The Sourdough Framework

Recipes
Version: March 14, 2025

Hendrik Kleinwächter

The full source code for the book is available at

https://github.com/hendricius/the-sourdough-framework-recipes/
under CC-BY-SA license. See
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ for
more details. Do not hesitate to report mistakes or suggestions
for improvements.
Contents

Preface ii

1 Introduction 1

2 Whole-grain sandwich loaf 2

3 Brioche buns 5

4 Naan 9

5 Chocolate chip cookies 13

i
Preface

Gluten Tag!
Welcome to The Sourdough Framework Recipes, a culinary compendium for home bakers.
This book is a sequel to The Sourdough Framework (TSF) and builds upon its knowledge.
For this reason, it is recommended to read TSF before following the recipes shown in
this book.
Herein, you will find a blend of my baking insights and recipes from me and our global
community. This collection showcases the rich diversity of bread making, featuring
recipes from various cultures. It’s more than a recipe book; it’s a celebration of global
flavors and techniques. The goal of this book is to provide you with inspiration for
your daily bread-making.
The Sourdough Framework Recipes is a living testament to the communal spirit of baking.
I warmly invite you to contribute your recipes. This book is an ongoing work and I
hope that it becomes a great source of reference in the future.

ii
 Preface

Happy baking!
Hendrik

iii
Introduction
1
The recipes in this book are provided with the sourdough option by default.
For every recipe fresh or dry yeast can be used interchangeably. If the recipe calls for
around 10% of sourdough starter you can replace this with roughly 0.1% of dry yeast
or 0.3% of fresh yeast.
If you are in a rush some of the recipes can also be made with more yeast. This can
sometimes make sense if you want to opt for a fast leavened dough such as burger
buns or naans for instance. You can increase the dry yeast percentage to around 1%
of the flour. If you want to opt for fresh yeast multiply that with 3. That would be
an equivalent of 3% of fresh yeast in terms of baker’s math. When opting for a faster
leavened dough it is recommended to add some active malt. Opt for around 5% based
on the flour. The malt will improve the enzymatic activity of your dough and provide
better results when making a faster dough.
Please note though that while you can speed up the process, this also reduces the
quality of the final bread. A slow fermentation is the key to making great bread at home.
However - sometimes you might be in a rush and you can increase the fermentation
times with the aforementioned tips. Every homemade bread is better than store-bought
bread.

1
Whole-grain sandwich loaf
2
About this recipe:
This recipe will make you a delicious whole-grain sandwich loaf. The bread features
a moist soft crumb and has a nice tang. It’s the perfect hearty whole-grain sandwich
bread and can be paired with savory toppings or sweet toppings.
This is my go-to weekly bread which can be made with less than 5 minutes of actual
working time. Furthermore, this recipe can be made with whole-grain flour. My go-to
option is a blend of 50 percent whole-rye flour and 50 percent whole-wheat flour. The
recipe features a high amount of water making kneading the dough impossible, just
requiring you to mix it initially. For this reason, there is no need to do any gluten
development that you would normally do with a wheat or spelt-based dough. This
recipe can also be made with gluten-free flour like rice or corn. In that case, just
substitute the flour with your gluten-free flour.
Since this bread is made in a loaf pan there’s no need to care about the readiness of
the starter. You can use both an older and younger starter. Depending on the starter
activity level the fermentation will take longer or be shorter. For a very inactive starter,
the recipe can take up to 24 hours, for a more active around 8-12 hours.
Ingredients:

No. Ingredient Quantity Baker’s math

1 Whole-wheat flour, whole-rye flour 400 g, 400g 100%
2 Water, warm 640 g 80%
3 Sourdough starter 80 g 10%
4 Salt 16 g 2%

Instructions:

2
 2 Whole-grain sandwich loaf

Figure 2.1: An easy-to-make bread that can be paired with a variety of toppings.

Step Instruction
1 Mix all the ingredients until there are no chunks of flour left. A
spatula will make the whole process easier.
2 Wait until the dough has increased by roughly 50 % in size.
3 Prepare a loaf pan. Use non-stick spray or a good amount of oil.
4 Cover the loaf pan in oats. Shake the oats thoroughly in the loaf
pan so that they cover the walls. Let the rest of the oats fall out of
the pan.
5 With a spatula remove the dough from your bulk ferment container
and cover the whole loaf pan. Gently pat down the dough in your
loaf pan so that the dough fully covers the pan.
4 Spray some water on the top of your dough, or use a spatula to
spread water lightly on your dough’s surface. Use the remaining
oats to cover the top of your dough.
4 If you want to bake the bread now, wait 60 minutes letting the
dough sit on your counter. Alternatively place the dough in your
fridge overnight, up to a whole week until you are ready to bake.
If you let the dough sit in the fridge for more than 24 hours I
recommend wrapping it in a plastic bag so that the surface does
not dry out too much.

