A definitive* ranking of all the sourdough things
There have been a lot of sourdough things
Since I acquired my sourdough starter back in October, I have been baking a lot of sourdough things. It turns out that basically any kind of food product that involves flour as an ingredient can be modified to include sourdough. At the time of writing, I’ve made 18 different sourdough things. Some have been better than others. There have been some absolute hits, some that were good/fine/acceptable/would eat again, and some that I wouldn’t make again because I didn’t like them (and neither did my kids and husband). Ready for the countdown? Let’s do it.
The ones I didn’t like
18. Sourdough brownies. I already have my forever brownie recipe but I’m always on the hunt for ways to use up sourdough starter, so I gave these a go. After all, King Arthur recipes have never let me down before, right? Well, they hadn’t until this one. These were too sweet and too fudgy. I’d already reduced the sugar slightly from what the recipe called for but they were still too sweet. And the texture was too squidgy — more like eating fudge than eating a brownie. I don’t like a cakey brownie, but this was too far in the opposite direction. I’ll be sticking to the forever brownie recipe from now on.
17. Sourdough chocolate cake. I made these twice, first as cupcakes and the second as a cake, baked in a 9x13 pan. Both times I tried to mix the starter into the batter super well and get it fully incorporated, but both times I still ended up with baked streaks of starter. Kind of like having weird streaks of bread in cake. Maybe this was user error, but I have perfectly good chocolate cake recipes that don’t leave me with that problem so I’ll stick to those.
16. Sourdough dinner rolls. These might deserve a higher spot on the list. They were good. But I ate them every day for about four or five days in a row and I got a bit sick of them.
15. Sourdough sandwich bread. I’ve written about this one before. I liked how easy it was to make (this is a bread machine recipe), and the texture is good, but funnily enough I didn’t like the strong sourdough flavour that was present. I think this and the dinner rolls have the same problem — I like the sourdough tang when it’s in a crusty round loaf of sourdough bread, but I don’t like the flavour as much in other bread forms.
14. Sourdough shortbread. These were pretty meh. They were a lot drier than I wanted my shortbread to be. This was also my first time making any kind of shortbread, so maybe I just need more general shortbread practice/experimentation.
The ones that were just fine
13. Sourdough pancakes. There are lots of sourdough pancake recipes out there, and this one I think is either the one I used or is pretty close. They were fine. Didn’t love them, didn’t hate them, didn’t think they were any better than the pancake recipe we usually use.
12. Sourdough banana nut muffins. Disclaimer: I left out the nuts. I didn’t think these were any better than the banana muffins I usually make and these required a touch more effort, so it’s not a recipe I’ve repeated.
11. Sourdough focaccia. Much like the dinner rolls and sandwich bread, I preferred focaccia without the sourdough tang. I liked my other non-sourdough focaccia more.
Sourdough waffles. The problem with almost every waffle recipe is that we have a most excellent waffle recipe that we’ve been using (there will be an upcoming post on that), and so even if a waffle recipe is good, it’s not the one we’re used to. I think that’s what this waffle recipe suffered from — not being our waffle recipe.
9. Sourdough fruit and grain toasting bread. I didn’t have the ingredients to follow this recipe exactly. I replaced the Super 10 blend with whole wheat flour and the fruit blend with raisins. It was pretty good, but I haven’t made it again since that first time.
8. Sourdough cinnamon raisin bread. I liked it, just haven’t bothered making it again. The sugar and cinnamon makes it seem more dessert-y and special occasion than everyday bread.
7. Sourdough crumpets/pikelets. We don’t have crumpet rings so we used the batter to make pikelets. They were good, but we also have a pikelet recipe that we like and have used for years.
6. Sourdough banana bread. This was, objectively, a very good banana bread. I couldn’t really tell the difference between this and the non-sourdough banana bread that I make. I’ve also come to the realisation that I don’t actually like banana bread that much.
The ones I really liked
5. Sourdough crackers. These were great! I loved them. They stayed crunchy for about a week and they were delightfully cheesy and herby. Easy too, which is always nice.
4. Sourdough scallion pancakes. I was surprised by how much I liked these. My mum makes the best scallion pancakes and these are almost as good as hers.
3. Sourdough cinnamon rolls. These were really, very, excellently excellent. The first time I made them I used the icing from that recipe, and the second time I replaced it with a cream cheese frosting. That made them even better.
2. Sourdough chocolate chip cookies. This is the recipe that has replaced all my other chocolate chip cookie recipes. I’ve tried a lot of chocolate chip cookies over the years, and none of them have ever quite resulted in what I was looking for. Until this one. When it comes to chocolate chip cookies, this is my the one.
The winner
Sourdough bread. The original, the classic, the winner. A plain old regular fabulous loaf of bread. After trying 17 other ways of using sourdough starter, this is the one I return to again and again. I follow the method in the linked recipe, but I (mostly) follow the ingredient ratios that my friend’s dad told me when he gave me the starter, which are the ratios he uses in his commercial bakery. But then I’ve also changed that slightly too by using some whole wheat flour and increasing the water until the dough looks right. Yeah, I’ve become one of those people — the ones who can’t give you an exact, to-the-millilitre, measurement for water but will say to just keep adjusting until it looks right. Sorry.
*I called this a definitive ranking, but let’s be honest, your tastes/mileage may vary. This ranking is hardly definitive.