Honey Oat Sourdough Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What does adding honey to sourdough bread do? ›

The Role of Sourdough Starter with Honey

Adding honey to your sourdough starter enhances its flavour profile and infuses it with antioxidants, enzymes, and trace elements.

The secret to sourdough is simple: water. The more water you add to your dough will affect how open the crumb (bigger holes and softer texture) will be once it's baked.

Bread, in particular, can greatly benefit from a sweet infusion. One of the best pairings for bread is honey. They work well together, as honey can provide excellent flavor, functionality and moisture to this product. Bakeries across the country experience this firsthand with their own unique varieties.

Sourdough bread's signature taste comes from friendly bacteria and yeast, which produce flavorful lactic and acetic acids in rising bread dough.

Yes - adding olive oil to sourdough bread will result in a softer crust and crumb. The oil as a lipid coats the flour and inhibits the gluten network resulting in a softer, tighter crumb and softer crust. This can be a desirable outcome if you do not like tough, chewy sourdough crusts.

Keeping the lid on for the first part of baking allows steam to expand between the gluten fibers to rise the bread and create a fluffy loaf. Step 4: Remove the lid and bake for an additional 12-14 minutes or until the crust is crispy and golden brown. Once you take the lid off, the bread likely won't rise anymore.

There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

The best flour blend for creating a new sourdough starter is 50% whole-meal flour (whole wheat or whole rye) and 50% bread flour or all-purpose flour. I recommend a 50/50 mix of whole wheat flour and bread flour.

Amber honey is little darker, with more caramel notes, which makes it perfect for bread; I use it in my Parker house rolls."

Why can't you bake with honey? ›

Honey is more liquid than sugar, changing the consistency of your baked goods. Honey is more acidic than sugar and will change the flavor of your baked goods. Honey browns more quickly than sugar, which can result in overbaked goods.

Science confirms that heating or cooking honey does indeed damage it, thereby eliminating many of its beneficial effects.

The sourdough starter is the real secret to getting a good fermentation going. Essentially your sourdough starter is old dough, which has already pre-fermented and contains Lactobacillus culture. Lactobacillus culture has a sour taste and is an active culture that lives off natural yeast spores from the air.

Whole Grain and Rye Flours. Whole grain and rye flours provide minerals and enzymes that can influence acid production in sourdoughs. The higher mineral content of whole grains acts as a buffer in the dough so that more acid can be produced during extended fermentation.

Using flours with more ash, or mineral, content, will yield more sour taste. If you can't get enough ash, adding a bit of whole wheat flour to your recipe, which is what is done with the 20% Bran Flour, will boost the sour of a bread. Conversely, using a lower ash flour will tend to produce a milder bread.

Toasted, organic, 100% whole grain bread with butter and raw honey is a great way to start the day. The slow release energy of the fibre from the bread and nutrients of the raw honey will keep you going without snacking until lunchtime.

Longer fermentation

As your dough proofs, the good bacteria eats up sugars and starches in the flour. This decreases the sweet undertone and creates a more sour undertone. The longer you ferment, the more starches and sugars the bacteria eats, and the more sour your bread will be.

Sourdough relies on a mix of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, rather than baker's yeast, to leaven the dough. It's richer in nutrients, less likely to spike your blood sugar, contains lower amounts of gluten, and is generally easier to digest than bread made with baker's yeast.