get the flour right and the hydration math sorted before you mix, and know how to freeze a finished loaf so a good bake lasts. If a loaf comes out heavy, the dense-or-gummy guide tells you which step to change.

Whichever recipe you pick, logging it in Sourdough Tracker (the flour, the timings, the result photo) is what turns a one-off success into a repeatable one.