3
 2 Whole-grain sandwich loaf

Baking:

Step Instruction
1 Place the dough into a not preheated oven at 200°C (400°F)
2 Place an inverted oven tray on top of your dough. Not directly on
the loaf pan, make sure to keep at least 2 cm distance. This helps
steaming.
3 Wait for at least 45 minutes and let the bread bake. Ideally, take a
thermometer and measure the core temperature. Especially when
fridge proofing the dough baking can take longer. Once the dough
has reached 92°C (197°F) it is ready in theory. However, the top
part of the loaf might not be properly baked yet. It should have a
nice dark color to it similar to the the photos.
4 Wait for at least 60 minutes before removing the dough from the
loaf pan.

If you feel the final bread is a bit too sour you can toast the slices before eating them. You
can also consider baking your next bread for a longer period. The heat will evaporate
additional acids from the bread and make it taste milder.

Figure 2.2: The bread features a nice soft crumb texture.

4
Brioche buns
3
About this recipe:
This recipe will make you delicious, buttery fluffy brioche buns. They can be eaten
on its own or used as a basis for burgers. This is my goto recipe that I have perfected
over the years. They can be made both with sourdough and yeast. The yeasted buns
are typically ready within 1 to 2 hours whereas the sourdough buns will take around
10 hours to complete.
They can also be frozen and stored for an extended period of time. This way you will
always have fresh buns at hand.
To really make them shine it is essential to include a high buttery content. This makes
them softer and improves the taste. Furthermore no water is used, the milk will
improve the softness even further.
Ingredients:

No. Ingredient Quantity Baker’s math

1 All purpose flour 500 g = 8 buns 100%
2 Milk, warm 200 g 40%
4 Butter, warm 200 g 40%
3 Eggs 2pc 1 per 250 g flour
4 Sugar 50 g 10%
5 Salt 10 g 2%
6 Sourdough starter 50 g 10%

Instructions:

5
 3 Brioche buns

Figure 3.1: Fluffy buttery brioche buns. The perfect burger companion.

Step Instruction
1 Mix everything together. Wait for 20 minutes and knead for 5 min-
utes. The dough should not be overly wet and sticky. If it is too
sticky, proceed and add more flour. Knead a bit more and wait
20 minutes. Make a smooth dough ball so that the surface you are
touching is not too sticky.
2 Stretch and fold once after around 30 minutes.
3 Wait until dough doubled in size, for sourdough aim for a 50%
size increase. Stretch and fold for sourdough whenever you see
the dough flattens out a lot.
4 Preshape into equally portioned dough balls. Make sure they are
nice and smooth. Do not shape buns, the pre-shaping is sufficient.
5 Place dough balls on a rack with parchment paper. Cover with a
wetted kitchen towel so that they do not dry out.

Baking: To make the buns as soft as possible, make sure to bake them with as much
steam as possible. They are steamed all the way from the start to the end. If you bake
with too little steam they will turn dark too quickly and will be less soft. Furthermore

6
 3 Brioche buns

Figure 3.2: Brioche buns ready to be made. This time they have been made with an addition of 20%
whole-wheat.

it is essential to bake at a lower temperature compared to regular bread. This further

improves softness. If you prefer a harder crust, you can remove the source of steam
once the buns no longer expand in size.

Step Instruction
1 Once you see that they have increased by around 25% in size
preheat the oven to around 180°C (350°F).
2 Cover buns with egg wash. To make the wash mix 1 egg with 100
ml of water. Place buns in the oven. Bake with as much steam as
possible, this ensures that they become nice and soft.
3 Bake until golden brown. This typically takes around 30 to 40
minutes.

7
 3 Brioche buns

Figure 3.3: When baking more buns on 2 trays make sure to rotate the trays once while baking. This
will ensure even browning and cooking times.

8
Naan
4
About this recipe:
This recipe will provide you with delicious and fluffy naan bread. While traditional
naan bread is not leavened and made with the help of a hot Tandoor oven, this recipe
is tailored to be made with your home oven setup.
This recipe takes around 2 hours to complete when opting for the yeast based dough.
When using the sourdough option replace the yeast with around 10 percent sourdough
starter based on the flour. The sourdough option will take longer to bulkferment but
will present superb slightly tangy tasting naans.
Ingredients:

No. Ingredient Quantity Baker’s math

1 All purpose flour 400 g = 4 pieces 100%
2 Water, warm 160 g 40%
3 Yogurt 160 g 40%
4 Butter 40 g 10%
5 Sugar 12 g 3%
6 Salt 8g 2%
7 Sourdough starter 40 g 10%

