In this post, I would like to share my top sourdough master recipes.

By master recipe, I mean a recipe that can produce different products by following the same method.

Before I start writing about that I would like to reiterate the point that sourdough baking is more a method than it is a flavour.

Keep this in mind next time you bake a new recipe or eat a new loaf of sourdough.

These are the basic recipes we will talk about:

Bread (classic bread)
Rich bread (focaccia, pizza)
Sweet bread (brioche, doughnut, panettone, Pandoro, Colomba, and more)
Laminated (croissant, danishes, etc)

The best thing about this post is that you can actually look at the recipes also on a video, I will tag them at the end of this post.

Bread: Classic bread is very simple and I have shared many recipes in the past years (if you scroll through my blog you can read them all) most of them require little to not much experience and that's why I decided to share my methods with the world.

My sourdough method is really not scientific, relies on only a good active sourdough culture or pasta madre, a committed practice and to let Mother Nature and time do the rest.

When I speak about bread, I consider anything that is made with any sort of flour, salt, water and culture, (fermenting agent). There might be also some inclusions such as seeds, grains, nuts, dried fruit and spices.

My go-to recipe is very simple:

500 gr flour

100 gr sourdough culture

350 gr water

10 gr salt.

Rich bread (focaccia-pizza-calzone)

This part of the post is deeply attached to my soul and to my heritage, being an Italian born and "bread" (excuse the pan), it's innate in me to embrace this kind of breads. They are tasty, sublime, and so succulent. A decadence of food.

You'd be surprised but my go-to recipe is exactly like the recipe above:

500 gr flour

100 gr sourdough culture

350 gr water

10 gr salt.

What is different is the way I use the dough once it has bulk proved for a few hours.

I shape the balls, I shape the focaccia in the trays and then I let them proof in the vessel where they are.

Focaccia is wonderful in my opinion because it creates a rather succulent bite when you chew it, and it is because of those wonderful puddles of oil that are formed when we poke the surface of it, before baking.

What I do differently in this instance is that I make an emulsion or also called "focaccia brine". I mix 1/3 of water with 2/3 of olive oil and then I pour that onto my focaccia, the water keeps the holes soft and soggy, while the oil, crisps up all the edges and crust.

What I love also is that once you have the emulsion ready you can add anything to it, for example, salt and pepper, garlic, cherry tomatoes, cheese, spices, olives, and many more ingredients that you like. It's a very easy to-do item to prepare especially to surprise your loved ones and your guests.

Next in line is my favourite recipe of all, the most challenging one too.

Brioche. The brioche is the mother of the most famous Sweet bread in Italy, and I am referring to the Panettone and the Pandoro or also the Colomba di Pasqua. (links for the video recipes at the end of the posts).

This complex fermented preparation requires understanding and experience and willingness to learn from the mistakes that will come along during the time you will try to make this preparation. Some of us have never given up in order to master the recipe or at least to be somehow satisfied with the result. I can tell you that personally, even though I have shared multiple of these recipes, especially panettone and classic brioche, I'm still far from being happy with my result.

I guess this research for a better product makes me try to get better and better.

I would push anyone to chase what they want to achieve. 9in life.

I have attached my video recipe of the Brioche that you can find on my youtube channel right at the end of this blog post.

Brioche is usually based on the inclusion of rich ingredients such as eggs, butter, cream, sugar, pralines, nuts butter, spices and chocolate.

This not only makes this baked product so fun to make but also the perfect gift to take to friends when you are invited over. I often bring a stuffed brioche to a friend's house to share together after the meal. and it is the perfect gift because it always meets the expectations.

Laminated doughs

These doughs are probably the base for the most delicious pastries a baker can make and eat, with all those wonderful layers that are created during the lamination steps.

Off course, the price to pay to make this kind of preparation is time and patience.

Making croissants and any dough particularly laminated requires skills and an understanding of temperatures and timing. You can acquire these at home by practising regularly, I promise. Maybe this video can help you.

We begin always with a dough that doesn't have to have a very developed gluten structure otherwise the dough will result very elastic and difficult to fold. Actually, while folding the fats inside the basic dough, the pastry will build strength and develop slowly a good gluten structure.

I show you perfectly how I make them in the video above.

Thank you for reading this wonderful post and thank you for giving me always feedback on everything I do.

Here you find all the videos that I was mentioning above.

With love Giuseppe.

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