Before we get started, if you are brand new to making sourdough bread, you may want to start with my How To Make Sourdough Bread: A Beginners Guide for an easy to follow step by step tutorial on good old fashioned plain sourdough. BUT if you’re ready to step up your sourdough game with some heat and cheese, you came to the right place. Let’s learn How to Make Cheddar Jalapeño Sourdough!
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SO, WHERE DO YOU START? WITH A Great STARTER!
Sourdough bread is perfect for the beginning bread maker. It’s very forgiving and this particular recipe requires very little kneading. So where to start? You start with a good quality Sourdough Starter. Starter is basically fermented flour and water. The bacteria in the starter is what makes your bread rise and gives it that “sour” flavor. In a perfect world, you would have a generous bread baking friend with a starter passed down from her/his great, great, great, great grandmother that you could nab. But alas, it’s not a perfect world, so I recommend you purchase some amazing Cultures For Health Starter. It’s a very reliable starter with simple to follow instructions and makes great bread. That said, if you are in Orange County, hit me up! I am not kidding, I am happy to share my starter with you.
STARTER IS KIND OF LIKE A PET, YOU HAVE TO FEED IT…BUT NOT AS OFTEN
That’s right, to keep the bacteria in your starter alive, you have to feed it. When you receive your Cultures For Health Starter it will come with complete directions for feeding. BUT I can tell you, it’s super easy! Simply add flour and water and stir, then allow it to sit on the counter all day to get active and bubbly. That means it’s ready to be used for bread. I feed my starter once a week whether I am baking or not.
How to Make Cheddar Jalapeño Sourdough:
NOTE: This tutorial is shown in five easy steps. There is waiting/rising time between steps. All that is spelled out clearly in the recipe.
1: The day before baking you’ll want to feed your starter and allow it to get active and bubbly. Each starter comes with instructions, follow the instructions for your starter.
2: Once the starter is ready (8-12 hours after feeding), you will make your bread dough by combining only four ingredients: flour, water, sea salt and starter. Stir, knead a little, and form into a ball.
3: Let dough sit in a bowl overnight to rise. Then pour out onto counter sprinkled with flour.
4. Gently fold in cheddar and Jalapeño. Allow to rise another hour while Dutch oven and oven pre-heat.
5. Place dough on parchment paper and bake in a Dutch oven! Yup! That’s it. I told you it was easy.
Serving, Slicing and Storing:
Because your sourdough is fresh and made without preservatives it will only stay fresh for a couple of days. Now if you have a family, this is absolutely no problema because the the bread will be gone before you can say ‘pass the butter’ (or should I say pasa la manteca) But if like us, your nest is empty, I have a couple of suggestions. We love to cut the loaf in half, bringing one half to one of our neighbors and keeping the rest. Let’s just say it pays to be on good terms with the Spikers. You can also wait until the bread is thoroughly cooled, slice and store in the freezer, pulling it out to toast whenever you wish. You can use sourdough to make this fabulous Burrata Toast, this grilled cheese, or incredible French Toast!
For the first three years I used a serrated bread knife to cut my sourdough. Let’s just say, it a bit of work and getting the slices even was a challenge. Once I was sure I’d be baking sourdough forever, I invested in a Zussenhaus Manual Bread Slicer. It is an absolute game changer! So fast, so easy and the slices are perfectly even!
The Recipe: How to Make Cheddar Jalapeño Sourdough
What you need: a Dutch oven, a food scale, and parchment paper. To cut bread you can use a serrated bread knife but if you plan on making bread long term you may want to consider the much more convenient Zussenhaus Manual Bread Slicer.
Take your sourdough game to the next level with a little heat and melted cheese!
- 500 grams bread flour
- 1 1 /2 teaspoons sea salt or kosher salt (plus more for sprinkling on top of bread)
- 350 grams lukewarm water
- 100 grams sourdough starter (fed, active and bubbly!)