Instructions:

9
 4 Naan

Figure 4.1: Fluffy naans topped with garlic butter

Step Instruction
1 Mix everything together. No need to heavily knead. Just stir it
with your hands. Let it rest for 20 minutes. This will help the
gluten to develop. Add the butter directly. The dough should not
be too wet, if you feel it is too sticky, proceed and add more flour.
Make sure to create a smooth dough ball before proceeding.
2 Stretch and fold if you see the dough flattened out a lot
3 Wait 30 minutes (different for sourdough)
4 Stretch and fold if you see the dough flattened out a lot
5 Wait until the dough is doubled in size, preshape into equally
portioned dough balls For the sourdough option aim for a 50%
size increase
6 Preheat oven to max temperature for around 30 minutes

Baking:

10
 4 Naan

Step Instruction
1 Stretch dough balls with hands. Use flour to make it non stick.
Try to degas the dough balls as little as possible while stretching.
Similar to making a pizza.
2 Place naans on rack, stone or steel. Optional: Cover naans with
melted butter and garlic mixture.
3 Bake until golden brown. Eat while still hot, or wrap in towel to
preserve moisture if eating later. When eating next day, rinse with
water and heat again in oven.

It is essential to have as high heat as possible during baking. This will give the naan
it’s typical texture. For this reason if you have a broiler activate it and bake the breads
as close to it as possible.
You can also bake the naans in a hot pan. In this case make sure to use a lid on the
pan to ensure even cooking from the evaporating steam. Flip the Naans once and bake
until golden brown. Try to push the naans down a bit after flipping. This ensures that
they bake evenly and do not have too charred parts.
Another option is to bake the naans on your bbq. Place the Naans on the hot rack. Flip
the Naans once after they can be removed from the rack with a spatula. Bake until
golden brown.
The last option could be to purchase a Tandoor oven and bake it inside of it. Place the
Naans on the hot side of the Tandoor. Wait until they can be removed from the side.
Your naan is done.

11
 4 Naan

Figure 4.2: Traditional naans are not leavened. The dough only consists of flour, water and salt. The
dough becomes fluffy due to the hot heat of the tandoor oven. In this case, I used a pizza
oven to reach 500°C (900°F)

12
Chocolate chip cookies
5

Figure 5.1: Luciano van der Toorn, Athens, Greece

Bio:
Luciano has been a passionate hobby baker for years and then decided to focus his
efforts on launching a micro bakery in Greece. He is passionate about fermenting and
making people happy with great bread.
About this recipe:
Dive into a world of decadence with these chocolate chip cookies, where every bite
boasts the perfect balance of crisp edges and a soft, chewy center. Studded generously
with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chunks, each cookie promises a burst of rich flavor
that’ll leave you craving just one more. Handcrafted with love and baked to golden
perfection, these cookies are the ultimate treat for both casual snackers and discerning
dessert aficionados.
Ingredients:

13
 5 Chocolate chip cookies

Figure 5.2: The chocolate chip cookies this recipe makes

No. Ingredient Quantity

1 Butter, cubed 115 g
2 Butter, cubed 55 g
3 Dark brown sugar 210 g
4 White sugar 50 g
5 Egg 1 pc
6 Egg yolk 2 pcs
7 Vanilla extract 2 tsp
8 Bread flour 210 g
9 Salt 4g
10 Baking soda 4g
11 Choc. chips, 60-70% cocoa 170 g

Instructions:

14
 5 Chocolate chip cookies

Step Instruction
1 On medium heat, brown the #1 until dark brown. Add to mixing
bowl and let cool for 1 minute.
2 Add #2 to the mixing bowl (should not sizzle/foam), wait until
everything is melted.
3 Add #3 and whisk until no clumps remain, ±30s. Add #5, mix
until incorporated.
4 In a separate bowl, add all ingredients from #6 and mix briefly.
5 Add mix from step 3 to the mix of step 4, fold using rubber spatula
until no dry spots remain.
6 Fold #7 into mixture. Do not over-mix to prevent gluten formation.
7 Refrigerate (2-5°C) for at least 6 hours, max 5 days, or freeze max
6 months.
8 Using ice cream scoops (size 24/20/16), make round balls and
place on parchment lined sheets.

Baking:

Step Instruction
1 Baking in pre-heated oven set to 200C. Just before baking, using
ice cream scoop (size 24, 20, or 16): Make round balls and place
on parchment lined baking sheets. 60x40cm baking sheet holds 6
or 8 cookies.
2 Bake for 10-14 min. at 200°C, no steam.
3 For size 20 scoop: Bake for 14 minutes in deck oven.
4 For size 24 scoop: Bake for 13 minutes in deck oven.

15