- 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, cut into 1" cubes
- 1/4-1/3 sliced, jarred, jalapeño slices
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Note: Make sure you remove your starter from the fridge and feed a day before you plan on baking. I usually feed starter in the morning, let it become active as it rests on the counter all day (8-12 hours), form my loaves that night and bake the next morning. Do not refrigerate starter between feeding and forming loaves. Starter needs to be warm, active and bubbly when used. If you prefer to bake in the evening, you can certainly feed starter in the afternoon/evening and allow to activate overnight, form your loaves in the morning and bake in the evening. It's totally up to you!
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Note: be sure to set your food scale back to zero between additions.
Place measured flour, salt, water and active starter in a large bowl and work with hands until you form a craggly ball (a rough ball). Cover bowl with a damp dishtowel and let rest for 20 minutes.
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Place dough on a counter surface dusted with flour and knead for a couple of minutes. You can add a little flour as needed to prevent sticking. Form into a smooth ball. Dust bowl with flour, place dough back in bowl, dust dough lightly with flour. Cover bowl with wet dishtowel, place a plate on top and allow to rest on the counter for 12-18 hours. During this time the dough will rise and become bubbly. (If it's cold where you live, try to place dough in a warm area of the house. Cold temps can impact rising time)
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(The next day) Sprinkle counter with flour. Remove dough from bowl, form into a round loaf. Fold in 1/3 of the cheese and jalapeño slices, then fold in another 1/3 of each. Your loaf will be pretty full and lumpy. Place the remaining cheese and jalapeño slices on the top of the loaf. Place the loaf on a large sheet of parchment paper. Set aside. Place a Dutch oven with lid on into the oven. Preheat oven and Dutch oven at 450 degrees for one hour.
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After oven and dutch oven have preheated for an hour, sprinkle bread dough lightly with sea salt if desired (I love a good bite of salt with my bread!).Use a knife to slice the top of your bread dough (don't go too deep, just an inch or two), this allows steam to release. Have fun with it. You can slice three lines, a criss cross, or four diagonal lines and one across as pictured above.
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Grab the sides of the parchment and lift bread dough into pre-heated Dutch oven. Place the lid back on and cook for 20 minutes. Remove lid and cook for 20 more minutes (total cooking time is 40 minutes. Crust should be golden and crispy). Remove from oven, place on a rack, and allow to cool a bit, enjoy! (Note: if you prefer a less crispy crust, or if your bread get too dark on top, try 25 minutes with the lid on and 15 minutes with the lid off)
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Just made this today; it turned out perfectly!
Woo hoo! You go tanis! Thanks so much for letting me know. I love that!
Great post! I’m loving the idea of incorporating jalapeño into my sourdough bread. Can’t wait to try it out and see how it turns out!
Dough was extremely sticky at all stages. I used 100g of starter. I recommend less water. By the time I shaped it the dough was a soupy mess.
interesting, I literally make two loaves a week using these exact instructions and measurements and have never had a problem. I also teach sourdough classes and my students have never had this problem. I have two trouble shooting suggestions which I hope will help: first: make sure your scale is set to grams, resetting between each addition. Second (and this is where I think the problem lies) be sure not to mix up the water weight and flour weight (my guess is this is what happened in your case) 350 grams water, 500 grams flour, 100 grams starter. If you were to reverse those you’d have a soupy mess. I hope thos helps.
Can it really stay out 12-18 hours on the counter to rise? After 9 hours, mine doubled in size and I was afraid it would grow too much!
Hi Pam. It totally depends on where you live, the weather etc… So if yours had doubled and was bubbly and active go ahead and start the forming and baking process. Mine always takes a minimun of 12 hours but if less time works for you, do it! Hope this helps.
Hi I’ve made several loaves of bread my co worker’s loved the jalapeño and cheese and my granddaughter loves it with just cheese. I’ve followed your recipe exactly and it came out perfectly, thanks for your recipe. I make several loaves a week. Just love it. I’ve never made Sourdough Bread before this now it’s a must.
Thanks Mary Ann! I am so glad you had success!